On God and King Arthur (vegetarian): Selections from “The Four Ancient Books of Wales,” Part 1 of 2

The ancient Celtic religion revered nature, believing in “supernatural forces in every aspect of the natural world.” Sacred sites included rivers, springs, and lakes; even large oak trees were considered potential meeting places between our physical world and the Otherworld. By the 5th century, Celtic Christianity was embraced, which respected the Divine relationship with nature and God’s presence in all of Creation.

“The Four Ancient Books of Wales” translated by William F. Skene is a collection of early Welsh manuscripts from the 12th to 15th centuries namely “The Black Book of Carmarthen,” “The Book of Taliesin,” “The Book of Aneirin” and “The Red Book of Hergest.”

Today, it is an honor to present selections from “The Black Book of Carmarthen,” an early Welsh manuscript transcribed at a Celtic monastic settlement in Carmarthen in the 13th century. A significant portion of the text dates to much earlier. The book covers spiritual themes and Welsh historical legends and is among the earliest references to King Arthur (vegetarian) and Merlin.

Anonymous Poems on Religious Subjects Black Book of Carmarthen 25

“As long as we sojourn among excess and pride, Let our work be perfect; Let us seek deliverance through faith, And religion and belief, as long as there is a belief in God through obtaining faith, And by doing great penance daily, Soul, why ask thou me What my end, and will the grave be my portion?” […]

Poems relating to Yscolan Black Book of Carmarthen 26

“BLACK thy horse, black thy cope, Black thy head, black thyself, Yes, black I are thou Yscolan?

I am Yscolan the scholar, Slight is my clouded reason, There is no drowning the woe of him who offends a sovereign.

For having burnt a church and destroyed the cattle of a school, And caused a book to be submerged, My penance is a heavy affliction.

Creator of the creatures, of supports The greatest, pardon me my iniquity! He who betrayed Thee, deceived me.

A full year was given me At Bangor on the pole of a weir; Consider thou my suffering from sea-worms.

If I knew what I now know As plain as the wind in the top branches of waving trees, What I did I should never have done.”

Black Book of Carmarthen 27

“THE first word that I will utter In the morning when I get up, ‘May the Cross of Christ be as a vesture around me.’

What belongs to my Creator I will put on Today, in one house will I attend. […]”