When of song, but also a knowledge of the past and future. Taliesin was asked to describe the creation of man, he said: "The Almighty made, Down the Hebron vale, "And five hundred years The legends and their truest history. There he remained, and lay, Without a soul."' folk-lore of a people are in some respects They represent not so much what has been as the desires and aspirations of the national heart. King Arthur and his knights are an ideal court. The principles of Christianity, that centuries after culminated into doctrine and dogma, were theirs in their undeveloped and chaotic form. A sense of justice underlies their every action. Their lives, although a strange medley of the ideal, the impossible and the real, in the end became the dream of the seer and the song of the poet. Song is the language of immortality. The pen of history may become rusty and refuse to write, but harpstrings are not easily broken. "Yet the same harp that Taliesin strung Delights the sons whose sires the chords delighted; Still the old music of the mountain tongue Tells of a race not conquered but united; That, losing nought, wins all the Saxon won, And shares the realm where never sets the sun."-BULWER. Thus Taliesin sang the songs of every land, and then returned to his own fair country, and predicted the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race: "Britains then shall have Their lands and their crown, This has been literally fulfilled. The alien races long since retreated before the Anglo-Saxon, and Britain not only has her own, but many other lands. King Arthur has become a legend, and his knightly court lingers as a historic shadow, but the laws and manners of those days are still in force. Courtesy to woman, the abhorrence of a lie, and a readiness to defend the weak, are still characteristic of the English race. In this way the Age of Chivalry has perpetuated itself. "Such times have been not since the light that lead The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh ; -THE PASSING OF ARTHUR. INDEX TO POETS QUOTED IN THIS VOLUME. Ariosto, Arnold, Matthew, Boiardo, Browning, Mrs. E. B., Brwynog, Bulwer, Cameron, Chaucer, Clerk,. Davidson, De Brunne, Drayton, Dryden, Ferguson, Sir Samuel, Gray, Hen, Kyveiliog, Lowell, McGee, Thomas D'Arcy, Miller, Joaquin, Milton, Mitchell, S. Weir, Moore,. Old Ballad, Old Song, Ossian, Ossian, Old Version, Percy,. Pindar, Sackville, Schiller, Scott, Shackleton, Shakespeare, Spenser, Swinburne, Taliesin, 335, 338, 340, 343, 345, 349, 350, 361, 362, 363, 365, 368, Tennyson, PAGE Coming of Arthur, Elaine, 239, 240, 242, 243, 245, 246, 247, 251, 253, 255, 257, 258, Gareth and Lynette, Holy Grail, 50, 107 ƒ 126, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 154, 157, 158, 159, 161, 168, INDEX. Aber Alaw, 282. ABER CLEDDYF, 312. ENEAS, 14. ACHELOUS, 15. AGANDECCA, death of, 343. AGRAVAIN, 63; his treason, 174. AIDEEN, 384. ALBANACT, 16. ALBANIA, 17. Badon Mount, 40. BAGDEMAGUS, King, 77, 152, 153. BEAUVAIS, ROBERT DE, thirteenth century poet, 9. BEDIVERE, 187. BEDRAWD, 254. BEDVER, 49, 52, 54. BEDWYR, 254. ALBION, son of Neptune, 13; Island BELINDA, 106. of, 16. ALEMANUS, 14. ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 11. ALPIN, son of, 375. ALTHAN, 369. ALYDUKE, 80. AMBROSIUS, 35. AMORICA, 24. ANARAWD, 277. ANDRET, 113. ANLAWD, 295. ARDAN, 327. ARGIUS, King of Ireland, 110, 111. ARIES, 45. ARMOR, 6. BELINUS, 21. BENDIGEID VRAN, 275, 280, 284. BERRATHON, 375. BLAANOR, 111. BLADUD, 18. BLAMOR, 198. BLEOBERIS, 198. BOHORT, King, 39, 42, 73, 93, 150; his quest, 163; fights with Lionel, 165, Boy and the Mantle, 69. BRADEMAGUS, 89, 152. BRAGELA, 334. BRANDELES, 80. BRANWEN, 275-283. ARTHGALLO, brother to Elidnoe, 21, BRASSOLIS, 330. 22. ARTHO, son of, 371. ARTHUR, 8, 24, 26; historical evi- ATHA, 361. AVAON, 215. |