Glosses

Sick today. Stumbled here upon a quotation from Thomas Moore’s “The Minstrel Boy”.

The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you will find him
His father’s sword he hath girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him.
“Land of Song!” said the warrior-bard
“Though all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, they rights shall guard
One faithful harp shall praise thee!

The phrase “warrior bard” and the boy’s subsequent death made me reflect on the mother tongue of “bard” - Welsh, and the story of Aneirin, a “warrior bard” from late 6th or early 7th century.

I remember, as a little girl, reading about Aneirin in some adapted Russian edition of Celtic stories. It said that bards were forbidden to carry weapons or fight, and the slaying of a bard was considered a great atrocity. Only one bard, Aneirin, took up the sword during the battle of Gododdin; by breaking the taboo on fighting he brought this doom upon himself and was later slain by an enemy sword.

Of course, this is just the type of skewed report one finds in “adaptation” books. It was druids who were forbidden to carry weapons or fight; whether this taboo involved bards as well is unclear. It is known that bards usually accompanied the troops into battle, later to describe the fighting in song:

Gwyr a aeth Ododdin, chwerthin wanar,
Disgyniaid ym myddin, trin ddiachar,
Wy lleddynt a llafnawr heb fawr drydar.
Colofn glyw, Rheithfyw rhoddi arwar.
Gwyr a aeth Gatraeth, oedd ffraeth eu llu,
Glasfedd eu hancwyn a gwenwyn fu,
Trychant trwy beirant yn catau,
A gwedi elwch tawelwch fu.
Cyd elwynt lannau i benydu,
Dadl ddiau angau i eu treiddu.

“Warriors went to Gododdin, with eager laughter,/ Attackers in a host, savage in battle,/ They slew with blades without much noise./ Rheithfyw, pillar of battle, delighted in giving./ Warriors went to Catraeth, their host was swift,/ Fresh mead was their feast and it was bitter,/ Three hundred fighting under command/ And after the cry of jubilation there was silence./Though they went to churches to do penance,/ The certain meeting with death came to them. ”

(The beginning of the text and translation can be found here. It is apparently adopted from AOH Jamann’s Y Gododdin. Gomer Press, 1990)

Further, the death of Aneirin by sword is, of course, a misconception. In triads we hear about “Teir Anvat Gytlavan Enys Prydein” (the three unfortunate asassinations of the Isle of Britain):

Heidyn mab Enygan a ladavd Aneiryn Gwavtryd Mech deyrn Beird
“Heidyn son of Enygan killed Aneirin of the Flowing Verse, prince of bards” (Bromwich, p.70 (33))

but another triad speaks about Aneirin’s death in “Teir Anvat Vwyallaut” (three unfortunate hatchet-blows); a different manuscript elaborates the story of “Three Asassinations” by adding that Aneirin was hit on the head by a hatchet.

Which sounds, for the modern reader, certainly less “poetic” than death by sword. *exasperated*