Origin of Letters

The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg, Vol. I., ed. by J. Williams Ab Ithel, [1862], at sacred-texts.com

ORIGIN OF LETTERS.

Einigain, Einigair, or Einiger, the Giant, was the first that made a letter to be a sign of the first vocalization that was ever heard, namely, the Name of God. That is to say, God pronounced His Name, and with the word all the world and its appurtenances, and all the universe leaped together into existence and life, with the triumph of a song of joy. ² The same song was the first poem ³ that was ever heard, and the sound of the song travelled as far as God and His existence are, and the way in which every other existence, springing in unity with Him, has travelled for ever and ever. And it sprang from inopportune nothing; that is to say, so sweetly and melodiously did God declare His Name, that life vibrated through all existence, and through every existing materiality. And the blessed in heaven shall hear it for ever and ever, and where it is heard, there cannot be other than the might of being and life for ever and ever. It was from the hearing, and from him who heard it, that sciences and knowledge and under-

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standing and awen from God, were obtained. The symbol of God's Name from the beginning was , afterwards , and now OIW; and from the quality of this symbol proceed every form and sign of voice, and sound, and name, and condition.

Footnotes

39:2 There was some such tradition about the Creation in Job's time, as we infer from Chap. xxxviii. 7 of his Book. "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

There is an allusion to the creative melody in the poetic compositions of the Bards. Thus in a version of the "Englynion y Coronog Faban" attributed to Aneurin, about A.D. 550.--

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[paragraph continues] And William Cynwal (1560-1600)--

39:3 Cymrice cerdd, which, though now universally meaning a poem, or a song, seems to have originally denoted a going or a walk. We have thus the reason why it received its secondary meaning, i.e. because the melody of the divine vocalization a gerddodd, walked through, or pervaded all creation.