Yn hen fraenwaith bochlwyd;
Main a’i ỻuđ man y ỻađwyd,
Merch hoewen loer Meirchion lwyd.
It refers, with six other englynion by other authors, to a remarkable rock called Craig y Đinas, with which Taliesin associated a cave where Arthur or Owen Lawgoch and his men are supposed, according to him, to enjoy a secular sleep, and it implies that Blodeuweđ, whose end in the Mabinogi of Mâth was to be converted into an owl, was, according to another account, overwhelmed by Craig y Đinas. It may be Englished somewhat as follows:
Heaped on a brow, a mighty cairn built like a hill,
Like ancient work rough with age, grey-cheeked;
Stones that confine her where she was slain,
Grey Meirchion’s daughter quick and bright as the moon.
[31] This comes from the late series of Triads, iii. 10, where Merlin’s nine companions are called naw beirđ cylfeirđ: cylfeirđ should be the plural of cylfarđ, which must be the same word as the Irish culbard, name of one of the bardic grades in Ireland. [↑]