LLONGBORTH OF LLYAVARCH HEN'S ELEGY. 53 



The battle of Llongborth is not mentloned by name in 

 any of the Saxon Chronicles, nor are the peculiar circum- 

 stauces in connexion witli any eugagement recorded in the 

 Chronicles, such as can be identified with those which 

 Llywarch H6n describes. The only one which has ever 

 been connected with this event, is that which Stands 

 recorded in the Saxon Chronicles for A.D. 501, 



" This year Porta with his two sons, Bajda and Mela, 

 came into Britain with two ships, at a place called Ports- 

 mouth. (Pojtep-muSa.) They soon landed and slew on 

 the spot a young Briton of very high rank." 



Mr. Sharon Turner, assuining, probably, that Langport 

 never could have been a " port " or " harbour for ships," 

 concludes that Llongborth must have been some harbour 

 on the south-coast ; and connecting the death of Geraint 

 with that of the young Briton of noble birth, slain at 

 Portsmouth, he coines to the conclusion that the poem of 

 Llywarch H6n, describes the conflict at Portsmouth when 

 Porta landed.* 



This conclusion, however, is not borne out by the cir- 

 cumstances of the case. The mere fact, as recorded, of 

 their " slaying on the spot a young Briton of very high 

 rank," falls far short of sufficient evidence, that this 

 young Briton was Geraint ab Erbin. There can be no 

 doubt that the life of many a British youth of highest rank 

 was sacrificed, during that long and severe conflict. 



Further, it does not appear possible, that the crew of 

 two ships, (which is all that the Chronicle gives to Porta 

 and his sons on their landing at Portsuiouth,) could have 

 ofFered the amount and kind of resistance, which the details 

 of the battle in the Elegy iniply. " They soon landed and 

 slew on the spot " — is the desci'iption of a very different 



* Turner's History of Angl. Saxons, vol. 1, b. üi. c. 3. 



