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Candidan. He was king, or supreme ruler of Powys, and seems 

 to have been one of the most active British chieftains who 

 opposed the spread of Saxon dominion ; and it was with him, 

 that the Prince-Poet or Bard, Llywarch Hen, took refuge after 

 his expulsion by the Northmen, from his o^vn principal city of 

 Argoed. He lived to see his twenty -four sons perish in vaiious 

 battles against the invaders, at many of which he was present 

 himself, and of which, one, judging from his own statements, 

 was the battle of Dyrham, which appears to have been decisive 

 and final, between the rival races in our district. 



One of the longest poetical efforts of the great British Bard, 

 Lltwaech Hen, relates to this battle, and is entitled " Maronad 

 Kendelann, mab Kendkouen," or Death Song of Kendelank, 

 son of Kendkotjen. As, although a Cambrian Prince, he was 

 present with the united Britons at the battle of Longphort, 

 (Portsmouth), to oppose the landing of a horde of Saxons, we 

 need not be surprised to find him here at Dyrham, with his 

 friend, relative, and protector, whose loss he mourns so pathe- 

 tically, and to whose kindly reception of himself, he refers 

 elsewhere so feelingly, when speaking of the honours paid to 

 himself by the men of Powys, " that refuge of exiles," in their 

 assemblies. The "Maronad" bears evidence of having been 

 composed under the influence of the deepest emotion, such as 

 might be expected to affect the bard, expelled from his own 

 Principality, upon witnessing the destruction of all his best 

 friends and hopes, in a defeat which consigned him to a life 

 of want and misery, enduring so long, as to acquire for him the 

 epithet which has become part of his name, from invariable 

 use, — Hen," the Old or Ancient. 



We cannot, of course, here, enter upon lengthened details of 

 the Kfe of Llywarch Hen, but the few given seem necessary, 

 for the proper appreciation of the allusions to be found in the 

 elegy, to the " White Citj-," which, supposing it to be Sherston, 

 is but a short distance from Dyrham. Whilst, also, it would 

 be prolix to give here the poem in extenso, it is necessary to 

 give, for the benefit of those to whom it is not known, an outline 

 of the mode of treatment of its subject, and of its composition. 

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