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15-549: Gwyddyl Ffichti is a term that appears in the third series of Welsh Triads , apparently referring to the Picts . It was central to William Forbes Skene 's argument that the Picts were a Goidelic, Celtic-speaking people and that their language was ancestral to modern Scottish Gaelic. The passage in which it appears is believed to be an invention of the 18th/19th century Welsh Antiquarian Iolo Morganwg . The suspicion of Morganwg's forgery

30-626: A common version clearly different from the version behind the collections in the Peniarth manuscripts. The 18th-century Welsh antiquarian Iolo Morganwg compiled a collection of triads, which he claimed to have taken from his own collection of manuscripts. Some of his triads are similar to those found in the medieval manuscripts, but some are unique to Morganwg, and are widely believed to have been of his own invention. White Book of Rhydderch The White Book of Rhydderch (Welsh: Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch , National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 4-5)

45-503: A doethant eman yn oes Caswallawn mab Beli, ac nyt aeth ỽn un onadunt dracheuyn. Ac or Auia pan hanoedynt. Eil, Goemes y Gwydyl Fychti. Ac nyt aeth ỽr un onadunt dracheuyn. Tryded, Gormes y Saesson, a Hors a Hengyst yn benaduryeit arnadunt. One of them (was) the people of the Cor(y)aniaid, who came here in the time of Caswallawn son of Beli : and not one of them went back. And they came from Arabia. The second Oppression:

60-539: Is one of the most notable and celebrated surviving manuscripts in Welsh . Mostly written in southwest Wales in the middle of the 14th century (c. 1350) it is the earliest collection of Welsh prose texts, though it also contains some examples of early Welsh poetry . It is now part of the collection of the National Library of Wales , having been preserved in the library at Hengwrt , near Dolgellau , Gwynedd , of

75-564: Is required in the use of them. While Skene admitted that the "authenticity of the Triads is not unexceptional", he maintained that the term was valid as it was also present in the Triads of Arthur and his Warriors . Skene revised his position on the nature of the Pictish language to suggest it was an amalgamation of "Welsh" and "Gaelic": It has been too much narrowed by the assumption that, if it

90-467: Is shewn to be a Celtic dialect, it must of necessity be absolutely identic in all its features either with Welsh or with Gaelic. But this necessity does not really exist; and the result I come to is, that it is not Welsh, neither is it Gaelic; but it is a Gaelic dialect partaking largely of Welsh forms. Welsh Triads The texts include references to King Arthur and other semi-historical characters from sub-Roman Britain , mythic figures such as Brân

105-627: The Gwyddyl Ffichti . And not one of them went back. The third Oppression: the Saxons , with Horsa and Hengist as their leaders. 46. Teir Pryf Uuch Enys Prydein: Brech, buwch ỽaelgỽn Gwyned, a Thonnllwyt, buwch meibyon Eliffer Godgordỽawr, a Chornillo, buỽch Llawuroded ỽarỽaỽc. Speckled, cow of Maelgwn Gwynedd , and Grey-Skin, cow of the sons of Eliffer of the Great Warband , and Cornillo, cow of Llawfrodedd

120-494: The 17th century antiquary Robert Vaughan , who inherited it from the calligrapher John Jones and passed it to his descendants. The collection later passed to the newly established National Library of Wales as the Peniarth or Hengwrt-Peniarth Manuscripts . What was one manuscript was divided into two in the medieval period and has been bound as two separate volumes, known as Peniarth MS 4 and Peniarth MS 5. Peniarth MS 4 contains

135-607: The Bearded . The earliest surviving collection of the Welsh Triads is bound in the manuscript Peniarth 16 , now at the National Library of Wales , which has been dated to the third quarter of the 13th century and contains 46 of the 96 triads collated by Rachel Bromwich . Other important manuscripts include Peniarth 45 (written about 1275), and the pair White Book of Rhydderch (Welsh: Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch ) and Red Book of Hergest (Welsh: Llyfr Coch Hergest ), which share

150-499: The Blessed , undeniably historical personages such as Alan IV, Duke of Brittany (who is called Alan Fyrgan ) and Iron Age characters such as Caswallawn ( Cassivellaunus ) and Caradoc ( Caratacus ). Some triads simply give a list of three characters with something in common (such as "the three frivolous bards of the island of Britain" ) while others include substantial narrative explanation. The triad form probably originated amongst

165-488: The Welsh bards or poets as a mnemonic aid in composing their poems and stories, and later became a rhetorical device of Welsh literature. The Medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen has many triads embedded in its narrative. As edited and translated by Rachel Bromwich, two characteristic examples of the Welsh triads are: 36. Teir Gormes a doeth y'r Enys Hon, ac nyt aeth vrun dracheuyn: Ỽn o nadunt Kywdaỽt y Corryanyeit,

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180-490: The most important material: medieval Welsh tales now collectively known as the Mabinogion . Peniarth MS 5 (the first part of the original manuscript) contains Christian religious texts in Welsh, mostly translated from Latin and French, including Lives of various saints and a tale of Charlemagne. The White Book was copied in the mid 14th century, most probably for Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd (c. 1325–1400) from Parcrhydderch in

195-661: The parish of Llangeitho in Ceredigion . Rhydderch, who came from a family with a long tradition of literary patronage, held posts under the English Crown but was also an authority on native Welsh law . The hands of five scribes have been identified in the manuscripts, very likely working in Strata Florida Abbey , not far from Rhydderch's home, and certainly in South Wales based on the dialect used by

210-454: The scribes. The remainder of the name refers to the book being bound in white. The contents of the manuscript are very similar to the Red Book of Hergest , and may have been its exemplar; but it is more likely that the two descend from a lost common ancestor. The White Book is no longer complete, but it was copied in 1573 by Richard Langford, before some of the text was lost. Langford's copy

225-514: Was first raised by Skene himself in 1868: It is a peculiarity attaching to almost all of the documents which have emanated from the chair of Glamorgan, in other words, from Iolo Morganwg, that they are not to be found in any of the Welsh MSS. contained in other collections, and that they must be accepted on his authority alone. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to say that they must be viewed with some suspicion, and that very careful discrimination

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