The Three States

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

THE THREE STATES.

1. According to the three principal qualities of man shall be his migration in Abred: from indolence and mental blindness he shall fall to Annwn; from dissolute wantonness he shall traverse the circle of Abred, according to his necessity; and from his love for goodness he shall ascend to the circle of Gwynvyd. As one or the other of the principal qualities of man predominates, shall the state

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of the man be; hence his three states, Annwn, Abred, ¹ and Gwynvyd.

2. The three states of living beings: Annwn, whence the beginning; Abred, in which is the increase of knowledge, and hence goodness; and Gwynvyd, in which is the plenitude of all goodness, knowledge, truth, love, and endless life.

Footnotes

243:1 p. 242 As it is now generally admitted that the Hyperboreans, spoken of by ancient authors, were the same as the primitive inhabitants of Britain, or the Cymry, it is very probable that their priest Abaris, who, according to Herodotus, (I. iv. 36.) carried an arrow round the whole earth fasting, referred mystically to the circle of Abred. He is said to have presented his arrow to Pythagoras, by which we are probably to understand that the philosopher received the doctrine of the metempsychosis from the Druids.

According to Stephanus of Bysantium, (De Urb.,) the Cimbri or Cimmerii were called also Abroi, perhaps Abredolion.

Αβροι--Κιμβροι, ως τινες φασι, Κιμμεριοι.