[156] Wiener, Anthology of Russian Literature, I p. 84.
NOTE V. THE HEROIC POETRY OF THE CELTIC PEOPLES.
In the history of the various Celtic peoples there is evidence for the existence of more than one Heroic Age. In the first place we have some traces of heroic poetry among the ancient Gauls, though unfortunately it has entirely perished, together with all their vernacular records. Then again Ireland has preserved a great body of heroic literature, referring to a remote period. But, whatever may have been their original form, these stories have come down to us for the most part only in prose. Moreover, the subject is beset with so many difficulties, both historical and linguistic, that it cannot be approached with safety except by an expert. We shall have to confine our attention therefore to the heroic poetry of the Cymry.
Even here the difficulties to be encountered are sufficiently serious. Yet it is fairly clear that many of these poems deal with events which are referred by the chronicles to the sixth century and the first half of the seventh. We may note especially four groups of poems: (1) a few concerned with the exploits of Arthur and his heroes; (2) a somewhat larger number referring to princes named Gwallawg, Urien and Rhydderch; (3) certain poems dealing with Gododin and Catraeth; (4) a few relating to Cadwallon. There are also two or three others, such as the elegy over Cynddylan, which seem to refer to the same period, though they cannot be classed under any of these headings. A number of the above poems, especially those included in the second and third groups, are attributed to two poets named Taliessin and Aneirin.
There is no doubt that Cadwallon is the well known Welsh king who overthrew the Northumbrian king Edwin in 633 and was himself destroyed by Oswald in the following year. But the poems of the second group seem also to have a historical basis. In the Historia Brittonum (Harleian text), § 63, we hear of four kings, Urbgen et Riderch Hen et Guallanc et Morcant, who fought against the Northumbrian king Theodric and his successors, Frithuwald and Hussa. Urbgen is said to have besieged his opponents for three days in Lindisfarne (Metcaud), and to have perished eventually through the jealousy of Morcant. In another passage (§ 62) we hear of Neirin et Taliessin among other poets who composed British poetry in the time of a king named Dutigirn[157], who is made contemporary with Ida, the father of Theodric. The origin of these entries is unfortunately obscure. They are incorporated with an English genealogical document, dating apparently from the end of the eighth century; but they may quite possibly be derived from earlier sources. In any case they cannot well be later than the first quarter of the ninth century.
All the four kings mentioned in § 63 are known to us also from genealogies of the tenth century. But one of them, Riderch Hen, is named in Adamnan's Life of St Columba, which is of course altogether independent of Welsh tradition. It is there stated (I 15[158]) that Rodercus, king of Dumbarton, consulted St Columba as to his fate and received the answer that he would die a peaceful death in his house—a prophecy which was subsequently fulfilled. As St Columba died probably in 597, the date given for Riderch Hen agrees well enough with what is stated in the Historia Brittonum; for according to the most trustworthy records Theodric and his two immediate successors reigned from about 572 to 592 or 593. We have no ground for doubting that the references to Urbgen and the rest are based on equally good tradition.
For the characters mentioned in the Gododin poems no such evidence is available. The poems themselves however contain references to the death of Dyvynwal Vrych—doubtless the Dalriadic king Domnall Brecc, who according to the Irish annals was killed by the Britons three years after the fall of Oswald, i.e. about the year 645. Unfortunately it is not made clear in what relationship this event stands to the main action of the poems[159]. The few identifications which can be made from the genealogies seem to be compatible with a date somewhere about this time.
There can scarcely be any doubt that we are justified in regarding the period covered by the poems as a kind of Heroic Age. The story of Arthur was the one most elaborated in later times—a process which must have begun before the ninth century, when it was incorporated in the Historia Brittonum (§ 56). How much historical truth this story contains we do not know, though the chronicles refer Arthur to the early part of the sixth century, i.e. the beginning of our period. To a certain extent however the other stories have experienced the same process; for, apart from the question when the poems under discussion were composed, there are others of undoubtedly later date, such as the Englynion y Beddau, in which the same heroes are mentioned. Moreover it must not be assumed that these were the only persons of the same period whose praises were celebrated in poetry. Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd, who died about 548, figures prominently in traditions of later times, and it is likely enough that the beginnings of these stories were due to a similar cause. On the other hand there is apparently no evidence for the composition of poems dealing with the exploits of princes who lived in the latter part of the seventh century or for several centuries later.
As to the origin of the poems discussed above we have no evidence which can be called conclusive. Some of the poems themselves claim to be the work of the poets Aneirin and Taliessin. At the present time however it seems to be generally held[160] that they are scholastic products of a later age, based upon chronicles and composed with the intention of glorifying the ancestry of some distinguished Welsh families. In support of this view it is contended that the language of the poems cannot possibly represent the form of Welsh spoken in the sixth or seventh centuries. But this argument is scarcely decisive; for it is clear that parts of the poems have undergone a certain amount of modernisation, and it is by no means incredible that the same process may have been in operation for centuries. I find it difficult to believe that in order to celebrate the ancestry of certain families poems would be composed recording an action which is represented as an overwhelming disaster for the British forces, such as that described in the Gododin poems. And can it really be proved that many of the heroes celebrated in these poems were claimed as ancestors by families in Wales?