Note 19c — SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT WELSH POETRY.

Taliesin Ben Beirdd, or the chief of Bards, flourished about the year 560, or thereabout, under Maelgwn Gwynedd king of Britain, called by Gildas Maglocunus. Many of Taliesin’s poems are extant, but on account of their great antiquity are very obscure, as the work of his contemporaries are. There is a great deal of the Druidical Cabbala intermixed in his works, especially about the transmigration of souls.