gerwyn wiliams
The first words uttered by ‘the Baron’ and the householder are in French, but
arefollowed by the formality and antiquity of ‘ffrwst’ (literally: hurry, haste, rush),
‘diriaid’ (‘dreadful’), and later ‘ffrewyll’ (‘whip’), three words that date back to at
least the twelfth century. ‘[N]y at duw da y diryeit’ (‘God does not allow good
for thediriaid’, that is, ‘ill-fated’) appears in ‘Claf Abercuawg’ inCanu Llywarch
Hen, and the rather archaic syntax employed by the baron, ‘gwae ni o’r graith’ (‘we
sorrow for the scar’), calls to mind a common syntax, ‘gwae hi oe thynghet’ (‘Woe
to it for its fate’), in the early Welsh saga poetry.^81 The rapport withCanu Llywarch
Henis reinforced by the reference to ‘fate’s joke on all cordiality’, a central theme
in the saga poetry, and the simile ‘fel claf anhyblyg’ (‘like a stubborn patient’) calls
to mind the decrepit and diseased character of Claf Abercuawg and also Llywarch
Hen, who lost his twenty-four sons in battle. As Heledd had long ago wandered in
‘Stauell gyndylan ys tywyll heno’ (‘The hall of Cynddylan is dark tonight’), so the
narrator bears witness to the destruction of war as he is led ‘o stafell i stafell’ (‘from
room to room’) ‘yn yr hanner gwyll’ (‘in the half-darkness’).^82
The deliberate choice of words—‘lleufer’ (‘light’) in the eighth stanza reminds
one of the ruthless reference to ‘kyscit lloegyr llydan nifer|a lleuuer yn eu lly-
geit’ (‘Asleep is Lloegr’s broad war-band|with light upon their eyes’) in one of
Taliesin’s war poems, and ‘llamsachus’ (‘leaping’) calls to mind the horses of the
Mabinogi—confirms the impression of resonating antiquity as the poem nears its
emotional climax.^83 By this stage, both men have been joined by the baron’s wife,
and just as the two strangers in ‘Ballad of the Phantoms’ had occupied the common
ground of suffering, so the three players in ‘On a Visit’ are ‘comrades in suffering’:
it is eventually disclosed that the husband and wife have lost their son in war and
have kept their loss to themselves, but by the means of the unexpected visitor—the
‘clumsy fool’ as he describes himself for accidentally offending them—they are
provided with an opportunity, if not to shedtheir burden of grief that threatens
to overwhelm them, then at least to share it. Their son had been an accomplished
pianist, and the baron’s piano playing proves a source of empathy and therapy and
emotional release:
then the gracious melodies
flowed from his hand, prelude and dance and song so bitterly sad,
so carelessly joyful, and gentle and full of compassion—
till the sound grew soft, a communion where angels walked,
honouring our wound and setting our captive hours free.(^81) See Jenny Rowland’s translations of ‘Claf Abercuawg’ and ‘Can yr Henwr’, inˆ Early Welsh Saga
Poetry, 499 and 475.
(^82) See Jenny Rowland’s translation of ‘Stafell Gynddylan’, ibid. 484.
(^83) The lines appear in ‘Marwnat Owein’, inCanu Taliesin, ed. Ifor Williams (Caerdydd: Gwasg
Prifysgol Cymru, 1960), 12, and the poem is translated by Clancy as ‘Lament for Owain ab Urien’,
inMedieval Welsh Poems, 44. ‘[L]lamsachus’ appears in ‘Pwyll Pendeuic Dyuet’, inPedeir Keinc y
Mabinogi, ed. Ifor Williams (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1930), 12.