THE WELSH BARDS.

Druidical Triads

original: "Triambics." These are a form of three-line stanzas known in Welsh as Englynion Milwr (the Warrior’s Tercet).


Birch twigs with green tops, original Welsh: "Marchwiail bedw briglas"	Mountain snow, every house is white;
Which pull my foot from the bond; original Welsh: "A dyn fy nbroed o wanas"	The crow is accustomed to singing;
Do not reveal your secret to a youth. original Welsh: "Nac addef dy rín i wâs"	No good comes from too much sleep original Latin: "Melior vigilantia somno" — Better is watchfulness than sleep..

Oak twigs of the pleasant grove,	Mountain snow, the wind tosses it;
Which pull my foot from the chain:	Broad moonlight, green dock leaves;
Do not reveal your secret to a maiden.	Rarely is a wicked man without a quarrel original Latin: "Homo nequam litis occasione non carebit" — A wicked man will not lack an occasion for strife..

Leafy oak twigs,	Mountain snow, a stag on the hill;
Which pull my foot from prison;	The wind whistles above the ash-tops;
Do not reveal your secret to a talkative person original Welsh: "lafar," translated in original Latin note as "Homo Garulus.".	A staff is a third foot for the elderly original Latin: "Seni baculus, tertius pes esto.".

In the first three lines, the Druids seem to invoke their groves and set forth their priestly privileges and exemptions. In the other three, they address the mountain Eryri The Welsh name for Snowdonia., the Parnassus of Wales. We learn from Gildas A 6th-century British monk and chronicler. that the ancient Britons had an extraordinary veneration for mountains, groves, and rivers.

When the Roman legions—after the invasion of Britain and the conquest of the Gallic provinces—were recalled to oppose the power of Pompey in Italy, the exultation of the Bards at recovering the secure possession and exercise of their ancient poetical function is described in a very animated manner by Lucan A Roman poet (39–65 AD) who wrote the Pharsalia, an epic about the Roman Civil War.:

You too, you Bards! whom sacred raptures fire
To chant your heroes to your country’s lyre;
Who consecrate in your immortal strain
Brave patriot souls in righteous battle slain;
Securely now the tuneful task renew
And noblest themes in deathless songs pursue! original: Rowe’s translation of Lucan, book i.

Such was the new but imperfectly discovered scene which the great Caesar’s ambition opened in Britain. Nor are these accounts only imperfect; they are also biased, as some bold spirits even among the Romans have hinted original: citing Suetonius and Lucan..

The Druids, expelled from Britain by the legions, took refuge in Ireland and the Isle of Man—places which the Roman sword could not then reach. The theory of British music moved with them and settled in Ireland, which from that period was for many ages the seat of learning and philosophy, until wars and dissensions buried almost every trace of them in oblivion original: citing an account of British or Cambrian Music by Mr. Lewis Morris, a famous 18th-century Welsh antiquarian..

The Bards, having now lost their sacred Druidical character, began to appear in an honorable, though less dignified, capacity at the courts of the British kings. The Oak Mistletoe original Latin: "Ad Viscum Druidæ, Druidæ cantare solebant" — To the mistletoe, the Druids were accustomed to sing. See Mona Antiqua. was deprived of its ancient authority, and the sword prevailed in its place. The music as well as the poetry of Britain, no doubt, received a tincture from the martial spirit of the times. The Bards, who once had dedicated their profession to the worship of the gods in their woodland temples, the celebration of public ceremonies, and the praise of all the arts of peace—and who had once restrained the fury of armies preparing to rush upon each other's spears—now:

With another echo taught the shades

To answer, and resound a very different song.

A paraphrase of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

If, while Britain remained a Roman province, the irregular wars produced any compositions that deserved to live, they were destroyed by the very calamities that caused them. In the sixth century, the golden age of Welsh poetry, the Bards resumed the harp with unusual boldness to animate their country’s last successful struggle against the Saxons.

Secret, Mystery original: Cyfrinach, Arcanum

A talkative man original: Dyn siaradus, Homo Garulus