[Q] poem from Cad Goddeu
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I recently ran across a poem I had written down in my notes, but The
only reference I have is that it is from the Cad Goddeu (Welsh?). Does
any know anything of this poem, it's source, author, translator, etc.
Secondly, do the verses resemble something else any of you scholars
recognize? Looking at content alone, my guess is that the poem is
rewritten from an older form, perhaps with the last three verses added
later. Maybe the first six are lifted from a different, older tradition.
It is long since I was a herdsman.
I travelled over the earth
Before I became a learned person.
I have travelled, I have made a circuit,
I have slept in a hundred isles.
I have dwelt in a hundred cities.
Learned Druids,
Prophesy ye of Arthur?
Or is it me they celebrate?
Michael and Kimberly Burkard
In article <Pine.SUN.3.94.960910...@coyote.rain.org>,
For the Cad Goddeu, or the Battle of Trees if I'm remembering rightly, find
the book _Taliesin_ by John Matthews. It will the information you seek.
-kim
Kimberly Burkard | _ Everything I needed to know in life, I
Rochester, New York | _____C .._. learned from my ferret:
gree...@servtech.com| ____/ \___/ Frolic and dance for joy often, have
|<____/\_---\_\ no fear or worries, and enjoy life.
Tamyrrha
In article <Pine.SUN.3.94.960910...@coyote.rain.org>,
dnh...@rain.org says...
>
>I recently ran across a poem I had written down in my notes, but The
>only reference I have is that it is from the Cad Goddeu (Welsh?). Does
>any know anything of this poem, it's source, author, translator, etc.
>
>Secondly, do the verses resemble something else any of you scholars
>recognize? Looking at content alone, my guess is that the poem is
>rewritten from an older form, perhaps with the last three verses added
>later. Maybe the first six are lifted from a different, older tradition.
>
> It is long since I was a herdsman.
> I travelled over the earth
> Before I became a learned person.
> I have travelled, I have made a circuit,
> I have slept in a hundred isles.
> I have dwelt in a hundred cities.
> Learned Druids,
> Prophesy ye of Arthur?
> Or is it me they celebrate?
>
Hello all, Tamyrrha here. It is indeed "The Battle of the Trees" and
"Hanes Taliesin, and are is the basic themes of the (brilliant, no
*scintillating*) work by the late Robert Graves entitled "The White
Goddess." He gives the whole poems in several varient forms, and breaks
them down line by line to show that they are riddles--
and very clever ones too. I quote from Chapter 5-1st chapter
" When with this complicated mythological arguement slowly forming
in my mind, I turned again to the *hanes Taliesin*, (The Tale of Taliesin),
the riddling poem with which Taliesisn first addresses King Maelgwyn in the
Romance, I already suspected that Gwion was using the Dog, The Lapwing, and
the Roebuck to help him conceal in his riddle the new Gwydonion secret of
the Trees, which he had somehow contrived to learn and which had invested
him with poetic power. .. I soon realized that here again, as in *Cad
Goddeu* Gwion was no irresponsible rhapsodist, but a true poet: and that
whereas Heinin and his fellow-bards, as stated in the Romance, knew only
"Latin, French, Welsh and English", he was well well read also in the Irish
classics-- and in Greek and Hebrew literature, as he himself claims...I
realize too, that he was hiding an anciant religious mystery- a blaspemous
one from the Church's point of view- under the cloak of buffoonery, but had
not made the secret altogether impossible for a well-educated fellow-poet."
He goes on to show that the riddle has an alphabetic key, and supports his
arguement quite beautifully with coraborrating myth. Roll up your sleeves
and dig in! This book opens up a lot of avenues/rabbit-holes to run down!!
Happily
Tamyrrha