Sacred Texts Legends/Sagas Celtic Barddas Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg, Vol. I., ed. by J. Williams Ab Ithel, [1862], at sacred-texts.com
1. Three things cannot but exist: life; 1 power; and truth.
2. God consists of three things: life; power; and knowledge. 2 Otherwise--Three things that cannot be dispensed with in God, &c.
3. The three principal 3 essentials of goodness: love; power; and wisdom; each one being perfect of necessity, and indispensable nature. Love; justice; and truth.
4. There are three Unities, and they cannot have 4 seconds: one God; one 5 truth; and one point of liberty; and in these three all goodness is rooted in respect of power, goodness, and knowledge.
5. There are three necessary distinctions between man and God: man has size and measure, which God cannot have; man has a beginning, which God cannot have; man is subject to the change of condition, which God cannot be.
6. The three kinds of existences: God; the living; and the dead.
7. Three things which God cannot be; feeble; unwise; and unmerciful. Others say,
8. Three things which God cannot be: folly; feeble; and unmerciful.
9. Three things which God cannot but be: whatever perfect goodness ought to be; whatever perfect goodness would desire to be; and whatever perfect goodness can be.
10. Three things, without which there can be neither God nor perfect goodness: perfect knowledge; perfect will; and perfect power.
11. The three tendencies of the order of God's work in the formation of all things: to subdue the evil; to elevate
the good; and to manifest every nature in respect of necessity and privilege--To weaken the evil; to strengthen the good; and to manifest every distinction.
12. Three things that God appointed supreme of every existence: love; truth; and knowledge.
13. The three supports of a moral man: God; his own conscience; and the praise of all the wise.
14. Three things that exhibit God: His powerful existence; His significant existence; and His necessary existence.
15. There are three necessary existences, which cannot but be: the greatest of every thing, that is, God; the least of every thing, that is, nothing; and the middle, that is, finiteness. 1
16. Three things that cannot but be in some place or time: the most necessary; the most useful; and the most desirable; 2 and this cannot but be God.
17. Three things God cannot but perform: what is most useful; what is most necessary; and what is most sought.
18. The three witnesses of God in respect of His works: His infinite power; infinite knowledge; and infinite love; for there is nothing that these attributes cannot accomplish; cannot seek; and cannot wish.
19. The three principal attributes of God: essence; knowledge; and power.
20. The three principal properties of knowledge: feeling; 3 understanding; and seeking. 4
21. The three principal properties of essence: substance; quality; and motion.
22. The three principal properties of power: love; purpose; 5 and order.
23. The three principal manifestations of God: what can be done by perfect power; what is done 6 by perfect love; and what perfect knowledge knows. Others say,--The three manifestations of God: fatherhood; sonship; and spirituality.
24. Three things that are one in will and tendency with all goodness: God in His might; an awakened conscience; and the judgment of wise men.
25. The three causes of animate beings in the hands of God: love desiring felicity to the utmost extent of perfect understanding; wisdom knowing the utmost means; and power to accomplish the utmost conception of understanding and love.
26. The three causations of all acts: 1 necessity and contingence in the circle of Abred; choice by reason of liberty in the life of man; and choice from love in the circle of Gwynvyd.
27. The three co-operations of man with God: to endure; to consider; and to love; nor can man co-operate with God in any other thing. To endure is the chief of all, for the others cannot take place without it.
28. Three things that are discordant with God: misfortune; falsehood; and despair.
29. Three places in which there will be most of God: where there is most of what will love Him; most of what will seek Him; and least of self.
30. There are three things, and God is found where they are looked for: mercy; truth; and peace.
31. Three things that man knows not 2 what they are: God; nothing; and infinity.
32. There are three circles of existence: the circle of Ceugant, which God only can traverse; the circle of Abred, which man has traversed; and the circle of Gwynvyd, which man shall traverse.
33. The three materials employed by God in making all things: love; wisdom; and power. (See Triad 25.)
34. The three excellences of the state of man: the end of Abred; liberty; and communion with the blessed. 3
35. The three felicities of heaven: the utter subjugation of all evil; everlasting life; and the endless 4 renovation of bliss.
36. The three primary contemporaries of the world: 5 man; light; and liberty.
37. The three prominent features of the state of living beings: mortals; terrestrials; and celestials.
38. God consists of three qualities: what cannot be otherwise; what cannot be dispensed with; and what cannot be better.
39. The three plenitudes 1 of Ceugant: God; justice; and love. *
40. Three things which cannot but be in God: supreme power; supreme wisdom; 2 and supreme love.
41. There are three causes of death: ignorance; unrestrained 3 love for the good; and inability to endure the Ceugant; that is to say, from love proceeds knowledge, and by knowledge may the obligation of Ceugant be avoided, that is, from knowledge proceeds the change of condition.
42. The three essential attributes 4 of God: eternity; power; and love; and they are called impulsive attributes, 5 because God cannot exist without them.
43. The three impulsive necessities of man: to suffer; to change; and to choose; and because of the third, it cannot be known when the two first will happen.
44. The three conditions of the necessity of humanity: the equiponderant commixture of Abred and Gwynvyd, and hence, consideration; the experience of good and evil, and hence, judgment; choice from judgment consequent upon consideration, and hence, liberty.
45. The three instrumentalities of God in Abred for subduing evil and Cythraul, and escaping from it towards Gwynvyd: death; necessity; and forgetfulness.
46. The three stabilities of Gwynvyd: the pleasure of God granting; the power of God strengthening; and the knowledge of God directing.
47. The three properties of knowledge: love towards the best, seeking it; judgment from experience, on obtaining it; and choice according to judgment, on seeing what is right.
48. Three things will prevail at last: fire; truth; and life.
49. The three places of the being and existence of all animation: with Cythraul in Annwn; with light in the state of man; and with God in Gwynvyd.
50. There are three oppressions 1 and onsets on the circle of Ceugant: pride; perjury; and cruelty; because, of free will, and endeavour, and pre-arrangement, they force existence upon things that ought not to be, and that cannot accord with the indispensables of the circle of Gwynvyd. And by making this assault, man falls in Abred even to Annwn. The chief and most grievous is pride, because it is from this that the other two oppressions are derived; and it was from pride that the first fall in Abred occurred, after the original progression to the species and state of humanity in Gwynvyd.
51. Three victories will occasion an escape, namely: victories over pride; uncharitable hatred; and cupidity; for no one with these can attain to the circle of Gwynvyd, because they will not accord with Gwynvyd, and Gwynvyd cannot be obtained from their natures.
52. The three usurpations of pride: to distort every thing, so that the truth cannot be seen; to enslave every liberty, so that one cannot free himself from Abred; and to make a predatory onset on God and His prerogative, so that there can be no justice.
53. The three stabilities of pride: usurpation and theft; murder and ambuscade; and imposing belief upon what is false.
54. The three primary sins are: pride; cruelty; and falsehood.
55. There are three circles of existence: the circle of Ceugant, where there is neither animate or inanimate save God, 2 and God only can traverse it; the circle of Abred, where the dead is stronger than the living, and where every principal existence is derived from the dead, and man has traversed it; and the circle of Gwynvyd, where the living is stronger than the dead, and where every principal existence is derived from the living and life, that
is, from God, and man shall traverse it; nor will man attain to perfect knowledge, until he shall have fully traversed the circle of Gwynvyd, for no absolute knowledge can be obtained but by the experience of the senses, from having borne and suffered every condition and incident.
56. There are three occasions for death on the part of God: to better the condition in Abred; to renovate life for the sake of reposing from then on endurance of Ceugant; and to experience every state of the living and life, and what by nature and incident belongs to it, that is, in order to collect the particular kind of knowledge, and thereby obtain utter and complete knowledge respecting every animation and being, and every quality and essence, for otherwise than by means of this progression in Abred it is impossible to learn and be skilled in all the sciences, which can by nature and of necessity exist; and without them it is impossible to bear with the circle of Gwynvyd.
57. There are three things which distinguish all living beings, one from the other: what is nearest of all to God in respect of its particularity; distinctive Awen, which cannot have another of the same kind; and supreme bliss, being greatest of all of its kind.
58. Every living being has three things in respect of individuality and particular character, namely: plenitude of what he is, and it is impossible that there should be a second of the same, since there can be no two plenitudes of any thing; one entire uniformity in respect of order and mutual advantage; and one point of contentment, and no one seeks what is otherwise, since it was from ignorance of it that the pains of Annwn, and the cause of Abred, ensued.
59. There are three reasons for changing the state of existence and life in Gwynvyd: the instruction that is obtained therefrom; the beauty of novation; and repose from the non endurance of the eternity of Ceugant.
60. There are three things, each of which can have but one: one plenitude in respect of kind and Awen; one uniformity
in respect of order and mutual advantage; and one supremacy, that is, God over all. (See the last but one.)
61. The three principal co-existences of the circle of Gwynvyd: love as far as the necessity of it requires; order until it can not be improved; and knowledge as far as thought and perception can reach.
62. Three things cannot exist in the circle of Gwynvyd: death; uncharitableness; and disorder. Others say;--need; uncharitableness; and disorder.
53. There are three judgments relative to duty, whereby it may be understood: what does another man forbid, and what would he himself forbid in another man; what does another man seek, and what would he himself seek of another man under the same circumstances; and what can be borne and desired for ever by all animations and existences in the circle of Gwynvyd, where neither uncharitableness nor injustice can exist, for whatever does not agree with that can be nought but undutifulness, disorder, injustice, and uncharitableness.
64. The three stabilities of Gwynvyd: to know the nature of evil, and to have endured it in Abred; to know the nature of good, and to experience it in Gwynvyd; and to know of every living form, its speciality, and individuality, as tending, by the pleasure, purpose, and will of God, to the general good. And in these things there is security and firmness, for God cannot otherwise support it out of love to truth and justice, and God can do nothing but truth and justice, and from truth and justice there can be nought but perfect love, and there can be no uncharitableness but from injustice.
65. From three things arises uncharitableness, that is: from doing injustice, and thereby causing uncharitableness in the one that suffers it; from suffering and receiving injustice at the hands of another, whence uncharitableness springs towards the one that does injustice; and from ignorance of the nature of uncharitableness, and the way in which it instigates anger, self-defence, and opposition in
respect to it, whence enmity ensues alternately world without end.
66. The three stabilities 1 of unity: one without another, and hence firm liberty; entirety without many, and hence firm power; and many in entirety, and hence firm knowledge; and from these three is formed firm unity; and there can be no firm unity but from God.
67. The three instabilities of many: non gregariousness, for there can be no individuality and speciality in respect of any one head or kind as distinguished from another thing or quality, or no place for the one and the other at the same period and time; finiteness, for there can be no infiniteness where there is another of the same kind and quality, however little he may be in respect of the kind and quality of his existence; changeableness, for, where there are two or many in number, one must bear the preference over another, and this can be changed, so that the one that was last may be first, and the place and time be altered, so that one can go from one place to another, and from one time to another, and from one state to another, such particulars being driven by one to the other. On this account God or gods cannot consist of many, nor can God be manifold or of many.
68. From three causes was there a fall in Abred: from pride that ventured into the circle of Ceugant, out of contempt and hatred of the circle of Gwynvyd, and out of desire for what was otherwise; hence violence was brought against God and goodness, and what indispensably appertains to Gwynvyd, that is, love, and all truth and justice; and from the fear of reason; and of duty.
69. The three principal states of created animations: Annwn, in which was their beginning; Abred, which they traverse for the sake of collecting sciences; and Gwynvyd, where they will end in plenteousness to the utmost extent of power, knowledge, and goodness, so much that more cannot possibly be had.
70. The three causes for disanimation: to deliver and be delivered from obligatory evil and worse; to approach
and be raised towards Gwynvyd; and the non endurance of Ceugant and its want of repose, for there is none but God, Who, being infinite, can traverse it, and the finite cannot prevail against the infinite.
71. There are three kinds of death: punishment and pain for sin; the love of God in bringing all animation and existence from worse to better in Gwynvyd; and repose in Gwynvyd from not being able to endure the eternities of Ceugant.
72. The three blessed epochs of man: to receive life, such as having a soul at birth, 1 or in the revival from a swoon; to give life, or to generate; and to change life, or to die, which is a going from worse to better.
181:2 Al. "love."
181:3 Not in one version.
181:4 Al. "they have no."
181:5 Al. "unicoloured."
183:1 p. 182 Al. "finitenesses."
183:2 Al. "loveable."
183:3 Al. "sense."
183:4 Al. "will." Al. "love."
183:5 Al. "seeking."
183:6 Al. "what He would do."
185:2 Al. "it is not in the least known."
185:3 Al. "celestials."
185:4 Al, "for ever."
185:5 Al. "goodness."
187:* p. 186 Between this and what follows there is a larger space than usual in the Manuscript, so that it is not quite clear whether they were not originally two different fragments.
187:1 Al. "dwellers."
187:2 Al. "knowledge."
187:3 We presume that "anhyrym," feeble, or non-effective, is a mistake for "anhyrwym," that cannot be bound, or restrained, which is the sense we have given it in the translation.
187:4 Al. "impulsive attributes." Al. "original attributes."
187:5 Al. "original attributes."
189:1 p. 188 Al. "encounters."
189:2 "Save God" omitted in one version.
197:1 p. 196 "Geni," to be born, comes from "gen," a soul, a spirit.
May the soul of the man enter his dog,
And his body be taken to Caerphilly--D. ab Gwilym.
"Geni," to attain to a soul or life, to become animated. "Ganed plentyn," a child has been animated, become animated. Enaid in Silurian is written genaid.