like the comparative sometimes in Latin (Hales).

28. Hoel is called _high-born_, being the son of Owen Gwynedd, prince
of North Wales, by Finnog, an Irish damsel. He was one of his
father's generals in his wars against the English, Flemings, and
Normans, in South Wales; and was a famous bard, as his poems that are
extant testify.

_Soft Llewellyn's lay_. "The lay celebrating the mild Llewellyn,"
says Hales, though he afterwards remarks that, "looking at the
context, it would be better to take _Llewellyn_ here for a bard."
Many bards celebrated the warlike prowess and princely qualities of
Llewellyn. A poem by Einion the son of Guigan calls him "a
tender-hearted prince;" and another, by Llywarch Brydydd y Moch,
says: "Llewellyn, though in battle he killed with fury, though he
burned like an outrageous fire, yet was a mild prince when the
mead-horns were distributed." In an ode by Llygard Gwr he is also
called "Llewellyn the mild."

29. Cadwallo and Urien were bards of whose songs nothing has been
preserved. Taliessin (see 121 below) dedicated many poems to the
latter, and wrote an elegy on his death: he was slain by treachery in
the year 560.

30. _That hush'd the stormy main_. Cf. Shakes. _M. N. D._ ii. 2:

"Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song."

33. _Modred_. This name is not found in the lists of the old bards.
It may have been borrowed from the Arthurian legends; or, as Mitford
suggests, it may refer to "the famous Myrddin ab Morvyn, called
Merlyn the Wild, a disciple of Taliessin, the form of the name being
changed for the sake of euphony."

34. _Plinlimmon_. One of the loftiest of the Welsh mountains, being
2463 feet in height. It is really a group of mountains, three of
which tower high above the others, and on each of these is a
_carnedd_, or pile of stones. The highest of the three is further
divided into two peaks, and on these, as well as on another prominent
part of the same height, are other piles of stones. These five piles,
according to the common tradition, mark the graves of slain warriors,
and serve as memorials of their exploits; but some believe that they
were intended as landmarks or military signals, and that from them
the mountain was called _Pump-lumon_ or _Pum-lumon_, "the five
beacons"--a name somehow corrupted into _Plinlimmon_. Five rivers
take their rise in the recesses of Plinlimmon--the Wye, the Severn,
the Rheidol, the Llyfna