Harleian MS 4353 (V) with emendations from Cleopatra A XIV (W) ca. 1285.
HOWEL the Good, son of Cadell, king of Cymru, enacted by the grace of God and fasting and prayer when Cymru was in his possession in its bounds, to wit, three score and four cantrevs of Deheubarth, and eighteen cantrevs of Gwynedd, and three score trevs beyond the Cyrchell, and three score trevs of Buallt; and within that limit, the word of no one [is] before their word, and their word is a word over all. There were bad customs and bad laws before his time. He therefore takes six men from every cymwd in Cymru and brings them to the White House on the Tav; and there were present those who held croziers in Cymru including archbishops and bishops and abbots and good teachers; and of that number, twelve of the wisest laics were chosen, and the one wisest scholar who was called Blegywryd, to make the good laws and to abolish the bad ones which were before his time; and to place good ones in their stead and to confirm them in his own name. When they had finished making those laws, they placed the curse of God, and the one of that assembly, and the one of Cymru in general upon any one who should break those laws. And first they began with the Laws of a Court as they were the most important and as they pertained to the King and the Queen and the Twenty-four Officers who accompany them, namely, Chief of the Household. Priest of the Household, Steward. Judge of the Court, falconer, Chief Huntsman, Chief groom. Page of the Chamber. Steward of the Queen. Priest of the Queen. Bard of the Household. Silentiary. Doorkeeper of the Hall. Doorkeeper of the Chamber, Chambermaid. Groom of the Rein, Candlebearer. Butler. Mead brewer, Server of the Court, Cook, physician. Footholder. Groom of the Rein to the Queen.
A right of all the officers is to have woollen clothing from the king and linen clothing from the queen three times every year; at Christmas and Easter and Whitsuntide. The queen has a share of all the profits (ennill) of the king from his demesne (oe wlat dilis). The officers of the queen receive a share of all the profits of the king’s officers. Three persons who do sârhad to the king; whoever shall violate his protection, and whoever shall obstruct his wife, and whoever shall kill his man in his presence and in the presence of the company when there shall be greeting and an assembly between him and another regulus (pennaeth). A hundred kine are to be paid as sârhad to the king for every cantrev in his kingdom (teyrnas), and a silver rod which shall reach from the ground to the king’s pate when he shall sit in his chair, as thick as his ring finger, with three knobs at the top and three at the bottom as thick as the rod; and a golden cup which shall hold the king’s full draught, as thick as the nail of a ploughman who shall have ploughed for seven years; and a golden cover thereon as thick as the cup, as broad as the king’s face. The status of the Lord of Dinevwr moreover is upheld by as many white cows, with the head of each one to the tail of the other and a bull between every score kine of them, as shall extend completely from Argoel to the Court of Dinevwr.
For the galanas of the king is paid three times as much as his sârhad with three augmentations. In three ways sârhad is done to the queen; when her protection shall be violated, or when she shall be struck in anger, or when a thing shall be taken out of her hand with violence; and then a third of the worth of the king’s sârhad is paid to the queen, without gold however and without silver. Thirty-six persons on horseback it befits the king to support in his retinue; the twenty-four officers and his twelve gwestais; and together with that, his household and his nobles and his youths and his minstrels and his almsmen. The most honourable after the king and the queen is the edling. The edling is to be to the king a brother or a son or a nephew, the son of a brother. he protection of the edling is to conduct the person who commits the offence until he is safe. The sârhad and the galanas of the king and the edling are the same, excepting privileged gold and silver and the cattle which are placed from Argoel to the Court of Dinevwr. The place of the edling in the hall is opposite to the king about the fire with him. Between the edling and the pillar next to him sits the judge of the court; on the other side of him, the priest of the household; after that the chief of song; after that there is no fixed place for any one in the hall. All the royal issue, the freemen, and the collectors of the geld (kyllituſſon) are to be in the lodging of the edling. The king is to provide the edling with the whole of his expenditure honourably. The lodging of the edling and the youths with him is the hall; and the woodman is to kindle the fire for him and to close the doors after he is gone to sleep. The edling is to have a sufficiency at his repast without measure. In the three principal festivals a privileged bonheddig sits on the left of the king; on his right side, every one as he may will. A privileged protection pertains to every officer; and to others also. Whoever shall resort to the protection of a queen is to be conducted beyond the boundary of the gwlad without pursuit and without obstruction. The protection of the chief of the household conducts the person beyond the boundary of the cymwd. The protection of a priest of the household is to conduct the person to the nearest church. The protection of the steward saves a person from the time he shall stand in the service of the king until the last person goes from the court to sleep. The protection of the falconer defends the person to the farthest place where he shall hawk. The protection of the chief huntsman continues to the farthest place where the sound of his horn is heard. The protection of the judge of the court is whilst the suits shall last from the first cause until the last. The protection of the chief groom continues whilst the best horse in the court shall continue running. The protection of the page of the chamber is from the time he goes to gather rushes until he shall finish spreading the king’s bed. Similar to that is the protection of the chambermaid. The protection of a queen’s steward is from the time he shall stand in the service of the queen until the last person goes from the chamber to sleep. The protection of the bard of the household is to conduct the person to the chief of the household. The protection of the silentiary is from the first command of silence to the last. Similar is the protection of a [queen’s] priest to that of his fellow. he protection of the candlebearer is from the time the first candle is lit until the last is extinguished. The protection of the footholder is from the time he shall sit under the king’s feet until the king goes to the chamber. The protection of the cook is from the time he shall begin to cook the first collop until he shall place the last dish before the king and the queen. The protection of the server of the court is from the time he shall begin to distribute the food until the last shall have had his portion. The protection of the mead brewer is from the time he shall begin to prepare the mead vat until he shall cover it. The protection of the butler is from the time he shall begin to empty the mead vat until he shall finish. The protection of the court physician is from the time he goes to visit the sick with the king’s leave, until he comes again to the court. She protection of the doorkeeper of the hall is to conduct the person the length of his arm and his rod towards the porter, for he is to receive him. The protection of the porter is to retain the person until the chief of the household comes through the gate towards his lodging; and then let the refugee proceed in safety. Similar is the protection of the doorkeeper [of the chamber] to that of his fellow. The protection of a groom of the rein continues whilst the smith of the court is making four shoes and their complement of nails, and whilst he shall be shoeing the king’s steed. Similar to that is the protection of a queen’s groom of the rein. Whosoever’s protection is violated, it is sârhad to him. What is paid as the sârhad of a chief of the household is a third of the king’s sârhad without privileged gold and silver; and likewise his galanas. A Steward, Judge of a Court, falconer, Chief Huntsman, Chief
[A chasm in V supplied from W]
groom, Page of a Chamber, [have] the same sârhad and the same galanas and the same ebediw; and their daughters the same status. For their sârhad, nine kine and nine score of silver are to be paid. For the galanas of every one of them, nine kine and nine score kine with three augmentations are paid. A pound is the ebediw of every one of them. A pound is the gobr of their daughters. Three pounds is their cowyll. Seven pounds is their agweddi. The sârhad of every one of all the other officers except the chief of the household and the priest of the household, who, although they be of the number of the officers, are not of the same status–For the sârhad of every one of the other officers, six kine and six score of silver are to be paid. For their galanas is paid six kine and six score kine with three augmentations. For the ebediw of every one is paid six score of silver; and six score is the gobr of every one of their daughters. A pound and a half is their cowyll; three pounds is their agweddi. Whoever shall kill a person, let him first pay his sârhad and afterwards his galanas. There is to be no, augmentation on the sârhad of any one.
The lodging of the chief of the household is to be the largest house in the middle of the trev, because round him the lodgings of the household are to be, so that they may be ready for every emergency. In the lodging of the chief of the household, the bard of the household and the physician are to be. The lodging of the priest of the household, and the scholars of the court with him, is to be the chaplain’s house. The lodging of a queen’s priest is to be the house of the bell-ringer. The lodging of the steward and the officers with him is to be the house next to the court. The lodging of the judge of the court is to be the chamber of the king or the hall; and the cushion which shall be under the king in the day, is to be under the head of the judge of the court in the night. The lodging of the chief groom, and all the grooms with him, is to be the house nearest to the king’s barn, because it is he who distributes the provender. The lodging of the chief huntsman, and all the huntsmen with him, is to be the king’s kiln house. The lodging of the falconer is to be the king’s barn, because the hawks do not like smoke. The bed of the page of the chamber and the chambermaid, in the king’s chamber they are to be. The lodging of the doorkeepers is to be the porter’s house. The chief of the household has provision in his lodging, namely, three messes and three hornfuls of liquor from the court; and he receives a perquisite (achyfars) every year from the king, to wit, three pounds. Of spoil which the household takes, he receives the share of two men if he be with them; and the ox which he shall choose from the third of the king. Whoever does wrong below the columns of the court, if the chief of the household catch him, by law, he receives a third of the dirwy or the camlwrw. If also he catches him at the entrance of the hall sooner than the steward, he receives a third of the dirwy or the camlwrw. The chief of the household is to be a son or a nephew, a brother’s son, to the king. A hornful of mead comes to him in every banquet from the queen. If the king in anger leaves any one of the household below the fireplace, let the chief of the household invite such a person to his own company. At the end of the hall sits the chief of the household and the whole household around him. Let him take what elder he may will on his right, and another on his left. A horse always in attendance he receives from the king, and two shares of the provender does his horse receive.
Whoever shall do sârhad to a priest of a household or shall kill him, let him submit to the law of the synod; and for his disparaging twelve kine are paid to him, and the third does he receive and the two-thirds the king. A priest of a household receives the garment in which the king shall do penance during Lent, and that by Eastertide; and he has the king’s offering, and the offering of the household, and the offering of those who shall take an offering from the king in the three principal festivals; he always however receives the king’s offering. A mess of food and a hornful of mead he receives from the court for his provision. A horse always in attendance, he has from the king; and a third of all the king’s tithe he receives; and one of the three indispensable persons to the king is the priest of the household. A queen’s priest has a horse always in attendance from the queen; and her offering and that of those who may belong to her he has three times every year. The offering of the queen however he receives at all times. The garment in which the queen does penance through Lent, her priest receives. The place of the queen’s priest is to be opposite to her.
A steward has the garment of the chief of the household in the three principal festivals; and the garment of the steward, the bard of the household receives; and the garment of the bard, the doorkeeper receives. The steward, when he shall ask, has the skin of a hart from the huntsmen from the middle of February until the end of a fortnight of May. When the steward comes to the court, the food and the drink is to be wholly according to his ruling. He shows every one his proper place in the hall. He apportions the lodgings. A horse always in attendance he has from the king, and his horse has two shares of the provender. The steward’s land is to be free. He has a steer of every spoil from the household. A steward is to have the gobr of the daughters of every land-maer. He receives twenty-four pence from every officer who shall serve food and drink in the court, when they shall enter upon their office. He distributes the gwestva silver. To him it pertains to test liquors in the court. He has a third of the dirwy and camlwrw of the food and drink servants, namely, cook and butler and server of a court. From the time the steward, standing up, shall proclaim the protection of God and the protection of the king and the queen and the nobles (guyrda), whosoever shall violate that protection is not to have protection either in court or in llan. He is to participate in the twenty-four offices of a court. And he has two parts of the skins of the cattle which are killed in the kitchen. For every office of court the steward has a fee when the king shall confer it; except the principal offices. A hart’s skin comes to him in October from the chief huntsman, and therefrom vessels are made to keep the king’s cups and his horns, before sharing the skins between the king and the huntsmen. A steward has one man’s share of grooms’ silver. A steward by law is to place
[V resumes]
food and drink before the king, and a mess above him and another below him, in the three principal festivals. A steward has the length of his middle finger of the clear ale from off the lees; and the length of the middle joint of the bragod; and the length of the extreme joint of the mead. Whoever commits an offence in the entrance of the hall, if the steward catches him by law, he has a third of the dirwy or the camlwrw. If also he catches him below the columns sooner than the chief of the household, he has the third. It pertains to a steward to keep the king’s share of the spoil; and when it is divided, let him take an ox or a cow. It pertains to a steward to swear for the king when there shall be a rhaith on him. He is one of the three persons who maintain the status of a court in the king’s absence.
A judge of a court does not give silver to the chief groom when he shall have a horse from the king. He has one man’s share of the daered silver. He administers justice gratuitously in every cause which shall pertain to the court. He is to show the status of the men of the court and the status of their offices. He has twenty-four pence from the one to whom he shall show his status and his due. When a legal fee comes to the judges (bratwyr) the judge of the court has two shares. He has the share of two men of the spoil which the household takes, although he himself does not go from his house. If any one opposes the judgment of the judge of a court, let them place their two pledges in the king’s hand; and if the judge of the court be foiled, let him pay to the king the worth of his tongue, and let him never judge again; and if the other be foiled, let him pay his sârhad to the judge of the court, and to the king the worth of his tongue. It is right for the judge (bradr) to receive four legal pence from every cause of the value of four legal pence. He is one of the three indispensable persons to the king. Twenty-four pence come to the judges (bratwyr) when land shall be meered. If a person enters into law without leave of the judge of the court, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king; and if the king shall be in the place, let him pay twofold. No one is to judge who does not know the Three Columns of Law, and the Worth of every Legal Animal. The judge of the court has a linen sheet from the queen regularly. A horse always in attendance he has from the king, and two shares for it of the provender; and it is to be in the same stall as the king’s horse daily. A groom of the rein brings his horse to him in proper order when he shall will it. He has his land free. He has small presents, when his office shall be pledged to him; a throw-board from the king, and a gold ring from the queen; and he is not to part with those presents either by sale or by gift. From the bard when he shall win a chair, the judge of the court has a bugle horn and a gold ring and the cushion which shall be placed under him in his chair. The judge of the court has twenty-four pence from every suit for sârhad and theft, from the one who shall escape from those charges. He has the tongue from the head which comes as a present to the king, and all the tongues from the court, for he decides on all the tongues; and the king is to fill the place of the tongue with the thigh muscle of the beast which he shall have for the smith of the court. The judge of the court is the third person who maintains the status of a court in the king’s absence. He is to be free from ebediw because judgeship is better than anything temporal.
What day soever the falconer shall kill a heron or a bittern or a curlew by means of his hawks, the king shall perform three services for him; hold his horse while he shall secure the birds, and hold his stirrup while he shall dismount, and hold it while he shall mount. Three times the king presents him with food from his own hand on that night; for by the hand of his messenger he presents him daily, except in the three chief festivals and the day whereon he shall kill a notable bird. On the canghellor’s left he sits at a banquet. He has the skin of a hart from the chief huntsman in October to make him gloves and jesses. He drinks three times only in the hall lest there be neglect of the hawks. A horse always in attendance he receives from the king, and two shares of the provender for it. If the falconer kills his horse in hunting or if it should die by chance, he has another from the king. He has every male hawk. He has every sparrowhawk’s nest which shall be found on the land of the court. He has a mess of food and a hornful of mead for his provision in his lodging. From the time the falconer shall place his hawks in their mews until he shall take them thence, he gives no answer to any one who shall sue him. He has gwestva once every year on the king’s taeogs; and from every taeogtrev he has a crone or four legal pence for food for his hawks. He has his land free. The day whereon he shall capture a notable bird and the king is not in the place, when the falconer comes to the court with the bird with him, the king is to rise to receive him; and if he rises not, he is to give the garment he may have on, to the falconer. He has the heart of every animal which shall be killed in the kitchen. When the falconer shall be distrained upon by law, neither the maer nor the canghellor shall distrain upon him, only the household and the apparitor.
A chief huntsman has the skin of an ox in winter from the steward to make leashes. For the king’s benefit the huntsmen hunt until the calends of December. Thence until the ninth day of December they do not share with him. On the ninth day of December, it befits the chief huntsman to show the king his dogs and his horns and his leashes and his third of the skins. Until the ninth day of December no one, who shall sue a chief huntsman, receives an answer from him unless he be one of the court officers, for none [of the officers] is to postpone [the suit of] his fellow if there be one to determine it. A chief huntsman has the share of two men of the skins from the huntsmen with the covert hounds, and one man’s share from the huntsmen with the greyhounds; and from the king’s third of the skins he has a third. After the skins are distributed among the king and the huntsmen, let the chief huntsman, and the huntsmen with him, go and take up quarters with the king’s taeogs; and then let them come to the king by Christmas to receive their right from him. The place of the chief huntsman, and the huntsmen with him in the hall, is the column opposite to the king. A hornful of mead comes to him from the king or from the chief of the household, and the second from the queen, and the third from the steward. He has from the falconer a tame sparrow-hawk every Michaelmas. He has provision in his lodging, a mess and a hornful of mead. To him belongs a third of the dirwy, camlwrw and ebediw of the huntsmen, and a third of their daughters’ gobrs. With the king the huntsmen are to be from Christmas until they shall go to hunt hinds in the spring. From the time they go to hunt on May-day until the end of the ninth day of May, the chief huntsman gives no answer to any one who shall sue him, unless he be overtaken on the calends of May before putting on the boot of his right foot. He has a horse always in attendance from the king, and two shares of the provender for it. When the chief huntsman shall swear, let him swear by his dogs and his horns and his leashes. He has four legal pence from every huntsman with a greyhound, and eight legal pence from every huntsman with a covert hound. If the chief huntsman goes to foray with the king’s household or with his host, let him sound his horn when it shall be right for him, and let him choose a steer out of the spoil. As he receives the skin of an ox before the third day of Christmas from the steward, it is right for him to have the skin of a cow between June and the middle of September from him; and if he remembers not at that time, he has nothing.
A chief groom has the skin of an ox in the winter and the skin of a cow in the summer from the steward, to make halters for the king’s horses, and that before sharing the skins between the steward and the officers. A chief groom and the chief huntsman and the foot-holder do not sit by the partition of the hall; each of them moreover knows his place. A chief groom owns the legs of every steer killed in the kitchen, and salt is given to him with them. He has the share of two men of the grooms’ silver. He owns the old saddles of the king’s steed and its old bridles. A chief groom and the grooms with him have the wild colts which come to the king from the third of a spoil. To him it pertains to hand over every horse which the king shall give, and he himself givce a halter with every horse, and he has four pence for every horse except three: the horse which shall be given to the priest of a household, and the horse which shall be given to the judge of a court, and the horse which shall be given to the jester, for the end of its halter is to be bound to its two testicles and so it is to be given. He has the fill of the vessel, of which the king shall drink, from the steward, and the second from the chief of the household, and the third from the queen. He has his land free; and a horse always in attendance he has from the king, and two shares of the provender for it. The place of the chief groom, and the grooms with him, is the column next to the king. To a chief groom it pertains to distribute the stables and the provender of the horses. He has a third of the dirwy and camlwrw of the grooms. He has the king’s caps if there be fur thereon; and his spurs, if they be gilded or silvered or lacquered, when they shall be discarded. He has a mess of food and a hornful of ale for his provision.
A page of the chamber owns all the old clothes of the king except his vesture in Lent. He has his bed clothes and his mantle and his coat and his shirt and his trowsers and his shoes and his stockings. There is no fixed place for the page of the chamber in the hall, as he keeps the king’s bed; and he carries his messages between the hall and the chamber. He has his land free, and his share of the gwestva silver. He spreads the king’s bed. He has a horse regularly from the king, and two shares of the provender for it. From every spoil which the household takes, he has the cattle whose ears and horns are of equal length.
A bard of the household has a steer out of every spoil at the capture of which he shall be with the household, and one man’s share like every other man of the household. He also sings the ‘Monarchy of Britain’ in front of them in the day of battle and fighting. When a bard shall solicit from a king (teyrn), let him sing one song. When he shall solicit from a breyr, let him sing three songs. When he shall solicit from a taeog, let him sing until he is tired. He has his land free, and his horse regularly from the king; and it is the second song he sings in the hall, for the chief of song is to begin. He sits second nearest to the chief of the household. He has a harp from the king, and a gold ring from the queen, when his office shall be given him; and the harp let him never part with. Bard of a Household. Silentiary. Queen’s steward. Doorkeeper of a Hall. Doorkeeper of a Chamber. Groom of the Rein. Candlebearer. Butler. Cook. Foot-holder. Head brewer. Server of a Court. Physician. Chambermaid. Queen’s groom of the rein. These fifteen are of the same status; and of the same status are their daughters. For the sarhdd of each of them, there are paid six kine and six score of silver. The galanas of each of them is paid with six kine and six score kine with three augmentations. The ebediw of each of them is six score pence; and six score pence is the gobr of the daughter of each of them. A pound and a half for her cowyll. Three pounds her agweddi. If a daughter of one of these fifteen goes away clandestinely without consent of kindred, her agweddi will be six steers having ears and horns of equal length. Of the same status as that is the daughter, who goes away clandestinely, of every free man.
If the doorkeeper of a hall go beyond the length of his arm and his rod from the door after the king has entered the hall, and he there suffer sarhdd, no compensation is to be made to him. If the doorkeeper or the porter knowingly impedes one of the officers entering at his own will, let him pay four legal pence to the officer; and if he be a principal one, let him pay twofold, and three kine camlwrw does he pay to the king. The doorkeeper has a vessel to hold his liquor. The steward and the waiters bring their liquor into the vessel of the doorkeeper. When the liquor of the apostles is distributed, the doorkeeper takes charge of it. He dries the skins of the cattle which shall be killed in the kitchen; and he also receives a penny for every skin when shared. He has his land free; and a horse always in attendance does he receive from the king. One man’s share does he receive of the gwestva silver.
The doorkeeper of a chamber has his land free, and a horse always in attendance from the king; and legal liquor does he obtain, and his share of the gwestva silver.
A groom of the rein has the daily saddles of the king and his pannel and his rain cap when discarded; and his old horse shoes and his shoeing irons. His land he has free, and his horse regularly. He leads the king’s horse to its stable (lety) and from its stable. He holds the king’s horse when he shall mount and when he shall dismount. One man’s share does he receive of the wild colts taken in foray.
A court physician sits second next to the chief of the household in the hall. His land he has free, and a horse regularly from the king. Gratuitously does he prepare medicines for the household and for the men of the court; for he only receives the bloodstained clothes, unless it be one of the three mortal wounds. A pound does he take without his maintenance or nine score pence together with his maintenance for the mortal wound, to wit, [first] when a person’s head is broken so that the brain is seen. A bone of the upper part of the cranium is four curt pence in value if it sounds in falling into a basin; a bone of the lower part of the cranium is four legal pence in value. And [secondly] when a person shall be stabbed in his body so that his bowels are seen. And [thirdly] when one of the four pillars (post) of a person’s body is broken so that the marrow is seen; these are the two thighs and the two humeri. Three pounds is the worth of each one of those three wounds.
A butler has his land free, and a horse always in attendance from the king. He receives legal liquor, to wit, the fill of the drinking vessels used for serving in the court of the ale, and their third of the mead, and their half of the bragod. A mead brewer has his land free, and his horse regularly from the king. One man’s share does he obtain of the gwestva silver, and a third of the wax taken from the mead vat; for the two parts are divided into three shares, the two shares for the hall and the third for the chamber.
A cook has the skins of the sheep and the goats and the lambs and the kids and the calves, and the entrails of the cattle which shall be killed in the kitchen, except the rectum and the milt which go to the porter, The cook has the tallow and the skimming from the kitchen, except the tallow of the steer which shall be three nights with the cattle of the maerhouse. His land he gets free, and his horse always in attendance from the king.
A silentiary has four pence from every dirwy and camlwrw which shall be forfeited for breaking silence in the court. A share also does he receive from the officers for every distribution. H is land he has free, and his share of the gwestva silver, and his horse regularly from the king. When the land maer shall be removed from his office, the silentiary has three score pence from whatever person is appointed in his stead.
A footholder is to sit under the king’s feet and to eat from the same dish as he. He is to light the first candle before the king at meat; and yet he has a mess of food and liquor, for he does not participate in the banquet. His land he has free, and a horse always in attendance from the king, and his share of the gwestva silver.
The server of a court has his land free, and his horse regularly from the king, and his share of the gwestva silver.
Queen’s steward has his horse regularly from the queen. Eight pence comes to him from the gwestva silver; and he takes two pence, and the rest he shares among the officers of the chamber. He has the care of the food and drink in the chamber. He is to test the liquors of the chamber; and show each his place.
A chambermaid has all the clothing of the queen throughout the year except the garment wherein she shall do penance in Lent. Her land she has free, and her horse regularly from the queen; and her old bridles and her apparel (ae harchenat) when discarded, does she receive; and her share of the gwestva silver.
Queen’s groom of the rein has his land free, and his horse regularly from the queen. Where the priest of the household and the steward and the judge of the court are together, the status of a court is in that place although the king be absent.
Maer and canghellor are to keep the waste of a king. A pound and a half comes to the king when a maership or a canghellorship shall be pledged. The maer maintains three persons with himself in a banquet in the king’s hall. He distributes the household when they shall go into quarters. On a foray he accompanies the household with three men. He has a progress with three men among the king’s taeogs twice in the year. A chief of kindred is never to be a maer or canghellor. A maer is to demand all the dues of the king as far as his jurisdiction of maer extends. Maer and canghellor are entitled to a third of the gobrs of the taeogs’ daughters, and a third of the camlwrws and ebediws of the taeogs, and a third of their corn when they shall flee from the gwlad, and a third of their corn and their food from every marwdy of a taeog. A maer is to divide everything, and an apparitor is to choose, for the king. If it happens that the maer is unable to maintain a house, let him take to him what taeog he likes for a year from one calends of May to another, and let him enjoy the milk of the taeog during the summer, and his corn in the autumn, and his swine in winter; and when the taeog shall go from him, let him leave him four large sows and a boar and all the rest of his animals, and four acres of winter tilth and eight acres of spring tilth; and the second year and the third let him do likewise; not however the same taeog. Afterwards let him subsist upon his own means for three other years; then let the king relieve him by granting him a taeog under the former regulation, if he will. When a person shall lose his spoil by law, the maer and the canghellor are to have the heifers and the steers and the stirks in two equal shares.
The duty of the canghellor is to hold the pleas of the king in his presence and in his absence. He is to place a cross and restriction in every suit. To the left of the king does the canghellor sit in the three principal festivals, if the king be holding court in his canghellorship. A gold ring and a harp and a throwboard does he receive from the king when he enters into office. In the time of Howel the Good, a third of the live and dead stock of the taeogs came to the maer and to the canghellor; the two parts to the maer, and the third to the canghellor; and the maer shared and the canghellor chose.
An apparitor has his land free, and a mess from the court. Between the two columns he stands while the king shall eat, for it then pertains to him to secure the hall against fire. After meat let him eat along with the servants; after that let him, neither sit nor strike the post nearest to the king. He has legal liquor, to wit, the fill of the vessels used for serving in the court, of the ale; and their half of the bragod, and their third of the mead. He has the shank of every steer from the court, which is not as high as the ankle. On the ninth day before the calends of winter1 he receives a coat, and a shirt, and a cap, and three cubits of linen from the extremity of his elbow to the end of his middle finger, to make trowsers for himself; and there is to be no linsey-woolsey in his trowsers. The length of his clothes is only to extend to the tie of his trowsers. On the calends of March he has a coat and a shirt and a mantle and trowsers; also in the three chief seasons he has a bonnet. He is to share between the king and the maer and the canghellor. He has the odd sheaf, when the corn of fugitive taeogs shall be shared, and their marwdys. When a geldable fugitive shall leave his corn unreaped and when the like occurs in the case of a marwdy, the apparitor has the headlands. He has the bacon in cut and the butter in cut from the marwdys; and the nether stone of the quern, and all the green flax, and the flax seed, and the layer next to the ground of the mow, and the hatchets, the reaping-hooks, the fowls, the geese and the cats. He has a loaf with its enllyn in every house to which he comes on the king’s business. Three cubits are to be in the length of his bill, lest he be discovered. He has the bull which shall come among the spoil. When the apparitor shall die, his possessions are at the king’s mercy. If the apparitor suffer sârhad while sitting during the pleas of the king, let there be paid to him a sieve full of chaff and an addle egg. The summons of an apparitor, with witnesses or striking the post three times, cannot be denied except by objecting. When however it shall be denied, the oath of the person summoned, with that of two men of the same status as himself, denies it.
The smith of a court has the heads of the cattle which shall be slaughtered in the kitchen and their feet, except the tongues. His maintenance, and that of his servant, comes from the court. Gratuitously he does all the work of the court except three works: a cauldron and a broad axe and a spear. A smith of a court has the ceinion of a banquet. He receives four pence from every prisoner off whom he shall remove irons. His land he has free. Legal liquor he has from the court, [viz.] the fill of the vessels used for serving in the court of the ale, and their third of the mead, and their half of the bragod. He is one of the three persons who receive that measure; then the apparitor; lastly the butler. No smith can be in the same cymwd as the smith of a court without his permission. He has the same freedom in grinding at the mill as the king. He has the gobrs of the daughters of the smiths who shall be under him and at his command. Six score pence is the ebediw of the smith of the court, and six score pence is the gobr of his daughter. A pound and a half is her cowyll. Three pounds her agweddi.
The porter has his land free. In the castle behind the door is his house, and his maintenance he gets from the court. He receives a log of wood from every horseload of fuel which comes through the gate, and also a log from every cartload, to wit, such a log as he can pull with his one hand without impeding the progress of the horses or the oxen; and although he cannot pull a single log of wood, yet he receives a log, but not the largest. Of the spoil of swine which comes to the gate, the porter has a sow, and it is not to be larger than he is able with his one hand to hold up by the bristles so that her feet shall not be lower than his knee. Of the spoil of cattle which comes to the gate, if there be a steer without a tail, the porter has it; and he also has the last steer which comes to the gate, and the milt and the rectum of the cattle which shall be slaughtered in the kitchen. Four pence he gets from every prisoner who shall be lawfully imprisoned in the court.
It is necessary that the watchman should be a bonheddig gwlad, for in him confidence is placed by the king. His food he always receives in the court, and, if the king be not in the court, he receives his mess first after the maer. Every morning he gets a loaf with its enllyn for his morning meal. The aitch-bone he gets of every steer slaughtered in the kitchen. His land he has free; and clothing he has twice in the year from the king; and shoes and stockings he gets once.
Land maer has the suet and the lard from the court. He has the skins of the cattle slaughtered in the kitchen which shall be three nights with the cattle of the maer-house. He has the gobrs of the daughters of the men of the maer-trev. Although the servants shall do sarhd to the land maer while on their way carrying drink either from the kitchen or from the mead cellar towards the hall, they are not to make compensation to him. When his sârhad shall be paid, six kine and six score of silver are paid to him. His galanas is paid with six kine and six score kine, with three augmentations.
The right of the chief of song is to sit on the left of the edling. His land he has free. He is to sing first in the hall. A wedding donation he receives, to wit, twenty four pence from every virgin when she shall marry. He gets nothing however at the wedding of a woman from whom he previously received chattels on the occasion of her wedding when she was a virgin. A bard when he shall have won a chair, such is a chief of song. No bard can solicit anything as far as the jurisdiction of the chief of song shall extend, without his permission, unless he be a bard of a border gwlad. Although the king shall prohibit the giving of chattels within his kingdom till the end of a certain period, the chief of song is exempt by law. When the king shall will to hear a song, let the chief of song sing two songs concerning God and the third of the chiefs. When the queen shall will to hear a song in her chamber, let the bard of the household sing three songs lest the hall be disturbed.
Cub of a king’s coverthound whilst its eyes are shut, is twenty four pence in value. In its litter, it is forty eight pence in value. In its kennel, it is ninety six pence in value. In its random hunting, it is six score pence in value. When it shall be trained, it is a pound in value, dub of a king’s greyhound before its eyes are opened, is twelve pence in value. In its litter, it is twenty four pence in value. In its kennel, it is forty eight pence in value.
In its random hunting, it is ninety six pence in value. When it shall be trained, it is a pound in value. Of like worth are the coverthound of a breyr and the greyhound of a king. The value of a breyr’s greyhound is in law half the value of a breyr’s coverthound of equal age. f whatever breed the cub of a taeog may be, it is before opening its eyes a curt penny in value. In its litter, it is two curt pence in value. In its kennel, it is three curt pence in value. When it shall be set free, it is four curt pence in value. A cur, although it is a king who shall own it, is of no more value than four curt pence. If it be a shepherd dog, it is of the value of a steer of current worth; and should there be doubt as to its being so, let the owner swear, with a neighbour above his door and another below his door, that it goes before the cattle in the morning and guards the hindmost at the close of day. Whoever shall pull out an eye of a king’s coverthound or shall cut off its tail, let him pay four legal pence for every cow which the dog shall be worth. A rambling dog, if it be killed further than nine paces from the door, shall not be paid for. If it be killed within the nine paces, twenty four pence are paid for it. No legal worth exists on a harrier; on everything which has no legal worth, an appraisement is obtained.
Whoever shall meddle with a king’s hart in season, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king. A stag is of the value of an ox. A hind is of the value of a cow. There are to be twelve privileged pieces in a king’s hart in season: tongue, and the three pieces of the neck, lungs, heart, two-loins, shoulder, haunch, stomach, nombles, liver. Three kine camlwrw are paid for every piece. For a king’s hart in season, when every camlwrw is reckoned, there are paid two score kine. There are no privileged pieces in a king’s hart except from the Feast of Cirig2 to the calends of December; and it is not a hart in season except whilst the privileged pieces shall be in.
If a king’s stag be killed in the trev of a breyr in the morning, let the breyr keep it whole until mid-day; and if the huntsmen do not arrive then, let the breyr cause the hart to be skinned, and the dogs to be lured from the flesh; and let him take home the dogs and the skin and the liver and the hind quarter; and if the huntsmen do not arrive that night, let him make use of the flesh and let him keep the dogs and the skin for the huntsmen. If the stag be killed at mid-day, let the breyr keep it whole till the night; and if the huntsmen do not arrive then, let the breyr make use of it like the former one. If it be killed during the night in the trev of a breyr, let him spread his mantle over it, and let him keep it whole until the morning; and if the huntsmen do not arrive then, it will be of the same status as the former ones. If a freeman be hunting with coverthounds, let him wait in the morning until the king’s huntsmen shall thrice let loose their dogs; and afterwards let him let loose. Whoever shall kill a hart on another person’s land, let him give a quarter to the owner of the land, unless it be a king’s hart; for there is to be no quarter for land in a king’s hart. If a traveller sees an animal from a road in a king’s forest, let him discharge a missile at it, if he will; and if he hit it, let him pursue whilst he shall see it; and from the time that it shall disappear from view, let him leave it.
Thus far by the permission of God we have discussed the Laws of a Court. Now with the help of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, we will shew the Laws of a Gwlad. And first, the Three Columns of Law, that is, the nine accessaries of galanas; and the nine accessaries of fire; and the nine accessaries of theft.
The first of the nine accessaries of galanas is tongue-reddening, that is, showing the place where the person, who is to be killed, may be to the person who kills him. The second is, giving counsel to kill the person. The third is, consenting with the murderer to kill him. The fourth is, looking out. The fifth is, accompanying the murderer. The sixth is, repairing to the trev. The seventh is, superintending. The eighth is, being an assistant. The ninth is, seeing him killed while allowing it. For each of the first three, there is given nine score of silver and the oaths of a hundred men to deny blood. For each of the following three, there is given twice nine score of silver and the oaths of two hundred men. For each of the last three, there is paid thrice nine score of silver and the oaths of three hundred men to deny blood. Whoever shall deny wood and field, let him give the oaths of fifty men without bondman and without alltud; and three of them abjuring horse-riding and linen and woman. Whoever shall admit homicide, let him and his kindred pay the sârhad of the person who is killed, and his galanas. And first, the murderer pays the murdered man’s sârhad to his father and his mother and his brothers and his sisters; and if he was married, his wife is to receive a third of the sârhad from those. Moreover the third of the galanas will fall on the murderer and his father and his mother and his brothers and his sisters, apart from the kindred. Again, the third of the murderer is divided into three parts, the third to fall on the murderer himself, and the two parts on the father and the mother and the brothers and the sisters; and of those men each one pays as much as the other, and so the women; and no woman pays more than half the share of a man; and that third is to be paid to the slain person’s father and mother and his co-heirs as in the case of his sârhad. The two shares which are imposed on the kindred are divided into three parts; and of these, the kindred of the father pays two shares, and the mother’s kindred pays the third. The same generations of the kindred are to pay galanas along with the murderer to the same generations who receive it on the part of the murdered, from the ancestor in the fifth remove to the fifth cousin. Thus are named the nine degrees of a kindred who are to pay galanas and to receive it, and their members. The first of the nine degrees is the father and mother of the murderer or of the murdered. The second is a brother and sister. The third is a grandfather. The fourth is a great grandfather. The fifth is a cousin. The sixth is a second cousin. The seventh is a third cousin. The eighth is a fourth cousin. The ninth is a fifth cousin. The members of the degrees are the nephew and uncle of the murderer or the murdered. A nephew is a son of a brother or a son of a sister, or of a cousin male or female, or of a second cousin. An uncle is a brother of a father or mother, or of a grandfather or a grandmother, or of a great grandfather or a great grandmother. And this is the amount of the share of each one of all these when paying galanas or receiving it. Whoever may be in kinship nearer than another by one generation to the murderer or the murdered, pays or receives twice as much as that other; and so in respect to each of the seven last degrees and the members of all the degrees. The heirs of the murderer or the murdered are not to pay anything nor receive in respect to galanas, because the share of the person who pays more than any other stands for him and his heirs; and their care rests on him. The care of the heir of the murdered rests on his parents and his co-heirs because they receive a third part of the galanas. And if there be anyone of the kindred of the murderer or the murdered, who is an ecclesiastic in holy orders or a religious or leprous or dumb or an idiot, he neither pays nor receives any of the galanas. They are not to take vengeance for a person murdered, nor is vengeance to be taken on them; and it is impossible to compel such by any law to pay anything, nor are they to receive.
Of the nine accessaries of fire, the first is counselling to burn the house. The second is, agreeing concerning the burning. The third is, going to burn. The fourth is, carrying the cresset. The fifth is, striking the fire. The sixth is, procuring tinder. The seventh is, blowing the fire until it shall kindle. The eighth is, setting fire to the thing with which to burn. The ninth is, watching the burning and allowing it. Whoever shall deny one of these nine accessaries, let him give the oaths of fifty men without bondman and without alltud.
The first of the nine accessaries of theft is devising deceit and seeking an accomplice. The second is, agreeing concerning the theft. The third is, giving provision. The fourth is, carrying the food while accompanying him. The fifth is, tearing down the cattle yard or breaking the house. The seventh [sixth] is, moving what is stolen from its place and walking day or night with it. The seventh is, knowing and informing as to the theft. The eighth is, sharing with the thieves. The ninth is, seeing the theft and concealing it for reward or buying it for worth. Whoever shall deny one of these accessaries, let him give the oaths of fifty men without bondman and without alltud.
Nine persons who are to be believed in their testimony, each one of them separately on his oath. A lord between his two men as to a suit which they acknowledge to have been previously before him; and he be not interested in the suit, and they be not in agreement as to the mode. An abbot between his two monks on the threshold of the choir. A father between his two sons by placing his hands on the head of the son against whom he shall swear, and saying thus: ‘By God, the One who created me thy father and thee my son, the truth I declare between you.’ A judge as to what he previously decided, if the two persons concerning whom he judged are disputing concerning the decision. A surety as to his suretyship if he admit a part and deny another part. A priest between his two parishioners as to the testimony which was testified to him. A virgin as to her virginity, if the man to whom she was given declares she was not a virgin in order to take away her right and her due; or if she is violated and the man who violated her says she was not a virgin, the virgin’s testimony is to be believed against him. A shepherd of a hamlet (trefgozd) as to his shepherding if one animal kills the other. A thief without hope of mercy concerning his fellow-thief, when brought to the gallows; because credible is his word concerning his companions and the chattels they thieved, without a relic; and his companion is not to be destroyed on his word, but is to be a thief for sale. To be believed also is a contract man as to his contract. And so also to be believed is an informer who gives a full information. And a giver of property is to be believed as to the chattels he gives, and so it is said: ‘There is no gift except by consent.’
A person’s hand, and his foot, and his eye, and his lip, and his ear with loss of its hearing, and his nose; six kine and six score of silver is the worth of each one of them. If a person’s ear be wholly cut off and the person continue to hear as before, two kine and two score of silver are to be paid. The testicles are of the same worth as all the above members, The tongue by itself is of such value as all the members which have been so far mentioned. All a person’s members when reckoned together are eight and four score pounds in value. A person’s finger is a cow and a score of silver in value. Thee worth of the thumb is two kine and two score of silver. A person’s nail is thirty pence in value. The worth of the extreme joint, twenty six pence and a half-penny and a third of a penny. The worth of the middle joint, fifty and a half-penny and two parts of a half-penny. The worth of the nearest joint, eighty pence. A person’s foretooth is twenty four pence in value with three augmentations; and when a foretooth is paid for, the worth of a conspicuous scar is to be paid with it. A backtooth is fifty [pence] in value.
Twenty four pence is the worth of a person’s blood, for it is not proper that the worth of a man’s blood should be as high as the worth of God’s blood. Although he was very man, he was very God and he sinned not in his flesh. There are three conspicuous scars upon a person: a scar on a person’s face, valued at six score pence; a scar on the back of the right hand, valued at sixty pence; a scar on the back of the right foot, valued at thirty pence. The worth of a person’s eyelid, as long as the hair is on it, is one legal penny in value for every hair; if a part be cut away from it, then the worth of a conspicuous scar is paid.
The amount of the galanas of a maer or a canghellor is one hundred and eighty nine kine with three augmentations. The sârhad of each of them is nine kine and nine score of silver. The ebediw of each of them is a pound. The gobr of the daughter of each is a pound, and the cowyll is three pounds, and the agweddi is seven pounds. If a daughter of a maer or a canghellor or one of the principal officers of a court goes away clandestinely without consent of kindred, nine steers with horns and ears of equal length will be their agweddi. Four kine and four score of silver is the sârhad of a king’s domestic (teuluz) if he avouch himself as such. Three kine are paid for the sârhad of a breyr’s domestic, that is, three kine of current value.
The galanas of a chief of kindred is thrice nine kine and thrice nine score kine with three augmentations. For his sârhad thrice nine kine and thrice nine score of silver are paid. The galanas of one of the members of a chief of kindred, to wit, his kin, is paid with nine kine and nine score kine with three augmentations. For his sârhad he receives nine kine and nine score of silver. The galanas of a breyr without office is paid with six kine and six score kine with three augmentations. His sârhad is paid with six kine and six score of silver. The galanas of an innate bonheddig is paid with three kine and three score kine with three augmentations. His sârhad is paid with three kine and three score of silver. An innate bonheddig is a Cymro by mother and father without bondman and without alltud and without mean origin in him. If an innate bonheddig is a breyr’s man when murdered, the breyr receives six kine of the galanas from the murderer. To the king comes the third of every galanas, because it is for him to enforce where it is not possible for a kindred to enforce; and what shall be obtained of the murderer’s chattels from time to time, belongs to the king. The galanas of a king’s taeog is paid with three kine and three score kine with three augmentations. His sârhad is three kine and three score of silver. Whe galanas of a breyr’s taeog is half the galanas of a king’s taeog, and likewise his sârhad. The galanas of a king’s alltud is paid with three kine and three score kine without augmentation. His sârhad is three kine without addition. The galanas of a breyr’s alltud, is half the galanas of a king’s alltud. The galanas of a taeog’s alltud, is half the galanas of a breyr’s alltud, and likewise with regard to their sârhads.
Whoever shall strike a person, let him pay his sârhad first, because attack and onset constitute a sârhad to every person; and a penny for every hair pulled out from his head by the root; and a penny for every finger which shall touch the head; and twenty-four pence for the front hair. Let every one choose his status, whether by the status of his chief of kindred or by the status of his father or by the status of his office. A pound and a half is the worth of a well-formed bondman, if he originates from beyond the sea. If however he be maimed or too old or too young, that is, less than twenty years, he is one pound in value. If also he originates from this side of the sea, he is a pound in value, because he himself debased his status by willingly becoming a hireling. If a free man strike a bondman, let him pay him twelve pence; six for three cubits of home-made white cloth to make him a coat for cutting furze in; three for trowsers; one for buskins and gloves; one for a hedging-bill, or for a hatchet if he be a woodman; one for a rope of twelve cubits. If a bondman strike a free man, it is just to cut off his right hand, or let the bondman’s lord pay the person’s sârhad. The protection of a bondman is as far as he throws his sickle. Whoever shall have connexion with a bondwoman without consent of her lord, let him pay twelve pence to the bondwoman’s lord for each connexion. Whoever shall cause the pregnancy of a bondwoman who shall be on hire, let him give another in her place until she be delivered; and then let him cause the issue [to be nursed] and let the bondwoman return to her place; and if she die in childbirth, let him who caused her pregnancy, pay her legal worth to her lord. Every person receives augmentation in his galanas and in his sârhad except an alltud; the scores [of silver] which are paid together with the cattle are the augmentations, the sârhad of a bondwoman is twelve pence in value; and if she be a serving [woman] who works neither at the spade nor the quern, twenty- four pence is her sârhad. Whoever waylays a person, pays double the galanas of the person who is murdered; and twelve kine dirwy doubled, he pays to the king. Whoever shall deny waylaying or murder or open attack, let him give the oaths of fifty men without bondman and without alltud. An open attack cannot be on the part of less than nine men.
It is for a court to meer; and after a court, a llan; and after a llan, status; and after status, prior conservancy on waste. A house, a kiln and a barn, constitute prior conservancy. If contention arise between two trevs of equal status concerning boundary, it is for the king’s gwrdas to determine it, if they know; and if they are doubtful, it is for the proprietors of the land to swear, every one as to his boundary; and afterwards let them share the object of their contention equally between them. Although a trev shall meer to another, it is not to take a rhandir from it. Half a pound comes to the king when a meer shall be fixed between two trevs; and twenty-four pence come to the judges. When law shall award land to a person, half a pound comes to the king from every rhandir when he shall give investiture.
Thus are suits concerning land and soil elucidated. The claimant is to exhibit his claim; and after that the defendant his defence; and after that it is for the elders of the gwlad to consult together amicably which of the parties is right and which is not; and after the elders shall have considered their opinion and strengthened their proceeding by oath, then the judges are to withdraw apart and decide according to the proceeding of the elders, and inform the king what they shall have adjudged; and that is a verdict of a gwlad after defence. When a dispute shall be commenced concerning the meering of lands or trevs; if it be commenced between the land of the court and the land of the gwlad, the court is to meer. If between the land of the gwlad and church land, the church is to meer. If between co-inheritors, status is to meer. If between occupied land and a waste, prior conservancy is to meer. Building and tillage denote occupation. When a court meers, it is for the maer and canghellor to define the meers on its behalf; if a church, crozier and gospel.
Whoever wills to move a claim concerning land by kin and descent, let him move it on one of the two ninth days, either the ninth day of December or the ninth day of May; for if such a claim as that be moved outside one of those days, it will not succeed. Whoever shall claim land on the ninth day of December, shall have judgment respecting it before the ninth of May; and if he do not then have judgment, let him claim on the ninth day of the succeeding May if he will to continue law; and afterwards law is open for him when the king shall will.
Three dadannudds of land there are; dadannudd of car, and dadannudd of burden, and dadannudd of aration. He to whom is adjudged dadannudd of burden, has three days and three nights of rest without suit; and on the third day he gives answer, and on the ninth day judgment. He to whom is adjudged dadannudd of car, has five days and five nights rest, and on the fifth day answer, and on the ninth day judgment. He to whom is adjudged dadannudd of aration, has rest without suit until he shall turn his back upon the stack; and on the ninth day judgment. No one is entitled to dadannudd except that of the land which shall have been in the hand of his father in his lifetime and to his death. Whoever shall have dadannudd adjudged to him, no one can eject him from his dadannudd except a proprietary heir; since the second dadannudd cannot eject the first; and one non-proprietor is not to eject another non-proprietor from his dadannudd. And if there be a dispute as to dadannudd between proprietary heirs, one cannot eject the other by law. Of two lawful heirs one is proprietary heir to dadannudd of the whole and the other is not, as no one is proprietary heir to dadannudd of the whole except the eldest brother. The status of the eldest brother is to take the dadannudd of the whole for his brothers; and although they should come before him, they do not receive the dadannudd of the whole; and if they take it, he may eject them therefrom if he wills it. If they make the demand jointly, they are to receive it jointly as stated above. It is not necessary to await a ninth day for deciding the boundary of land except when it shall be the will of the king and his gwrdas. Also it is not necessary to await a ninth day between a proprietor and a nonproprietor who shall hold land in opposition to him.
Three times is land to be shared among kinsmen: first among brothers; then among cousins; the third time among second cousins. Thenceforward, there is no proper sharing of land. When brothers share their father’s trev among them, the youngest gets the principal homestead and eight erws and the whole stock and the boiler and the fuel hatchet and the coulter, since a father can neither give nor devise them except to the youngest son; and although they be pledged, they never lapse. Then let every brother take a principal homestead and eight erws; and the youngest son shall share, and from eldest to eldest they are to choose. No person is to demand re-sharing except him who has not obtained a choice, as there is no gwarthal with choice.
If a person neglects three summons on the part of the king respecting land, unless a great necessity hinders him, the land is given to him who shall claim it. If he comes at the second summons or at the third, let him answer respecting the land if it is right for him; and let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king for neglecting summons. Whoever shall pay an investiture fee for land, is not by right to pay ebediw. Whoever shall hold land during three men’s lives in the same gwlad as the recognized possessors, during the lives of father, grandfather and great-grandfather without claim and without surclaim, without burning of house, without breaking of plough; that land is never to be answered for by them, inasmuch as law has shut between them. Whoever shall claim land by kin and descent, it is necessary that the elders of the gwlad should swear as to the kin before hearing the claim. If a person receives a share of land from his kindred after a long state of exile, let him give six score pence as fee for custody if they concede to him a share. The land which the king shall give to a person by right, let not him who shall rule after him retake. Whoever shall allow the transfer of his father’s trev in his presence to another without let and without hindrance, shall not have it whilst he lives. Whoever shall claim land; if he traces his kin along the distaff more than three times, his claim shall be lost. If a church is made on a taeogtrev with the king’s leave and it be a burying-place, and there be a priest saying mass in it, that trev shall be free from that time forward. If a taeog takes the son of a breyr to foster with his lord’s permission, such a son is to participate in the taeog’s father’s trev like one of his own sons. Every joint land is to be held with oath and with chattels; and he who does not so hold it, let him lose his share. When however the land shall have been shared, no one ought to pay for another. Each however ought to hold with their oath, one for another, of the brothers, cousins and second cousins; and the land which any one of them shall lose through lack of oath on the part of the rest, let them make good to him. Beyond second cousins no one is to preserve the share of another either with his oath or with his chattels.
Whoever shall commit treason against a lord or waylay, is to forfeit his father’s trev; and if he be caught, he is liable to be executed. If he be not caught and he will to be reconciled to his lord and kindred, a twofold payment of dirwy and galanas is to be levied on him; and if he repair to the court of the pope and return with the pope’s letter with him and show that he is absolved by the pope, he has his father’s trev. A third cause for which a person forfeits his father’s trev is the abandoning of his land without leave, and his not being able to bear the burden and the service attached thereto.
No person is to obtain the land of his co-heir, as of his brother or of his cousin or of his second cousin, by claiming it through the one of them who shall die without an heir of his body; but by claiming it through one of his parents who shall have been in possession of that land till his death, whether a father or grandfather or great-grandfather; and so he gets the land if he be next of kin to the deceased. After brothers shall have shared their father’s trev between them, if one of them die without an heir of his body or a co-heir to a third cousin, the king is to be heir of that land. There are three kinds of prid on land: one is, a conservancy fee; the second is, chattels which shall be given to augment land or its status; the third is, the lawful labour which shall be done on the land whereby the land is improved. No person is to demand re-sharing except the one who has not obtained a choice, since gwarthal does not harmonize with choice.
There are three lawful inheritances which remain secure to the inheritors. One is an inheritance by title on the part of parents. The second is an inheritance by lawful contract with the owner for worth. The third is an inheritance which shall be obtained by a lawful contract by the will of the owner without worth.
By three means are land and soil to be sued for: through wrong possession; and by dadannudd; and by kin and descent. Though the suit for land may not succeed by the first means or by the second, it is to be obtained none the less slower than before by the third.
There are three wrong possessions: possession in opposition to the owner against his will and without judgment; or possession through the owner and in opposition to his heir against his will and without judgment; or possession through a guardian and in opposition to the right proprietor against his will and without judgment. An owner is one having a sure title. A guardian is one who maintains or guards the title of another person. There are three kinds of status: natural status, and status of land, and status of office. There are three qualifications proper to every person: kind and status and heirship. Heirship however is according to status; status according to kind; kind according to the difference which may be between persons according to law, such as the difference between a king and a breyr, and between man and woman, and eldest and youngest.
Four rhandirs are to be in the trev from which a king’s gwestva shall be paid. Eighteen feet are to be in the length of the rod (gyalen) of Howel the Good; and eighteen such rods (lathen) are to be the length of the erw, and two rods the breadth. Three hundred and twelve such erws are to be in the rhandir between clear and brake, and wood and field, and wet and dry, except the gorvodtrev; and from such rhandirs land borderers are called in law. Where are three evidences for land: elders of a gwlad for ascertaining kin and descent to establish a person in his right as to land and soil. The second is; a man from every rhandir of that trev constitutes the land borderers for ascertaining the mutual sharing between kindred and relatives. The third is; when there shall be contention between two trevs, maers and canghellors and apparitors are to preserve boundaries, for it belongs to a king to meer. There are to be thirteen trevs in every maenor, and the thirteenth of these is the gorvodtrev. In each free trev with office and free trev without office, there are four rhandirs, three for occupancy and the fourth pasturage for the three rhandirs. here are three rhandirs in the taeogtrev; in each of the two are three taeogs, and the third pasturage for the two. Seven trevs are to be in the maenor of the taeogtrevs.
Whoever shall breach a meer upon the land of another person, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king and let him restore the meer to its former state. An impetuous large river is not a boundary between two cymwds save in its original channel. A stone cross, that is, a meer stone or meer timber or other specified thing which shall preserve a boundary, is six score pence in value. Whoever shall breach a meer between two trevs, or shall plough a highway, is to pay six score pence to the king; and let him restore the meer to its former state. The breadth of land between two trevs, if it be of land, is a fathom and a half; between two rhandirs, four feet; between two erws, two furrows. he breadth of a king’s highway is twelve feet. Whoever shall hold two lands under one lord, let him pay his ebediw for the one of higher status.
The measure of a king’s gwestva from every trev from which a king’s gwestva is paid: a horse load of wheat-flour and an ox and seven threaves of oats of one binding, and what shall suffice of honey for one vat. Nine hand-breadths is to be the height of the vat when measured diagonally from the off groove to the near edge; and twenty-four of silver. A pound is the worth of a king’s gwestva; six score pence in lieu of his bread, and three score pence for his enllyn, and three score pence for his liquor. It is so paid moreover unless the food is supplied in its right time, namely, in the winter. From the trev of a maership or canghellorship, mead is paid. From a free trev without office, bragod is paid. From a taeogtrev, ale is paid. Two vats of bragod or four of ale are paid for one of mead. Two vats of ale are paid for one of bragod. There is paid with a summer gwestva neither silver nor provender for horses.
Two dawnbwyds come to the king in the year from the taeogs. The winter dawnbwyd is a sow three fingers in the shoulder and in the long ribs and in the ham; and a salted flitch; and three score loaves of wheat bread if wheat grow there; let nine loaves be of fine flour, three for the chamber and six for the hall, each loaf to be as broad as from elbow to wrist. If they be oaten, let the nine loaves be of groats; they are to be so thick as not to bend when held by their edge; and the fill of a tub of ale; and a penny from every rhandir to the servants. The summer dawnbwyd is butter and cheese. The tub of butter is nine handbreadths in width, and a handbreadth in thickness with the thumb standing; and the milks of a meal from all the taeogs are collected in one day to make cheese; and that is paid along with the bread. No maer, no canghellor, no share, [no] quarters, come on a free man. Once every year it is necessary for everybody to go in the host along with the king to a border gwlad, if he will it; and then the queen is entitled to a lady-progress. Always however, whenever he shall so will, is he to be accompanied in the host in his own gwlad. The huntsmen and the falconers and the grooms have a progress among the king’s taeogs; each party however separately.
Nine buildings the taeogs ought to make for the king; a hall, chamber, kitchen, chapel, barn, kilnhouse, necessary, stable, dog-kennel. From the taeogs the king has sumpter-horses for his host; and from every taeogtrev he receives a man and horse and hatchet at the king’s cost to make encampments for him. Three things a taeog is not to sell without his lord’s permission: a horse and swine and honey. If he refuse them in the first instance, let him after that sell them to whom he may please. Three arts which a taeog is not to teach his son without his lord’s permission: scholarship and bardism and smithcraft. For if his lord be passive until the tonsure be given to the scholar, or until a smith enters his smithy, or a bard with his song, no one can enslave them after that.
If a bishop’s men or an abbot’s men fight with a king’s men upon the land of the teyrn, their dirwy comes to the teyrn; and although a bishop’s men and an abbot’s men fight on the king’s land, to the king their dirwy comes. Whoever shall plough land against a lord’s interdiction, let him pay four legal pence if he shall have opened soil with violence; and four legal pence if he shall have taken implements from the soil: and a penny for every furrow turned up by the plough; and that to the owner of the land. Let the lord take all the oxen and the plough and the implements; and the worth of the right hand of the driver and the worth of the right foot of the ploughman. If a person excavate the land of another person to hide anything therein, the owner of the land shall have four legal pence for opening the soil and the hoard, unless it be a hoard of gold;
[A chasm in V supplied from W]
for every hoard of gold belongs to a king. Whoever shall make a snare on another person’s land and shall conceal it therein, let him pay four legal pence for opening soil to the owner of the land; and should there be a beast found therein, it also belongs to the owner of the land; and let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king. If a kiln pit be dug on another person’s land without permission, let him who shall dig it pay four legal pence to the owner of the land, and three kine camlwrw to the king. Whoever shall build a house on another person’s land without his permission, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king; and the owner of the land shall have the house, and four legal pence for opening soil, if on the land the timber of the house was cut. If not cut on the land, let him swear with two men of the same status as himself; and let him cut away the house even with the surface of the ground, and let him take it away from his land before the end of the ninth day; and if he do not take it, it belongs to the owner of the land.
Whoever shall claim church land, it is not necessary for him to await a ninth day, but justice is open to him when he shall will. No one is to obtain on the part of a mother a principal homestead nor office if there be any one entitled thereto on the part of a father. It is right however for an heir on the part of a mother to have a share of land. A woman who shall give herself up in bush and brake without consent of kindred; her children shall have no share of land from a mother’s kindred except by favour; for no son begotten in bush and brake is entitled to share of land. Whoever shall cut down trees with permission of the owner of the land, is to have it free for five years; and the sixth it is to be free to the owner. Whoever shall car-manure land with the owner’s permission, is entitled to it for three years; and the fourth it is free to the owner. Whoever shall spread fold dung on another person’s land with his permission is entitled to it for two years; and the third it is free to the owner, Whoever shall break up fresh soil on another person’s land with his permission; the first year he shall have it free, and the second year for pay (ar get), and the third it is free to the owner. If a Cymraes [i. e. a Cymric woman] be given to an alltud, her children shall have a share of land except the principal homestead; that they are not to receive until the third generation; and therefrom originate cattle without surety, because, if he commits a crime, the mother’s kindred pay the whole of his galanas.
A bruise which shall remain three ninth-days is subject to the same liability and the same denial as blood. If it be denied, let him give his oath with two men of the same status as himself on the first ninth-day. If it remains two ninth-days, let him give his oath with three men of the same status as himself. If it remains three ninth-days, let him give his oath with four men of the same status as himself; and thus is blood denied.
If there be a legal guardian, and chattels are taken by stealth from under his guardianship, and the keys remain with him safely, and there be seen a breach in the house; the Book of Cynog says it is easier to believe him if there be chattels of his own taken together with the other chattels which were taken by stealth from him. He is however to swear conjointly with all the persons in the house as to his being clear as to those chattels. If the soil however be excavated under the house; after he has carried out the law that he is clear, the king owns the soil and there is to be no guardian answerable for it. Every chattel which a guardian asserts to have been brought to him to be kept, let him make good except the chattels conveyed through the soil. If a person bring chattels to a guardian and some of the chattels be lost, and there be disputing between the guardian and the owner concerning those chattels, the guardian is to swear together with one person nearest in worth of his kindred. The law as to gold is to give it from hand to hand with witnesses into the hand of the guardian to keep. The law as to silver is to count it openly from each hand into the hand of the guardian. One person escapes from an admitted theft with flesh and skin on his back, [viz.], a necessitous alltud who shall have been three nights and three days without alms without relief, and who shall have traversed three trevs daily with nine houses in every trev; and then owing to hunger shall commit theft and then shall be caught with flesh and skin on his back. He is to be let free without gallows and without payment. One person whose house is not to be a marwdy although he die intestate; a judge of a court. One animal which shall rise [in worth] from four pence to a pound in one day; a covert hound. If a taeog owns it in the morning, it is worth four pence; and if it be given to the king on that day, it is worth a pound. A stallion grazing out and a greyhound without its collar lose their status. Eight packhorses of a king are;
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the sea, and a waste, and an irremediable pauper, and a thief, and a marwdy, and dirwy, and camlwrw, and ebediw.
From the time a colt is foaled until August, it is six pence in value. From August to the calends of winter3, it is twelve pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is eighteen pence in value. Until the calends of May, it it twenty-four pence in value. Until August, it is thirty pence in value. Until the calends of December, it is thirty-six pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is forty-two pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is forty-eight pence in value. It is then two years old. It is then in value from the calends of May until August three score pence, because an increase of twelve pence is added to it then; and twelve pence also every season until the calends of May; and then it is three years old. It is then in value ninety-six pence. The day it is caught, an increase of twenty pence is added to it. When bridled, [four pence] are to be added to that above, and then it is six score pence in value. A stallion which is fattened for six weeks over a stall is a pound in value. A stallion grazing out and a greyhound without its collar lose their status. Twenty-four pence is the value of the hair of a stallion if cut away from the tail. If any of the tail however be cut off, the worth of the whole stallion is then to be paid, and the stallion is to be secured to the person who maimed it. The eye of a stallion and its ear are each of them twenty-four pence in value. A rowney is six score pence in value. The hair of a rowney is twelve pence in value if cut away from the tail. If however any of the tail be cut away, the worth of the whole rowney is then to be paid, and [the rowney] itself to be secured to the person who paid for it. The eye of a rowney and its ear are each of them twelve pence in value. A palfrey is a mark in value. Its limbs are of the same worth as the limbs of a rowney. A working horse or a working mare are of the same worth and the same augmentation as a steer excepting their teithi. The teithi of a working horse or a working mare are carrying a load and drawing a car uphill and downhill, and that without swaying, Whoever shall borrow a horse and chafe its back badly so that much hair falls off, four legal pence are to be paid to the owner. If however the back swells from the chafing of an old sore, and the skin be broken to the flesh, eight legal pence are to be paid. If there be no old sore on it, and the skin and flesh be cut to the bone, sixteen legal pence are to be paid. Whoever shall deny the killing stealthily of a stallion or palfrey, let him give the oaths of twenty-four men. A stud mare is six score pence in value. Her tail hair and her eye and her ear are each of them six legal pence in value. Whoever shall ride a horse without consent of the owner, let him pay four pence for mounting, and four for alighting, and four for every rhandir which he traverses, to the owner of the horse; and three kine camlwrw to the king. Whoever shall sell a horse or a mare, let him be answerable for inward disorders, to wit, three mornings for the staggers, and three months for the glanders, and a year for the farcy. Let the person who shall buy it look to an outside blemish. Whoever shall sell a horse, let him be answerable for the horse grazing and drinking water, and that it be not restive; and if it be restive, let the person who sold it choose between taking the horse back or returning a third of the worth to the other. Whoever shall protect a horse against thieves in the same gwlad as its owner, receives four legal pence for every cow the horse may be worth. Whoever shall protect a cow from thieves in the same gwlad as the owner, receives four legal pence.
A she calf is six pence in value from the time it is born until the calends of December. Thence until the calends of February it is eight pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is ten pence in value. Until August, it is twelve pence in value. Until the calends of December, it is fourteen pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is sixteen pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is eighteen pence in value. Until August, it is twenty pence in value. The next morning an increase of two pence for the season, and four for its calf bearing, is added to it; and then it is twenty-six pence in value until the calends of December. Until the calends of February, it is twenty-eight pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is thirty pence in value. On the ninth day of May it ought to have teithi, milk coming from the end of each of its teats, and its calf walking nine paces after it; and unless it be so, sixteen pence is the worth of its teithi. Two pence likewise it acquires for the season, and so forty-eight pence is its value until August. Thence until the calends of December, it is fifty pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is fifty-two pence in value. On the following morning, two pence for the season and four legal pence for the second calf bearing, and so it is three score pence in value. The horn of a cow or ox, and the eye and the ear and the tail, are each of them four legal pence in value. The teat of a cow is four legal pence in value. If a person sells a cow to another, and there should be a teat of the cow unproductive, and the person who buys it should not perceive it, let the person who shall sell it pay four legal pence every year to the person who shall buy it whilst the cow shall be in his possession. If that person sells it to another, let the first be free, because the last who shall sell it creates a similar arrangement. By three ways the teithi of a cow are paid: by thirty of silver, or by a fair dry cow, or by meal. The measure of a cow’s milk vessel is [as follows]. Seven inches it is to be in height when measured diagonally from the off rabbet to the near rim, and three inches in the breadth of its mouth, and three in the breadth of its bottom. The full measure of that vessel of oat meal is paid for every milking of the cow from the middle of April until the Feast of Cirig; thence until August, of barley meal; from August until the calends of December [the same measure] of wheat meal is so paid.
A he calf is six pence in value from the time it is born until the calends of December. Thence until the calends of February, it is eight pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is ten pence in value. Until August, it is twelve pence in value. Until the calends of December, it is fourteen pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is sixteen pence in value. Until the calends of May, it is eighteen pence in value. Until August, it is twenty pence in value. Until the calends of December, it is twenty-two pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is twenty-four pence in value. The following morning a yoke is put upon it, and then an increase of four curt pence is added to its worth. [On the ninth day of February, if it can plough, the worth of its teithi is to be added to its worth], to wit, sixteen pence; and two pence likewise it acquires for the season; and then it is forty-six pence in value until the calends of May. Thence until August, it is forty-eight pence in value. Until the calends of December, it is fifty pence in value. Until the calends of February, it is fifty-two pence in value. The following morning a yoke is put upon it, for then it is the second work year; and that adds four legal pence to its worth, and two pence likewise for the season; and then it is three score pence in value. The teithi of an ox are ploughing in furrow and on sward and that without swerving, and it has no teithi unless it does so; and unless it have teithi, let the third of its worth be returned to the person who shall buy it. Whoever shall sell a steer legally, let him be answerable against the staggers for three days; and three months against the glanders; and a year against the farcy. Whoever shall sell a calf or a yearling, let him be answerable against the scab from the calends of winter until the Feast of Patrick. An ox is not in its prime save from the second work year until the sixth work year; nor a cow save from her second calf until the ninth calf; and although they should continue beyond that period, their worth is not to be lowered while they shall live. If the cattle of a trevgordd kill a steer, and it be not known which of them killed it,
[A chasm in V supplied from W]
let the owner of the steer come into the trev, having a relic with him, and let them make an oath of ignorance, and then let them pay by a cess on each steer (y rif eidon), and if there be a polled steer, the share of two steers is to be paid for it; and that law is called full payment after full swearing. If it be acknowledged that a particular steer killed the other, let the owner pay. Four legal pence is the worth of the tooth of a steer or the tooth of a working horse.
A lamb, while it shall be sucking, is a legal penny in value. When it shall be weaned, it is two legal pence in value until August. From August onwards, it is four legal pence in value. A sheep’s teat is two legal pence in value, The teithi of a sheep are of the same amount as its worth. A sheep’s tooth and its eye are each of them a legal penny in value. Whoever shall sell sheep, let him be answerable for three diseases, scab and rot and red water; until they receive their fill three times of the new grass in spring, if after the calends of winter he sells them.
A kid while it shall be sucking is a curt penny in value. From the time it shall cease sucking until August, it is two curt pence in value. From August onwards, it is four curt pence in value. The teat of a goat is two curt pence in value. The teithi of a goat are as much as its worth. The tooth of a goat and its eye are each of them a curt penny in value. Whoever shall buy a beast from another and it become mangy with him, he is to give his oath together with two men of the same status as himself that he did not place it in a house where mange had been for seven years previous to that; and he has his chattels.
A pig in its litter is a legal penny in value. From the time it goes out until it shall cease to suck, it is two legal pence in value. From the time it leaves off sucking until the Feast of St. John of the Swine, it is four legal pence in value. Thence until the calends of January it is ten legal pence in value. Thence until the Feast of St. John of the Swine the second time, it is eight [twelve] legal pence in value; excepting the three special animals upon which no augmentation and no lowering are ever to take place, [viz.], the principal one of the swine, and the herd boar, and the sow assigned to the lord. And then the life is two-thirds more in value than the flesh until the Feast of St. John of the Swine. From the Feast of St. John of the Swine until the calends of January, it is thirty pence in value; and then the flesh is two-thirds more in value than the life. Where is no legal worth on an autumn born sow until the end of the year; when a yearling, it assumes the law of a grown sow (hch maz). Whoever shall sell swine, let him be answerable for the three diseases: the quinsey for three days, and the strangles for three months, and that they devour not their pigs; and if they devour their pigs,
[V resumes]
let the third of their worth be returned again. If swine kill a person, let their owner pay the person’s galanas, or let him disown the swine.
A gosling, while it shall remain under its mother’s wing, is a curt penny in value. From the time it goes from under its mother’s wing until August, it is a legal penny in value. From August onwards, it is two legal pence in value, and then it is of the same worth as its mother. A hen is a curt penny in value, A cock is a curt penny in value.
A pound is the worth of a hawk’s nest. Six score pence is the worth of a hawk before mewing and whilst it shall be in the mew. If it is white after mewing, it is a pound in value. The nest of a falcon is six score pence in value. A falcon before mewing and whilst it shall be in the mew, is three score pence in value. If it be white after mewing, it is six score pence in value. The nest of a sparrow-hawk is twenty-four pence in value. A sparrow-hawk before mewing and whilst it shall be in the mew, is twelve pence in value. If it be white after mewing, it is twenty-four pence in value. The teithi of every female bird are, laying and hatching. The teithi of every male bird are, singing and impregnating. There is no dirwy nor camlwrw for any winged creature although taken in theft; but its legal worth is to be paid to the owner unless itself be found. A stag is of the same worth and the same augmentation as an ox; and a hind as a cow; and a roe as a goat; and a roebuck as a he-goat; and a sow of a wood as a sow of a trev. The judges of Howel the Good were not able to fix a legal worth on a badger, because during the year the swine were affected by the quinsey, it then obtained the status of a dog; and the year there was madness among the dogs, it then received the status of a sow. A hare also had no legal worth fixed on it, because during one month it is male and the other female. The worth of a stallion is a horse which can cover, with a mare before him and another behind him. The worth of a herd boar is another boar which can procreate, with a sow before him and another behind him. The worth of a bull of a trevgordd is another bull which can leap, with a cow before him and another behind him. A wolf and a fox and various others which do nothing save mischief and on which no legal worth is fixed; it is free to all to slay them. The worth of every animal whose flesh is eaten, except the swine, is two-thirds on the life and one-third on the body. The teithi of a man are that he should be able to have connexion with a woman, and that he should be sound in all his limbs. The teithi of a woman are that the sign of puberty should have appeared in her, and that she should be sound in all her limbs. The teithi of violence are a cry, a horn, and a complaint.
The origin of bees is from paradise and because of the sin of man they came thence; and God conferred his grace on them, and therefore the mass cannot be sung without the wax. A mother-hive of bees is twenty-four pence in value. A first swarm is sixteen pence in value. A second swarm is twelve pence in value. A third swarm is eight pence in value. A mother-hive, after the first swarm has gone out of it, is twenty pence in value. After the second swarm has gone out of it, it is sixteen pence in value. After the third swarm has gone out of it, it is twelve pence in value. No swarm is of more value than four pence until it shall be three days on wing and continually [so]; a day to find a place to move to, and the second to move, and the third to rest. Whoever shall find a swarm on another person’s land upon a bough, receives four pence from the owner of the land if he wills to have the swarm, Whoever shall find a hive on another person’s land, receives a legal penny or the wax at the option of the owner of the land. The ninth day before August every swarm assumes the status of a mother-hive, and then it is twenty-four pence in value, excepting a wing-swarm, for such does not assume the status of a mother-hive until the calends of the following May; and then it is twenty-four pence in value like the rest.
Whoever shall kill a cat which guards a barn of a king or shall take it stealthily, its head is to be held downwards on a clean level floor, and its tail is to be held upwards; and after that, wheat is to be poured about it until the tip of its tail be hidden, [and that is its worth]. Another cat is four legal pence in value. The teithi of a cat are as much as its legal worth. The teithi of a cat are that it should be perfect of ear, perfect of eye, perfect of tail, perfect of teeth, perfect of claw, and without marks of fire, and that it should kill mice, and not devour its offspring, and that it should not be caterwauling every new moon.
There is no dirwy for a dog although it be taken stealthily, nor camlwrw. The oath of one man is sufficient to disown a dog, for it is a back-burden of an unclean animal. If a dog attacks any person for the purpose of trying to tear him; although the person should kill the dog with a weapon from his hand, he pays neither dirwy nor camlwrw for it. If a dog bites any person so that the blood comes, let the owner of the dog pay for the blood of the person; if however the lacerated person kills the dog without moving thence, he receives nothing except sixteen of silver. A dog accustomed [to bite], which shall tear a person three times; unless its owner kills it, the law is, that it should be tied to its lord’s foot two spans distance from him, and thus killed; and then let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king. There is to be no reparation for mischief which a mad dog does, for it cannot be controlled. Although a dog should be taken in theft, the law of theft is not to be enforced thereon.
From the time the corn is put into the soil until it come into its sheaf, money payment is to be made for it; and afterwards a sound sheaf instead of the one damaged. For every fold steer, a halfpenny the day and a penny the night. For every horse which shall have shackles or fetters on it, a penny the day and two the night. If it be unrestrained, a halfpenny the day and a penny the night. If the taker unfetter it, when he shall catch it on the corn, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king; let him however place the two bolts on the same foot, and he thus forfeits nothing, the legal herd of the swine, let him catch the sow he may choose excepting the three principal animals; and let him keep it from one mealtime to another; and then let him offer it to its owner, and unless he liberate it from its law, let the taker make his own use of it. A legal herd of the swine is twelve animals and a boar, the legal flock of the sheep, a sheep is taken; and for every five animals to the extent of the legal flock, a farthing is taken. The size of the legal flock of the sheep is thirty animals. For every lamb, a hen’s egg is taken to the extent of the legal flock; and then [a lamb] is taken. If or the goats and kids, a similar procedure, Whoever shall find geese in his corn, let him cut a stick as long as from the top of his elbow to the end of his little finger and as thick as he will; and let him kill the geese in the corn with the stick; and those which he shall kill out of the corn, let him pay for. deese which are found damaging corn through a corn yard or through a barn, let a rod be tightened on their necks and let them be left there until they die. Whoever shall find a hen in his flax garden or in his barn, let him keep her until her owner shall liberate her with a hen’s egg; and if he catch the cock, let him break one of its claws and let him set it free; or let him take a hen’s egg for every hen which shall be in the house. Whoever shall catch a cat mousing in his flax garden, let its owner pay for its damage. Whoever shall find calves in his corn, let him keep them from one mealtime to another without their mothers’ milk; and then let him set them big at liberty. If any person’s corn bordering on a trevgordd be damaged, and there shall not be one animal caught upon it, let him take the relic and come to the trev; and if they swear an oath of ignorance, let them pay for the corn according to the number of cattle (yrif eidon lldyn); and that law is called, paying after a polluted oath. If a person catch animals, which are strange to one another, in his corn or in his hay, and they fight in the pound and one animal kill the other, the owner of the animal is to pay for the beast killed and the taker is free.
Whoever shall deny a surety, let him give his oath together with the six persons nearest to himself in worth; four on the side of his father, and two on the side of his mother, and himself seventh. Whoever shall deny suretyship, let him give his oath together with six in the like manner; and if his kindred be not in the same gwlad as himself, let him give his oath by himself over seven consecrated altars in the same cantrev as himself; for thus is briduw denied. In three ways is a surety exonerated; by the debtor paying for him. The second is, by time being granted by the plaintiff to the debtor in the absence of the surety. The third is, by a distress being made by the plaintiff on the debtor without consent of the surety; and then let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king. The time given for a surety to know whether he be a surety or not a surety, is three days. The period for a surety to prepare payment if he himself is to pay first, is nine days. |n three ways are surety and debtor defended; by hearing the king’s horn as he proceeds with his host; and by a prosecution for violence; and by a prosecution for theft; because a necessity in necessity is every one of these prosecutions. A surety is to convey a distress along with the plaintiff until it be secure, and let him suffer the affliction which comes; and if he does not this, let him pay himself. A surety who admits part of his suretyship and denies another part, let him swear on his own oath if he wills. Three sureties however there are, not one of whom shall bear his suretyship on his own oath although he deny a part and acknowledge another part of his surety; namely, a person who becomes a surety in the presence of a court, and an inefficient surety, and a paying surety. Whatever the first shall swear, the court should swear along with him or against him. The two others, whatever they shall swear, with the six of their nearest of kin do they swear; for every one of them shall be a debtor. A person should take a surety on all chattels saving the chattels which his lord shall give him. Whoever shall be a surety for a person, if the debtor does not pay on the day fixed, the surety shall then have a period of fifteen days; and if then the debtor does not pay, the surety shall then have a period of ten days; and if then the debtor does not pay, then the surety shall have a period of five days; and if the debtor pays not then, let the surety pay; and these are the periods of a surety as to living chattels. If he be a surety as to inanimate chattels, a period of fifteen days has the surety then; and if then the debtor pays not, the surety has then a period of thirty days; and if then the debtor pays not, the surety then has a period of fifty days; and if then the debtor pays not, let the surety pay himself; and when the surety shall meet the debtor, let him strip him of all his clothing except the garment nearest to him; and thus let him always do until he gets back the full payment from him. If a person’s surety dies before the debtor pays his suretyship for him, let the plaintiff come with the six persons next [of kin] to himself over the surety’s grave if they find the grave, and let them swear that he was surety; and if they do not find the grave, let them swear over the sacred altar that he was surety and that he did not make good his suretyship for him whilst he lived; and thus he obtains his chattels. Although a surety proceed as to his suretyship in opposition to a lord, he is liable neither to dirwy nor camlwrw. If a person’s debtor dies and he does not obtain from anyone the chattels bequeathed, let the surety proceed as to his suretyship for the dead, and let the three degrees of kin nearest to him pay; and the surety can compel [them] the same as [he could] the debtor, were he alive. Whoever shall confess owing chattels to another, let him pay without delay except in the three principal feasts, at Christmas and Easter and Whitsuntide; that is from Christmas Eve after vespers till the first day [of January] after mass; from Easter Saturday night after the resurrection, till Little Easter Day after mass; from Whitsun Saturday night after vespers till Trinity Sunday after mass; for no one should ask of another in those days. No one is to receive a son as surety without consent of his father whilst under his authority; nor monk, nor friar, without consent of their abbot; nor alltud, for his word as to a Cymro is no word; nor a scholar of a school without consent of his master; nor a woman except as to that over which she has control. Such as these, their suretyship is no suretyship save with consent of their lords. If a surety of a person dies, and there remains a son to him, the son is to stand in place of his father in his suretyship. No one is to receive a debtor as surety, for they [i. e. debtor and surety] are two arddelws; and no one should other than choose his arddelw. If he chooses a debtor, there is no surety. If he chooses a surety, there is no debtor; and therefore no one can stand as surety and as debtor. A lord is to be surety for all chattels acknowledged to be without surety. If the debtor permit the surety to give the worth of a pound in pledge for a penny, and before the time of the pledge, it [i.e. the pledge] be lost, the debtor is not to pay back save a halfpenny; for that is a third of a legal penny; and he himself debased the status of his pledge. If a surety gives a large thing in pledge for a small thing, the plaintiff is to take it; and although it be lost before the time, the plaintiff is not to restore to the surety save a third. The surety however is to restore the whole to the debtor because he took it unlawfully. If a debtor gives the worth of a pound in pledge for a penny and it lapse, no compensation is given him.
Every cause according to its contract; it is not a contract without contract men; a contract is to be abjured like suretyship. No one is to make a contract for another without his permission; neither a father for his son; nor a son for his father; because a contract does not last except during the life of him who makes it. Although a contract be made in opposition to law, it must be observed. A contract annuls a custom. Stronger is contract than justice. If a person promise chattels to another in the presence of witnesses and be afterwards desirous of denying it, it is not possible, unless the other’s witnesses fail him. If he promise with no one in the place, let him swear on his own oath if he will.
Seven pounds is the gobr of a king’s daughter, and it is paid to the mother; and the husband pays her cowyll, for land is paid to her. Twenty-four pounds is her agweddi. If the daughter of a breyr goes away with a man clandestinely without consent of kindred, her agweddi, when deserted, will be six steers with their horns and their ears of equal length. To the daughter of a taeog are paid three steers of the same age as those. If a man takes a wife with consent of kindred, and if he leave her before the end of seven years, let him pay her three pounds in her agweddi if she be the daughter of a breyr; and in her cowyll a pound and a half, and in her gobr six score pence. If she be the daughter of a taeog, a pound and a half in her agweddi, and six score pence in her cowyll, and twenty-four pence in her gobr. If he leaves her after the seven years, there will be an equal sharing between them, unless status gives more to the husband. Two-thirds of the children go to the husband, namely the eldest and the youngest; and the third to the mother. If death separates them, there will be an equal sharing between them of everything. Sârhad of a married woman is paid according to the status of her husband. When a married man is killed, his sârhad is paid first and afterwards his galanas. A third of her husband’s sârhad, the wife receives. The wife of a free man can give her shirt and her mantle and her headcloth and her shoes and meal and her cheese and her butter and her milk without consent of her husband; and can lend all the furniture of the house. The wife of a taeog cannot give without consent of her husband except her headgear, and cannot lend except her sieve and her riddle; and that as far as her calling can be heard with her foot on her threshold. If a [pure] maiden goes
[A chasm in V supplied from W]
away clandestinely without consent of kindred, her father can bring her back against her will from her husband; and he is not to pay her amobr to the lord. If a woman however go away clandestinely, no one can bring her back against her will from her husband. From the place where her home may be her amobr is paid. Whoever shall commit a rape on a woman, let him pay her gobr to the lord; and her dirwy and her dilysdod and her agweddi and her sârhad, he pays to the woman; and if she be a maid, let him pay her cowyll. If a man denies rape on a woman and if the woman persists against him, let her take the relics in her right hand and his penis in her left hand, and let her swear to his having committed rape on her; and in this way she loses nothing of her right. Whoever shall deny rape, let him give the oaths of fifty men without bondman and without alltud. From three causes a woman does not lose her agweddi although she may leave her husband: on account of leprosy, and bad breath, and default of connexion. Three things which are not to be taken from a woman although she be abandoned for her fault: her cowyll; and her argyvreu; and her wyneb-werth when her husband has connexion with another woman. If a maiden does not exercise her will as to her cowyll before she rises in the morning from beside her husband, it is to be between them. Three times a woman has her wyneb-werth from her husband when he shall have connexion with another woman; and if she endure beyond that, she receives nothing. If a mature maid be given to a man and if he says that she was not a maid, let the maid swear with four persons that she was not a woman. The persons are to be, herself and her father and her mother and her brother and her sister. Three oaths a woman when scandalized makes to a husband: first, the oaths of seven women; and on the second scandal, the oaths of fourteen women; and on the third scandal, the oaths of fifty women; and if he endures beyond that, he receives nothing, Let no one give a woman to a man without taking surety for her gobr to the lord. If a woman be taken clandestinely to any house, let the man of the house take surety for her gobr to the lord; and if he does not take it, let him pay himself. The gobr of a female alltud is twenty-four pence. The chief of song has the gobrs of the daughters of the bards who shall be under him. The throw of a sickle is the protection of a bondman. The throw of an axe or a hedging-bill, is the protection of a land-maer. Twenty-four pence is the sârhad of a serving bondwoman who works neither at the spade nor the quern. If a married man has connexion with another woman, let him pay six score pence to the lawful wife for her wyneb-werth. If a husband and wife separate before the end of the seven years, thus is the furniture divided between them. The husband has what bedclothes shall be between him and the floor, and the wife has the coverlid. The husband has the corn, and the wife has the made flour. The husband has the plaid and the winnowing sheet and the dormitory bolster and the coulter and the fuel axe and the handaxe and all the sickles save one sickle. The wife has the broad axe and the share and the spade and the one sickle and the middle augre; and the husband has all the irons save those. The wife has the ox car and the yokes and all the milk vessels save one pail, and all the dishes save one dish which the husband has. The wife has all the butter save one vesselful which the husband has; and if there be lumps of butter, the husband has one. The wife has all the flesh which shall be on the floor, salted and unsalted, and all the cheese which shall be in brine and unsalted; and the husband has all the hung flesh and cheese. The wife is to be in her house waiting for her share of the chattels until the end of the ninth day. A wife who shall declare herself to be pregnant when her husband shall die, ought to remain in her house until it shall be known whether she be pregnant; and if she be not pregnant, let her pay three kine camlwrw to the king; and let her leave the house and the land to the heir.
If two women shall be journeying through any place and there be no one with them, and two men meet them and violate them, they are not to be compensated. If however there be one person with them although ever so little, unless he be a carried child, they lose none of their right. If a man take a woman clandestinely and keep her with him until the end of the seventh day without doing right to her, he is not to do right to her until the end of a day and a year; then however she is to have full right. A woman of full age who goes with a man clandestinely, and is taken by the man to bush or brake or house, and is, after connexion, deserted; upon complaint made by her to her kindred and in the courts, she is to take for her chastity a bull of three winters, having its tail shaven and greased with tallow and then thrust through the covering hurdle; and then let the woman go into the house, and place her foot on the threshold, and take the tail in her hands, and let a man come on each side of the bull and a goad in the hand of each to stimulate the bull; and if she can hold the bull, let her take it for her wyneb-werth and her chastity; and if she cannot, let her take what tallow may adhere to her hands. A woman who surrenders herself to a man in bush and brake, and is abandoned by the man who connects himself with another woman, and she come to complain to her kindred and to the courts; if the man deny, let him swear on a bell without a clapper; if he make compensation, let him pay her a penny as broad as her buttocks.
If a woman go about alone and a man meet her and violate her; if the man denies, let him give the oaths of fifty men, three of them under vow that they will not seek a woman, and that they will not consume flesh, and that they will never ride on horseback. If he will not deny it, let him pay to the woman her gwaddol and her dilysdod and her dirwy; and a silver rod to the king in the manner he is entitled; and if the man cannot pay, his testicles shall be taken. Three times is the sârhad of a man to be augmented, when his wife is seduced. The law of nursing during a year is a cow, and a mantle, and a shirt, and a headcloth, and a pair of shoes, and a carload of the best corn which grows upon the man’s land, and a pan with feet. The worth of a vat of mead, which is paid to the king, is six score pence; and the wax is to be divided thus, the third to the king, and the second third to him who makes it, and the third [third] to him who gives the mead. Nine hand-breadths is the measure of the vat of mead when measured diagonally, that is, from the furthest bottom groove to the hither rim.
The skin of an ox or a cow or a stag or a hind or an otter: twelve pence is the value of each. The skin of a beaver is half a pound in value. The skin of a marten is twenty-four pence in value. The skin of astoat is twelve pence in value. Of every wild animal killed on another person’s land, the owner of the land shall have the hind quarter next the ground if the flesh be eatable. Whatsoever thing the guest men (dofrethwyr) shall show to the taeogs to whose houses they come, the taeogs are to pay for, if they be lost, except glaives and trowsers and knives. Their horses are not to be kept by the taeogs except during the night, because they are to pay if they are lost during the night. A king’s supperer shall give a penny to the servants to spare the barn and his food. The fore sitter of a cantrev, that is, the footholder, pays a vat of bragod to the king every year. When a person from a border gwlad shall die on the land of another person, sixteen pence does the owner of the land receive for his death clod; and all the ebediw to the lord because of that.
Five persons nearest in worth are to deny a back-burthen unless prosecuted as theft. Seven persons are to deny a horse-burden unless prosecuted as theft, twelve men are to deny the worth of six score pence unless prosecuted as theft. twenty four men are to deny the worth of a pound, unless prosecuted as theft. A pound is the cyvarwys of a man with a family in the year.
The ebediw of every free man is six score pence. Six score pence is the ebediw of the servant of a lord. Four score and six pence is the ebediw of a taeog. If there be a church on his land, his ebediw will be six score pence. twenty-four pence is the ebediw of a male cottar. Twelve pence is the ebediw of a female cottar. A chief of kindred does not himself pay his ebediw since the one who shall be chief of kindred after him pays it. A son is not to be chief of kindred after the father in immediate succession, because chieftainship of kindred is during life. A married woman who is overtaken in her adultery loses her agweddi, and [her] chattels are brought by her kindred to her husband.
If it is said against a person that he was seen by daylight with a thing stolen, and another brings an accusation that he saw him, let him who is scandalized give the oaths of twenty-four men so that an even number comes from every cymwd of the same cantrev, and the accuser shall not be able to do anything against him. And this law is called a full denial against a full information.
This is how one is to accuse of theft legally: seeing the person from daylight to twilight with the thing stolen, and the accuser swearing together with three men of the same status as himself at the gate of the churchyard, and at the door of the church, and over the sacred altar.
If an informer under a sacred vow with the witness of the priest (periglar), comes with the person robbed into the presence of the priest (offeirat) to the church, let the priest desire the informer at the door of the church for God’s sake not to swear falsely; and if he swears there, he does likewise at the door of the chancel, and the third time above the altar; and if the person denies after (dros) that, let the priest confirm it on his word thrice; and if the person does not believe it, let the priest swear once and thus it is not possible to go against him.
The worth of a winter house. Fifty pence is the worth of the roof tree, and thirty pence is the worth of every fork which shall support the roof tree. The benches, and the upper benches and the stanchions and the doors and the outerdoors and the lintels and the sills and the side posts, are each worth four legal pence. Whoever shall uncover a winter house is to pay the third of its worth. The worth of an autumn house is twenty-four pence in value, if there be an auger hole therein; and if not, it is twelve pence in value. A summer house is twelve pence in value. The fork of a summer house or an autumn house is two legal pence in value. A door hurdle is two legal pence in value. The barn of a king is six score pence in value. The barn of a breyr is three score pence in value. The barn of a king’s taeog is thirty pence in value. Let every one leave his barn open until the calends of winter that wind may circulate therein; and if cattle enter therein, let their owner pay for their damage. After the Feast of All Saints unless there be an edder in three places on the partition of a barn, the damage done therein shall not be paid for.
A piped kiln of a king is half a pound in value if there be a house over it. A piped kiln of a breyr, if there be a legal house over it, is three score pence in value. If piped kiln of a taeog of a king is thirty pence in value if there be a legal house over it. A piped kiln of a taeog of a breyr is twenty four pence in value if there be a legal house over it. Every kiln which is not a piped kiln is half the value of those above, according to the status of their owners. Whoever shall kindle a fire within a kilnhouse, unless a pledge be taken from another in the presence of witnesses before he leaves it as to the extinguishing of the fire, or as to its being secure, the loss will be equal between them as they pay together. The first house which is burnt in the trev through negligence of fire, let it pay for the first two houses set on fire thereby. The loss is to be shared equally between the one who shall give the fire and the one who shall kindle it. Whoever shall lend a house with fire to another; if the latter kindle a fire therein thrice, [the owner] shall receive from him the full pay if the house is burnt, If an accusation of the crime of burning stealthily be brought against a person, the oaths of fifty men will be necessary for him. If he obtain his rhaith, it will be sufficient for him; if he obtains it not, he becomes a saleable thief. A saleable thief is worth seven pounds. If a thief be found burning a house stealthily and be laid hold of, his life will be forfeited. A thief who is put to death is not to lose any of his chattels, because both reparation and punishment are not to be exacted; only payment of the chattels to the loser because he ought not to leave behind an unsatisfied claim. Where is to be no galanas for a thief; and there is to be no recrimination between two kindreds on account of him (yrda).
A yew of a saint is a pound in value. An oak is six score pence in value. Whoever shall bore through an oak is to pay three score pence. A branch of a mistletoe is three score pence in value. Every principal branch of the oak is thirty pence in value. An apple tree is three score pence in value. A crab tree is thirty pence in value. A hazel tree is fifteen pence in value, fifteen pence is the value of a yew of a wood. A thorn is seven pence half-penny in value. Every tree after that is four legal pence in value except a beech tree. That is six score pence in value. Whoever shall fell an oak on the king’s highway, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king, and the worth of the oak; and let him clear the way for the king; and when the king goes by, let him cover the stock of the tree with cloth of one colour. If a tree fall across a river and things get entangled in the tree, the owner of the land whereon the stock of the tree may be, is to have the find whatever way the river may have turned the top branches of the tree.
A sword on the hilt of which is gold or silver, is twenty-four pence in value. A sword without gold and without silver thereon, is twelve pence in value. A shield whereon is a blue colour, is twenty-four pence in value. A shield of the colour of its wood, is twelve pence in value. A spear is four legal pence in value. A battle-axe is two legal pence in value. A knife is a legal penny in value. A buttery (talgell), and a pigsty and a sheepfold, are each thirty pence in value. Millstones are twenty-four pence in value. A quern is four legal pence in value. The harp of a chief of song is six score pence in value. Its tuning key is twenty-four pence in value. The king’s harp and his plaid and his throwboard are each six score pence in value. he harp of a breyr is three score pence in value. Its tuning key is twelve pence in value. The plaid of a breyr is three score pence in value. A sleeping pillow is twenty pence in value. A throwboard of the bone of a whale is three score pence in value. A throwboard of any other bone is thirty pence in value. A throwboard of a steer’s horn is twelve pence in value. A throwboard of wood is four legal pence in value. A broad axe is four legal pence in value. A fuel axe is two legal pence in value. A hand hatchet is one legal penny in value. A large auger is two legal pence in value. A medium auger is one legal penny in value. A wimble and a drawknife and a billhook and a whetstone are each one halfpenny in value. A coulter is four legal pence in value. An adze and a reaping-hook and a mattock and a sickle and shears and a comb and a hedging-bill and a billhook and a willow pail and a white pail with small hoops and a baking board and a flesh-dish and a pail of willow wood and a sieve are each of them one legal penny in value. A spade and a willow bucket and a broad dish and a riddle are each a curt penny in value. If yew pail and a tub and a stave churn and a vat churn and a bowl and a liquor bowl and a winnowing sheet and a pan with feet are each four legal pence in value. A turning wheel and a pot-ladle and a weeding hook are each a farthing in value. A skiff is twenty-four pence in value. A salmon net is sixteen pence in value. A grayling net is twelve pence in value. A bow net is four legal pence in value. A coracle is eight legal pence in value. Whoever shall place a net in a river on another person’s land without his permission, has a third of the fish for himself, and the owner of the river two-thirds.
Whoever shall break a plough upon another person’s land, let him pay to him a new plough and nine days’ ploughing. The worth of a plough is two legal pence. The worth of one day’s ploughing is two legal pence. The worth of the long yoke and its bows, one legal penny.
Thus come the hires. The hire of the ploughman first, and after that the hire of the share and the coulter. Then the hire of the best ox for the plough. Then the hire of the driver, and then from best to best of the oxen. No one from a taeogtrev is to plough until every one in the trev shall obtain cotillage. If an ox die by overploughing, the owner has an erw and that is called the erw of the black ox.
Every pledge lapses at the end of the ninth day except these. Implements belonging to a church should not be pledged, and, although pledged, do not lapse. A coulter and a cauldron and a fuel axe never lapse although pledged. A period of a day and a year is allowed for gold and coats of mail and golden vessels when pledged. The law of borrowing is to return the thing in the state it was given. Whoever shall lend is to take witnesses lest it be denied. If it be denied and the owner prove it, let him pay twofold. Whoever shall promise chattels to another and shall deny it when one comes to demand them, the law of perjury is to be applied to him if he swears publicly, that is, three kine camlwrw to the king; and let him do penance for the perjury; and the other, if he has witnesses, shall have the chattels.
Whoever shall pay galanas, if the whole kindred be in the same gwlad as himself, he is to pay all by the end of a fortnight. If however the kindred be scattered in many gwlads, a period of a fortnight is allowed for every gwlad.
Thus is dispersed galanas paid. A pound is a brother’s share. Six score pence the share of a first cousin. Three score pence the share of a second cousin. Thirty pence is the share of a third cousin. Fifteen pence is the share of a fourth cousin. Seven pence and a halfpenny is the share of a fifth cousin. There is no proper share nor proper name for kin farther removed than that. The share of a father from his son’s galanas: a penny. The same law applies when receiving a share of galanas and paying it. Lest kindred be lost, until it be denied a spear penny is received. A kindred pays sârhad with no one whilst he himself has chattels in his possession. If however his chattels are deficient, it is right [for his kindred] to pay a share along with him till the third degree of kinship.
The dire event of a galanas is when a person shall kill the other and a certain day be appointed for compensating that crime; and before that crime is compensated he also be killed by a person of another kindred without [their] owing him anything. That law is called a dire event of galanas because of the gravity of losing him and paying the crime previously committed by him.
The fifth day before Michaelmas, the king is to forbid his wood until the end of the fifteenth day after the Epiphany4; and of the swine which shall be found in the wood, the king has the tenth beast until the end of the ninth day; and thenceforward they are at the king’s pleasure.
If sârhad is done to the apparitor whilst sitting during the pleas, there is paid to him for his sârhad a sieveful of chaff and an addled egg. The king is to have of the spoil (anreith), the stud and the goats and the furred clothes and the arms and the prisoners, without sharing them with any one. He is not however to receive the third of the working mares (keſſyc torn) because they are spoil (yspeil). Whoever shall speak haughtily to the king or unseemly, let him pay three kine camlwrw twice, Then a taeog shall receive land from the king, the king is to have from the taeog three score pence for every rhandir; and if there be a church on the land of the taeogtrev, six score pence come to the king from the one who shall take it. The ebediw of a bondman to whom the king gives land is four score and ten pence; and the third comes to the maer and the canghellor. The pet animal of a king’s wife or his daughter is a pound in value. he pet animal of a [breyr’s] wife or his daughter is half a pound in value. The pet animal of a taeog’s wife or his daughter is a curt penny in value because they ought not to keep pet animals.
A free man is to answer for his alltud in every claim for which he is not to lose the tongue, and life, and limbs; for no one is to lose tongue and life and limbs by the tongue of another person. The worth of a ready-made garment in the law of Howel the Good is twenty-four of silver. An unintentional blow is not sârhad. It is right, however, to make amends for the injury, that is, for blood and wound and a scar if it be conspicuous. When payment is made for a foretooth, the worth of a conspicuous scar is to be paid with it.
There are five keys to the office of a judge. One is, the fear of thy teacher and the love of him. The second is, frequent asking for thy instruction. The third is, retaining the instruction which thou dost receive. The fourth is despising riches, The fifth is, hating falsehood and loving truth for the fear of God. Whoever shall destroy a meer on another person’s land, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king, and restore the meer to its former condition. Whoever is suspected concerning testimony, let him swear so that he may have right and law; and then let the other take the relic and let him deny on his oath and let him object to the witness; and after that let the judges take notice whether they object wholly. Whoever shall object to a witness before his testimony is given, let him lose the suit. If a man in any host denies having killed [what is now] a corpse, let him pay six score pence and give the oaths of fifty men of the same status as himself to deny murder. Whoever shall do sârhad to another of the people of these four gwlads, to wit, Deheubarth, Gwynedd, Powys, and Lloegr, let him pay four kine and four score of silver to him. Whoever shall pay galanas to another [of the same gwlads], is to pay three score and three kine without addition. Whoever shall find a dead wild sow (hch coet) on another person’s land, let him take its fore quarter. Another animal the flesh of which it is right to eat; the back quarter thereof he receives. If it be a fox or another uneatable animal; he receives a curt penny from the owner of the land, if the latter (ynteu) wills to have the skin.
The dirwy and camlwrw of court and llan are doubled. If the fault be done in the churchyard in the place of refuge (yny nodua) the amount of the dirwy is seven pounds. The abbot has half the dirwy of a llan, if he is acquainted with literature (kyuarwyd ynllythyr) and church custom; and the other half goes to the lay proprietors (meibon lleyn) of the church. The reason they receive thus when dirwy or camlwrw is due, is because they are the protectors of the llan; and this is why those chattels are given specially to the saint and are not [deemed] of the same status as offerings. The maer and the canghellor do not receive a share of the prid which comes to the lord (teyrn) for land, nor of twnc nor of thief.
If a ship be wrecked on the land of a lord (teyrn), the lord has it; and if a ship be wrecked on the land of a bishop, it is divided between the king and the bishop. When the law of distress is applied in the case of a marwdy or any other suit, the household and the maer are to have the heifers and the bullocks and the yearlings and the sheep and the goats, and they are to have everything in the house except horses and oxen and large cattle and gold and silver and furred clothes; and if there is anything which is worth a pound, a king has it. A third of galanas is to fall on the owner of the weapon with which the person was slain. Chattels which are taken from [a time of] war to [that of] peace are to be divided between the one who took them and the one who owned them previously. If two persons shall be walking through a wood, and the one in front lets a bough strike the one in the rear so that he loses an eye, he is to pay the worth of the eye to the other.
The time between court and llan is
[V resumes]
nine days to give an answer, and nine to give surety, and nine to render justice, in respect to the claim demanded. Nine days are allowed to a lord to recollect his oath. To a priest is allowed until he gets the first opportunity to sing mass. In every suit there ought to be a summons and a claim and an answer and judgment and peace. Every builder upon open land is to have three trees from the person who shall own the wood, whether the woodsman (coetr) be willing or unwilling: a roof-tree and two roof-forks. Whoever shall be a gorvodog for another, if he is unable to bring him to law, let the gorvodog be liable by law for the person on whose behalf he became such. The time for a gorvodog to request the return of his gorvodogship: one day and a year. A thief who shall be placed upon sureties is not to be destroyed. No one is to make satisfaction nor answer for an act of his bondman saving for theft. There is to be no justice and law without these four requisites: a common lord, and a presiding (kadeirac) judge, and two parties present. Whoever shall break co-tillage willingly engaged in, let him pay three kine camlwrw to the king; and all his tilth to the co-tiller. The meadow-lands are to be fenced off (aſſoreftir) on account of the swine because they spoil the land. Whoever shall find them on his meadow-land or in his corn before it is ripe, let him receive four legal pence from the owner of the swine. If they spoil ripe corn, let their damage be paid for.
In six ways does a person lose his chattels: by loss and surreption and theft; by loan and hire and deposit. In the first three cases, he is to discover and to swear to them. In the three others, he is not to do so unless they are restored as they were given. A blow received unintentionally is not sârhad. It is right however to compensate the injury, that is, blood and wound and a conspicuous scar if there be one. Any person who is pledged is to be of the same worth as the one for whom he is given as pledge. Whoever shall bring a charge as to animals having damaged his corn, their owner shall exculpate them as to the amount he may will according to the damage they have done; and for what he will not swear to, let him pay. Whoever shall have full right for his damaged corn from an owner of animals, is thenceforward neither to have payment for that worthless straw nor is he to detain animals on it.
A graft is four legal pence in value until the following calends of winter. From that time forward an increase of two pence every season is added until it shall bear fruit; and then it is three score pence in value. And therefore a graft is of the same worth as the calf of a large cow from the beginning to the end.
Whoever is suspected as to testimony, let him swear so that it may be legal for him; and then let the other take the relic and let him deny on his oath and let him object to the witness. After that let it be noticed whether a complete objection was made. Whoever objects to a witness before his testimony is delivered, let him lose the suit. He who shall object to a witness, let him object before the witness shall withdraw from the relic after that the testimony is sworn; and unless he objects then, the witness stands. A witness as to (ar) a witness has no allotted time. Evidences and witnesses have the same force and are equally effective in every suit, and especially (agell) in a suit of land and soil. The time allowed for witnesses or a guarantor from beyond the sea is one day and a year. The time allowed for witnesses or a guarantor from a border gwlad is a fortnight. he time allowed for witnesses or a guarantor of the same gwlad is nine days. he time allowed for witnesses or a guarantor of the same cymwd is three days. Whoever shall will to object to defunct testimony, let him proceed against him who shall testify it. Whoever shall will to object to living testimony, let him first proceed against the witness[es] on their words; and then, after they shall have sworn their oath, let him swear that [each] has sworn falsely, and let him say that he is no lawful witness against him, and let him specify the cause; and let him testify to two men that the witness did not proceed against the cause objected; and those two men are called counter-witnesses, and they are unobjectionable. When a witness in his testimony shall lawfully testify of a thing to others against a defendant, or when a defendant shall lawfully testify of a thing against witnesses; such are called counter-witnesses in law, and they are not to be objected to. The calling forward of evidences is possible any time the person who shall call them may will, whether before denial and defence or afterwards; because what took place before the suit is what they prove between the litigants. Contravening of evidences is when they shall first appear against the defendant for these causes: for manifest perjury, or for public or private spoil, or for breaking the peace, or for being excommunicated by name, or for near relationship, or for evident enmity, or for his being a sharer of the chattels with which the suit is concerned; and that before they revert to their recollection. If he then is unable to contravene them lawfully, afterwards let him object to them as witnesses in one of the three lawful ways.
Whoever shall waylay pays twofold, because it is a violence against a person to kill him, and a theft to conceal; and that is the one place in law where violence and theft become connected. And it is to be thus denied; the oaths of fifty men to deny wood and field, and three of them under vow to abstain from flesh and woman and horse riding. The measure in denying wood and field is a legal rhandir between open and tangled, and wood and field, and wet and dry; and such as cannot lawfully deny a rhandir, cannot deny wood and field. It is not waylaying however if it be on a lawful road (fford gyfreith) without hiding and without concealment thereon. If however he is out of the road five legal paces and five feet in each pace, it is a waylaying; and that is the reason it is so denied, and that a twofold payment is made; and that is the one instance for which hanging and confiscation are due.
There are seven bishop-houses in Dyved, and Mynyw is the chief in Cymru. Llanismael and Llandegeman and Llanussyllt and Llanteilaw and Llanteulydawc and Llangeneu. The abbots of Teilaw and Teulydawc and Ismael and Degeman should be ordained scholars. Twelve pounds is the ebediw of every one of these, and it is to be paid to the Lord of Dyved; and those who succeed them are to pay it. Mynyw is free from every due. Llankeneu and Llanussyllt are free from that due because they have no land. Whoever shall do sârhad to any one of those abbots, let him pay seven pounds to him, and let a female of his kindred be a washerwoman as a reproach to the kindred arid as a memorial of the punishment (dial).
Three calamitous losses of a kindred: one is, that there should be a doubted son without being affiliated and without being denied; and that such should kill a man of another kindred without owing him anything; the whole of that galanas is to be paid; and then he is to be denied lest he should commit a second crime. The second is, paying the whole of a galanas excepting a penny and a halfpenny; and should there be a failure of that, and a person of the kindred be killed on account of that failure, there is to be no claim for him. The third is, when an innocent person is slandered concerning a corpse and is proceeded against, if he does not deny by a period lawfully fixed, and if a person be killed because of him, there is to be no expiation for it.
Three legal periods to avenge a dead body: between two kindreds who do not originate from the same gwlad, commencing a claim on the first day of the week following that wherein the dead was murdered; if there comes no answer by the end of a fortnight, the law makes vengeance free. The second is, if the two kindreds are in the same cantrev, commencing a claim on the third day after the dead is slain; if there comes no answer by the end of the ninth day, the law makes vengeance free. The third is, if the two kindreds are in the same cymwd, commencing a claim on the third day after the dead is murdered; if there comes no answer by the end of the sixth day, the law makes vengeance free.
Three nets of a king are: his household, for which net there is no reparation but the mercy of the king. The second is his stud; for every horse caught on it, the king receives four legal pence. The third is the cattle of his maer-house; for every steer found on them, the king receives four legal pence. Three nets of a breyr are: his stud, and the cattle of his maer-house, and his swine, because, if an animal is found among them, the breyr receives for every animal four legal pence. Three nets of ataeog are: his cattle, and his swine, and his homestead (hentref); for each animal caught therein he receives four curt pence from the calends of May until September shall have gone.
Three dirwys of a king are: the dirwy for violence, and the dirwy for theft, and the dirwy for acknowledged fighting. The expiation dirwy for violence is a silver rod and a gold cup with a gold cover of the kind mentioned in expiation of a king’s sârhad. The expiation dirwy for acknowledged fighting is twelve kine. The expiation dirwy for theft is, if a person be charged with theft and he personally deny it satisfactorily, and a rhaith be placed on him and it fail, he is an acknowledged thief since his rhaith has failed. Innocent by his own account, nothing being taken in his possession or found in his hand, twelve kine dirwy upon him. Three indispensables of a king are: his household priest, and his court judge, and his household. Three things which a king shares with no one: his gold treasure, and his hawk, and his thief.
Three fours there are: four causes of perverting judgment; from fear of a powerful man, and heart hatred [of enemies], and love of friends, and lust of chattels. The second four are: four shields which interpose between a person and a rhaith of a gwlad in a prosecution for theft; one is, legally harbouring a guest, that is, keeping him from the time of nightfall until the morning, and placing the hand over him three times that night, that is, swearing on his part and the people of the house with him. The second is birth and rearing; the owner swearing with two men of the same status as himself, as to seeing the birth of the animal and its rearing in his possession without its going three nights from him. The third is a warrant. The fourth is custody before loss, that is, a person swearing with two men of the same status as himself, that before the other lost his chattels, those chattels were in his possession. There is no warrant except unto the third hand. The third hand establishes custody before loss, and that defends a person from [a charge of] theft. The third four are: four persons to whom there is no protection against the king either in court or in llan. One is a person who violates the protection of the king in one of the three principal festivals. The second is a person who shall be pledged willingly to the king. The third is his supperer, a person who ought to provide for him and who leaves him that night without food. The fourth is his bondman.
Three crimes which, if a person commit in his own gwlad, his son is on that account to lose by law his father’s trev: the killing of his lord; and the killing of his chief of kindred; and the killing of his family representative (teispan tyle); and that because of the gravity of those crimes. Three silent ones in session: a lord of justice listening to his gwyrda adjudicating their laws; and a judge listening to a plaint and defence; and a surety listening to a plaintiff and defendant mutually answering.
Three lawful rests of a spear during pleadings: one is, thrusting its butt-end in the earth with one hand till it can scarcely be drawn out with two hands. The second is, thrusting its point into a bush till the blade be hid. The third is, the placing thereof on a thicket which shall be of the height of a man. And unless it be on one of those three rests and a person encounter it so as to cause his death, a third of the person’s galanas falls upon the spear’s owner. Three futile expressions which are uttered in court and do not avail: denial before verdict; and premature objection; and pleading after judgment. Three worthless milks there are: milk of a mare; milk of a bitch; and milk of a cat; since there is no expiation made for any of them. Three sârhads not to be expiated if received when intoxicated: sârhad done to the priest of the household; and sârhad to the judge of the court; and sârhad to the physician of the court; because these should not be intoxicated, as they know not what time the king may have need of them. Three buffets not to be expiated: one by the lord on his man in ordering him in the day of battle and fighting; and one by a father on his son to punish him; and one by a chief of kindred on his relative in order to counsel him.
Three women with whose heirs there is to be no pleading as to their mother’s trev: a woman who is given as a hostage for land and who bears a son in her condition of hostage; and the son of a woman who shall avenge a person of his mother’s kindred and on that account lose his father’s trev, and therefore there is to be no pleading with him as to his mother’s trev; and the son of a woman who is given to an alltud with the kindred’s consent. Three disgraces of a kindred there are, and on account of a woman the three occur: the violation of a woman against her will. The second is, bringing another woman to the house, supplanting [the wife] and driving her forth. The third is despoiling her, being more pleased to spoil her than to be connected with her. Three pieces of flesh of a hundred perplexities there are: one is a piece stolen [lit. theft] as to whatever way a share thereof may travel, for there are nine accessories to it. The second is the hart of a king as to whoever may cut it up. The third is a carcase left by a wolf as to whoever may do wrong with respect to it. Three strong scandals of a woman there are: one is seeing the man and the woman emerging from the same thicket, one from each side of the thicket. The second is seeing them both under the same mantle. The third is seeing the man between the two thighs of the woman. Three things for which a person shall prosecute for theft, though they do not constitute theft: ploughing, and felling of timber, and building. Three sârhads of a woman there are, one of which is augmented, and one diminished, and one is a complete sârhad. When a kiss is given her against her will, a third of her sârhad is wanting to her then. The second is feeling her with the hand, and that is a full sârhad to her. The third is being connected with her against her will, and that is augmented by the third. Three ways whereby one can object to witnesses: by land-feud, and galanas-feud, and woman-feud.
Three sons being three brothers of the same mother and the same father, who are not to have a share of land from their brothers of the same mother and the same father as themselves: one is a son of thicket and bush, and after that, the same man taking to wife the same woman with consent of kindred and begetting a son of her; that son is not to share land with the son begotten before him in thicket and bush. The second is, if a scholar marries a wife with consent of kindred and begets a son by her, and afterwards if the scholar takes priest’s orders and after that a son is born to that priest by the aforesaid woman, the first son is not to share land with the last, because contrary to law was he begotten. The third is a mute, because land is not for any one who cannot answer for it; for land (glat) is not given to a mute.
Three persons whose status rises in one day: when a taeogtrev has a church consecrated therein with the king’s permission, a person of that trev, who is a taeog in the morning, becomes that night a free man. The second is a person to whom the king gives one of the twenty-four privileged offices, who, before the office is given him, is a taeog and who, after it is given, is a free man. The third is a clerk who the day he receives the tonsure is in the morning a taeog (yn vab tayac) and becomes that night a free man.
Three legal worths of the foetus of a woman: the first is, blood before formation, if it perish through cruelty, of the value of forty-eight [pence]. The second s, before life (eneit) enters into it, if it perish through cruelty, the third of its galanas is to be paid for it. The third is, after that life has entered into it, if it perish through cruelty, then the whole of its galanas is to be paid for it.
Three ways whereby a son is to be affiliated to a father: one is, when a woman of thicket and bush, being pregnant, shall be at her full time (ar y llauaeth), let her priest (y pheriglar) visit her and let her swear to him, ‘May I be delivered of a snake by this pregnancy if a father has begotten it on a mother other than the man to whom I affiliate it,’ and naming him; and so she affiliates lawfully. The second is, a chief of kindred with the hands of seven of the kindred with him, is to affiliate him. The third is, if there be no chief of kindred, the oaths of fifty men of his kindred affiliate him, and the son himself first swears because the mother’s oath is not legal except in the above affiliation.
Three ways whereby a son is disowned by a kindred: the man, whose son he is said to be, takes the son and places him between himself and the altar, and places his left hand on the head of the son and the right hand on the altar and the relics; and let him swear that he has not begotten him, and that there is no drop of his blood in him. The second is, if the father is not alive; the chief of kindred is to deny him, and with him the hands of seven of the kindred. The third is, if he has no chief of kindred; the oaths of fifty men of the kindred denies him, and the eldest son of the man, to whom the son was affined, is to swear first. Three places where a person is not to give the oath of an absolver: one is on a bridge of a single timber without a hand-rail. The second is at the gateway of a churchyard, because the ‘Pater’ is to be sung there for the souls of the Christians of the world. The third is at the church door, because the ‘Pater’ is to be sung there before the rood. These persons are exempt from the oath of an absolver: a lord, and a bishop, and a mute, and one who is deaf, and one of foreign language, and a pregnant woman. Three vexations of the wise are: drunkenness, and adultery, and bad disposition. Three persons who are entitled to an advocate for them in court: a woman; and one with natural impediment in speech; and an alltud of foreign speech. The one person who is to choose the advocate: a lord. Three animals whose acts towards brutes are not cognizable in law during their rutting season: a stallion; and the bull of a trevgordd; and a herd boar. Three animals which have no legal worth: an autumn born pig; and a harrier; and a badger. Three bloods not amenable in law are: blood from a scabby head; and blood from the nostril; and blood from teeth; unless struck through anger. Three fires the results of which are not cognizable in law: the fire of heath-burning, from the middle of March to the middle of April; and the fire of a bath in a trevgordd; and the fire of a smithy which shall be nine paces distant from the trev, with a roof of broom or sods thereon. Three birds whose worth the king is to have wherever they are killed: an eagle, and a crane, and a raven. The owner of the land whereon they are killed is to have fifty [pence] from the person who kills them. Three vermin (pryf) whose worth the king is entitled to wherever they are killed: a beaver; and a marten; and a stoat; because from their skins are made the borders of the king’s garments. Three things which the law suffers not to be appraised: meal; and bees; and silver; because their like are procurable. Three legal vessels of generation are: that of a bitch, and that of a cat, and that of a squirrel; because they can liberate (dillg) and relax when they will. Three free timbers in the forest of a king: the roof-tree of a church; and the timber of shafts which go for the king’s use; and the timber for a bier. Three buffalo horns of the king: his feasting horn; and his mustering horn; and his horn in the hand of the chief huntsman. Each is a pound in value. Three free huntings there are in every gwlad: hunting a roebuck, and hunting a fox, and hunting an otter; for they have no permanent homes (tref tat). Three things which prevail over law: violence; and contract; and necessity. Three names for an apparitor are: the cry of a gwlad; and dread report, the canghellor’s servant; and rhingyll (apparitor). Three ways in which a silver rod is paid to the king: for violence; and for violating protection of way towards an irremediable beggar; and for sârhad to a king.
Three thrusts not to be redressed: one is, a person demanding right from his enemy on account of his kinsman in three pleadings and not obtaining right; and afterwards meeting with his enemy, and thrusting him with a spear so that he dies; that thrust is not to be redressed. The second is, jealousy caused to a married woman by another woman concerning her husband, and the two women meeting together, and the married woman making a thrust with her hands at the other woman so that she die; there is to be no reparation to her. The third is, giving a mature maiden to a man with surety as to her virginity, and the man making a genital thrust at her and having connexion with her once and finding her a woman; he is to call the marriage guests to him, candles are to be lighted and her shift cut before her as high as her pubes and behind her as high as her buttocks, and she is to be sent off with that thrust without any reparation to her; and that is the law for a deceitful maid. Three persons who are not to be sold legally: an acknowledged thief for having the worth of four legal pence in his hand, and a waylayer, and a traitor to a lord. Three chattels which are secure without surety: chattels which a lord shall give to a man and which come to him by law; and chattels which a wife shall have from her husband [as wynebwerth] when the husband shall have connexion with another woman;
[A chasm in V supplied from W]
and chattels taken in a war between two lords. Three things common to a gwlad: an army, and pleas, and a church; for every one is under summons to them.
Three modest blushes of a maid there are: one is when told by her father ‘Maiden, I have given thee to a husband’. The second is, bidding her go to her husband to sleep. The third is, seeing her in the morning rising from her husband. And because of each of those three, her husband pays her amobr to her lord, and her cowyll and her agweddi to herself. Three stays of blood are: the breast, and the middle girdle, and the trousers girdle. Three unabashed ones of a gwlad without whom it is impossible to do: a lord and a priest and law. Three hearths which are to do right and to receive it for a person who has no acknowledged lord: that of a father, and of an eldest brother, and of a father in law.
Three legal needles are: the needle of the queen’s serving woman; and the needle of the physician for sewing the wounds; and the needle of the chief huntsman for sewing the torn dogs; each one of them is four legal pence in value. The needle of any other skilful woman is a legal penny in value.
Three defunct testimonies there are, which stand in pleas well: one is, when there shall be contention and fighting between two lords concerning land, which subsequently is duly terminated in the presence of all; after these severally have died, their sons or their grandsons or some of their kindred can bear testimony concerning that land; and these are called evidences as to land. The second is, persons of lineage from every side who are called land borderers, to decide by kin and descent, and to confirm by bearing testimony; and they can augment the person’s title to land and soil. The third is, when there shall be seen the hearth-stone of a father or a grandfather or of a greatgrandfather or one of the kindred of the same title as himself; and the tofts of the houses and their barns and the furrows of the land ploughed and the erws, every one of which affords testimony as to a person’s title. Three secrets there are which it is better to confess than to conceal: losses to a lord, and waylaying, and a person killing his father if acknowledged in confidence.
Three one-footed animals there are: a stallion and a hawk and a covert-hound. Whoever shall break the foot of one of them, let him pay its entire worth. Three things not to be paid for, though lost in a lodging house (ranty): a knife, and a sword, and trousers; for whoever owns them ought to guard them. Three sârhads of a corpse are: when it is killed; when it is despoiled; when thrown to the ground. Three reproaches of a corpse are: asking who killed it, who owns this bier, whose is this grave. Three scowls not to be redressed: the scowl of a husband to his wife whom he received in the status of a maid and she a woman; and a person ruined by law and a person of his kindred scowling on that account; and the scowl of a person towards a dog attacking him. Three distraints not to be restored: for theft; and for [one on a] surety who will not enforce [right]; and for galanas. Three things if found on a road there is no necessity to answer for any of them: a horseshoe; and a needle; and a penny.
Three persons to whom tongue-wound is to be paid: to the king; and to the judge when considering his decision; and to the priest in his vestments (wife) on the three principal festivals over his altar, or whilst reading a letter before the king, or whilst composing one. Three cases in the law of Howel in which proof occurs: one of them, it belongs to a woman to prove a rape against a man. The second is, it belongs to a debtor to prove over the grave of the surety as to his being surety, and that his suretyship was not exonerated whilst he lived. The third is, the proving of a shepherd dog. Three plagues of a kindred: nursing a son of a lord; and affiliating a son to a kindred wrongfully; and guarding supreme authority (penreith). Three things which destroy a contract: illness; and a lord’s necessity; and poverty. Three things which defend a person from a summons to pleadings: shouting and sound of horns against the host of a border gwlad; and flood in a river without bridge and without skiff; and illness.
Three persons to whom galanas is paid and they themselves pay no galanas: a lord, for to him comes a third of every galanas for exacting it. The second is a chief of kindred, for according to his status his relations’ galanas is paid. The third is a father, for a share comes to him of his son’s galanas, to wit, a penny; because his son is no relative (car) to him. And not one of them is to be killed on account of galanas. Half a brother’s share of galanas, a sister pays; and she receives no share of galanas. Three throws not to be redressed: at a stag in corn; and at a wild colt in corn; and at a dog in corn. Three persons who impoverish a gwlad: a prevaricating lord; an iniquitous judge; and an accusing maer. Three strong ones of the world: a lord, for a stone along ice is a lord; and an idiot, for it is not possible to compel an idiot in anything, against his will; and a person without anything, for it is not possible to exact anything where there is nothing. Three animals there are of the same worth as to their tails and their eyes and their lives: a calf, and a filly for common work (torn), and a cat; except the cat which shall watch a king’s barn.
Three persons hated by a kindred: a thief, and a deceiver, since they cannot be depended on; and a person who shall kill a person of his own kindred; as the living kin is not slain for the dead kin, everybody will hate to see him. Three things common to a kindred: chief of kindred, and a representative, and the son of a woman given with kindred’s consent to their enemy; such is to be in common between the two kindreds. Three disgraceful faults of a man: being a bad friend (karr), and flaccid in pleadings, and a man to a bad lord.
Three animals there are whose teithi exceed their legal worth: a stallion; and the bull of a trevgordd; and a herd boar, for the breed is lost if they are lost. Three signs of inhabitancy of a gwlad: little children, and dogs, and cocks. Hitherto we have discussed the Triads of Law; now we will treat of the Ninth days.
The first is the ninth day of December concerning land. The second is the ninth day of May succeeding. The third is the ninth day of May when occur the teithi of the first milk. The fourth is the ninth day of February when occur the teithi of the first work. Ninth day there is to a lord to recollect himself as to his oath when it shall be asserted that he has previously made an oath. Ninth day period there is between court and llan before answering, and that after a claim, when there shall be a dispute as to land. Ninth day period there is concerning a corpse, which shall have originated from the same cantrev as the person who shall have killed him. Three ninth days there are for a chief huntsman. Three ninth days there are as to the pregnancy of a woman. Ninth day before August every swarm assumes the status of a mother-hive. Ninth day period there is as to a warrant in the same gwlad, or as to a witness in the same gwlad. Ninth day period there is for removing a house erected on another person’s land without his consent. Ninth day period there is for a wife to await her share of the chattels in her house when she shall separate from her husband. Ninth day period doubled there is as to a plough when broken.5
Listen, thou judge, who givest the judgments. Let not the worth of a penny be more in thy sight than the worth of God. Do not judge wrongly for worth but judge justly for God.
Small wonder if there be hesitation in a temporal court, since they shift as to their desire like the breeze of heaven. But whosoever loves certainty and security from falling, [for him] the right service of the Lord Jesus Christ is that which is the glorifying of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Three places where a person is not to give the oath of an absolver: one is, a bridge of a single timber without a handrail. The second is in the gateway of a churchyard, because a person is to sing the ‘Pater’ there for the souls (eneit) of the Christians of the world. The third is in the doorway of the church, because a person is to sing the ‘Pater’ there before the rood.
When a son is affiliated to a kindred with the oaths of fifty men, the son is to swear before the kindred because it is not lawful to listen to her except in the case of the first oath when she shall say ‘Let a snake be begotten’ to her.
When a son is denied by a kindred, the eldest son of the man whose son he is said to be, is to swear first before the kindred.
Three futile crosses there are: a cross placed on a road in corn; and a cross placed on the bark of a tree lying in a wood; and a cross which a person places on an altar in a case where a church is not to interfere with him.
