“The first of these events,” it is said, “was the eruption of Llyn-llion, or ‘the lake of waves,’ and the inundation (bawdd) of the whole country, by which all mankind was drowned with the exception of Dwyfam and Dwyfach, who saved themselves in a vessel without rigging, and it was by them that the island of Prydian was repeopled.”

Pictet here observes: 

“Although the triads in their actual form hardly date farther than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, some of them are undoubtedly connected with very ancient traditions, and nothing here points to a borrowing from Genesis.

“But it is not so, perhaps, with another triad, speaking of the vessel Nefyddnaf-Neifion, which at the time of the overflow of Llyon-llion, bore a pair of all living creatures, and rather too much resembles the ark of Noah.  The very name of the patriarch may have suggested this triple epithet, obscure as to its meaning, but evidently formed on the principle of Cymric alliteration.  In the same triad we have the enigmatic story of the horned oxen (ychain banog) of Hu the mighty, who drew out of Llyon-llion the avanc (beaver or crocodile?), in order that the lake should not overflow.  The meaning of these enigmas could only be hoped from deciphering the chaos of barbaric monuments of the Welsh middle age; but meanwhile we cannot doubt that the Cymri possessed an indigenous tradition of the Deluge.”

We also find a vestige of the same tradition in the Scandinavian Ealda.  Here the story is combined with a cosmogonic myth.  The three sons of Borr—­Othin, Wili, and We—­grandsons of Buri, the first man, slay Ymir, the father of the Hrimthursar, or ice giants, and his body serves them for the construction of the world.  Blood flows from his wounds in such abundance that all the race of giants is drowned in it except Bergelmir, who saves himself, with his wife, in a boat, and reproduces the race.

In the Edda of Soemund, “The Vala’s Prophecy” (stz. 48-56, p. 9), we seem to catch traditional glimpses of a terrible catastrophe, which reminds us of the Chaldean legend: 

“Then trembles Yggdrasil’s ash yet standing, groans that ancient tree, and the Jotun Loki is loosed.  The shadows groan on the ways of Hel (the goddess of death), until the fire of Surt has consumed the tree.  Hyrm steers from the east, the waters rise, the mundane snake is coiled in jotun-rage.  The worm beats the water and the eagle screams; the pale of beak tears carcasses; (the ship) Naglfar is loosed.  Surt from the south comes with flickering flame; shines from his sword the Valgod’s sun.  The stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the path of Hel, and heaven is cloven.  The sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fire’s breath assails the all-nourishing, towering fire plays against heaven itself.”

Egypt does not contain a single allusion to the Flood.  Lenormant says: