Welsh Journals

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of the homestead or village from which they hail, as for instance, Rhondda Williams or Rhystyd Davies. More- over, the Welsh genealogies tell us that a Peredur (died 580, according to the Annales Cambria), whose son was named Mor, and brother Gwrgi, was himself the son of Eliffer Gosgorddvawr, who was descended from Coel Hen, one of the princes of the North. It is more than likely, therefore, that we are dealing with one and the same Peredur. Again tradition tells us that Peredur was buried at Pickering, near York, so that both life and death connect him with Yorkshire, and a most important factor in his story, the symbol of the Grail, with a York local cult. Are we not fully justified, therefore, in concluding that the source of the Peredur story does not rest on French soil ? May we not go even farther and say that the special form of the Welsh romance hails from the North, from Swydd Efrog (Yorkshire) ? This may seem rather a heresy. It is the first time the suggestion has been definitely made, although the late Sir Edward Anwyl always, maintained that much of the lore embodied in the Arthurian legends was to be sought among the Britons of the North. He was evidently, as usual, on the right track when dealing with the legend of Peredur. Time does not permit this afternoon to follow up this suggestion, and try to find out in which of the abbeys a Welshman (?) first wrote down very hurriedly in the XIIth century some impressions of the old Celtic legend, which still obtained in this part of England, a part which retains many Celtic features even to-day. An Anonymous Manuscript. By REv. ALEXANDER GORDON, M.A. THIS MS. is bound in black leather, now much battered; there are traces of brass clasps and a leather thong, the