.) Later tales of chivalry, viz. (1) The Lady of the Fountain; (2)
_Peredur_, son of _Evrawc_; (3) _Geraint_, son of _Erbin_.

The Mabinogion.

The group of four romances in the first class forms a cycle of legends
and is called in the manuscript _Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi_--the Four
Branches of the Mabinogi; so it is only these four tales that can,
strictly speaking, be called _Mabinogion_. In these stories we have the
relics of the ancient Irish mythology of the _Tuatha De Danann_,
sometimes mixed with later myths. The _Caer Sidi_, where neither disease
nor old age affects any one, is the _Sid_ of Irish mythology, the
residence of the gods of the _Aes Side_. It is called in one of the old
poems the prison of _Gweir_, who no doubt represents _Gaiar_, son of
Manandan MacLir, the Atropos who cut the thread of life of Irish
mythology. _Llyr_ is the Irish sea-god Lir, and was called _Llyr
Llediaith_, or the half-tongued, implying that he spoke a language only
partially intelligible to the people of the country. _Bran_, the son of
Llyr, is the Irish Bran MacAllait, Allait being one of the names of Lir.
_Manawyddan_ is clearly the Manandan or Manannan MacLir of Irish
mythology. These tales contain other characters which may not have been
borrowed from Irish mythology but which are common to both mythologies;
for example, Rhiannon, the wife of Pwyll who possessed marvellous birds
which held warriors spell-bound for eighty years by their singing, comes
from _Annwn_, or the unseen world, and her son Pryderi gives her, on the
death of Pwyll, as a wife to Manawyddan.

Of the second class the first story relates to Lludd, son of Beli the
Great, son of Manogan, who became king after his father's death, while
his brother Llevelys becomes king of France and shows his brother how to
get rid of the three plagues which devastated Britain:--first, a strange
race, the Coranians, whose knowledge was so great that they heard
everything no matter how low soever it might be spoken; second, a shriek
which came into every house on May eve, caused by the fighting of two
dragons; and third, a great giant who carried off all the provisions of
the king's palace every day. The second tale relates how Maxen, emperor
of Rome, has a dream while hunting, in which he imagines that he visits
Britain, and in _Caer Seint_ or Carnarvon sees a beautiful damsel,
Helen, whom he ultimately finds and marries. Both tales are British in
origin and are founded o