The textual history of Trioedd y Meirch (the Triads of the Horses)

Abstract

Trioedd y meirch (the triads of the horses) make up a coherent sub-group within the corpus of Trioedd Ynys Prydain, or the Triads of the Island of Britain. Ten texts of trioedd y meirch survive from between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries; this article seeks to better understand the transmission and development of these texts. It identifies five main versions of trioedd y meirch which circulated within Wales during the medieval period and argues that the corpus as it survives today represents the contributions of the many scribes and copyists who encountered this material over a period of centuries and must be understood in its written context. This article also considers trioedd y meirch’s relationship to Canu y Meirch, a poem which survives in the Book of Taliesin (NLW Peniarth 2) and develops a relative choronology for the development of the expanded narrative triad Tri marchlwyth Ynys Prydain (‘Three horse-burdens of the Island of Britain’, TYP no. 44).