MISSEDLINK

 

 

 

 

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• "the Barddas of Iolo Morganwg is a collection of writings"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "about ancient Bardic and Druidic (Celtic) wisdom"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "although the author of this work is cited as J. Williams Ab Ithel, he was actually the editor, who pieced it together from manuscripts written by Iolo Morganwg"

 

 

 

 

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• "a native speaker of both English and Welsh, he spent his entire life collecting and transcribing mediaeval documents"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "because Druidic beliefs were exclusively transmitted orally, we have no primary accounts of it, so there is practically nothing to compare this text with"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "what we do know is summarized neatly in the preface to this work, and consists of a few excerpts from classical authors"

 

 

 

 

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• "the longest account is from Julius Caesar, who was more interested in exterminating Druids, so he was hardly an interested observer"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "however, this is one of those visionary texts"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "which is worth reading for its own merits"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "irrespective of whether it is 'genuine' or not"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• "this collection contains a great many of the rules and usages appertaining to the Gorsedd of the Bards"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "valuable fragments on the Natural and Moral Philosophy of our ancestors"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "together with the ingenious theology of the ancient Bardism"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "also curious extracts on astronomy, arithmetic, the Bardic Coelbren, and a vast quantity of Triads"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "every fragment that can thus be made public, of what once related to the Gorsedd or Throne of the Bards, is truly valuable"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "inasmuch as it was a moral and sublime system"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "that constituted the very foundation of the worship, legislature, and scholastic institutes"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and was the living means of promoting learning and morality among all classes of the people"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "we have no right to expect that we should find the "Secrets of Bardism""

 

 

 

 

 

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• "communicated solely to such as have proved themselves worthy"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "nevertheless, there are some fragments in this collection which contain, as is very clear to every initiated Bard"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the remains of that sublime learning"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "such as those extracts about the elements - the migration of the soul from the point of extreme evil in Annwn to the point of extreme good in Heaven"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "they are old dogmas, at present neither preserved nor existing amidst the antiquities of any nation under the sun, except the Indians and the Cymry"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "there are some pieces of mixed Bardism, which may be called Monkish Bardism, or Bardism and Christianity mixed together"

 

 

 

 

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• "which could easily take place after the introduction of Christianity, owing to the remarkable - very remark-able coincidence which exists between the two systems"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the compiler assures that he is in possession of more documents, which would have been added, if time had permitted"

 

 

 

 

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• "we trust that he will hereafter kindly make the addition, and that the whole will be published in one or more volumes"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "it will make a valuable book, not only as aid in the management of the Gorsedd of the Bards"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "but also, and especially, because the time is undoubtedly coming"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "when every fragment of the Bardism will be treasured as gold"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Morganwg, or the Glamorgan system of versification, in preference to the twenty-four new canons of poetry, which were sanctioned at the famous Eisteddvod"

 

 

 

 

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• "held at Caermarthen, under the patronage of Gruffydd ab Nicholas, in the 15th century"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the style is in general archaic, exhibiting occasionally terms of such an obsolete character as to baffle the skill of the etymologist"

 

 

 

 

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• "even Iolo Morganwg himself professes not to fully understand some of them"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "in reference to a Triad entitled, "Tri phrif anaw Beirdd Ynys Prydain""

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "he remarks: "the meaning of this word (anaw) has not hitherto been satisfactorily given""

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and proposes the query, "whether it may not signify an original genius ?""

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and soon after, "whether anaw may not signify a philosopher ?""

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "referring to light in the Triad there are three cognates: man, liberty, and light"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "man sprang into existence simultaneously with the resplendent appearance"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "of the triple form of God's name"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "which was the first manifestation of material light"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the Bards Ieuan ab Hywel Swrdwal, Gwilym Tew, Lewys Morganwg, Meurig Davydd, Davydd Benwyn, Llywelyn Sion, Davydd Llwyd Mathew, and Edward Davydd"

 

 

 

 

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• "held various positions in life, and appear to have led quiet lives"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "they have compiled a whole system"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "ingenious, complex, and yet harmonious and symmetrical"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "we deny that the contents of these volumes could have been derived immediately from the metrical compositions of the medieval and early poets"

 

 

 

 

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• "there are numerous allusions, which, otherwise obscure and unintelligible, become by means"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "of the light thrown upon them from Bardism, as clear as day"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "as an example, Rhys Brydydd has the following lines on "Hu the Mighty":"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the smallest of the small"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "is Hu the Mighty, as the world judges"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and the greatest, and a lord to us"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "let us well believe, and our mysterious God"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Light His course, and active"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "an atom of glowing heat is His car"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "great on land and on the seas"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the greatest that I manifestly can have"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "greater than the worlds - let us beware"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "of mean indignity to him who deals in bounty"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• "the philosophical features of Bardism are indirect and unexpected"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "it would be difficult to explain why advyd"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "a term signifying re-world"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "or a beginning of the world over again, should in common use stand for adversity"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "but "Rhol Cof a Chyfrif" informs us that it was originally applied to the state of retraversing abred"

 

 

 

 

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• "which, being a punishment for sin, was of course a state of hardship and adversity"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "again, we find that the word gwydd"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "means both wood and knowledge"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "which cannot be accounted for except on the supposition of a common origin, or that there was a mutual connection between the one and the other from the earliest times"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "in like manner, the doctrine of eneidvaddeu alone can satisfactorily account for the double meaning of maddeu"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and show us how a word, which properly means to liberate, or to dismiss"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "came also to signify to forgive"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Cæsar speaks of a plurality of gods, of an archdruid, who had superior authority over the others, and also of the immolation of human sacrifices"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "whereas the unity of the Godhead is the very soul and centre of Bardism"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "which also strongly insists upon the co-equality of its orders"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and discountenance altogether the notion of the sacrifice of living beings"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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