Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/61

In the old English version of this tale the opening scene is laid at Cardiff.

"He made a feste, the soth to say,
Opon the Witsononday,
At Kerdyf, that es in Wales."—line 17.

And on a subsequent occasion we find the City of Chester named—

"The kyng that time at Cester lay."—line 1567.

In the French Copy,—

"Q' li rois cort a cestre tint."

Of Chester it may be remarked, that it bears in Welsh the name of Caerlleon Gawr, which seems to indicate its having been the station of the Twentieth Legion, called Legio Vicesima Valens Victrix, the word Gawr being nearly equivalent to the Latin Valens.

Owain the Son of Urien.—Page 3.

Owain ab Urien Rheged.—Amongst all the characters of ancient British history, none is more interesting, or occupies a more conspicuous place, than the hero of this tale. Urien, his father, was prince of Rheged, a district comprising the present Cumberland and part of the adjacent country. His valour and the consideration in which he was held, are a frequent theme of Bardic song, and form the subject of several very spirited odes by Taliesin, particularly those upon the battles of Gwenystrad and Argoed Llwyfein, which are given, with English translations, in the Myvyrian Archaiology, i. 52, 3, 4. The name of Fflamddwyn, the flame-bearer, which occurs in these poems, is supposed to be that by which the Welsh designated Ida, the Anglian King of Northumberland. In the Appendix to Gale's Nennius, it is mentioned that Urien was one of the four Northern princes who opposed the progress of Deodric the Son of Ida. Urien besieged the latter in the island of Lindisfarne. The other princes were Rhydderch Hael, Gwallawc ap Llenawc, and Morcant,^[1] the latter of whom being jealous of Urien's military skill, in which he is

1. In the Life of St. Kentigern, mention is made of a wicked king of Strathclyde, called Morken. Perhaps he is the Morcant, who caused the death of Urien Rheged.

   Probably it is through a confusion of names, by no means unusual in those days, that Urien's wife, Morgan le Fay, is by the old romancers accused of an attempt to assassinate him.