Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

287graphically not by a bounding line, but by divergent rays, isinhabited by God alone. The following extract from “Barddas,”in which the alleged bardic teaching is conveyed in catechismform, will serve to show the order of ideas in which the writer'smind moved:The Circles of Being“Q. Whence didst thou proceed?“A. I came from the Great World, having my beginning inAnnwn.“Q. Where art thou now? and how camest thou to what thouart?“A. I am in the Little World, whither I came having traversedthe circle of Abred, and now I am a Man, at its termination andextreme limits.“Q. What wert thou before thou didst become a man, in thecircle of Abred?“A. I was in Annwn the least possible that was capable of lifeand the nearest possible to absolute death; and I came in everyform and through every form capable of a body and life to the [335]state of man along the circle of Abred, where my condition wassevere and grievous during the age of ages, ever since I wasparted in Annwn from the dead, by the gift of God, and His greatgenerosity, and His unlimited and endless love.“Q. Through how many different forms didst thou come, andwhat happened unto thee?”“A. Through every form capable of life, in water, in earth, inair. And there happened unto me every severity, every hardship,every evil, and every suffering, and but little was the goodness orGwynfyd before I became a man.... Gwynfyd cannot be obtainedwithout seeing and knowing everything, but it is not possible to