Note 383 — Chapter I
Reading edition
This torques, chain, or rather wreath, is frequently alluded to by the early British bards.
"Yet in the battle of Arderydd I wore the golden torques"
Merddin Avellanaw.
"Four and twenty sons I have had Wearing the golden wreath, leaders of armies."
Llywarch Hên.
"Of all who went to Cattraeth, wearing the golden torc or wreath."
Aneurin.
The same bard states that in the battle of Cattraeth were three hundred and sixty who wore the golden torques.
We give a description of one of these ornaments found near the castle of Harlech, in Merionethshire, in 1692. "It is a wreathed bar of gold, or perhaps three or four rods jointly twisted, about four feet long, but naturally bending only one way, in the form of a hatband. It is hooked at both ends. It is of a round form, about an inch in circumference, and weighs eight ounces."—Gibson's Camden, p. 658.
Another mark of dignity was a string of amber beads worn round the head. To this Aneurin alludes—
"With wreaths of amber twined round his temples."
These beads have been frequently found in tumuli, particularly in those on Salisbury Plain.—See Turner's Vindication of the Welsh Bards.—Owen's Elegies of Llywarch Hên.