first known poets as do the Gaels. Ossian, you remember, was
supposed to live in the third century, but the oldest Cymric
poets whose names we know were supposed to live in the sixth
century. As, however, the oldest Welsh manuscripts are of the
twelfth century, it is again very difficult to prove that any of
the poems were really written by those old poets.

But this is very certain, that the Cymry, like the Gaels, had
their bards and minstrels who sang of the famous deeds of heroes
in the halls of the chieftains, or in the market-places for the
people.

From the time that the Romans left Britain to the time when the
Saxons or English were at length firmly settled in the land, many
fierce struggles, many stirring events must have taken place.
That time must have been full of brave deeds such as the
minstrels loved to sing. But that part of our history is very
dark. Much that is written of it is little more than a fairy
tale, for it was not until long afterwards that anything about
this time was written down.

The great hero of the struggle between the Britons and the Saxons
was King Arthur, but it was not until many many years after the
time in which he lived that all the splendid stories of his
knights, of his Round Table, and of his great conquests began to
take the form in which we know them. Indeed, in the earliest
Welsh tales the name of Arthur is hardly known at all. When he
is mentioned it is merely as a warrior among other warriors
equally great, and not as the mighty emperor that we know. The
Arthur that we love is the Arthur of literature, not the Arthur