si
A fydd ym Mhrydan, ac nim dorbi.

Listen, little porker! mighty wonders
Shall occur in Britain, which shall not con me.'

Many and great poets flourished in the times of the Welsh princes: the
three greatest were Meilyr, Gwalchmai, and Dafydd Benfras. Meilyr was
bard of Gruffudd ap Cynan, prince of Gwynedd or North Wales, who died in
1137. He sang the praises of his master, who was a celebrated warrior
and a bountiful patron of the muse, in whose time and under whose
sanction those forms of composition, generally called the twenty four
measures, were invented and promulgated. Gwalchmai lived in the time of
Owain, prince of Gwynedd, about whom he sang a piece which is to a
certain extent known to the English public by a paraphrase made by Gray,
which bears the title of 'The Triumphs of Owain.' Dafydd Benfras was
domestic bard of Llywelyn ap Jorwerth, also prince of Gwynedd and titular
king of Wales, who flourished during the first half of the thirteenth
century. In one of his odes addressed to his patron, there is an
animated description of a battle won by Llywelyn over King John:

'Llywelyn of the potent hand oft wrought
Trouble upon the kings and consternation;
When he with the Lloegrain monarch fought,
Whose cry was "Devastation!"
Forward impetuously his squadrons ran;
Great was the tumult ere the shoot began;
Proud was the hero of his reeking glaive,
Proud of their numbers were his followers brave. {25a}
O then were heard resounding o'er the fields
The clash of faulchions and the crash of shields!
Many the wounds in yonder fight receiv'd!
Many the warriors of their lives bereaved!
The battle rages till our foes recoil
Behind the Dike which Offa built with toil.
Bloody their foreheads, gash'd with many a blow,
Blood streaming down their quaking knees below.
Llywelyn we as our high chief obey,
To fair Porth Ysgewin extends his sway;
For regal virtues and for princely line
He towers above imperial Constantine.'

Dafydd ab Gwilym was born at Bro Gynan, in Cardiganshire, in 1293, about
forty years after the whole of Wales had been subjected to the sway of
England. He was the Ovid of Wales, the poet of love and nature. In his
early years he was very dissipated, but towards the latter part of his
life became religious. He died at the age of sixty-three, and was buried
within the precincts of the great monastery of Strata Florida. {25b}