Other authorities appealed to by the upholders of each of the Celtic
theories are the Welsh traditions, the Irish Annals, the Chronicles
of the Picts and Scots, and various legendary documents of more or
less value and authenticity. As these are of no greater authority
than the writers with whom we have been dealing, and as the partisans
of each theory claim the various passages as either confirming, or,
at any rate, not contradicting their views, we shall not further
trouble the reader with specimens of the manner in which they are
dealt with. There is one passage, however, in the Welsh Triads,
which the advocates of the Gaelic hypothesis claim as strongly
confirmatory of their theory. After referring to the coming in of
the Cymry, the Britons, etc., the Triads[60] go on to say, “Three
tribes came, under protection, into the Island of Britain, and by the
consent and permission of the nation of the Cymry, without weapon,
without assault. The first was the tribe of the Caledonians in the
north. The second was the Gwyddelian Race, which are now in Alban
(Scotland). The third were the men of Galedin, who came into the
Isle of Wight. Three usurping tribes came into the Island of Britain
and never departed out of it. The first were the _Coranied_, who
came from the land of Pwyl. The second were the Gwyddelian Ffichti,
who came into Alban over the sea of _Llychlyn_ (Denmark). The
third were the Saxons.” “The Triads,” says Skene[61] in connection
with this, “appear distinctly to have been written previous to the
Scottish conquest in the ninth century, and they mention among the
three usurping tribes of Britain the ‘_Gwyddyl Ffichti_,’ and add
immediately afterwards, ‘and these Gwyddyl Ffichti are in Alban,
along the shore of the sea of _Llychlyn_.’ In another place, among
the treacherous tribes of Britain, the same Triads mention the
‘Gwyddyl coch o’r Werddon a ddaethant in Alban,’ that is ‘the Red
Gwyddyl from Ireland, who came into Alban,’ plainly alluding to the
Dalriads, who were an Irish colony, and who have been acknowledged
by all to have been a Gaelic race. It will be observed from these
passages that the Welsh Triads, certainly the oldest and most
unexceptionable authority on the subject, apply the same term of
Gwyddyl to the Picts and to the Dalriads, and consequently they must
have been of the same race, and the Picts a Gaelic people. Farther,
the Welsh word ‘Gwyddyl,’ by which they distinguish that race, has
been declared by all the best authorities to be exactly synonymous
with the word Gael, the name by which the Highlanders have at all
times been distinguished, and the Welsh words ‘Gwyddyl Ffichti’
cannot be interpreted to mean any thing else than ‘The Gaelic Picts,’
_or_ ‘Pictish Gael.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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