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The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg Vol. I

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Author Topic: The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg Vol. I  (Read 5259 times)
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Majir
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« Reply #15 on: April 26, 2009, 01:20:31 am »

the rods, and taught from them the sciences--all, except the Name of God, which he made a secret, lest the Name should be falsely discerned; and hence arose the Secret of the Bardism of the Bards of the Isle of Britain." 1

The first ten letters were derived from the creative Name of God, , and represented a, p, c, e, t, i, 1, r, o, s; and "they had been a secret from the age of ages among the Bards of the Isle of Britain, for the preservation of memorials of country and nation. Beli the Great made them into sixteen, and divulged that arrangement, and appointed that there should never after be a concealment of the sciences of letters, in respect of the arrangement which he made; but he left the ten cuttings a secret." 2

According to some authorities, the alphabet of the sixteen letters was formed, and divulged in the time of Dyvnwal Moelmud. The original Abcedilros, or alphabet of the ten letters, was quite different to that of the sixteen and its augmentations; and whilst these were known to the public, the former was known only to the Bards.

The Druids of Gaul had a knowledge of letters, though they did not commit to writing the things that pertained to their institute. "Generally," says our author, "in other cases, and in their public and private accounts, they use Greek letters." The alphabet of the sixteen was at this time open to the public in Britain; could it have been the one which the Continental Druids used, mistaken by Cæsar for Greek letters?



p. xli

The Druids of Gaul had letters of their own, which were similar to the letters of Greece; it is, therefore, not impossible that Cæsar confounded one series with the other. Mr. Astle, who is well skilled in ancient letters, gives a series of Gaulish characters, which are somewhat similar to those of Greece. They were taken from the monumental inscription of Gordian, the messenger of the Gauls, who suffered martyrdom, in the third century, with all his family. "These characters," he says, "were generally used by the people, before the conquest of Gaul by Cæsar." 1

Another author remarks:--"There are those who think the Druids had ancient characters, which were both elegant, and similar to those of the Greeks. For according to the testimony of Xenophon, and Archilochus, the figures of those letters, which Cadmus brought out of Phoenicia into Greece, resembled Gaulish, rather than Punic, or Phœnician characters." 2

He who compares the ancient Greek Alphabet with the Bardic Coelbren, will find a remarkable similarity between them, so that a stranger might easily mistake the one for the other.

The Druids of Britain as well as those of Gaul, made use of letters under many circumstances. The "memorial of letters," or the "memorial of Coelbren," was one of their "three memorials." This is clearly seen in the Laws of Dyvnwal Moelmud. It would, therefore, not be difficult to harmonize Cæsar's narrative respecting the "memorial of voice" and the "memorial of letters" of the Gauls, with what we



p. xlii

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