finding her child alive, has been told elsewhere (p. 236): but she is not represented as making any allusion to his brother, who had made the sea his habitat.
Such is the story of Llew's birth and early years, as given in the Mabinogi of Mâth ab Mathonwy, where alone it occurs; and it puts us in a position to do justice to the parallel between Gwydion and Cairbre Musc, together with the other Cairbres whose identity with him has been suggested. For Cairbre Musc, like Gwydion, had two sons by his sister. Her name was Duben, and theirs were Corc and Cormac respectively. The children were twins, and the story of heir birth is no less strange than that of Dylan and Llew, for one of them was found to have nipped off his brother's ears before his birth. The crime of their parents caused the crops to fail, which, according to the idea prevalent in ancient Ireland, was its natural result,[1] and Cairbre was obliged to confess his guilt to he nobles of his realm, who, when the children
- ↑ Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 64; but to the references there given may be added traces of the same belief among the Welsh. Take, for instance, the following couplet from a prophecy of evil days, in the 12th century MS. called the Black Book of Carmarthen:
'An bit ni bluitinet a hir diev.
Ariev enwir edwi fruytheu.'
'We shall have years and long days
With false kings (and) failing fruit-crops.'The second 'and' rests on an emendation suggested by the metre, and if one omit it the rendering will be, 'With false kings (causes) of failing fruit-crops,' as the grammatical relation of the words might then be represented thus: 'With false kings of withering of fruits.' The original is given (with a serious misprint) by Skene, ij. 23, and translated, i. 485, as follows:
'To us there will be years and long days,
And iniquitous rulers, and the blasting of fruit.'
