Cylchgronau Cymru

THE CAMBRIAN JOURNAL. A LB AN XL W ABTHAN. (winter solstice.) STUDIES IN BRITISH BIOGRAPHY. No. III. PRYDAIN AB AEDD MAWR. It is seldom that a name can be clearly demonstrated to be a myth, and the stages of its growth fully and satisfactorily unfolded ; but we are enabled to do this in the case of Prydain ab Aedd Mawr, and to show that this name is one of the best specimens of a pure myth in all literature. I have stated already that there never existed any person of this name; and it is the object of this paper to prove that assertion. On me be the shame if the statement is not borne out by the facts and reasons here following : on those who have deluded their country¬ men with dreamy speculations and hardy mis-statements, if the proof should be conclusive. Prydain appears in the triple character of the first colonist of Britain, its first legislator, and a link in the genealogical documents of the fifteenth century; but this name never appears in any document of an earlier date than these genealogies; and very grave inconsistencies VOL. iv. 2 I