The Celtic Literature Collective

The Death of Duran ap Arthur

Sandde gyr y vran
odd i ar wyneb dvran
kv anwyl i magodd i vam.

                 
Arthvr

Sandde [Bryd Angel] drive the crow
off the face of Duran [son of Arthur].
Dearly and belovedly his mother raised him.

Arthur [sang it]

NOTE

Duran is given as the son of Arthur, but like Arthur's other sons Amr and Llacheu, he is slain early in his career. Sandde Bryd Angel ("Angel Face") is one of the two men who was unharmed at Camlann, according to "Culhwch and Olwen"--his beauty was so great that people thought he was a ministering angel. In contrast, the other man to go unharmed was Morfran son of Tegid (Taliesin's rival for awen), who looked was so ugly, soldiers took him for a devil.

SOURCES Mostyn 131, p.770. 15th century. Welsh given in Evans' Reports on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, vol. I, p. 95.

Early Welsh Saga Poetry: a Study and Edition of the Englynion. by J. Rowland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. pp.250-1.


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