This is the English translation of the poems Trioedd y Meirch (Triads of the Horses/Triads of the Steeds) from the the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin (Black Book of Carmarthen). It is rendered as close as possible to the original using my font, Mabinogi Celtic which is free for anyone to download and install. The poems themselves are four-line stanzas, each describing three famous steeds.

Triads of the Horses

Three plundered horses of the Island of Britain
Cloven-hoofed, Owein son of Urien's steed
And ?Lively Trampler, steed of Gwgawn Redsword
And Long-tingue, Long-forelimb steed of Cadwallawn son of Cadfan


Three pack-horses of the Island of Britain
Huge Yellow Pasgen son of Urien's steed
And Fierce Long Black steed of Selyf son of Cynan Garwyn
And Brave-grey steed of Rhydderch the Generous


Three splendid horses of the Island of Britain
Chestnut Long-neck Cei's steed
Fearless Rusher, wolf-trot, steed of Gilberd son of Cadgyffro
And Hard-back Gwalchmei's steed


Three beautiful steeds of the Island of Britain
Kind, steed of Caradawg son of Brân
And yellow-green the steed of Caswallawn son of Beli
[[*]And Eager Long-forelimb steed of Cyhored son of Cynan]



Follow these links for the original version of the poem and the modern Welsh version of the poems.




The poems given above are transcribed directly from the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin (Black Book of Carmarthen), with reference to Blodeugerdd Barddas o'r Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Ddeg edited by Dafydd Johnston and to AHO Jarman's diplomatic edition of the text. Letters or words obviously missing from the text are enclosed in square brackets [ ] and letters or words that are either superfluous to the metre or which are erroniously copied in the original are indicated in italic text.