... and Friday

One more shot from the Poulnabrone series before I go on to other things:



Weather is finally cooling off a bit here, though still above seasonal normal. More garden cleanup this weekend, which is good for thinking. It also helps to keep one connected with the seasonal rhythms of the world, which were more important to people in Gwernin's time than to many of us today. An article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago about the early introduction of pigs into the New Forest to deal with a bumper crop of acorns is an example in point. Traditionally pigs were allowed to graze on acorns this time of year to fatten them for November slaughter. In the Triads of Ireland, "the death of a fat pig" is given as one of the "three deaths that are better than life", and in another Irish text a young man's early death is mourned as that of "a pig who dies before the mast [i.e., acorn crop]". Just an example of the things most of us don't know or think about, but which are relevant to my storytelling.

-GRG

Reference Book of the Week

This week's pick: Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, edited by Rachel Bromwich. This is the long-awaited 3rd and final edition, published by the University of Wales Press in February 2006. At 768 pages and $145, this is neither light nor inexpensive reading, but for those interested in Welsh history and literature - and especially the bardic arts of poetry and storytelling - it is a treasure-trove, not only for the material in the triads themselves but for the extensive footnotes and commentary that goes with them.

The contents: Introduction (Manuscripts and Versions; Origin and Development of Trioedd Ynys Prydein) (99 pages); the Appendices (16 pages); Trioedd Ynys Prydein (Text and four appendices (The Names of the Island of Britain; The Descent of the Men of the North; The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain; The Twenty-Four Knights of Arthur's Court) (270 pages); Notes to Personal Names (46 pages); Abbreviations, Select Bibliography, and Index.

Triads were groupings of three similar things to serve as a memory aid, and the Welsh triads may have originally been a sort of file-card index for the bards and storytellers in the days of primarily oral transmission of their material. A couple of examples:

"2. Three Generous (Noble/Victorious) Men of the Island of Britain: Nudd the Generous, son of Senyllt; Mordaf the Generous, son of Serwan; Rhydderch the Generous, son of Tudwal Tudglyd. (And Arthur himself was more generous than the three.)"

"21. Three Diademed Battle-leaders of the Island of Britain: Drystan son of Tallwch, and Hueil son of Caw, and Cai son of Cynyr of the Fine Beard. And one was diademed above the three of them: that was Bedwyr son of Bedrawc."

Trioedd Ynys Prydein is a book for browsing, not for reading straight through. For those interested in Welsh sources, it will provide many happy hours. Highly recommended.