1 The Oxford Mabinogion, p. 147; Guest’s Mabinogion, ii. 398. ↑

2 This may have meant the ‘Blue Slate or Flagstone’; but there is no telling so long as the place is not identified. It may have been in the Pictish district of Galloway, or else somewhere beyond the Forth. Query whether it was the same place as Ỻech Gelyđon in Prydyn, mentioned in Boneđ y Saint: see the Myvyrian Archaiology, ii. 49. ↑

3 The story of Kulhwch and Olwen has a different legend which represents Nynio and Peibio changed by the Almighty into two oxen called Ychen Bannaỽc: see the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 121, also my Arthurian Legend, p. 304, and the remarks which are to follow in this chapter with respect to those oxen. ↑

4 For the story in Welsh see the Iolo MSS., pp. 193–4, where a footnote tells the reader that it was copied from the book of ‘Iaco ab Dewi.’ From his father’s manuscript, Taliesin Williams printed an abstract in English in his notes to his poem entitled the Doom of Colyn Dolphyn (London, 1837), pp. 119–20, from which it will be found translated into German in the notes to San-Marte’s Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniæ, pp. 402–3. ↑

5 Oxford Bruts, p. 213: compare p. 146, together with Geoffrey’s Latin, vii. 3, x. 3. ↑

6 See Kölbing’s Altenglische Bibliothek, the fifth volume of which consists of Libeaus Desconus, edited by Max Kaluza (Leipsic, 1890), lines 163, 591, and Introduction, p. cxxxxiv. For calling my attention to this, I have to thank my friend, Mr. Henry Bradley. ↑

7 Malory’s Morte Darthur, i. 27: see also i. 17–8, 28; ii. 6, 8–9. ↑

8 See Evans’ Autotype Facsimile, fo. 33^a: could the spot so called (in the Welsh text argel Ardudwy) be somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ỻyn Irđyn (p. 148), a district said to be rich in the remains of a prehistoric antiquity? J. Evans, author of the North Wales volume of the Beauties of England and Wales, says, after hurriedly enumerating such antiquities, p. 909: ‘Perhaps in no part of Britain is there still remaining such an assemblage of relicks belonging to druidical rites and customs as are found in this place, and the adjacent parts.’ ↑

9 As to Rion, see Gaston Paris and Ulrich’s Merlin (Paris, 1886), i. 202, 239–46. Other instances will readily occur to the reader, such as the Domesday Roelend or Roelent for Rothelan, in Modern Welsh Rhuđlan; but for more instances of this elision by French and Anglo-Norman scribes of vowel-flanked đ and th, see Notes and Queries for Oct. 28, 1899, pp. 351–2, and Nov. 18, p. 415; also Vising’s Étude sur le Dialecte anglo-normand du xij^e Siècle (Upsala, 1882), p. 88; and F. Hildebrand’s article on Domesday, in the Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 1884, p. 360. According to Suchier in Gröber’s Grundriss der rom. Philologie, i. 581, this process of elision became complete in the twelfth century: see also Schwan’s Grammatik des Altfranzösischen (Leipsic, 1888), p. 65. For most of these references, I have to thank my friend and neighbour, Mr. Stevenson of Exeter College. ↑

10 It comes from the same Ỻwyd MS. which has already been cited at pp. 233–4: see the Cambrian Journal for 1859, pp. 209–10. ↑

11 I notice in the maps a spot called Panylau, which is nearer to Ỻyn Gwynain than to Ỻyn y Dinas. ↑

12 See Morris’ Celtic Remains, s. v. Serigi, and the Iolo MSS., p. 81. ↑

13 The Iolo MSS., p. 81, have Syrigi Wyđel son of Mwrchan son of Eurnach Hen. ↑

14 See Triads, ii. 12, and the Mabinogion, p. 301: in Triads, i. 72, iii. 86, instead of Solor we have Doler and Dolor. ↑

15 See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 125–8. ↑

16 Evans’ Autotype Facsimile, fo. 48^a; see also my preface to Dent’s Malory, p. xxvii; likewise p. 457 above. ↑

17 See my Lectures on Welsh Philology, pp. 377–9; and, as to the Caer Gai tradition, the Arch. Camb. for 1850, p. 204, and Morris’ Celtic Remains, p. 63. I may add as to Ỻanuwchỻyn, that the oldest inhabitants pronounce that name Ỻanuwỻyn. ↑

18 I cannot discover that it has ever been investigated by the Cambrian Archæological Association or any other antiquaries. Compare the case of the neighbouring site with the traces of the copper smeltings mentioned in the note on p. 532 above. To my knowledge the Cambrians have twice failed to make their way nearer to the ruins than Ỻanberis, or at most Ỻanberis Pass, significantly called in Welsh Pen Gorffwysfa for the older name Gorffwysfa Beris, ‘Peris’ Resting-place’: thus we loyally follow the example of resting set by the saint, and leave alone the archæology of the district. ↑

19 The subject has been discussed at length by Mr. Jacobs, in a note to the legend, in his Celtic Fairy Tales, pp. 259–64; and quite recently by Mr. D. E. Jenkins in his Beđ Gelert (Portmadoc, 1899), pp. 56–74. ↑

20 Professor J. Morris Jones, to whom I am indebted for the particulars connected with these names, informs me that the local pronunciation is Drónwy; but Mrs. Rhys remembers that, years ago, at Amlwch, it was always sounded Darónwy. The Professor also tells me that Dernog is never made into Dyrnog: the Kuwgh of the Record is doubtless to be corrected into Knwgh, and probably also Dornok into Dernok, which is the reading in the margin. Cornewe is doubtless the district name which we have still in Ỻanfair y’Nghornwy, ‘St. Mary’s in Cornwy’: the mill is supposed to be that of Bodronyn. ↑

21 The Book of Ỻan Dáv has an old form Cinust for an earlier Cingust or Congust. The early Brythonic nominative must have been Cunogústu-s and the early Goidelic Cúnagusu-s, and from the difference of accentuation come the o of Conghus, Connws, and the y of the Welsh Cynwst: compare Irish Fergus and Welsh Gurgúst, later Gu̯rúst (one syllable), whence Grwst, finally the accented rwst of Ỻanrwst, the name of a small town on the river Conwy. Moreover the accentuation Cúnogusi is the reason why it was not written Cunogussi: compare Bárrivendi and Véndubari in one and the same inscription from Carmarthenshire. ↑

22 Such as that of a holding called Wele Dauid ap Gwelsantfrait, the latter part of which is perversely written or wrongly read so for Gwas Sant Freit, a rendering into Welsh of the very Goidelic name, Mael-Brigte, ‘Servant of St. Bridget.’ This Wele, with Wele Conus and Wele More, is contained in the Extent marginally headed Darronwy cum Hameletta de Kuwghdernok. ↑

23 This comes in Triad i. 49 = ii. 40; as to which it is to be noted that the name is Catwaỻawn in i and ii, but Caswaỻawn in iii. 27, as in the Oxford Mabinogion. ↑

24 Serrigi, Serigi, or Syrigi looks like a Latin genitive torn out of its context, but derived in the last resort from the Norse name Sigtrygg-r, which the Four Masters give as Sitriucc or Sitriug: see their entries from 891 to 1091. The Scandinavians of Dublin and its neighbourhood were addicted to descents on the shores of North Wales; and we have possibly a trace of occupation by them in Gaueỻ Seirith, ‘Seirith’s holding,’ in the Record of Carnarvon, p. 63, where the place in question is represented as being in the manor of Cemmaes, in Anglesey. The name Seirith was probably that written by the Four Masters as Sichfraith Sichraidh (also Serridh, A. D. 971), that is to say the Norse Sigræđ-r before it lost the f retained in its German equivalent Siegfried. We seem to detect Seirith later as Seri in place-names in Anglesey—as for example in the name of the farms called Seri Fawr and Seri Bach between Ỻandrygarn and Ỻannerch y Međ, also in a Pen Seri, ‘Seri’s Knoll or Hill,’ at Bryn Du, near Ty Croes station, and in another Pen Seri on Holyhead Island, between Holyhead and Ỻain Goch, on the way to the South Stack. Lastly Dugdale, v. 672^b mentions a Claud Seri, ‘Seri’s Dyke or Ditch,’ as being somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ỻanwnda, in Carnarvonshire—not very far perhaps from the Gwyrfai and the spot where the Iolo MSS. (pp. 81–2) represent Serrigi repulsed by Caswaỻon and driven back to Anglesey, previous to his being crushed at Cerrig y Gwyđyl. The reader must, however, be warned that the modern Seri is sometimes pronounced Si̯eri or Sheri, which suggests the possibility of some of the instances involving rather a form of the English word sheriff. ↑

25 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 546–8. ↑

26 The case with regard to the extreme south of the Principality is somewhat similar; for inscriptions in Glamorgan seem to bring the last echoes there of Goidelic speech down to the seventh century: see the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1899, pp. 160–6. ↑

27 See Evans’ Report on MSS. in the Welsh Language, p. 837, where the Welsh is quoted from p. 131 of the Peniarth MS. 134. ↑

28 See my Arthurian Legend, p. 70. ↑

29 See the Revue Celtique, ii. 197–9, where Dr. Stokes has published the original with a translation and notes; also p. 435 above. ↑

30 The gentlemen to whom I am chiefly indebted for the information embodied in the foregoing notes are the following four: the Rev. John Jones of Ystad Meurig, Professor Robert Williams of St. David’s College, the Vicar of Ỻanđewi Brefi, Mr. J. H. Davies of Cwrt Mawr and Lincoln’s Inn (p. 354); and as to the ‘wild cattle’ story of Ỻyn Eiđwen, Mr. J. E. Rogers of Aber Meurig is my authority. ↑

31 So I had it many years ago from an old woman from Ỻangeitho, and so Mr. J. G. Evans remembers his mother repeating it; but now it is made into Ỻan Đewi Brefi braith, with the mutations disregarded. ↑

32 See the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1868, p. 88. ↑

33 See ib. p. 87. I have ascertained on the best authority the identity of the present owner of the horn, though I have not succeeded in eliciting from him any reply to my inquiries. I conclude that there is something wrong with the postal service in my native county. ↑

34 Several passages bearing on the word bannog have been brought together in Silvan Evans’ Geiriadur. He gives the meaning as ‘high, lofty, prominent, conspicuous.’ The word is derived from ban, ‘a summit or peak,’ plural bannau, so common in the names of hills and mountains in South Wales—as in y Fan in Carmarthenshire, Bannwchdeni (p. 22) in Breconshire, Pen y Bannau near Pont Rhyd Fendigaid in Cardiganshire, Bannau Brycheiniog and Bannau Sir Gaer, the mountains called in English the Beacons of Breconshire and Carmarthenshire respectively. In North Wales we have it possibly in the compound Tryfan, which the mapsters will have us call Tryfaen; and the corresponding word in Scotch Gaelic appears in such names as Ben Nevis and the like, while in Irish the word benn meant a horn or peak. I am, nevertheless, not at all sure that Ychen Bannog meant horned oxen or even tall and conspicuous oxen; for there is a Welsh word man, meaning a spot or mark (Latin menda), and the adjective was mannawc, mannog, ‘spotted, marked, particoloured.’ Now in the soft mutation all four words—ban, bannog, and man, mannog—would begin with f = v, which might help to confusion between them. This may be illustrated in a way from Williams’ Seint Greal (pp. 88–92), where Gwalchmai has a dream in which he sees 150 bulls with spots or patches of colour on them, except three only which were ‘without any spot in the world’ (neb ryw vann or byt), or as it is also put ‘without spot’ (heb vann). This word vann, applied to the colour of the bulls, comes from the radical form mann; and the adjective was mannawc or mannog, which would mean spotted, particoloured, or having patches of colour. Now the oxen of Welsh legends are also sometimes called Ychen Mannog (pp. 131–2), and it is possible, that, whichever way the term is written, it should be interpreted to mean spotted, marked, or particoloured oxen. I take it also that Ỻan Đewi Frefi fraith was meant as synonymous with Ỻan Đewi Frefi fannog, which did not fit the rhyme. Lastly, the Dyfed use of the saying Fel dau ych bannog, ‘Like two Bannog oxen,’ in the sense of ‘equal and inseparable companions’ (as instanced in the Geiriadur), sounds like the antithesis of the passage in the Kulhwch (Mabinogion, p. 121). For there we have words to the following effect: ‘Though thou shouldst get that, there is something which thou wilt not get, namely the two oxen of Bannog, the one on the other side of the Bannog mountain and the other on this side, and to bring them together to draw the same plough. They are, to wit, Nynio and Peibio, whom God fashioned into oxen for their sins.’ Here the difficulty contemplated was not to separate the two, but to bring them together to work under the same yoke. This is more in harmony with the story of the mad quarrel between the two brother kings bearing those names as mentioned above. ↑

35 See the Revue Celtique, iii. 310, after Gruter, 570, 6. ↑

36 An important paper on the Tarvos Trigaranus, from the pen of M. Salomon Reinach, will be found in the Revue Celtique, xviii. 253–66; and M. d’A. de Jubainville’s remarkable equations are to be read in the same periodical, xix. 245–50: see also xx. 374–5. ↑

37 This, we are told, was a stone with a hollow in it for pounding corn, so as to separate the husks from the grain; and such a stone stood formerly somewhere near the door of every farm house in Scotland. ↑

38 The editor here explains in a note that ‘this was a common saying formerly, when people were heard to regret trifles.’ ↑

39 I have heard of this belief in Wales late in the sixties; but the presence was assumed to be that of a witch, not of a fairy. ↑

40 The word twt, ‘tidy,’ is another vocable which has found its way into Wales from the western counties of England; and though its meaning is more universally that of ‘tidy or natty,’ the term gwas twt, which in North Cardiganshire means a youth who is ready to run on all kinds of errands, would seem to bring us to its earlier meaning of the French tout—as if gwas twt might be rendered a ‘garçon à tout’—which survives as tote in the counties of Gloucester and Hereford, as I am informed by Professor Wright. Possibly, however, one may prefer to connect twt with the nautical English word taut; but we want more light. In any case one may venture to say that colloquial Welsh swarms with words whose origin is to be sought outside the Principality. ↑

41 See Folk-Lore for 1889, pp. 144–52. ↑

42 Ibid. for 1891, p. 246, where one will find this rhyme the subject of a note—rendered useless by a false reference—by Köhler; see also the same volume, p. 132, where Mr. Kirby gives more lines of the rhyme. ↑

43 See Choice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries,’ p. 35. ↑

44 A number of instructive instances will be found mentioned, and discussed in his wonted and lucid fashion, by Mr. Clodd in his Tom Tit Tot, pp. 80–105. ↑

45 The Welsh spelling is caws pob, ‘baked (or roasted) cheese,’ so called in parts of South Wales, such as Carmarthenshire, whereas in North Wales it is caws pobi. It is best known to Englishmen as ‘Welsh rabbit,’ which superior persons ‘ruling the roast’ in our kitchens choose to make into rarebit: how they would deal with ‘Scotch woodcock’ and ‘Oxford hare,’ I do not know. I should have mentioned that copies of the Hundred Mery Talys are exceedingly scarce, and that the above, which is the seventy-sixth in the collection, has here been copied from the Cymmrodor, iii. 115–6, where we have the following sapient note:—‘Cause bobe, it will be observed, is St. Peter’s rendering of the phrase Caws wedi ei bobi. The chief of the Apostles apparently had only a rather imperfect knowledge of Welsh, which is not to be wondered at, as we know that even his Hebrew was far from giving satisfaction to the priests of the capital.’ From these words one can only say that St. Peter would seem to have known Welsh far better than the author of that note, and that he had acquired it from natives of South Wales, perhaps from the neighbourhood of Kidwelly. I have to thank my friend Mr. James Cotton for a version of the cheese story in the Bodleian Library, namely in Malone MS. 19 (p. 144), where a certain master at Winchester School has put it into elegiacs which make St. Peter cry out with the desired effect: Tostus io Walli, tostus modo caseus. ↑

46 See Choice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries,’ pp. 117–8. ↑

47 For instance, when Cúchulainn had fallen asleep under the effect of fairy music, Fergus warned his friends that he was not to be disturbed, as he seemed to be dreaming and seeing a vision: see Windisch’s Irische Texte, p. 208; also the Revue Celtique, v. 231. For parallels to the two stories in this paragraph, see Tylor’s first chapter on Animism in his Primitive Culture, and especially the legend of King Gunthram, i. 442. ↑