Cymrian bards are ascribed to Taliesin, who
lived at King Arthur's court in the sixth
century, and of the residue much is attribute
to Aneurin, Merlin, and Llywarch Hen.

In the laws of Howel the Good, compiled
in the tenth century by a commission of
thirteen of the most learned men in Wales,
and enacted by that king, we learn what was
at that time the rank held by the Celtic
bard. The king's bard was tenth in the list
of his officers, and ranked between the
queen's chaplain and the crier. The fine for
his murder was nine hundred and nine cows
with three advancements. He was, in the
tenth century, simply a singer or composer of
songs. He was to sing at the board of the
king in the common hall, and at the desire of
the queen. If the queen required a song in
her chamber, the bard was to sing three
verses concerning the Battle of Camlan. He
was to sing a song to the master of the household
whenever he was directed to do so, and
said the laws: "If there should be fighting,
the bard shall sing Unbenaeth Prydain (the
Monarchy of Britain) in front of the battle."

In the halls of the lesser chieftains, the
bard doubtless was genealogist, family
historian, instructor. There were also itinerant
harpers who secured to themselves great
gain by wandering from castle to castle,
joining in every great festivity, and asking
gifts that it became not the honour of chiefs
to refuse. The praise of the chiefs who were
most liberal to them was carried by these
bards up and down the land. The laws of
Howel ordain that when the bard shall ask a
gift from a prince he shall sing one song;
when he asks a baron, let him sing three
songs; should he ask a vassal, let him sing
until he falls asleep.

In the eleventh century lived the great
Prince Gruffydd ap Cynan, who reformed
abuses among the bards, and, being an Irishman
born, introduced from Ireland certain
changes in their music. He divided the
bards into classes under the three grand
orders of poets, heralds, and musicians. The
musicians were of three kinds—harpers,
players on the crwth, or fiddle, and singers
to the harp. Gruffydd prohibited the bards
from asking for unreasonable gifts—such as
the prince's horse, hawk, or greyhound, and
anything beyond a certain price, or priceless,
because not to be replaced. This prince is
said to have been the first who ordered the
formation, of chairs for victors in the bardic
contests; but the chair bard is mentioned in
the laws of Howel, and there is a legend that
even in the seventh century Cadwellader sat
in a Congress or Eisteddfod.

To the sixth century the great bard Taliesin
(shining forehead), son of Henwg, is referred.
His patron was Urien Rhegeil, a British
chieftain. The territory of Rheged was the
scene of constant battle between the Britons'
and the leaders of the Angles; but the only
hostile chieftain named by Taliesin is called
Flammdwyn (the flame-bearer), and has been
supposed to mean Ida the Anglian invader.
Many of the poems ascribed to the bard
Taliesin were the productions of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, but we are
permitted to believe that genuine strains of his
songs to Urien survive in words like these:—-
"In this year he who is the provider of wine
and meal and mead, and is of manliness without
ferocity, and of conquering valour with,
his swarms of spears, and his chief of bands,
and his fair banners, with him all his followers
will be in the fight; and his horse under
him, in sustaining the battle of Mynaw.
There will be abundance, besides eight score
of the same colour of calves and cows, milch-
cows and oxen, and all good things also.
We should not be joyful were Urien slain;
he is beloved of his countrymen; he terrifies
the trembling Saxon, who, with his white
hair wet, is carried away on his bier, and his
forehead bloody; bloody are the feebly
defended men, and the man who was always
insolent; may their wives be widows. I
have wine from the chief: to me wine is
most agreeable; it gives me impulse, aid,
and head before lifting up the spear in the
face-to-face conflict. Door-keeper listen!
What noise is that? Is it the earth that
shakes, or is it the sea that swells, rolling its
white heads towards thy feet? Is it above
the valley? It is Urien who thrusts. Is it
above the mountain? It is Urien who
conquers. Is it beyond the slope of the hill
It is Urien who wounds. Is it high in anger?
It is Urien who shouts. Above the road,
above the plain, above all the defiles, neither
on one side nor two is there refuge for them.
But those shall not suffer hunger who take
spoil in his company, the provider of
sustenance. With its long blue streamers, the
child of death was his spear, in slaying his
enemies. And until I fall into old age, into
the sad necessity of death, may I never
smile if I praise not Urien."

But Urien fell under the swords of the
Angles, and it is the battle of Cattraeth,
fatal to the clans of Rheged, that gave to the
great bard Aneurin a theme for his chief
poem——the Gododin.

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