IN preparing the present work for the press, it has been deemed advisable to place the Welsh and English on opposite pages, as an arrangement more convenient for the scholar, who may wish to test the accuracy of the translation by a reference to the original.
Except to supply some of the headings, no liberty whatever has been taken with the text. Even obvious and glaring errors, whether in the orthography or punctuation, have been transferred to our pages exactly as they were found in the manuscript.
The translation has been rendered as literal as possible, short of becoming obscure. This was considered expedient, not only with the view of exhibiting the style and idiom of the original, but in order to guard against any misapprehension of the sense, which a free construction is too apt to produce.
Notes, historical and explanatory, have been added, which, without being cumbersome, it is to be hoped, will prove of considerable service to the reader.
Our thanks are especially due to the Right Honourable Lord and Lady Llanover for their kindness in allowing us free access to the MSS. of Iolo Morganwg, from which the present Collection has been for the most part made.