Chapter 32 - Page 2

told him that he had got that which was better than fish. "What was
that?" said Gwyddno. "A bard," said Elphin. Then said Gwyddno,
"Alas! what will he profit thee?" And Taliesin himself replied and
said, "He will profit him more than the weir ever profited thee."
Asked Gwyddno, "Art thou able to speak, and thou so little?" And
Taliesin answered him, "I am better able to speak than thou to
question me," "Let me hear what thou canst say," quoth Gwyddno. Then
Taliesin sang:- "Three times have I been born, I know by meditation;
All the sciences of the world are collected in my breast,
For I know what has been, and what hereafter will occur." Elphin gave his haul to his wife, and she nursed him tenderly and
lovingly. Thenceforward Elphin increased in riches more and more,
day by day, and in love and favor with the king; and there abode
Taliesin until he was thirteen years old, when Elphin, son of Gwyddno,
went by a Christmas invitation to his uncle, Maelgan Gwynedd, who held
open court at Christmas-tide in the castle of Dyganwy, for all the
number of lords of both degrees, both spiritual and temporal, with a
vast and thronged host of knights and squires. And one arose and said,
"Is there in the whole world a king so great as Maelgan, or one on
whom Heaven has bestowed so many gifts as upon him,- form, and beauty,
and meekness, and strength, besides all the powers of the soul?" And
together with these they said that Heaven had given one gift that
exceeded all the others, which was the beauty, and grace, and
wisdom, and modesty of his queen, whose virtues surpassed those of all
the ladies and noble maidens throughout the whole kingdom. And with
this they put questions one to another, Who had braver men? Who had
fairer or swifter horses or greyhounds? Who had more skilful or
wiser bards than Maelgan?
When they had all made an end of their praising the king and his
gifts, it befell that Elphin spoke on this wise: "Of a truth, none but
a king may vie with a king; but were he not a king, I would say that
my wife was as virtuous as any lady in the kingdom, and also that I
have a bard who is more skilful than all the king's bards." In a short
space some of his fellows told the king all the boastings of Elphin;
and the king ordered him to be thrown into a strong prison until he
might show the truth as to the virtues of his wife and the wisdom of
his bard.
Now when Elphin had been put in a tower of the castle with a thick
chain about his feet (it is said that it was a silver chain, as he was
of royal blood), the king, as the story relates, sent his son Rhun
to inquire into the demeanor of Elphin's wife. Now Rhun was the most
graceless man in the world, and there was neither wife nor maiden with
whom he held converse but