Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/516

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V. THE SUN HERO.

Gwri Gwaỻt Eurin, or Gwri of the Golden Hair, for what hair he had was as yellow as gold. Before he was a year old he could walk vigorously, and he was bigger than any three-year-old child though it were good of growth and stature; and in his second year he was as big and strong as a child of six. Ere he was fully four he would contend with the servants to be let to take the horses to water, and Teyrnon, at his wife's suggestion, had the colt of the same age with the boy broken in for him to be his own. In the mean time, the news about Rhiannon reached Teyrnon, and he had begun to scrutinize the boy's looks, for he had formerly been one of Pwyỻ's men; and he came to the conclusion that the lad was exactly like Pwyỻ, that in fact he must be Rhiannon's lost child. After consulting his wife and agreeing with her that it would be the right thing to restore him and release his mother from her penance, he took him to Arberth. When they arrived, Rhiannon offered to carry them to the hall, which they very naturally declined; but in the course of the feast that was going on, Teyrnon gave the history of the boy, and followed it up with an appeal to all those present to say whether they did not think he was Pwyỻ's son: nobody had any doubt in his mind on the matter; and Rhiannon observed that if that were true, she would be rid of her pryderi (the Welsh for anxiety). 'Lady,' said Pendaran Dyved, one of the chief nobles present, 'well hast thou named thy son

    lows: 'and they caused the boy to be baptized, and the ceremony was performed there.' How this very bald statement could have been extracted from the Welsh words I do not quite understand: they are, 'Peri a wnaethant bedydyaỼ y mab or bedyd awneit yna:' see the R. B. Mab. p. 21.