Welsh Journals

Among all the legends of Wales, and they are very many, the story of Urien Rheged and his son Owain appeals to me, perhaps, most of all. It appeals to me because it enshrines within it a nation's ideal of manhood, at least that ideal which Wales retained for many a long day, throughout the whole of the Middle Ages. To-day the Middle Ages and its ideals have lost their appeal for many men, not only in Wales, but elsewhere. Those ages are hope- lessly misrepresented and misinterpreted by some who call themselves 'historians.' Some of the latter, who make a great noise in the world, remind me of Bunyan's 'man with a muck-rake,' who 'raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor,' carrying the muck- rake as a symbol of 'his carnal mind.' Their one idea of history is to scavenge for scandal, true or false, in the past; and on the basis thereof to draw a picture of a period which is palpably false. They know all there is, and invent a great deal more, of the vileness of man; they know nothing of the grandeur of man. They gloat in the carnality of men; they ignore the spiritual cravings of men and of a nation. And this is especially true of the presentations, sometimes given us, of the Middle Ages, the most glorious period there is in European history. But I am wandering away from Urien Rheged and his son Owain; and it is time to get back to them. I suppose something should be said, to start with, as to what is known about them as his- torical characters. But when we start to do that, we are up against the old, old stories of experts disagreeing. There are some who say that they lived in the VIth century; others that they lived in the XIIth century; others that they never lived at all. I believe one would-be authority has said that they are solar myths; another has said they were gods in a Celtic pantheon; another has said that they were not Celtic at all, but Scandinavian pirates. That is the most ridiculous of all the varying assertions. It is, in the face of all these contending per- sonages, rather a case of paying your cash and taking your choice. I would guard myself from claiming for my choice any infallible certainty; but I have a choice, which, in the proper place, I would be quite prepared to defend and substantiate by argument. I am just going to state my choice without argument, and that not for the benefit of the expert, or would-be expert, but for the ordinary individual, who wants a reasonable working hypothesis for things. It is, on the whole, immaterial what choice one makes, so far as the present purpose, the presentation of an ideal, is concerned; but people do want to have some hypothesis to know out of what an ideal has arisen. Very weld then. Sometime in the VIIIth or IXth century there was compiled a history of the Welsh, the Brython, people. It is probable that a number of people had a part in that compila- tion; but it is known as the production of one Nennius or Nynyaw, and it is written in Latin-. Attached to it is a document, also in Latin, known as the 'Saxon Genealogies,' and this is what is recorded in that document. I give the ordinarily accepted rendition, though I am quite well aware that the rendition of Urien's name ;s hotly contested. "Against Hussa four chiefs fought, Urien and Rhydderch Hael, Gwallog and Morgan. With Theodoric, Urien, together with his sons, fought bravely, and Urien shut the enemy up for three days and three nights in the island of Lindis- farne. While levies were on an expedition, he was murdered at the instance of Morgan out of envy, because he possessed so much superiority over all the chiefs in military science." Hussa, or Esa, and Theodoric, the son of Ida, were Angle rulers of Northumbria; and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Ida as having died in the year 560 A.D. Welsh tradition asserts that he was killed in battle by Owain ap Urien Rheged. I am content here to indicate, without arguing about it, that I accept the view that, historically, Urien and his sons, including Owain, were among the Brython chiefs who opposed the Angles in the north of England and south of Scotland in the Vlth century. But we must go a little further. Urien is always spoken of in Welsh literature as Urien Rheged, Urien of Rheged. Where was Rheged ? Apparently the name was applied, at different times, to different tracts of country, just as the name 'Saxony' has, at various times, covered a good part of Germany. At one time it seems to have been applied to the country round about Loch Lomond, at another time to what is now embraced in the shires of Lancashire, Westmor- land and Cumberland, and, at a still later time, to the south-east of Glamorgan, and possibly even to Radnor. In the VIth century it probably referred to the whole stretch of country from Loch Lomond to Chester, and so was roughly identifiable with what was later called Strathclyde. Hence, if you are prepared to accept my choice, among all the conflicting possibilities, the exploits of Urien and Owain had, as their scene of action, the borderland of Strathclyde, and the period of their activities was the VIth century. Outside Welsh literature, there is no other historical reference to Urien and Owain, save