1 This seems to be the Goidelic word borrowed, which in Mod. Irish is written cnocc or cnoc, ‘a hill’: the native Welsh form is cnwch, as in Cnwch Coch in Cardiganshire, Cnwch Dernog (corrupted into Clwch Dernog) in Anglesey, printed Kuwgh Dernok in the Record of Carnarvon, p. 59, where it is associated with other interesting names to be noticed later. ↑
2 All said by natives of Anglesey about rivers and mountains in their island must be taken relatively, for though the country has a very uneven surface it has no real mountain: they are apt to call a brook a river and a hillock a mountain, though the majestic heights of Arfon are within sight. ↑
3 See pp. 13–16 of his essay on the Neath Valley, referred to in a note at p. 439 above, where Craig y Đinas is also mentioned. ↑
4 This is an interesting word of obscure origin, to which I should like our ingenious etymologists to direct their attention. ↑
5 See the Poetical Works of John Leyden (Edinburgh, 1875), p. 36 (Scenes of Infancy, part ii); also my Arthurian Legend, p. 18. ↑
6 I am indebted for the English story to an article entitled ‘The Two Pedlar Legends of Lambeth and Swaffham,’ contributed by Mr. Gomme to the pages of the Antiquary, x. 202–5, in which he gives local details and makes valuable comparisons. I have to thank Mr. Gomme also for a cutting from the weekly issue of the Leeds Mercury for Jan. 3, 1885, devoted to ‘Local Notes and Queries’ (No. cccxii), where practically the same story is given at greater length as located at Upsall Castle in Yorkshire. ↑
7 I have never been to the spot, and I owe these particulars partly to Mr. J. P. Owen, of 72 Comeragh Road, Kensington, and partly to the Rev. John Fisher, already quoted at p. 379. This is the parish where some would locate the story of the sin-eater, which others stoutly deny, as certain periodical outbursts of polemics in the pages of the Academy and elsewhere have shown. Mr. Owen, writing to me in 1893, states, that, when he last visited the dinas some thirty years previously, he found the mouth of the cave stopped up in order to prevent cattle and sheep straying into it. ↑
8 Mr. Fisher refers me to an account of the discovery published in the Cambrian newspaper for Aug. 14, 1813, a complete file of which exists, as he informs me, in the library of the Royal Institution of South Wales at Swansea. Further, at the Cambrians’ meeting in 1892 that account was discussed and corrected by Mr. Stepney-Gulston: see the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1893, pp. 163–7. He also ‘pointed out that on the opposite side of the gap in the ridge the noted cave of Owain Law Goch was to be found. Near the Pant-y-ỻyn bone caves is a place called Craig Derwyđon, and close by is the scene of the exploits of Owain Law Goch, a character who appears to have absorbed some of the features of Arthurian romance. A cave in the locality bears Owain’s name.’ ↑
9 As in Ỻewelyn’s charter to the Monks of Aberconwy, where we have, according to Dugdale’s Monasticon, v. 673a, a Scubordynemreis, that is Scubor Dyn Emreis, ‘Din-Emreis Barn,’ supposed to be Hafod y Borth, near Beđgelert: see Jenkins’ Beđ Gelert, p. 198. In the Myvyrian, i. 195a, it has been printed Din Emrais. ↑
10 See Somer’s Malory’s Morte Darthur, xxi. v (= vol. i. p. 849), and as to the Marchlyn story see p. 236 above. Lastly some details concerning Ỻyn Ỻydaw will be found in the next chapter. ↑
11 The oldest spellings known of this name occur in manuscript A of the Annales Cambriæ and in the Book of Ỻan Dâv as Elized and Elised, doubtless pronounced Elisseđ until it became, by dropping the final dental, Elisse. This in time lost its identity by assimilation with the English name Ellis. Thus, for example, in Wynne’s edition of Powell’s Caradog of Ỻancarfan’s History of Wales (London, 1774), pp. 22, 24, Elised is reduced to Elis. In the matter of dropping the đ compare our Dewi, ‘St. David,’ for Dewiđ, for an instance of which see Duffus Hardy’s Descriptive Catalogue, i. 119. The form Eliseg with a final g has no foundation in fact. Can the English name Ellis be itself derived from Eliseđ? ↑
12 Boncyn is derived from bonc of nearly the same meaning, and bonc is merely the English word bank borrowed: in South Wales it is pronounced banc and used in North Cardiganshire in the sense of hill or mountain. ↑
13 The name occurs twice in the story of Kulhwch and Olwen: see the Mabinogion, p. 107, where the editors have read Ricca both times in ‘Gormant, son of Ricca.’ This is, however, more than balanced by Rita in the Book of Ỻan Dâv, namely in Tref Rita, ‘Rita’s town or stead,’ which occurs five times as the name of a place in the diocese of Ỻandaff; see pp. 32, 43, 90, 272. The uncertainty is confined to the spelling, and it has arisen from the difficulty of deciding in medieval manuscripts between t and c: there is no reason to suppose the name was ever pronounced Ricca. ↑
14 This can hardly be the real name of the place, as it is pronounced Gwybrnant (and even Gwybrant), which reminds me of the Gwybr fynyđ on which Gwyn ab Nûđ wanders about with his hounds: see Evans’ facsimile of the Black Book of Carmarthen, p. 50a, where the words are, dẏ gruidir ar wibir winit. ↑
15 Dugdale has printed this (v. 673a) Carrecerereryr with one er too much, and the other name forms part of the phrase ad capud Weddua-Vaur, ‘to the top of the Great Gwyđfa’; but I learn from Mr. Edward Owen, of Gray’s Inn, that the reading of the manuscript is Wedua vawr and Carrecereryr. ↑
16 The MSS. except B have y ỽylva, which is clearly not the right word, as it could only mean ‘his place of watching.’ ↑
17 See Derfel Hughes’ Ỻandegai and Ỻanỻechid, p. 53. As to Drystan it is the Pictish name Drostan, but a kindred form occurs in Cornwall on a stone near Fowey, where years ago I guessed the ancient genitive Drustagni; and after examining it recently I am able to confirm my original guess. The name of Drystan recalls that of Essyỻt, which offers some difficulty. It first occurs in Welsh in the Nennian Genealogies in the Harleian MS. 3859: see Pedigree I in the Cymmrodor, ix. 169, where we read that Mermin (Merfyn) was son of Etthil daughter of Cinnan (Cynan), who succeeded his father Rhodri Molwynog in the sovereignty of Gwyneđ in 754. The spelling Etthil is to be regarded like that of the Welsh names in Nennius, for some instances of which see § 73 (quoted in the next chapter) and the Old Welsh words calaur, nouel, patel, so spelt in the Juvencus Codex: see Skene, ii. 2: in all these l does duty for ỻ. So Etthil is to be treated as pronounced Ethiỻ or Ethyỻ; but Jesus College MS. 20 gives a more ancient pronunciation (at least as regards the consonants) when it calls Cynan’s daughter Etheỻt: see the Cymmrodor, viii. 87. Powell, in his History of Wales by Caradog of Ỻancarfan, as edited by Wynne, writes the name Esylht; and the Medieval Welsh spelling has usually been Essyỻt or Esyỻt, which agrees in its sibilant with the French Iselt or Iseut; but who made the Breton-looking change from Eth to Es or Is in this name remains a somewhat doubtful point. Professor Zimmer, in the Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Litteratur, xiii. 73–5, points out that the name is an Anglo-Saxon Ethylda borrowed, which he treats as a ‘Kurzform für Ethelhild’: see also the Revue Celtique, xii. 397, xiii. 495. The adoption of this name in Wales may be regarded as proof of intermarriage or alliance between an English family and the royal house of Gwyneđ as early as the eighth century. ↑
18 See the Brython for 1861, pp. 331–2, also Cymru Fu, p. 468, where Glasynys was also inclined to regard the Hairy Fellow as being Owen. ↑
19 I have never seen a copy, but Mr. Fisher gives me the title as follows: Prophwydoliaeth Myrđin Wyỻt yn nghyda ber Hanes o’i Fywyd, wedi eu tynu aỻan o Lyfr y Daroganau … Caerfyrđin … Pris dwy Geiniog. It has no date, but Mr. Fisher once had a copy with the date 1847. Recently he has come across another versified prophecy written in the same style as the printed ones, and referring to an Owain who may have been Owen Lawgoch. The personage meant is compared to the most brilliant of pearls, Owain glain golyaf. The prophecy is to be found at the Swansea Public Library, and occurs in a seventeenth century manuscript manual of Roman Catholic Devotion, Latin and Welsh. It gives 1440 as the year of the deliverance of the Brytaniaid. It forms the first of two poems (fo. 37), the second of which is ascribed to Taliessin. Such is Mr. Fisher’s account of it, and the lines which he has copied for me cling to the same theme of the ultimate triumph of the Kymry. Quite recently I have received further information as to these prophecies from Mr. J. H. Davies, of Lincoln’s Inn (p. 354), who will, it is to be hoped, soon publish the results of his intimate study of their history in South Wales. ↑
20 Record of Carnarvon, p. 133, to which attention was called by me in the Report of the Welsh Land Commission, p. 648: see now The Welsh People, pp. 343–4, 593–4. ↑
21 Nor was Owen the only Welshman in the king of France’s service: there was Owen’s chaplain, who on one occasion distinguished himself greatly in battle. He is called in Froissart’s text David House, but the editor has found from other documents that the name was Honvel Flinc, which is doubtless Howel, whatever the second vocable may have been: see Froissart, viii, pp. xxxviii, 69. ↑
22 As to the original destination of the flotilla, see Kervyn de Lettenhove’s edition of Froissart (Brussels, 1870–7), viii. 435–7, where the editor has brought together several notes, from which it appears that Owen tried unsuccessfully to recruit an army in Spain, but that he readily got together in France a considerable force. For Charles V, on May 8, 1372, ordered the formation of an army, to be placed under Owen’s command for the reconquest of his ancestors’ lands in Wales, and two days later Owen issued a declaration as to his Welsh claims and his obligations to the French king; but the flotilla stopped short with Guernsey. It is not improbable, however, that the fear in England of a descent on Wales by Owen began at least as early as 1369. In his declaration Owen calls himself Evain de Gales, which approaches the Welsh spelling Ewein, more frequently Ywein, modern Ywain, except that all these forms tended to be supplanted by Owain or Owen. This last is, strictly speaking, the colloquial form, just as Howel is the colloquial form of Hywel, and bowyd of bywyd, ‘life.’ ↑
23 For the account of Owen’s life see the Chroniques de J. Froissart publiées pour la Société de l’Histoire de France, edited with abstracts and notes by Siméon Luce, more especially vols. viii. pp. 44–9, 64, 66–71, 84, 122, 190, and ix. pp. 74–9, where a summary is given of his life and a complete account of his death. In Lord Berners’ translation, published in Henry VIII’s time, Owen is called Yuan of Wales, as if anybody could even glance at the romances without finding that Owen ab Urien, for instance, became in French Ywains or Ivains le fils Urien in the nominative, and Ywain or Ivain in régime. Thomas Johnes of Hafod, whose translation was published in 1803–6, betrays still greater ignorance by giving him the modern name Evan; but he had the excuse of being himself a Welshman. ↑
24 For copies of some of the documents in point see Rymer’s Fœdera, viii. 356, 365, 382. ↑
25 I have not been able to find a copy of this work, and for drawing my attention to the passage in Hanes Cymru I have again to thank Mr. Fisher. The pedigree in question will be found printed in Table I in Askew Roberts’ edition of Sir John Wynne’s History of the Gwydir Family (Oswestry, 1878); and a note, apparently copied from Miss Ỻwyd, states that it was in a Hengwrt MS. she found the identification of Owen Lawgoch. The editor surmises that to refer to p. 865 of Hengwrt MS. 351, which he represents as being a copy of Hengwrt MS. 96 in the handwriting of Robert Vaughan the Antiquary. ↑
26 This has already been undertaken: on Feb. 7, 1900, a summary of this chapter was read to a meeting of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion, and six weeks later Mr. Edward Owen, of Gray’s Inn, read an elaborate paper in which he essayed to fix more exactly Yvain de Galles’ place in the history of Wales. It would be impossible here to do justice to his reasoning, based as it was on a careful study of the records in point. Let it suffice for the present, however, that the paper will in due course appear in the Society’s Transactions. Mr. J. H. Davies also informs me that he is bringing together items of evidence, which tend, as he thinks, to show that Miss Ỻwyd’s information was practically correct. Before, however, the question can be considered satisfactorily answered, some explanation will have to be offered of Froissart’s statement, that Yvain’s father’s name was Aymon. ↑
27 We seem also to have an instance in point in Carmarthenshire, where legend represents Owen and his men sleeping in Ogof Myrđin, the name of which means Merlin’s Cave, and seems to concede priority of tenancy to the great magician: see the extinct periodical Golud yr Oes (for 1863), i. 253, which I find to have been probably drawing on Eliezer Williams’ English Works (London, 1840), p. 156. ↑
28 For the Greek text of the entire passage see the Didot edition of Plutarch, vol. iii. p. 511 (De Defectu Oraculorum, xviii); also my Arthurian Legend, pp. 367–8. It is curious to note that storms have, in a way, been associated in England with the death of her great men as recently as that of the celebrated Duke of Wellington: see Choice Notes, p. 270. ↑
29 See my Arthurian Legend, p. 335. I am indebted to Professor Morfill for rendering the hexameters into English verse. ↑