Cymric Britannia will now replace that of Roman Britannia, with this difference, that the latter was possibly never more than an official idea to be preserved, whereas the former becomes a national ideal to be attained.
It must not be supposed, however, that the memory of the Roman Britannia of the fifth century was lost, for it is this Britannia of the 'Roman' which becomes the Britannia of Romance. Its traditions, clustering around the figure of Arthur, become transfigured into a great national dream, a kind of golden age in the past, which grows more and more radiant in the minds of the Britons as they contrast it with the comparative insignificance of their actual position in the world. In Wales it had two very debilitating effects. In the first place, by putting the golden age in the past it made the Welsh regard themselves as decadent, a notion of course which their enemies never failed to encourage. So intensely indeed was this sense of racial decay felt that it forced into existence the counter-notion of a return of Arthur, a kind of messianic dream, which served to counterbalance the depressing and devitalizing effect of the other. In the second place, by substituting romance for history, it has surreptitiously concealed the steady and unbroken development of Cymric nationality from the day that Cunedda and his Sons established themselves in Wales at the commencement of the fifth century. Not only have authentic traditions been distorted to make them fit with the romance, not only has the memory of important historic events been for ever lost, but the very idea of the evolution of Wales from the primitive little kingdoms of the fifth century has been blurred in the national
