In her story of _Saint David_ she has gone to the old "Lives" and the documents for some of her colour. There are passages that may terrify the modern reader, who has no Welsh and does not know how to pronounce _Amherawdwr_ (the Welsh form of imperator or emperor), _Dyfnwal_, _Llywel_ or _Cynyr_. The average English reader who is brought up on soft and sibilant C's and i-sounding Y's will probably end by turning the last name into "sinner" in vain compromise. And possibly Miss Devereux is too hard on the average un-Celtic reader; for though she turns _Gwy_ into Wye, she retains _Dyfi_ for Dovey. But these are the pleasant little inconsistencies that exist in every English writer, from Shakespeare and Ben Jonson to Sir Walter Scott and George Meredith, who has attacked the impregnable old fortress of the British tongue. It is interesting to compare the two tales of wilder Wales with those of Mercia and Saxondom that succeed them in this mixed story-book. The first are realized almost entirely, you will discover, from the man's point of view. The Saxon tales are more intimately felt, and realized from the woman's dramatic angle. It is avowedly so in the chronicle of Winifred, Ebba's daughter, telling the grim love-story of Earl Sweyn the Nithing and Algive. This is in texture, and reality of presentment, maintaining the pseudo-archaic mode with just the faintest reminder of the modern tale-teller pulling the puppet-strings, on the whole the completest of all these new-old tales. In the portrait of Algive, tenderly and joyously painted, there is a faint reminiscence of a Celtic romance-heroine like Olwen (in the _Mabinogion_), which adds to the charm. And in other ways it will be found by the story-loving and unprejudiced reader, who reads for the pleasure of the thing, and not for criticism or edification, that these _Tales of Two Regions_ gain by carrying over at times the atmosphere of the one--never so lightly indicated--into the actual presentment of the other. ERNEST RHYS. 1922. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 5 GWRTHEYRN THE DRUNKARD 11 DEWI SANT 35 STAR OF MERCIA 65 EARL SWEYN THE NITHING 86 EDITH'S WELL 109 RICHARD THE SCROB 120 Gwrtheyrn the Drunkard "_Vortigern of repulsive lips, who, drunken, gave up the Isle of Thanet to Hengist._" --WELSH TRIADS. Mogneid son of Votecori tapped upon the lintel of the open doorway and called "Ho, there! Is there refreshment for wayfarers?" From within came a luxurious sound of snoring. Mogneid muttered a curse, and began to hammer impatiently with the butt of his riding-whip. The father of the household coughed, rolled heavily from his bed of rushes, and appeared at the door--an old man, blinking with sleep, but collected and courteous.