Part 3

After all this, you will be surprised to learn that many of the old gods still remain in Wales, and much of the old pagan worship. Who drops a pin into a sacred well, or leaves a tiny rag on a bush close by, and then wishes for something? A young maiden in the twentieth century, who sacrifices to a well heathen god. Until quite recently men thought that Ffynnon Gybi, and Ffynnon Elian, and Ffynnon Ddwynwen, had in them a power which could curse and bless, ruin and save.

Lud of the Silver Hand was the god of flocks and ships. His caves are in Dyved still, and his was the temple on Ludgate Hill in London. Merlin was a god of knowledge; he could foretell events. Ceridwen was the goddess of wisdom; she distilled wisdom-giving drops in a cauldron. Gwydion created a beautiful girl from flowers, “from red rose, and yellow broom, and white anemony.” I am not quite sure what Coil did, but I have heard children singing the history of “old King Cole.” Olwen also walked through Wales in heathen times, and it is said that three white flowers rose behind her wherever she had put her foot.

V THE WELSH KINGS

THE spirit of Rome remained, though Rome itself had fallen. And Welsh kings rose to take the place of the Roman ruler, trying to force the tribes of Wales—of different races and tongues—to become one people.

The chief Roman ruler, at any rate during the later wars against the invaders, was called Dux Britanniae, “the ruler of Britain.” It became the aim of the ablest kings to restore the power of this officer, and to carry on his work, to rule and defend a united country. And I will tell you briefly how the kings ruled and defended Wales for more than five hundred years—how Maelgwn tried to unite it, how Rhodri tried to prevent the attacks of Saxon and Dane, how Howel gave it laws, and how Griffith tried to defend it against England.

Between 400 and 450 Rome left Wales to look after itself. An able family, called the House of Cunedda, took the power of the Dux Britanniae, and they translated the title into Gwledig—“the ruler of a gwlad (country).” Of this family Maelgwn Gwynedd is the most famous. It was his work to try to unite all the smaller kings or chiefs of Wales under his own power as “the island dragon.” It was a difficult thing to persuade them; they all wanted to be independent. A legend shows that Maelgwn tried guile as well as force. The kings met him at Aberdovey, and they all sat in their royal chairs on the sands. And Maelgwn said: “Let him be king over all who can sit longest on his chair as the tide comes in.” But he had made his own chair of birds’ wings, and it floated erect when all the other chairs had been thrown down. Before Maelgwn died of the yellow plague in 547, his strong arm had made Wales one united country, and had made every corner of it Christian.

The new wave of nations, coming on as surely as the tide, began to beat against Wales. The Picts came from the northern parts of Britain, and Teutonic tribes swarmed across the eastern sea. The Angles came to the Humber, and spread over the plains of the north and the midlands of Roman Britain; the Saxons came to the Thames, and won the plains and the downs of the south-east. In 577 the Saxons, after the battle of Deorham, pierced to the western sea at the mouth of the Severn; they crept up along the valley of the Severn, burning the great Roman towns. Before they reached Chester and the Dee, however, they were defeated at the battle of Fethanlea in 584. But the Angles soon appeared, from the north; and after their victory at Chester in 613, they won the plains right to the Irish Sea.

Wales was now surrounded on the land side by a people who spoke strange languages, and who worshipped different gods, for the Angles and the Saxons were heathens. From the sea also it was open to attack. Sometimes the Irish came. But the most feared of all were the Danes, whose sudden appearance and quick movements and desperate onslaughts were the terror of the age. The “black Danes” came from the fords of Norway, the “white Danes” from the plains of Sweden and Denmark. The Danes settled on the south coast: Tenby is a Danish name. Offa, the king of the Mercian Angles, took the rich lands between the Severn and the Wye; but Offa’s Dyke (Clawdd Offa) is probably the work of some earlier people whose history has been lost. It was only by incessant fighting that the enemy could be kept at bay.

Of all the kings who tried to defend his country against the enemies which now stood round it, the greatest is Rhodri, called Rhodri Mawr—“the Great.” From 844 to 877, by battles on sea and land, he broke the spell of Danish and Saxon victories; and his might and wisdom enabled him to lead his country in those dark days. Like Alfred of Wessex, who lived at the same time and faced the same task, he stemmed the torrent of Danish invasion and beat the sea-rovers on their own element. Like Alfred, he left warlike children and grandchildren. One of the grandsons was Howel the Good, who put the laws of Wales down in a book.

Wales and England were now, both of them in their own way, trying to become one country. It was seen by many that strength and peace were better than division and war. In England, the Earls of Mercia and Wessex tried to rise into supreme power. In Wales Llywelyn ab Seisyll, victorious in many battles and wishing for peace, made the country rich and happy. Still, when he died in 1022, the princes said they would not obey another over-king.

But the long ships full of Danes came again; the Angles crossed the Severn: war and misery took the place of peace and plenty. Griffith, the son of Llywelyn, came to renew his father’s work. In the battle of Rhyd y Groes on the Severn, in 1039, he drove the Mercians back; in the battle of Pencader, in 1041, he crushed the opponents of Welsh unity; in 1044 he defeated the sea-rovers at Aber Towy. At the same time Harold, Earl of Wessex, was making himself king of England. A war broke out between Griffith and Harold; and, during it, in 1063, the great Welsh king—“the head and the shield of the Britons”—was slain by traitors.

So far I have told you about a few, only the greatest, kings of the House of Cunedda. I know that you are wondering where Arthur comes in. I am not quite sure that Arthur ever really lived, except in the mind of many ages. He is the spirit of Roman rule, the true Dux Britanniae, and he has all the greatness and ability of all the race of Cunedda. I have been shown mountains under which he sleeps, with his knights around him, waiting for the time when his country is to be delivered. Let us hope that what Arthur represents—courage and wisdom, love of country and love of right—lives in the hearts of his people.

VI THE LAWS OF HOWEL

THE two ideas which ruled Wales were—the love of order and the love of independence. The danger of the first is oppression; the dangers of the other are anarchy and weakness. Wales was sometimes united, under a Maelgwn or a Rhodri, and the princes obeyed them; oftener, perhaps, the princes of the various parts ruled in their own way.

The internal life of Wales is best seen in the laws of Howel the Good. Howel was the grandson of Rhodri; and, about 950, he called four men from each district to Hendy Gwyn (Whitland) to state the laws of the country. Twelve of the wisest put the law together; and the most learned scribe in Wales wrote it.

It was thought that there should be one king over the whole people, but it was very rarely that every part of Wales obeyed one king. The country was divided into smaller kingdoms. In many ways Gwynedd was the most powerful. It was very easy to defend; for it was made up of the island of Môn (Anglesey), the promontory of Lleyn, and the mountain mass of Snowdon. Its steep side was thus towards England, and its cornlands and pastures on the further side. It was also the home of the family of Cunedda, from Maelgwn to the last Llywelyn.

Powys was the Berwyn country. Ceredigion was the western slope of the Plinlimmon range; the eastern slopes had many smaller, but very warlike, districts. Deheubarth contained the pleasant glades and great forests of the Towy country. Dyved was the peninsula to the west; the southern slopes of the Beacons were Morgannwg and Gwent.

Howel the Good found that the laws of the various parts differed in details, and he gave different versions to the north, the south-west, and the south-east. But the law and life of the whole people, if we only look at important features, are one. Several commotes made a cantrev, many cantrevs made a kingdom, many kingdoms made Wales.

In each commote there were two kinds of people—the free or high-born, and the low-born or serfs. These may have been the conquering Celt and the conquered Iberian. It was very difficult for those in the lower class to rise to the higher; but, after passing through the storms of a thousand years, the old dark line of separation was quite lost sight of.

The free family lived in a great house—in the hendre (“old homestead”) in winter, and in the mountain havoty (“summer house”) in summer. The sides of the house were made of giant forest trees, their boughs meeting at the top and supporting the roof tree. The fire burnt in the middle of the hall. Round the walls the family beds were arranged. The family was governed by the head of the household (penteulu), whose word was law.

The highest family in the land was that of the king. In his hall all took their own places, his chief of the household, his priest, his steward, his falconer, his judge, his bard, his chief huntsman, his mediciner, and others. The chief royal residences were Aberffraw in Môn, Mathraval in Powys, and Dynevor in Deheubarth.

Old Welsh law was very unlike the law we obey now. I cannot tell you much about it in a short book like this, but it is worth noticing that it was very humane. We do not get in it the savage and vindictive punishments we get in some laws. I give you some extracts from the old laws of the Welsh.

The king was to be honoured. According to the laws of Gwynedd, if any one did violence in his presence he had to pay a great fine—a hundred cows, and a white bull with red ears, for every cantrev the king ruled; a rod of gold as long as the king himself, and as thick as his little finger; and a plate of gold, as broad as the king’s face, and as thick as a ploughman’s nail.

The judge, whether of the king’s court or of the courts of his subjects, was to be learned, just, and wise. Thus, according to the laws of Dyved, was an inexperienced judge to be prepared for his great office; he was to remain in the court in the king’s company, to listen to the pleas of judges who came from the country, to learn the laws and customs that were in force, especially the three main divisions of law, and the value of all tame animals, and of all wild beasts and birds that were of use to men. He was to listen especially to the difficult cases that were brought to the court, to be solved by the wisdom of the king. When he had lived thus for a year, he was to be brought to the church by the chaplain; and there, over the relics and before the altar, he swore, in the presence of the great officers of the king’s court, that he would never knowingly do injustice, for money or love or hate. He is then brought to the king, and the officers tell the king that he has taken the solemn oath. Then the king accepts him as a judge, and gives him his place. When he leaves, the king gives him a golden chessboard, and the queen gold rings, and these he is never to part with.

I will tell you about one other officer—the falconer. Falconry was the favourite pastime of the kings and nobles of the time; indeed, everybody found it very exciting to watch the long struggle in the air between the trained falcon and its prey, as each bird tried every skill of wing and talon that it knew. The falconer was to drink very sparingly in the king’s hall, for fear the falcons might suffer; and his lodging was to be in the king’s barn, not in the king’s hall, lest the smoke from the great fire-place should dim the falcon’s sight.

VII THE NORMANS

ON the death of Griffith ap Llywelyn, many princes tried to become supreme. Bleddyn of Powys, a good and merciful prince, became the most important.

In January 1070, when the snow lay thick on the mountains, William, the Norman Conqueror, appeared at Chester with an army. He had defeated and killed Harold, the conqueror of Griffith ap Llywelyn, in 1066; he had crushed the power of the Mercian allies of Bleddyn; he had struck terror into the wild north, and England lay at his feet.