Welsh Journals

OWAIN GLYN DWR: HIS FAMILY AND EARLY HISTORY.1 By PROFESSOR J. E. LLOYD, M.A., D. Litt. AMONG the heroic figures of the past whom Welshmen delight to honour there can be little doubt that the fore- most place belongs to Owain Glyn Dwr. Glyndwr annwyl! mae dy enw Fel y byw oleuni pur Nid oes berygl id do farw Tra bo Cymro yn y tir".1 Every line of Mynyddog's song finds a ready response from a popular audience, for whom Glyn Dwr is the immortal embodiment of the spirit of the Welsh nation. Of no one -with, perhaps, the exception of Arthur-have so many stories been told-a sure sign of the fame of a national hero, for it is only the striking and commanding person- alities of history who are idealised and decked out with legend and myth; the commonplace men are left to their sober garb of historical fact. Why Glyn Dwr should thus have become our best known national leader is in some ways not difficult to explain he appeared at the end of a period during which Welsh patriotism had been a dormant, submerged passion and, seizing upon a great occasion, he gave this sleeping force new life and vigour, set it in active opposition to England and the English, united it in a wonderful freemasonry from end to end of the principality 1 Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, at 64, Chancery Lane, London, on Tuesday, April 1, 1919. Chairman Mr. Hubert Hall, F.S.A., Director of the Royal Historical Society.