Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Tales -- Wales; Welsh literature -- 1100-1400 -- Translations into English
And at the close of the seventh year they went forth to Gwales in Penvro.
And there they found a fair and regal spot overlooking the ocean; and a
spacious hall was therein. And they went into the hall, and two of its
doors were open, but the third door was closed, that which looked towards
Cornwall. “See, yonder,” said Manawyddan, “is the door that we may not
open.” And that night they regaled themselves and were joyful. And of
all they had seen of food laid before them, and of all they had heard of,
they remembered nothing; neither of that, nor of any sorrow whatsoever.
And there they remained fourscore years, unconscious of having ever spent
a time more joyous and mirthful. And they were not more weary than when
first they came, neither did they, any of them, know the time they had
been there. And it was not more irksome to them having the head with
them, than if Bendigeid Vran had been with them himself. And because of
these fourscore years, it was called “the Entertaining of the noble
Head.” The entertaining of Branwen and Matholwch was in the time that
they went to Ireland.
One day said Heilyn the son of Gwynn, “Evil betide me, if I do not open
the door to know if that is true which is said concerning it.” So he
opened the door and looked towards Cornwall and Aber Henvelen. And when
they had looked, they were as conscious of all the evils they had ever
sustained, and of all the friends and companions they had lost, and of
all the misery that had befallen them, as if all had happened in that
very spot; and especially of the fate of their lord. And because of
their perturbation they could not rest, but journeyed forth with the head
towards London. And they buried the head in the White Mount, and when it
was buried, this was the third goodly concealment; and it was the third
ill-fated disclosure when it was disinterred, inasmuch as no invasion
from across the sea came to this island while the head was in that
concealment.
And thus is the story related of those who journeyed over from Ireland.
In Ireland none were left alive, except five pregnant women in a cave in
the Irish wilderness; and to these five women in the same night were born
five sons, whom they nursed until they became grown-up youths. And they
thought about wives, and they at the same time desired to possess them,
and each took a wife of the mothers of their companions, and they
governed the country and peopled it.
And these five divided it amongst them, and because of this partition are
the five divisions of Ireland still so termed. And they examined the
land where the battles had taken place, and they found gold and silver
until they became wealthy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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