Welsh Journals

are yet to come. The great allies seen yonder are reaching land there is an angry end to the long yellow summer after all its bravery. It will not be long before the Boar is cold. A brave hero with a golden cloak will turn to Gwynedd and the shout will pierce through the hostile wintry wind to Gwent and Euas It is land that the Bull of Anglesey will demand-the stone towers of three crowns. And when a mass is sung under the tested canopy of the tree, it becomes dead wood when Jesus Christ, who gave his pledge, is crowned bark, leaves, yea! unwithered, will grow upon it-such is the beneficence of the Almighty.1 These poems, reviving as they did long deferred hopes, were undoubtedly an incentive to action. Not only did they unify all the elements that made for a homogeneous nationalism, but they stirred the bellicose spirit and the hatred for the English. The energy of a martial race, restless and chafing under misrule, had hitherto spent it- self in feuds and tribal factions; it was now to be diverted to the greater issues of a cause that could claim to be truly national. At the same time, the bards did not for- get to emphasize, there was a golden opportunity for revenge on the Saxon oppressor. The hour had long been delayed, but it was now at hand. The dreams of the bards have been delayed--thus said an ancient seer. If he seeks to interpret a seer let him interpret by the records of the wise man If there was truth in the past ages that evil times would come, there is across the seas afar a marvel of greatest promise. The day of the pro- phecies. comes nearer us: the fate of the wicked coming to the land of Rhonwen. The first storm-cloud that I see is the great wrong to the men of blessed Cymru. There is an ancient sage near who will not dare to rebuke them Portents through Anglesey and beyond I saw and wept And the Eagle in golden trappings and the Dragon are sought for from afar An evil prophecy of a tall Dragon who will be set upon the Bull. The fleet of the Viper and Eagle will come to land from Manaw, 1 For text see Appendix IV.