Tudalen:Llythyrau Goronwy Owen.djvu/51

our ar fy nghylchwy, and in the subsequent parts, and I can't help thinking the scene to be in Montgomeryshire or Shropshire (rather the latter), which was for many centuries the seat of War, the ffin (barrier or frontier) of the Cambrian dominions. What leads me to this opinion is, I find mention made of Evernwy (a River that I very well know,) which, a little above Llan y Myneich in Shropshire, divides Shropshire from Montgomeryshire, and falls into the Severn between Llan y Myneich and Melverly. This river is (to this day) called by the Welsh Y Fernwy, and writ by the English Vernaise (after the French fashion,) but pronounced the Verny. Add to this, that says to Owain, "Pell o fon fain wyt ti, dwythwal werin," &c. And truly, if he was on the banks of the Verny, he was a pretty distance from Anglesey, no less than the whole breadth of Wales. And as the scene is the Banks of the Vernwy, so the time is a Summer's morning before sunrising, to which the Poet addresses himself, and wishes his speedy appearance after his fatigue of lying under arms all night in the camp, yn achadw fin, guarding the pass. of the Fernwy against the English. There is something very beautiful and extraordinary in the pleasant description he gives of the place and the objects of delight that presented themselves to him, as gorddyar eos, &c., which none but a poet could have received any delight from in such a dangerous situation as that of lying under arms to wait the approach of powerful and bloody enemy, But it seems that our ancestors (noble souls) were so far diofn yn nhrin as to be able to attend equally to the warbling of the nightingale and the motion of an enemy, and that even the danger of life itself could make them lose their relish of the pleasures of it. What can be a greater argument of an unrestrained and resolute courage, of an extraordinary firmness and constancy of mind? Wele bellach ddigon ar y lol bottes yma, ac weithian am hanes y llew. Y mae'r hen deigr a minnau yn dygymmod yn burion hyd yn hyn, a pha raid amgen o hyn allan? Ni thybia'r hen lew ddim yn rhy dda i mi am fy mod yn medru ymddwyn mewn cwmni yn beth amgenach na'r lleill, ac am fy mod yn ddyn go led sobr, heb arfer llymeitian hyd y sucandai mân bryntion yma. Os chwennychwn bot a phibell, y mae i mi groeso y prydnhawn a fynwyf, gyda'r hen lew ei