Welsh Journals

west. In the poem itself it may be noted how skilfully Southey has used the myths of Merlin and Gafran. If these two set forth on their voyages in quest of the joys of the other-world, so did Madoc look for the blessings of a life of liberty, plenty and peace' in a land across the sea in the west, and in the light of this comparison his voyage almost partakes of the nature of a mystic quest. Although quite unintention- ally, Southey has therefore, if the thesis of this note is correct, come very near the true reason why Madoc was linked in the above triad with Merlin and Gafran. Welsh folklore on the whole, it is true, makes the other-world to be situate in the hollow of a hill or under the waters of a lake. Examples will readily occur to the reader, and therefore we need only point out here that this conception of the other-world does not necessarily ex- clude that which locates it in an island or islands over the sea. The two ideas can exist side by side and at the same time. For example, in the Irish Echtra Connla the fairy who comes to allure Connla away says that she belongs to the folk of the hillock, but when, on her second visit, she finally persuades the hero to accompany her, they sail away over the sea in a ship of glass. In the Serglige Conculaind (the Sick Bed of Cuchulainn) again, Fann and Liban, although they call them- selves women of the hill', have their home across the sea, and reach it in a boat of bronze. A statement in a Welsh triad is, admittedly, very thin ground on which to build any theory. But, in addition to this triad and one or two poetic allusions which Stephens has admitted as authentic, the tradition concerning Madoc has found curious expression in another document, which, possibly not known to Stephens, has been published and translated by his editor in a footnote (p. 207.) This is a manuscript which at the time of the note was in the possession of D. Silvan Evans, but is now Cwrtmawr MS. 530 in the National Library of Wales. According to the story given in this manuscript, Madoc was a great sailor imbued with the desire to sail to the Vortex {i'r Sygnedd). So he built himself a ship, using stags' horns instead of iron nails, and called it 'Gwennan Gorn'. But, when homeward bound after long voyaging, he came to grief at Bardsey Island. Hence the name of Phrydie Kaswennan' for that part of the sea. (The same story is given in Peniarth MS. 216. p. 59.) It is immediately obvious that there is in this story something more than a matter-of-fact everyday voyage. There is a touch of the marvellous, if not of the magical about it. The avoidance of iron in the construction of the boat, although in the story-teller's mind a device to lighten it, looks very much as though it were due to the well-known