uropean chivalry rather than to the history of
Welsh literature.

As literature the Mabinogion may rank among the world's classics. We
cannot here point out their beauties, but it will be sufficient to
notice that the unknown writer who gave them their final form was a true
artist in every sense of the word. In _Branwen verch Lyr_, for instance,
the whole setting of the story is that of a great tragedy, a tragedy
neither Hellenic nor Shakespearean, but the strong and ruthless tragedy
of the Celts,--the tragedy of nature among unnatural surroundings, the
tragedy which in our times Mr Thomas Hardy has so successfully
developed. In this tale, Branwen is introduced as the sister of
Manawyddan, the king of all Britain, and as the "fairest maid in the
world." But as the tragedy deepens we read how this woman, dowered with
beauty and goodness and nobility of lineage, is simply used as a pawn in
a political game, and the full force of the tragedy falls on her own
undeserving head. She is subjected to all kinds of indignities in her
husband's court in Ireland, but throughout all her severe trials she
preserves the cold and detached haughtiness which characterizes the
full-bosomed heroines of the northern sagas; and, in the end, when her
brother has delivered her and punished the Irish, and when she has
safely reached the shores of her own Mon, she raises her eyes and
beholds the two islands, Britain and Ireland. "'Ah God!' said she, 'is
it well that two islands have been made desolate for my sake?' And she
gave a deep groan and died." So was her tragedy consummated, and the
writer, with a superb tragic touch, mentions the very shape of the grave
in which they left her on the bank of the Alaw in Mon.

One of the earliest poets of this period whose productions we can be
certain of is Meilir, bard of Trahaern, whom Gruffydd ab Cynan defeated
at the battle of Carn, and afterwards of the conqueror Gruffydd himself.
His best piece is the _Death-bed of the Bard_, a semi-religious poem
which is distinguished by the structure of the verse, poetic feeling and
religious thought. Meilir was the head of a family of bards; his son was
Gwalchmai, one of the best Welsh poets; the latter had two sons, Einion
and Meilir, some of whose poetry has reached us. In _Gorhoffedd
Gwalchmai_, Gwalchmai's Delight, there is an appreciation of the charms
of nature, medieval parallels to which are only to be found in Ireland.
His _Arwyrain i Owain_ is an ode