(Vide Introduction.) In Armorican, Gwin ar C‘ Hallaoued: Ha Korol or C‘ Hlezf—i.e. The Wine of the Gauls, and the Dance of the Sword. Supposed to be the fragment of a Song that accompanied the old Celtic sword-dance in honour of the Sun. [This and the following translation by the late Tom Taylor are, by courteous permission of Messrs Macmillan, quoted from Ballads and Songs of Brittany (selections from the Barzaz Breiz of the Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué).]
THE LORD NANN AND THE FAIRY.
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(By the same, and from the same source.) The “Korrigan” of Breton superstition has his familiar congeners in Celtic Scotland and Ireland; and is identical with the “elf” of Scandinavian mythology and of the Danish ballads. In this English version of “The Lord Nann” the metre and divisions into stanzas of the original Armorican have been adhered to. The triplet indicates antiquity in Cambrian and Armorican compositions.
ALAIN THE FOX.
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This and the following poem are from the same Franco-Breton source as their two predecessors, but are translated by Mr F. G. Fleay, M.A. (The Masterpieces of Breton Ballads. Printed for Private Circulation. Halifax, 1870).
BRAN (THE CROW).
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See foregoing Note.
EARLY CYMRIC
THE SOUL.
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This strange fragment is of unknown antiquity, and may well be, as affirmed, of as remote a date as the 6th or even 5th century. It is from that remarkable depository of early Cymric lore, The Black Book of Caermarthen (1154-1189).