Tom Taylor

“ Noménoë was the Alfred of the Bretons, their deliverer from the Franks under Charles the Bald, in the 9th century (a.d., 841) . He is a strictly historical personage. Under him the Bretons succeeded in driving the immensely superior force of the Franks beyond the rivers of l’Oust and Vilaine ; pushed their frontier as far as Poitou, and rescued from the hands of the invader the towns of Nantes and Rennes, which have remained included in Brittany from the date of their deliverance by Noménoë. ”

“ I may not go, and I am sad.
The friends that are in my own countrie,
When you shall see them greet from me,—
Oh! greet the good mother that me bare,
And the sire that rear’d me with love and care,—
Oh! ”

“ And forth to the greenwood he hath gone.
By the skirts of the wood as he did go,
He was ’ware of a hind as white as snow ;
Oh, fast she ran, and fast he rode,
That the earth it shook where his horse-hoofs trode. ”

“ The belief in the appearance of Arthur’s host on the mountains, headed by their mystic chief,—who awakens from his charmed sleep in the Valley of Avillion whenever war impends over his beloved Cymry,—is common to all the Celtic races. Sir Walter Scott has recorded the belief entertained in the Highlands of the apparition of mounted warriors riding along the precipitous flanks of the mountains, where no living horse could keep his footing. The apparition of this ghostly troop is always held to portend war ”

“ Were young when death did them divide.
But yesterday that lady fair
Two babes as white as snow did bear;
A man~child and a girl they were.
“Now, say what is thy heart’s desire,
For making me a man-child’s sire?
’Tis thine, whnte’er thou may’st requirc.——
“What food soe’er thee lists to take,
Meat of the woodcock from the lake,
Meat of the wild deer from the brake.”
“Oh, the meat of the deer is dainty food ! ”

“ Thee first, as chief, thou white-hair’d man.
“Your news, your news, come tell to me:
What would you of Noménoë?”
“We come for right; to know, in brief,
Hath Heaven a God,—Bretayne a chief?”
“Heaven hath a God, I trow, old man ”

“ For your scales—you’ll ne’er need them again.
“Your scales of gold you will need no more,
To weigh the stones of the Breton shore!
⁠To war!”
↑ The “herb of gold” is the mystic selage. According to Breton superstition, iron cannot approach it without the sky clouding, and disaster following. ↑ The Breton name of Rennes. ↑ This practice of sounding the horn for washing before dinner (corner l’eau it is called in old French) , is still kept up at the Temple. ↑ “Cordwain:” leather of Cordova—“Cordovan.” Hence our “Cordwainer.” ”

“ And at your side he’ll be back anon.”
“What gown for my churching wer’t best to wear,—
My gown of grain, or of watchet fair?”
“The fashion of late, my child, hath grown,
That women for churching black should don.” ”