The Mabinogion Vol. 3 by Sir Owen Morgan Edwards and Lady Charlotte Schreiber (ereader for textbooks TXT) 📗

Coranians.  That is to say, that when he came home to his kingdom he should call together all the people both of his own race and of the race of the Coranians for a conference, as though with the intent of making peace between them; and that when they were all together, he should take this charmed water, and cast it over all alike.  And he assured him that the water would poison the race of the Coranians, but that it would not slay or harm those of his own race.

“And the second plague,” said he, “that is in thy dominion, behold it is a dragon.  And another dragon of a foreign race is fighting with it, and striving to overcome it.  And therefore does your dragon make a fearful outcry.  And on this wise mayest thou come to know this.  After thou hast returned home, cause the Island to be measured in p. 113its length and breadth, and in the place where thou dost find the exact central point, there cause a pit to be dug, and cause a cauldron, full of the best mead that can be made, to be put in the pit, with a covering of satin over the face of the cauldron.  And then, in thine own person do thou remain there watching, and thou wilt see the dragons fighting in the form of terrific animals.  And at length they will take the form of dragons in the air.  And last of all, after wearying themselves with fierce and furious fighting, they will fall in the form of two pigs upon the covering, and they will sink in, and the covering with them, and they will draw it down to the very bottom of the cauldron.  And they will drink up the whole of the mead; and after that they will sleep.  Thereupon do thou immediately fold the covering around them, and bury them in a kistvaen, in the strongest place thou hast in thy dominions, and hide them in the earth.  And as long as they shall bide in that strong place, no plague shall come to the Island of Britain from elsewhere.

“The cause of the third plague,” said he, “is a mighty man of magic, who takes thy meat and thy drink and thy store.  And he through illusions and charms causes every one to sleep.  Therefore it is needful for thee in thy own person to watch thy food and thy provisions.  And lest he should overcome thee with sleep, be there a cauldron of cold water by thy side, and when thou art oppressed with sleep, plunge into the cauldron.”

Then Lludd returned back unto his land.  And immediately he summoned to him the whole of his own race and of the Coranians.  And as Llevelys had taught him, he bruised the insects in water, the p. 114which he cast over them all together, and forthwith it destroyed the whole tribe of the Coranians, without hurt to any of the Britons.

And some time after this Lludd caused the Island to be measured in its length and in its breadth.  And in Oxford he found the central point, and in that place he caused the earth to be dug, and in that pit a cauldron to be set, full of the best mead that could be made, and a covering of satin over the face of it.  And he himself watched that night.  And while he was there, he beheld the dragons fighting.  And when they were weary they fell, and came down upon the top of the satin, and drew it with them to the bottom of the cauldron.  And when they had drunk the mead they slept.  And in their sleep, Lludd folded the covering around them, and in the securest place he had in Snowdon, he hid them in a kistvaen.  Now after that this spot was called Dinas Emreis, but before that, Dinas Ffaraon.  And thus the fierce outcry ceased in his dominions.

And when this was ended, King Lludd caused an exceeding great banquet to be prepared.  And when it was ready, he placed a vessel of cold water by his side, and he in his own proper person watched it.  And as he abode thus clad with arms, about the third watch of the night, lo! he heard many surpassing fascinations and various songs.  And drowsiness urged him to sleep.  Upon this, lest he should be hindered from his purpose and be overcome by sleep, he went often into the water.  And at last, behold, a man of vast size, clad in strong, heavy armour, came in, bearing a hamper.  And, as he was wont, he put all the food and provisions of meat and drink into the hamper, and proceeded to go with it forth.  And p. 115nothing was ever more wonderful to Lludd, than that the hamper should hold so much.

And thereupon King Lludd went after him and spoke unto him thus.  “Stop, stop,” said he, “though thou hast done many insults and much spoil erewhile, thou shalt not do so any more, unless thy skill in arms and thy prowess be greater than mine.”

Then he instantly put down the hamper on the floor, and awaited him.  And a fierce encounter was between them, so that the glittering fire flew out from their arms.  And at the last Lludd grappled with him, and fate bestowed the victory on Lludd.  And he threw the plague to the earth.  And after he had p. 116overcome him by strength and might, he besought his mercy.  “How can I grant thee mercy,” said the king, “after all the many injuries and wrongs that thou hast done me?”  “All the losses that ever I have caused thee,” said he, “I will make thee atonement for, equal to what I have taken.  And I will never do the like from this time forth.  But thy faithful vassal will I be.”  And the king accepted this from him.

And thus Lludd freed the Island of Britain from the three plagues.  And from thenceforth until the end of his life, in prosperous peace did Lludd the son of Beli rule the Island of Britain.  And this Tale is called the Story of Lludd and Llevelys.  And thus it ends.

p. 117TALIESIN.

In times past there lived in Penllyn a man of gentle lineage, named Tegid Voel, and his dwelling was in the midst of the Lake Tegid, and his wife was called Caridwen.  And there was born to him of his wife a p. 118son named Morvran ab Tegid, and also a daughter named Creirwy, the fairest maiden in the world was she; and they had a brother the most ill-favoured man in the world, Avagddu.  Now Caridwen his mother thought that he was not likely to be admitted among men of noble birth, by reason of his ugliness, unless he had some exalted merits or knowledge.  For it was in the beginning of Arthur’s time and of the Round Table.

So she resolved, according to the arts of the books of the Fferyllt, [118a] to boil a cauldron of Inspiration and Science for her son, that his reception might be honourable because of his knowledge of the mysteries of the future state of the world.

Then she began to boil the cauldron, which from the beginning of its boiling might not cease to boil for a year and a day, until three blessed drops were obtained of the grace of inspiration.

And she put Gwion Bach the son of Gwreang of Llanfair in Caereinion, in Powys, to stir the cauldron, and a blind man named Morda to kindle the fire beneath it, and she charged them that they should not suffer it to cease boiling for the space of a year and a day.  And she herself, according to the books of the astronomers, and in planetary hours, gathered every day of all charm-bearing herbs.  And one day, towards the end of the year, as Caridwen was culling plants and making incantations, it chanced that three drops of the charmed liquor flew out of the cauldron and fell upon the finger of Gwion Bach.  And by reason of their great heat he put his finger to his mouth, [118b] and the instant he put those marvel-working p. 119drops into his mouth, he foresaw everything that was to come, and perceived that his chief care must be to guard against the wiles of Caridwen, for vast was her skill.  And in very great fear he fled towards his own land.  And the cauldron burst in two, because all the liquor within it except the three charm-bearing drops was poisonous, so that the horses of Gwyddno Garanhir were poisoned by the water of the stream into which the liquor of the cauldron ran, and the confluence of that stream was called the Poison of the Horses of Gwyddno from that time forth.

Thereupon came in Caridwen and saw all the toil of the whole year lost.  And she seized a billet of p. 120wood and struck the blind Morda on the head until one of his eyes fell out upon his cheek.  And he said, “Wrongfully hast thou disfigured me, for I am innocent.  Thy loss was not because of me.”  “Thou speakest truth,” said Caridwen, “it was Gwion Bach who robbed me.”

And she went forth after him, running.  And he saw her, and changed himself into a hare and fled.  But she changed herself into a greyhound and turned him.  And he ran towards a river, and became a fish.  And she in the form of an otter-bitch chased him under the water, until he was fain to turn himself into a bird of the air.  Then she, as a hawk, followed him and gave him no rest in the sky.  And just as she was about to stoop upon him, and he was in fear of death, he espied a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn, and he dropped amongst the wheat, and turned himself into one of the grains.  Then she transformed herself into a high-crested black hen, and went to the wheat and scratched it with her feet, and found him out and swallowed him.  And, as the story says, she bore him nine months, and when she was delivered of him, she could not find it in her heart to kill him, by reason of his beauty.  So she wrapped him in a leathern bag, and cast him into the sea to the mercy of God, on the twenty-ninth day of April.

And at that time the weir of Gwyddno was on the strand between Dyvi and Aberystwyth, near to his own castle, and the value of an hundred pounds was taken in that weir every May eve.  And in those days Gwyddno had an only son named Elphin, the most hapless of youths, and the most needy.  And it grieved his father sore, for he thought that he was p. 121born in an evil hour.  And by the advice of his council, his father had granted him the drawing of the weir that year, to see if good luck would ever befall him, and to give him something wherewith to begin the world.

And the next day, when Elphin went to look, there was nothing in the weir.  But as he turned back he perceived the leathern bag upon a pole of the weir.  Then said one of the weir-ward unto Elphin, “Thou wast never unlucky until to-night, and now thou hast destroyed the virtues of the weir, which always yielded the value of an hundred pounds every May eve, and to-night there is nothing but this leathern skin within it.”  “How now,” said Elphin, “there may be therein the value of an hundred pounds.”  Well! they