Welsh Journals

OWEN LAWGOCH —YEUAIN DE GALLES. By Mr. J. H. DAVIES, M.A. (Continued from Vol. XXXVI., p. 216). THE story of Owen ap Thomas ap Rhodri, as narrated by the graphic pen of Froissart and as recorded in the contemporary documents of the English Courts, has been told nothing now remains but to string together in some kind of order the few confirmatory facts gleaned from Welsh sources. Unfortunately, no Welsh records of the period survive in prose, if any ever existed. We have therefore to turn to the evidence supplied by Welsh poetry. But before dealing directly with the references to Owen found in the poetry of the period, it may be well to supple- ment the few data we produce by giving a description of the class of poetry in which the evidence is found. From the earliest times it may be presumed that the Welsh people were fond of speculating as to the future, and the professional prophets or seers amongst them were treated with awe and respect. We accordingly find that Taliesin and Myrddin, in the poems attributed to them, made forecasts of the future, and quite a considerable proportion of the poetry in our oldest existing MSS. is concerned with such prophecies. Mr. Stephens, in his Literature of the Kymry, has proved that some, at any rate, of the prophecies attributed to Myrddin were concoctions of a later age. For our purpose, however, that is of little consequence, as we only intend to note the prophecies grouped around the name of Owen written or composed before the year 1350. By this means we