word as The Surexit memorandum, dates from the ninth century, or even earlier, and is a record of a legal case over land. The native Welsh storyteller, known as the cyfarwydd ("the one who knows") was an official of the court. He was expected to know the traditional knowledge and the tales. But the storytelling tradition was basically oral, and only a few remnants suggest the wealth of that tradition. Amongst the most important are Trioedd Ynys Prydain, or the Welsh Triads, a compendium of mnemonics for poets and storytellers. The stories that have survived are literary compositions based on oral tradition. In the Middle Ages Welsh was used for all sorts of purposes and this is reflected in the type of prose materials that has survived from this period: original material and translations, tales and facts, religious and legal, history and medicine. Native Welsh tales, or, Mabinogion The name Mabinogion is a convenient label for a collection of tales preserved in two manuscripts known as the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest. They are written in Middle Welsh, the common literary language between the end of the eleventh century and the fourteenth century. They include the four tales that form Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi ("The Four Branches of the Mabinogi"): Pwyll prince of Dyfed; Branwen daughter of Llŷr; Manawydan son of Llŷr; Math son of Mathonwy. Two are native tales embodying traditions about King Arthur: Culhwch and Olwen the earliest Arthurian tale in any language; The Dream of Rhonabwy. Two more are native tales embodying traditions about the early history of Britain: Lludd and Llefelys; The Dream of Maxen. The final three are the Arthurian Welsh Romances, showing the influence of French poet Chrétien de Troyes: Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, from Yvain, the Knight of the Lion; Geraint and Enid, from Erec and Enide; Peredur son of Efrog, from Perceval, the Story of the Grail. Native Welsh law Tradition holds that Hywel Dda summoned a conference at Whitland, Carmarthenshire, in about 945. At this conference Welsh law was codified and set down in writing for posterity. Since the earliest manuscripts containing these legal texts date from about two hundred and fifty years after the event they are probably not a record of what was codified there, if such a conference was even convened. In fact, until the annexation of Wales in 1536,