2

Kernyw, or of the person after whom it was named. Kernyw is the Welsh for Cornwall, but if Penryn Awstin or Hawstin is to be identified with Aust Cliff on the Severn Sea in Gloucestershire, the story would seem to indicate a time when Cornwall extended northeastwards as far as that point. The later Triad, iii. 101, avoids Penryn Awstin and substitutes Penweđic, which recalls some such a name as Pengwaed1 or Penwith in Cornwall elsewhere Penweđic is only given as the name of the most northern hundred of Keredigion. Gwent Is-coed means Gwent below the Wood or Forest, and Aber Torogi or Tarogi-omitted, probably by accident, in ii. 56-is now Caldicot Pill, where the small river Tarogi, now called Troggy, discharges itself not very far from Portskewet. Maes Gwenith in the same neighbourhood is still known by that name. The correct spelling of the name of the place in Penfro was probably ILonyon, but it is variously given as ILonwen, ILonyon, and Lonion, not to mention the Lonnio ILonnwen of the later form of the Triad: should this last prove to be based on any authority one might suggest ILonyon Henwen, so called after the sow, as the original. The modern Welsh spelling of ILonyon would be ILonion, and it is identified by Mr. Egerton Phillimore with Lanion near Pembroke 3. Rhiw Gyferthwch is guessed to have been one of the slopes of Snowdon on the Bedgelert side; but I have failed to discover anybody who has ever heard the name used in that neighbourhood.

Arflechwed was, roughly speaking, that part of Car

'See the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 104, and the Oxford Bruts, p. 292.

See the Oxford Bruts, pp. 299, 317, 345-6, 348, 384. I learn from Prof. Anwyl that Castell Penwedig is still remembered at Lanfihangel Genau'r Glyn as the old name of Castell Gwallter in that parish.

See his note in Owen's Pembrokeshire, p. 237, where he also notices Aber Tarogi, and the editor's notes to p. 55.

narvonshire which drains into the sea between Conway and Bangor. Brynach and Menwaed or Mengwaed1 seem to be the names underlying the misreadings in ii. 56; but it is quite possible that Brynach, probably for an Irish Bronach, has here superseded an earlier Urnach or Eurnach also a Goidel, to whom I shall have to return in another chapter. Dinas Affaraon2 is the place called Dinas Ffaraon Dande in the story of ILud and ILevelys, where we are told that after ILud had had the two dragons buried there, which had been dug up at the centre of his realm, to wit at Oxford, Ffaraon, after whom the place was called, died of grief. Later it came to be called Dinas Emrys from Myrdin Emrys, Merlinus Ambrosius,' who induced Vortigern to go away from there in quest of another place to build his castle. So the reader will see that the mention of this Dinas brings us back to a weird spot with which he has been familiarized in the previous chapter: see pp. 469, 495 above. ILanfair in Arfon is ILanfair Is-gaer near Port Dinorwic on the Menai Straits, and the Maen Du should be a black rock or black stone on the southern side of those straits. Daronwy and Cath Paluc are both personages on whom light is still wanted. Lastly, by Edwin king of England is to be understood Edwin

'Mergaed for Mengwaed hardly requires any explanation; and as to Breat or rather Vreat, as it occurs in mutation, we have only to suppose the original carelessly written Vreac for Vreach, and we have the usual error of neglecting the stroke indicating the n, and the very common one of confounding c with t. This first-mentioned name should possibly be analysed into Mengw-aed or Menw-aed for an Irish Menb-aed, with the menb, ‘little,' noticed at p. 510 below; in that case one might compare such compounds of Aed as Beo-aed and Lug-aed in the Martyrology of Gorman. Should this prove well founded the Mod. Welsh transcription of Menwaed should be Menwaeđ. I have had the use of other versions of the Triads from MSS. in the Peniarth collection; but they contribute nothing of any great importance as regards the proper names in the passages here in question.

* See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 41, 98, and Guest's trans., iii. 313. See Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniæ, vi. 19, viii. 1, 2; also Giraldus, Itinerarium Kambriæ, ii. 8 (p. 133).

king of the Angles of Deira and Bernicia, whom Welsh tradition represents as having found refuge for a time in Anglesey.

Now this story as a whole looks like a sort of device for stringing together explanations of the origin of certain place-names and of certain local characteristics. Leaving entirely out of the reckoning the whole of MidWales, that is to say, the more Brythonic portion of the country, it is remarkable as giving to South Wales credit for certain resources, but to North Wales for pests alone and scourges, except that the writer of the late version bethought himself of ILeyn and Eifionyd as having good land for growing rye; but he was very hazy as to the geography of North Wales-both he and the redactors of the other Triads equally belonged doubtless to South Wales. Among the place-names, Maes Gwenith, ‘the Wheat Field,' is clear; but hardly less so is the case of Aber Torogi, 'Mouth of the Troggy,' where torogi is 'the pregnancy of animals,' from torrog, 'being with young.' So with Rhiw Gyferthwch, 'the Hillside or Ascent of Cyferthwch,' where cyferthwch means 'pantings, pangs, labour.' The name Maen Du, 'Black Rock,' is left to explain itself; and I am not sure that the original story was not so put as also to explain Lonion, to wit, as a sort of plural of tawn, 'full,' in reference, let us say, to the full ears of the barley grown there. But the reference to the place-names seems to have partly escaped the later tellers of the story or to have failed to impress them as worth emphasizing. They appear to have thought more of explaining the origin of Menwaed's Wolf and Brynach's Eagle. Whether this means in the former case that the district of Arttechwed was more infested by wolves than any other part of Wales, or that Menwaed, lord of Arttechwed, had a wolf as his symbol, it is impossible to say.

In another Triad, however, i. 23= ii. 57, he is reckoned one of the Three Battle-knights who were favourites at Arthur's court, the others being Caradog Freichfras and Lyr Lüydog or ILud ILurugog, while in iii. 29 Menwaed's place is taken by a son of his called Mael Hir. Similarly with regard to Brynach's Eagle one has nothing to say, except that common parlance some time or other would seem to have associated the eagle in some way with Brynach the Goidel. The former prevalence of the eagle in the Snowdon district seems to be the explanation of its Welsh name of Eryri-as already suggested, p. 479 above-and the association of the bird with the Goidelic chieftain who had his strong. hold under the shadow of Snowdon seems to follow

naturally enough. But the details are conspicuous by their scarcity in Welsh literature, though Brynach's Eagle is probably to be identified with the Aquila Fabulosa of Eryri, of which Giraldus makes a curious mention1. Perhaps the final disuse of Goidelic speech in the district is to be, to some extent, regarded as accounting for our dearth of data. A change of language involved in all probability the shipwreck of many a familiar mode of thought; and many a homely expression must have been lost in the transition before an equivalent acceptable to the Goidel was discovered by him in his adopted idiom.

This question of linguistic change will be found further illustrated by the story to which I wish now to pass, namely that of the hunting of Twrch Trwyth. It is one of those incorporated in the larger tale known as that of Kulhwch and Olwen, the hero and heroine concerned: see the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 135-41, and Guest's translation, iii. 306-16. Twrch Trwyth is pictured as a formidable boar at the head of his offspring, 1 Itinerarium Kambriæ, ii. 9 (p. 136).

consisting of seven swine, and the Twrch himself is represented as carrying between his ears a comb, a razor, and a pair of shears. The plot of the Kulhwch renders it necessary that these precious articles should be procured; so Kulhwch prevails on his cousin Arthur to undertake the hunt. Arthur began by sending one of his men, to wit, Menw' son of Teirgwaeđ, to see whether the three precious things mentioned were really where they were said to be, namely, between Twrch Trwyth's ears. Menw was a great magician who usually formed one of any party of Arthur's men about to visit a pagan country; for it was his business to subject the inhabitants to magic and enchantment, so that they should not see Arthur's men, while the latter saw them. Menw found Twrch Trwyth and his offspring at a place in Ireland called Esgeir Oervel', and in order to approach them he alighted in the form of a bird near where they were. He tried to snatch one of the three precious articles from Twrch Trwyth, but he only succeeded in securing one of his bristles, whereupon the Twrch stood up and shook himself so vigorously that a drop of venom from his bristles fell on Menw, who never enjoyed a day's health afterwards as long as he lived. Menw now returned and assured Arthur that the treasures were really about the Twrch's head as it was reported. Arthur then crossed to Ireland with a host and did not stop until he found Twrch

1 Menw's name is to be equated with the Irish word menb, 'little, small,' and connected with the Welsh derivative di-fenw-i, 'belittling or reviling': it will be seen that he takes the form of a bird, and his designation Menw fab Teirgwaed might perhaps be rendered 'Little, son of Three-Cries.'

2 Identified by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society, 1895-6, p. 73, with a place in Leinster called Sescenn Uairbeoil, the Marsh of Uairbhél,' where Uairbhél may possibly be a man's name, but more likely that of a pass or gap described as Cold-mouth : compare the Slack or Sloc in the Isle of Man, called in Manx 'the big Mouth of the Wind.' The Irish name comes near in part to the Welsh Esgeir Oervel or Oerfel, which means 'the mountain Spur of cold Weather.'