| |
| THE MOUNTAIN sheep are sweeter, | |
| But the valley sheep are fatter; | |
| We therefore deem’d it meeter | |
| To carry off the latter. | |
| We made an expedition; | 5 |
| We met an host and quell’d it; | |
| We forced a strong position | |
| And kill’d the men who held it. | |
| |
| On Dyfed’s richest valley, | |
| Where herds of kine were browsing, | 10 |
| We made a mighty sally, | |
| To furnish our carousing. | |
| Fierce warriors rush’d to meet us; | |
| We met them, and o’erthrew them: | |
| They struggled hard to beat us, | 15 |
| But we conquer’d them, and slew them. | |
| |
| As we drove our prize at leisure, | |
| The king march’d forth to catch us: | |
| His rage surpass’d all measure, | |
| But his people could not match us. | 20 |
| He fled to his hall-pillars; | |
| And, ere our force we led off, | |
| Some sack’d his house and cellars, | |
| While others cut his head off. | |
| |
| We there, in strife bewildering, | 25 |
| Spilt blood enough to swim in: | |
| We orphan’d many children | |
| And widow’d many women. | |
| The eagles and the ravens | |
| We glutted with our foemen: | 30 |
| The heroes and the cravens, | |
| The spearmen and the bowmen. | |
| |
| We brought away from battle, | |
| And much their land bemoan’d them, | |
| Two thousand head of cattle | 35 |
| And the head of him who own’d them: | |
| Ednyfed, King of Dyfed, | |
| His head was borne before us; | |
| His wine and beasts supplied our feasts, | |
| And his overthrow, our chorus. | 40 |
| |
