Welsh Legend
Legendary versions of Maximus' career in which he marries the Welsh princess Elen may have been in popular circulation in Welsh speaking areas from an early point. Although the story of Helen and Maximus's meeting is almost certainly fictional, there is some evidence for the basic claims. He is certainly given a prominent place in the earliest version of the Welsh Triads which are believed to date from c. 1100 and which reflect far older traditions. Macsen is also frequently referred to in Welsh poetry as a point of comparison to later Welsh leaders. These legends come down to us in two separate versions.
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Famous quotes containing the words welsh and/or legend:
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
—Willis Goldbeck (1900–1979)