LLONGBORTH OF LLYWARCH HEN'S ELEGY, 57 



Gododin of Aneurin, another Welsh Bard of the sixth 

 Century. 



" Gereint rac deheu gawr a dodet, 



Lluch gwynn dwll ar ysgwyt, 



Yor yspar Uary yor." 



" Geraint in the south* raised the shout of war, 

 At the foaming (or glistening) Loch was the buckler 



pierced, 

 Of the lord of the spear — the gentle lord. 



Here Lluch would stand for the aestuary of the Parret, 

 as Loch still does for some of the testuaries opening out of 

 the larger festuary of the Clyde. 



Another argument in favour of Langport as the site of 

 the battle of Llongborth, may be drawn from its position 

 on the confines of the district of Dyvnaint. Supposing 

 the engagement to have taken place subaequently to that 

 of Mynydd Badon, near Bath, this wovdd have been a likely 

 place for the conflict. 



According to Mr. Sharon Turner, the battle of Badon 

 Hill, the greatest and most celebrated achievement of 

 Arthur, served only to check the progress of Cerdic. The 

 Saxon was still pei'mitted to retain his settlement in 

 Wessex, and some of the chronicles quoted by Mr. Turner, 

 shew that " after many severe conflicts, Arthur conceded 

 to the Saxons, the counties of Southampton and Somerset ; 

 the latter, hovvever, still contested." f 



Hence it would seem probable that the engagement to 

 which the elegy relates, was one of those in which they 

 contended for the occupation of this part of Somerset ; for 



* Aneurin was a North Briton, to wliom this part of the West of 

 England would be known as the South. 



f Turner's Hist. Ang. Sax., b. iii., c. iii., p. 269. 



1853*. PART II. ' H 



