“A glywaist ti chwedl Ceredig
Brenin doeth detholedig?
Pawb a’i droed ar syrthiedig.”Hast thou heard the saying of Ceredig,
A wise and select king?
Every one has his foot on the fallen. (Iolo MSS. pp. 259, 664.)
[126a] The other reading “ceiniad” would mean a minstrel, which, on the supposition that the chieftain of the present is the same with that of the preceding stanza, would further support the textual construction which we have given there to “car cyrdd,” viz. the friend of song.
[126b] Al. “gowan,” gashing.
[126c] Al. “Crwydyr,” perambulated.
[126d] “Cystudd daear,” buried; “cystudd haiarn,” killed. See line 128.
[126e] Caradawg Vreichvras, chief elder (pen hynaiv) of Gelliwig in Cornwall. (Triad lxiv. first series.) According to the Triads he was one of the battle knights of the Isle of Britain, and in the Englyn attributed to Arthur he is styled “Pillar of Cymru.”
“Tri chadvarchawg Teyrn ynys Prydain: Caradawc Vreiehvras, a Llyr Lluyddawg, a Mael ab Menwaed o Arllechwedd; ac Arthur a gant iddynt hynn o Englyn,
Sev ynt vy nhri chadvarchawg
Mael hir a Llyr Lluyddawg,
A cholovn Cymru Caradawg.” (Triad 29.)
Caradawg’s horse Lluagor is recorded as one of the three battle horses of the Island. (Trioedd y Meirch, Myv. Arch. vol. ii. p. 20.)
[127a] This simile has evidently some connection with the story told of Caradawg, that owing to his well founded confidence in his wife’s virtue, he was able to carve a certain Boar’s head, an adventure in which his compeers failed. It is remarkable also that the Boar’s head, in some form or other, appears as the armorial bearing of all of his name. See the “Dream of Rhonabwy.”—Note. Al. “red boar.”
[127b] This statement may have two meanings, the one real, as indicative of what did actually take place, namely, that the dogs came out of the neighbouring woods to feed upon the corpses which had fallen by the band of Caradawg; the other allegorical, as referring to himself in his character of a boar or a bull, the wild dogs being his enemies, who thus hunted and baited him.