Transcribed from the 1912 J. M. Dent and Sons edition by DavidPrice,
Gerald the Welshman—GiraldusCambrensis—was born, probably in 1147, at Manorbier Castlein the county of Pembroke. His father was a Norman noble,William de Barri, who took his name from the little island ofBarry off the coast of Glamorgan. His mother, Angharad, wasthe daughter of Gerald de Windsor [0a] by his wife, thefamous Princess Nesta, the “Helen of Wales,” and thedaughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr Mawr, the last independent Prince ofSouth Wales.
Gerald was therefore born to romance and adventure. Hewas reared in the traditions of the House of Dinevor. Heheard the brilliant and pitiful stories of Rhys ap Tewdwr, who,after having lost and won South Wales, died on the stricken fieldfighting against the Normans, an old man of over fourscore years;and of his gallant son, Prince Rhys, who, after wrenching hispatrimony from the invaders, died of a broken heart a few monthsafter his wife, the Princess Gwenllian, had fallen in a skirmishat Kidwelly. No doubt he heard, though he makes but sparingallusion to them, of the loves and adventures of his grandmother,the Princess Nesta, the daughter and sister of a prince, the wifeof an adventurer, the concubine of a king, and the paramour ofevery daring lover—a Welshwoman whose passions embroiledall Wales, and England too, in war, and the mother ofheroes—Fitz-Geralds, Fitz-Stephens, and Fitz-Henries, andothers—who, regardless of their mother’s eccentricityin the choice of their fathers, p. viiiunited like brothers in the mostadventurous undertaking of that age, the Conquest of Ireland.
Though his mother was half Saxon and his father probably fullyNorman, Gerald, with a true instinct, described himself as a“Welshman.” His frank vanity, so naïve asto be void of offence, his easy acceptance of everything whichProvidence had bestowed on him, his incorrigible belief that allthe world took as much interest in himself and all that appealedto him as he did himself, the readiness with which he adaptedhimself to all sorts of men and of circumstances, his credulityin matters of faith and his shrewd common sense in things of theworld, his wit and lively fancy, his eloquence of tongue and pen,his acute rather than accurate observation, his scholarshipelegant rather than profound, are all characteristic of a certainlovable type of South Walian. He was not blind to thedefects of his countrymen any more than to others of hiscontemporaries, but the Welsh he chastised as one who lovedthem. His praise followed ever close upon the heels of hiscriticism. There was none of the rancour in his referencesto Wales which defaces his account of contemporary Ireland. He was acquainted with Welsh, though he does not seem to havepreached it, and another archdeacon acted as the interpreter ofArchbishop Baldwin’s Crusade sermon in Anglesea. Buthe could appreciate the charm of the Cynghanedd, thealliterative assonance which is still the most distinctivefeature of Welsh poetry. He cannot conceal his sympathywith the imperishable determination of his countrymen to keepalive the language which is their differentia among thenations of the world. It is manifest in the story which herelates at the end of his “Description ofWales.” Henry II. asked an old Welshman of Pencaderin Carmarthenshire if the Welsh could resist his might. “This nation, O King,” was the reply, “mayoften be weakened and in great part destroyed by the power ofyourself and