It appears, to come back to Wales, that King Cadwaladr, who waged an unsuccessful war with the Angles of Northumbria in the seventh century, was long after his death expected to return to restore the Brythons to power. At any rate so one is led in some sort of a hazy fashion to believe in reading several of the poems in the manuscript known as the Book of Taliessin. One finds, however, no trace of Cadwaladr in our cave legends: the heroes of them are Arthur and Owen Lawgoch. Now concerning Arthur one need at this point hardly speak, except to say that the Welsh belief in the eventual return of Arthur was at one time a powerful motive affecting the behaviour of the people of Wales, as was felt, for instance, by English statesmen in the reign of Henry II. But by our time the expected return of Arthur—rexque futurus—has dissipated itself into a commonplace of folklore fitted only to point an allegory, as when Elvet Lewis, one of the sweetest of living Welsh poets, sings in a poem entitled Arthur gyda ni, ‘Arthur with us’:—
Mae Arthur Fawr yn cysgu,
A’i đewrion syđ o’i đeutu,
A’u gafael ar y cleđ:
Pan đaw yn đyđ yn Nghymru,
Daw Arthur Fawr i fynu
Yn fyw—yn fyw o’i feđ!
Great Arthur still is sleeping,
His warriors all around him,
With grip upon the steel: