Notes to Preiddeu Annwn

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NOTES TO PREIDDEU ANNWN

Edited by Gwynogvryn Evans,Facsimile and Edition (Llanbedrog,1910), fols. 54.16-56.13. Scholarshave traditionally dated this MS tothe thirteenth-century. MargedHaycock, however, argued in herdissertation that it was compiledsomewhat later ( Llyfr Taliesin:

Astudiaethau ar Rai Agweddau ,

Aberystwyth, 1983). The poemitself may be dated anywherebetween the ninth and twelfthcentury, judging from lexical and



metrical evidence (Haycock:"'Preiddeu Annwn' and the Figure

of Taliesin," Studia Celtica 18/19(1983-84): 37).

The Welsh word annwn, annwfyn istraditionally translated"otherworld," and is akin to someof the Irish worlds of the gods ( Tír na mBéo , "Land of the Living," etc.)One will recall that in the FirstBranch of The Mabinogi , Pwyllexchanges place and shape withArawn, king of Annwn, whose realmis there depicted as co-existent

with Pwyll's Dyfed. In anotherpoem from The Book of Taliesin ( Angar Kyfyndawt , 18.26-23.8) thespeaker declares annwfyn to be



underground:

yn annwfyn ydiwyth , in Annwfynthe peacefulness,

yn annwfyn ygorwyth in Annwfynthe wrath,

yn annwfyn is eluyd in Annwfynbelow the earth...It can be subaqueous, as it seemsto be here in this poem. Annwn ispopularly associated with the landof the old gods who can bestowgifts, including the gift of poetry

(awen ): awen aganaf / odwfyn ysdygaf , "It is Awen I sing, / from thedeep I bring it"; AK). Semanticallyand conceptually the term isambiguous. The MW prefix an- cannegate as well as intensify (as inLatin in- ) so that the word yieldseither or both an + dwfyn , "un-world," "very-deep," possibly"extreme world." It is not a Celtic



"underworld," per se, althoughmention of "hell," ( vffern , suggests

that associations between Annwn("very deep"?) and the land of thedead were vivid to whoevercommitted this text to writing.

This poem has traditionally hadvalue only insofar as it mentionedArthur, and it is frequentlyanthologized in collections onArthuriana. But witness the

bafflement of various scholarsabout the trajectory of the poem,which departs from a somewhatcontemplative account of Arthur'sraid on an otherworldly fortress,turning in the last half of the poemto a heated denunciation of cowards and ignoramuses, andending with a passionate rantabout monks and wolves.



Connecting these apparentlyseparate themes (Arthur's

expedition and the denunciation of cowards and monks) has beenchallenging: D.W. Nash lookedupon these last stanzas asinterpolations ( The Book of Taliesin, or The Bards and Druids of Britain [London: John Russell Smith,1858], p. 212); A.O.H. Jarmandeclared that the final stanzaswere irrelevant to the theme of Arthur ("The Delineation of Arthur

in Early Welsh Verse," in An Arthurian Tapestry: Essays inMemory of Lewis Thorpe , ed.Kenneth Varty [Glasgow: TheUniversity of Glasgow, BritishBranch of the InternationalArthurian Society, 1981], p. 11),and both Kenneth Jackson ("Arthurin Early Welsh Verse," in ArthurianLiterature in the Middle Ages , ed.



composition that the speaker haswrested from Welsh poetic lore

("The Spoils of Annwn: Taliesin andMaterial Poetry" in A CelticFlorilegium: Studies in Memory of Brendan O Hehir , eds. Katrhyn A.Klar, Eve E. Sweetser, and Clair

Thomas (Lawrence, MA: CelticStudies Publications, 1966), pp. 43-53). See also Patrick Sims-Williams,"The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems,"in The Arthur of the Welsh: The

Arthurian Legend in Medieval

Welsh Literature , eds. RachelBromwich, A.O.H. Jarmen, andBrynley F. Roberts (Cardiff:University of Cardiff Press, 1991)pp. 33-71; Andrea Budgey,"'Preiddeu Annwn' and the Welsh

Tradition of Arthur," in CelticLanguages and Celtic Peoples:Proceedings of the Second North

American Congress of Celtic



Studies , eds. Cyril J. Byrne,Margaret Harry, and Pádraig ó

Siadhail (Halifax: Nova Scotia: SaintMary's University, 1992) pp. 391-404; and O.J. Padel, Arthur inMedieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff:

The University of Wales Press,2000), pp. 34-36.

Taliesin is first mentioned byNennius in his Historia Britonum asbeing a bard of status in the sixth

century along with Neirin (Aneirin),Cian, Talhaearn, and Bluchbard.Only Taliesin and Aneirin appear asauthors of medieval Welsh texts.

Taliesin as court bard to UrienRheged gave way from thebeginning in popularity to Taliesinthe magician, wizard, shape-shifter,riddler, and repository of esotericknowledge. In Y Gododdin , by



Aneirin, Taliesin is referred to asone "who knows it"--possibly as a

fellow "seer" who went through apoetic initiation described byAneirin as an imprisonmentunderground: mi na vi Aneirin / ysgwyr Taliesin / o feg gywrennin ("Iyet not I Aneirin, / Taliesin knowsit / skilled in expression": Y Gododdin: Britain's Oldest HeroicPoem , ed., trans., A.O.H. Jarman[Llandysul: Gomer Press, 1990], pp.33, 32). Patrick Ford has made

available several of the textsdevoted to "The Tale of GwionBach" and "The Tale of Taliesin,"where it is described how littleGwion received knowledge fromthe cauldron of Cerridwen that thegoddess meant for her ugly sonAfagddu; how he fled from her invarious shapes, was eaten andgiven birth to by her; and how as



Taliesin he confounded the bards of the corrupt king Maelgwn with a

dazzling display of his own arcaneknowledge, his manipulation of shapes and storms, and so forth(Ford, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales [Berkeley:University of California Press,1977], pp. 159-192. See also hisYstoria Taliesin [Cardiff: Universityof Wales Press, 1992]).

"The Spoils of Annwm" [sic], in TheWhite Goddess: A HistoricalGrammar of Poetic Myth (New York:Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1966),pp. 107-108.

"The Spoils of Annwn: An EarlyWelsh Poem," in Wales and the

Arthurian Legend (Cardiff:



University of Wales Press, 1956),pp. 131-178.

"'Preiddeu Annwn' and the Figureof Taliesin," Studia Celtica, 18/19(1983-84): 52-78.

"Preideu Annwvyn: The Spoils of the Unworld," in John T. Koch and

John Carey, eds., The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient

Celtic Europe and Early Ireland andWales (Andover, Massachusetts,and Aberystwyth: Celtic StudiesPublications, Inc. 2000), pp. 295-297. For an earlier translation withcommentary, see his article by thesame name in Bulletin for theBoard of Celtic Studies, vol. xxxi(1984): 87-92.



"The Spoils of Annwn: Taliesin and

Material Poetry," in A CelticFlorilegium: Studies in Memory of Brendan O Hehir , eds. Kathryn A.Klar, Eve E. Sweetser, and Clair

Thomas (Lawrence, MA: CelticStudies Publications, 1966), pp. 43-53.

Y Geiriadur Mawr ("BigDictionary"): The Complete Welsh-

English English-Welsh Dictionary ,Eleventh Edition, ed. H. MeurigEvans and W.O Thomas (Llandysul:Gwasg Gomer, 1983).

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru



("University of Wales Dictionary"): A Dictionary of the Welsh

Language , eds. R.J. Thomas et al(Cardiff: University of Wales Press,1950-). Though still unfinished, thisdictionary is more comprehensivethan GM.

Geirfa Barrdoniaeth Gynnar Cymraeg , ed. John Lloyd-Jones"Early Bardic Vocabulary of Wales"(Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru,1931-).

The title Preid(d)eu Annwn looks tobe written in a different hand from



that of the scribe who copied thepoem, and seems to echo the

phrase in line 7 with a later spellingof annwfyn . The "r" of Preiddeu isthe long insular "r," and the form of the "d" indicates that it is to betaken as the voiced interdentalfricative with the later spelling

preiddeu .

MS: py . Williams, Jackson, andHaycock support emending py tothe perfective particle ry . Haycocktranslates "who has extended" onthe grounds that ry has relative

force; thence the subject should be"the Lord" and not "sovereignty."



The structure of this poem is basedon that of a collection of awdlau(awdl = a short poem or stanza of lines that rhyme), wherein eachline is a couplet: two related unitsand a caesura. Several of theselines, however, are triplets--threeunits wherein the first two rhymeand two caesuras--that stand outmetrically and dramatically. This isone such line, and all the

concluding lines that repeat("except seven none rose up") aretriplets (lines 10, 19, 28, 34, 42,and 48). Other triplets are to befound in lines 8, 13, 32, and 38. Iindicated the caesuras by printingthem with line breaks.



We do not have much material onGweir; he is mentioned (Gweir apGeirioed) in Tryoedd Ynys Prydein("The Triads of the Isle of Britain";ed. trans. Rachel Bromwich[Cardiff: University of Wales Press,1961], p. 140) as one of threefamous prisoners along with LlyrLledyeith and Mabon uab Modron(a former god whose career seemsto be imprisonment and wailing).

Loomis notes that Lundy, an islandoff the coast of Cornwall is knownas ynys weir , "Gweir's Island," adetail that reinforces the sense of his importance as a resident orprisoner of an island fortress(Loomis, "Spoils of Annwn," p. 150).



Kaer Sidi appears in another poemin The Book of Taliesin in a linewith the same rhyming patterns: yskyweir vyg kadeir yg kaer sidi ,"Equipped is my (bardic) chair inKaer Sidi" (BT: fol. 34.8-13). Here,

Taliesin boasts of being seated informality and honor in anotherworldly place of pleasure ( Nys

plawd heint aheneint auo yndi ,"neither disease nor old-age afflicts

him who may be here"), whereinthree (musical?) instruments playbefore it around a fire ( teir oryan y am tan agan recdi . He sits in afortress whose peaks (or corners)are surrounded by the sea ( Ac am

y banneu ffrydyeu gweilgi , with thefruitful fountain above him ( Ar ffynhawn ffrwythlawn yssydoduchti . Like the sparkling



beverage in Preideu Annwn,"sweeter than white wine is the

drink in it" ( ys whegach nor gwingwyn yllyn yndi ). The speakerdeclares that "Manawyddan andPryderi know it" ( ys gwyr manawyt aphryderi ), suggesting that KaerSidi is like Gwales in the SecondBranch of The Mabinogi , where thebereaved retinue of Bendigeiduranrest for eighty years in pleasantforgetfulness. Sidi may come fromOld Irish síde , from nominative síd ,

"gods" or "fairy-folk," or the moundor dwelling place of such folk. These otherworldly abodes wereoften submerged, which mayaccount both for the "fruitfulfountain" above the chair in theone poem and the fact that thesurvivors "rose up" in Preideu

Annwn. Instead of the bardic chair,it is a prison that is equipped in this



Kaer Sidi. Reward and punishmentalike are doled out in the fairy

fortress, but note that Gweir, like apoet, is singing (or lamenting)before the "Spoils of Annwn."

This word ebostol would appear tomean "apostle," and yields asecond meaning, "epistle," "letter,""homily," "tale," which could verywell be a confusion with L. epistola ."The Tale of Pwyll and Pryderi" isan obvious reference, so it wouldseem, to the four branches of TheMabinogi , but Gweir is never

mentioned therein. As Loomissuggests, though, the texts thatremain to us have probably beenrecompiled, and earlier stories lost;



there may well have been anEbostol Pwyll a Phryderi , just as

there are other mentions in thebranches to tale titles.

This phrase is ambiguous. Rac inGM has several meanings: "in frontof," "before," or "on account of,"because of," or "for the sake of."

The most obvious translation of preideu is "spoils," "plunder," thatwhich Arthur's men have come for(the cauldron). But preideu canalso mean "cattle," "herds", andhowever unlikely this meaning fits

the context, recall that there aremagical beasts mentioned furtheron in the poem. Haycock:"wondrous herds are frequently



encountered in the IrishOtherworld" ("The Figure of

Taliesin," p. 67).

Yn bardwedi is subject to variousinterpretations. Bardwedi clearlyseems to be a compound of bard +gwedi , "prayer," but yn is not clear.

The most common use of prefixed yn is "our." But this could also bethe preposition "in": "in bardicprayer." Haycock also suggests anerror for ym , "my" (p. 67), or even

y , "his." Koch has: "And until Judgement he will persist as an

imploring bard." If no error isassumed, then are Gweir and Taliesin (the speaker) identified?Are they singing together? Are they



similarly incarcerated? Do theyspeak for all bardic (and divine)

prisoners and singers? Haycockdisambiguates with "our (own)," asthough the speaker is using the"royal we."

The name of Arthur's ship.

Many scholars suggest emendingto ochlywit to cohere with therhyme on -it , in which case wewould have "song was heard."



Haycock has "first utterance";Koch: "poetry." This word kynneir (GPC) literally means "foremostutterance or song," hence its latermeaning of "eulogy," "song of praise," "poetry."

The cauldron is a very compleximage, with a complex background.First of all, there is the Cerridwen'scauldron in "The Tale of GwionBach" (see Ford, The Mabinogi andOther Tales , mentioned above) in

which the magic brew that willconfer poetic and magic power isstolen from Afagddu by the young

Taliesin. It is to this story that the



poet in Preideu Annwn clearlyrefers, as the cauldron is literally

the source of his "foremostutterance." But the cauldron is alsoan object wrested byBendigeiduran in "The SecondBranch" of The Mabinogi and given(along with his sister Branwen) toMatholwch, King of Ireland. Thiscauldron has the property of bringing slain warriors back to life.When Bendigeiduran comes torescue his sister Branwen from ill-

treatment, war breaks out betweenWales and Ireland, and thecauldron is broken. It is stated thatseven Welsh warriors returnedfrom that tragic event: Pryderi,Manawyddan, Glifieu son of Taran,

Taliesin, Ynawg, Gruddieu son of Muriel, and Heilyn son of GwynHen. It would appear that theevents of this story have been



given a new context in Preideu Annwn wherein Arthur has been

substituted for the god/hero Bran.But there is also a wrested Irishcauldron in Culhwch and Olwen inwhich Arthur is directly involved.Having promised to help Culhwchcomplete the impossible tasksdemanded of Ysbyddadan, one of them being the attainment of thecauldron of the giant Diwrnach,Arthur sails in his ship to Irelandand comes away with it after a

more successful battle than theone described here. Ireland mayalso have been conceived of as akind of "Otherworld" in Welsh lore,which may explain the Irish namegiven to the first mention of thefortress. Furthermore, an Irish tale,Siaburcharpat Conchulaind , "ThePhantom Chariot of Cuchulain,"contains a poem called Dun Scáith ,



"Fortress of Shadow" (in Lebor naHuidre: Book of the Dun Cow, R.I.

Best and Osborn Bergin, eds.[Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, ], pp.281-287. For an accessibletranslation, see that in Tom PeeteCross and Clark Harris Slover, eds.,

Ancient Irish Tales [New York:Barnes and Noble, 1936], pp. 352-353). It has in common withPreideu Annwn a sea voyage, a raidupon an island stronghold with irondoors and a subterranean

chamber, magic cattle, a cauldronwhich is filled with treasure, and anescape. Evidently there was asource legend known in both Irishand Welsh lore that may havefurnished the materials for all thesestories, and which involved a raidupon a god's fortress for a divinecauldron.



lluch lleawc may be a garbledversion of a name: "the sword of Lluch Lleawch." Loomis calls it "aremarkable muddle" (p. 161): in

Culhwch and Olwen we have twomentions of Llenlleawc theIrishman in the list of namesCulhwch invokes, plus a LlwchLlawwynnyawc (Llwch "Windy-hand" according to Gwyn Jones and

Thomas Jones, trans. TheMabinogion [London: Everyman,1975], p. 107). LLenleawc Wyddelis also the warrior among Arthur'smen who kills the giant Diwrnach,

enabling the cauldron to be takenin Culhwch and Olwen . Both J.Lloyd Jones and Sir Ifor Williamswhom Loomis consulted in the



preparation of his article (Loomis,p. 135, note 30) take lluch lleawc

to be separate adjectives:"flashing" and "death-dealing."Haycock suggests that Lleawc mayhave been an earlier, or variantform of the name Llenleawc (p. 70).Koch has "a sword of lightningslaughter" (p. 296).

Another possibly muddled name.Loomis suggests that Lluch Lleawcis a variant of Llwch Llawwynnawcin Culhwch and Olwen , cognatewith the Irish semi-deity Lugh,

"who had an epithet which is givenin Cath Maige Tured asLonnbémnech and in OidedChloinne Tuirenn as



Loinnbhéimnionach" (p. 163).Haycock is skeptical; she suggests

it means "leaping one" and may bean epithet for Arthur. She alsonotes its appearances in othertexts as a personal name (p. 71). Ithink Loomis's sense of coincidenceis not to be wondered at, and Isuggest that there is considerablescribal confusion here.

Vedwit , possibly a compound, asHaycock points out, with med +gwit , GPC "feast, banquet, liquid,fluid, honey." Loomis translates

"Fortress of Mead-Carousal"; Koch:"Fort of Intoxication"; Haycock:"Fortress of the Mead Feast." All of these named fortresses may



merely supply epithets for thesame otherworldly castle to which

Arthur has led his expedition.

Koch has "strong door" (p. 296),and so does Loomis (p. 136);Haycock: "radiant" (p. 62). Pybyr inGM is defined as "staunch, strong,enthusiastic, bright, fine." Haycocksuggests scribal confusion with

pefyr , "radiant," "flaming," in theinterests of seeing it in connectionwith line 20, and she points toother confusions of these twowords (i.e., the name Gronw

Pebyr/Pefyr in "Math uabMathonwy," pointed out byWilliams in his notes to Pedeir Keinc Mabinogi ("The Four



Branches of the Mabinogi" [Cardiff:University of Wales Press], p. 286).

Intrigued by the more seductiveimagery, I too originally had"flaming door" ("Material Poetry,"p. 51), but have here emended to"strong door," with its implicationsof "shining" and "fine."

Echwydd has two meanings:"noonday" and "river" or "flowingwater." Loomis prefers the firstmeaning, and takes the word "jet"(muchyd to mean "jet-blackness"to further his interpretation of a

"crepuscular" time of day known todenizens of the Otherworld(Loomis, p. 165). His translation:"Noon-day and jet-blackness are



mingled." Koch, Haycock and I takethe second meaning, but the

mixture of "jet" and "flowing water"is mysterious. Haycock: "Themixing of water and jet to createfire may be a learned reference toa belief mentioned in Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae , xvi.iv (ed. W.M. Lindsay [Oxford: 1911])" (p. 72).Loomis: "[T]o no one who hasfollowed the discussion thus far willit seem an objection that the islandparadise and the subterranean

lamp-lighted region are not easyfor us to reconcile imaginatively.Nothing is more manifest than thatthe Celts blended such incongruouspictures, not only without effort buteven with delight."



An error for gosgor , "retinue."

Latin: "intractibility, rigidity,hardness."

This is probably the hardest word

to find an equivalent for, and itoccurs three times in the openingline of this and the next twostanzas. Loomis translates: "I donot reward"; Koch: "I set no valueon," both of them followingWilliams, as he advised Loomis (p.136). According to the GM and theGPC, this verb gobrynaf/gobrynumeans "merit," "deserve, be



worthy of" and appears to be acompound of prynu (GM: "buy,"

"redeem") with intensive prefix go- .Williams advised as he did because"I do not deserve X" or "I do notmerit X" unfortunately first conveyin English the sense of "I am notworthy of X." which is why Haycocksupplies a modifying paranthesis inher very literal translation: "I do notdeserve (i.e., I deserve betterthan)." When one is after asmoother equivalent, one strays

from the original Welsh: "I meritmore than" would give the sensethat Haycock is after, but it erasesthe sense of negation and denial inthis line. This, alas, may be theonly way to express the valency of gobrynaf . I wonder if it is a verbthat exhibits one more argumentthan our English word "deserve,"such that it can mean both "merit"



and "bestow merit." It probablymeans to set up a comparison, a

sense of equation, given the prynupart of its compound--"I do notmatch little men" (meaning theyare not my match, they are not inmy league). The speaker isdenigrating the llawyr , not lookingup to them. The Taliesin poetspeaks frequently of scoring "meritpoints" or winning contests with hispoetry, and I wonder if gobrynaf carries this sense of keeping score.

So, with a concession to the lack of an equivalent verb in English, I gowith "merit." There are, after all,expressions in English such as "itdoes not merit attention," or "Idon't deserve this punishment"which come closer to what thisverb conveys in this context. Aschief poet, Taliesin does not meritthe worthless men of letters whom



he looks upon as poor readers,unlearned competitors, sloppy

copiers (perhaps) and holier-than-thou critics. This is a revision of myearlier translation ("reward").

Llawyr is a compound of llaw ,"small," "mean," "paltry," andgwyr , "men": "insignificant men."Haycock suggests emending tollewyr , "readers," in order todisambiguate what it is that thespeaker, as poet, "deserves morethan," since as the poemprogresses it is clear that these are

men of letters and not warriors.She also argues that llewyr mightnot have been "immediatelyfamiliar to the scribe of the BT or



one of his predecessors." I cannotcountenance this kind of

manipulation of the text in aid of interpretation. Further, it collapsesan important link between"readers" with slack shield strapsand "warriors." If the poem is aboutpoetic as well as folkloric plunder,as I argue in "Material Poetry," withthe elaborate metaphor of a raid,then it is important to keep bothsides of the symbolism.

Llen llywyadur presents anotherconundrum. How do we connect

these three words-- llawyr llenllywyadur --across the caesura?Williams: "I set no value on book-reading folk." Loomis: "I, Lord of



Letters, do not reward mean folk."Koch: "I set no value on the

director's wretched scribes."Haycock: "I deserve (i.e., I deservebetter than) ?readers concernedwith the literature of the Lord." Thedenunciation of monks at the endof the poem sheds light on thispeculiar sentence, which seems todenigrate scribes. Haycock arguesthat because llen llywyadur makesa prosodic unit, divided from llawyr by the caesura, we should see it as

a grammatical unit: "literature of the Lord" i.e., "scripture." Hertranslation is probably the mostcorrect, and the hardest to expressin any elegant way except to find amore concise equivalent. Seeabove.



"Fortress of Glass." Glass, saysHaycock, is a material associatedwith "otherness." Loomis writesthat both the Fortress of Glass andthe Silent Sentinel are motifs to befound in Nennius's HistoriaBrittonum which describes the"original" inhabitants of the Irish,come from Spain, who encounter aglass tower in the middle of thesea, and whose people do not

respond to their hails. They attackthe castle with thirty ships whichfounder, save one; and the peopleof that ship populate the whole of Ireland. See the translation byPamela S.M. Hopkins and John.T.Koch, in The Celtic Heroic Age:Literary Sources for Ancient CelticEurope and Early Ireland andWales , eds. John T. Koch and John



Carey, p. 277)." Loomis writes thatthis story is well-known to the

Arthurian romancers. Chrêtien'sErec "refers to Maheloas as 'thelord of the Isle of Glass'" whereinone hears no thunder or lightningor tempest, nor is it too hot or cold.

This word breaks the rhyme with-ur . The question here is whether itis golud or colud . Goludd ,"hindrance," "impediment," givesgood sense in the context of thisstanza about a glass castle and anincommunicative sentinel. Loomis

translates "frustration" (p. 167).But the pattern in these epithetswith kaer shows lenition of thesecond element, so it's possible



that this is coludd , "guts,""bowels." Loomis is dead set

against "bowels" as aninterpretation; perfedd is asynonym meaning both "entrails"and "middle of" ( perfeddd nos ,"dead of night" GM), and hetentatively suggests as asecondary meaning "Fortress in theMiddle of the Earth." Haycock:"impediment"; Koch: "concealedfort."

Now we enter the part of the poemwhere the references and the

language are doubly obscure.Haycock mentions a number of possibilities for peridyd : it is a nounmeaning "Creator"; it is a verb



meaning "is created." She choosesthe latter in her notes (p. 73), but

puts ellision marks in hertranslation: "they do not know onwhat day...what time...was born..."(p. 63). Loomis's translation endswith stanza four. "They know notwhat was created on what day," isKoch's translation. Pwy could be"who" or "whom." A very darkcouple of lines.

Could ymeindyd be "mid-day"? mei+ dyd , formed by analogy withmeinoeth , "middle of the night"?



No one has a confident translationfor this word cwy or for the whole

line. Koch has: "what hour of theday it was born and where";Haycock: "What time... was born..."I'm not much more enlightened.Cwy could be a personal name;Haycock makes the interestingsuggestion, based on a proposedemendment by John Lloyd-Jones inhis G, that it is an error for dwy ,"God." If we emend pwy in theprevious line to plwy(w) , then "lines

36-7 might be understood thus:'...who do not know on what daythe ?human race is (?was) created(nor) at what time ?of the day God(i.e. Jesus) was born.'" Clearly,what we are seeing here is thetypical Taliesin-poet boasting of esoteric knowledge that hiscompetitors (the wretched scribes,the mean men of letters) are not



privy to.

This word dychnut has occasionedsome confusion among

lexicographers. The entry for*dychnudo (with the asteriskindicating archaism) in GM givesthe meaning "howl." But the entryfor the same word dychnudaf,dychnuddo in GPC gives themeaning "to crowd together in apack," from di + cnud , "pack." Theonly referent it cites, however, isthis line in Preideu Annwn , whichsuggests that the word is a hapax .

If this poem is the only place itoccurs, clearly one lexicographer'sguess is as good as another's. TheGM entry seems driven by the



context of the word, and it musthave been assumed that it was a

compound with udo , "howl,"instead of cnud , "pack." But bothmeanings are completely relevantto the line. If the monks are dogs oryoung wolves "packing together" ina choir, then one can also imaginethem howling (instead of singing).

The satiric pun is effective, andreminds me of Maelgwn's bards in"The Tale of Taliesin" who, made tosay "blerwm blerwm" with their

fingers on their lips, are similarlyrendered inarticulate by a bard"who knows." To honor thisambiguity, I have translated thisfirst use as "howl" and the seconduse (in line 53) as "pack together."



cunin cor , literally, "whelps of (orin) a choir." "Choir dogs." Cor has a

delightful array of meanings thatextend the word-play in theprevious line: "chancel, choir,sanctuary, court, circle, compass,range" (GPC). So while the dogs areclearly in a pack, as monks theyare also sequestered in a chancelor choir, where they customarilysing. Koch: "Monks pack togetherlike a troop of dogs." Haycock:"Monks throng together like a

wolfpack." I prefer to retain thesuggestion of a choir.

O gyfranc udyd is translated byKoch as "[shrinking] fromencounter with the lords." Haycock:



"because of the encounter of themasters."

ae gwidanhor in this line and ae

gwidyanhawr in line 54 arecontested. Ae : a relative particlethat can be either subject or object.

The ending suggests a passiveconstruction. Koch takes theseverbs to be deponents, andtranslates "who know"; Haycocksees them as impersonals of gwyddiannu (? verb made fromgwydd[i]on ? "wizard"? "one whoknows"?) or gwybot , "know," and

translates "to whom is madeknown."



This is a difficult line because ityields so many possibilities. bet , orbedd can mean "grave," but it mayalso be a lenited form of pet , "howmany?" As Haycock advises,another question would be inkeeping with the questions thathave gone before. "How manysaints?" she translates. Koch omitsthis line altogether. See the nextnote on diuant.

Either the interrogative or "whether

there is..."



difant , according to the GPC, has anumber of intriguing meanings that

could be multiply applied to thisword: as a noun: "total loss,perdition, annihilation, dissolution,disappearance; abyss, the void;desolate or lonely place; theotherworld." As a participle:"vanishing, vanished, fleeting,transient, completely lost, passedaway." As an adjective: "base,contemptible." Haycock translates"in the void." See the next note on

llawr .

This word llawr can mean "earth,"or "champion" (GM, GPC). Allawr means "altar." The whole line maybe variously rendered as: "The



grave of the saint is vanishing,both grave and ground," or: "The

grave of the saint is hidden, bothgrave and champion," or: "Howmany saints in the Otherworld, andhow many on earth?" or: "Howmany saints lost, and how manyaltars?" Haycock: "How manysaints in the void, and how manyon earth?" Whatever the linemeans, diuant is a gloomy concept,and the sense expressed here is of sadness and loss, which is

confirmed by the last line of thepoem.

Notes to Preiddeu Annwn

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