The prose literature of Wales is by no means so extensive as the poetical; it, however, comprises much that is valuable and curious on historical, biographical, romantic and moral subjects. The most ancient Welsh prose may probably be found in certain brief compositions, called Triads, which are said to be of Druidic origin. The Triad was used for the commemoration of historical facts or the inculcation of moral duties. It has its name because in it three events are commemorated, or three persons mentioned, if it be historical; three things or three actions recommended or denounced, if it be moral. To give the reader at once a tolerable conception of what the Triad is, we subjoin two or three specimens of this kind of composition. We commence with the historical Triad:—
‘These are the three pillars of the race of the isle of Britain: First, Hu the Mighty, who conducted the nation of the Cumry from the summer country to the island of Britain (bringing them from the continent) across the hazy sea (German Ocean). Second, Prydain, son of Aedd Mawr, the founder of government and rule in the isle of Britain, before whose time there was no such thing as justice except what was obtained by courtesy, nor any law save that of the strongest. Third, Dyfnwal Moelmud, who first reduced to a system the laws, customs, and privileges of his country and nation.
‘The three intruding tribes into the island of Britain are the following: First, the Corranians, who came from the country of Pwyl. Second, the Gwyddelian (silvan, Irish) Fichti (Picts), who came to Alban across the sea of Lochlin (Northern Ocean), and who still exist in Alban by the shore of the sea of Lochlin (from Inverness to Thursoe). Third, the Saxons . . . ’
So much for the historical Triad: now for the moral. The following are selected from a curious collection of admonitory sayings, called the ‘Triads of the Cumro, or Welshman:’—
‘Three things should a Cumro always bear in mind lest he dishonour them: his father, his country, and his name of Cumro.
‘There are three things for which a Cumro should be willing to die: his country, his good name, and the truth wherever it be.
‘Three things are highly disgraceful to a Cumro: to look with one eye, to listen with one ear, and to defend with one hand.
‘Three things it especially behoves a Cumro to choose from his own country: his king, his wife, and his friend.’
After the Triads, the following are the principal prose works of the Welsh:—
1. ‘The Chronicle of the Kings of the Isle of Britain;’ supposed to have been written by Tysilio, in the seventh century. This work, or rather a Latin paraphrase of it by Geoffrey of Monmouth, has supplied our early English historians with materials for those parts of their works which are devoted to the subject of ancient Britain. It brings down British history to the year 660.
2. A continuation of the same to the year 1152, by Caradawg of Llancarvan. It begins thus: “In the year of Christ 660, died Cadwallawn ab Cadfan, King of the Britons, and Cadwaladr his son became king in his place;
and, after ten years of peace, the great sickness, which is called the Yellow Plague, came over the whole isle of Britain.”
3. The ‘Code of Howel Da;’ a book consisting of laws, partly framed, partly compiled, by Howel Da, or the Good, who began to reign in the year 940. It is divided into three parts, and contains laws relating to the government of the palace and the family of the prince, laws concerning private property, and laws which relate to private rights and privileges. It is a code which displays much acuteness, good sense, and not a little oddity. Many of Howel’s laws prevailed in Wales as far down as the time of Henry VII.
4. ‘The Life or Biography of Gruffydd ap Cynan.’ This Gruffydd, of whom we have had more than once occasion to speak already, was born in Dublin about the year 1075. He was the son of Cynan, an expatriated prince of Gwynedd, by Raguel, daughter of Anlaf or Olafr, Dano-Irish king of Dublin and the fifth part of Ireland. After a series of the strangest adventures he succeeded in regaining his father’s throne, on which he died after a glorious reign of fifty years. He was the father of Owen Gwynedd, one of the most warlike of the Welsh princes, and was grandsire of that Madoc who, there is considerable reason for supposing, was the first discoverer of the great land in the West. A truly remarkable book is the one above mentioned, which narrates his life. It does full justice to the subject, being written in a style not unworthy of Snorre Sturlesen, or the man who wrote the history of King Sverrer and the Birkebeiners, in the latter part of the Heimskringla. It is a composition of the fifteenth century, but the author is unknown.