1These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions usually given of them, exactly as I have seen akermessorkirchmessecelebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with whose name thekermesswas supposed to be connected: the chief features of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for a WelshGwyl Fabsantto bring together to a rural neighbourhood far more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day calledgwely g’l’absant, as it were ‘a bed (for the time) of a saint’s festival.’ Rightly or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class of people set their faces against them.↑2Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Ỻwyd version of the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter.↑3This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken in Gwyneđ.↑4Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this intoTryfaenso as to extractmaen, ‘stone,’ from it. They do not trouble themselves to find out whether it ever wasTryfaenor not: in fact they rather like altering everything as much as they can.↑5Ystrádỻyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronouncedStráỻyn, and means ‘the strand of the lake,’ and the hollow is named after itCwm Stráỻyn, and the lake in itỺyn Cwm Stráỻyn, which literally means ‘the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the Lake’—all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain.↑6So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they are eight days old.↑7I cannot account for this spelling, but thellinBellisis Englishll, not the Welshỻ, which represents a sound very different from that ofl.↑8Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881.↑9See Giraldus’Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75–8); some discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this volume.↑10Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded and mixed with butter or lard.↑11It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter and others of Ỻwyd’s once in the possession of the canon, for it is not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS.↑12There is also aSarn yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Stepping Stones,’ on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant’sTours in Wales, iii. 101.↑13The oxen should accordingly have been calledYchain Pannog; but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will come under the reader’s notice again, to wit in chapter x.↑14The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25–30) ofThe Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion by Gwaỻter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837.↑15This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies.↑16SeeChoice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries’(London, 1859), p. 147.↑17It is more likely that it is a shortening ofỺyn y Barfog, meaning the Lake of the Bearded One,Lacus Barbatias it were, the Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127.↑18So far fromafancmeaning a crocodile, anafancis represented in the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave inhabited by it; see the OxfordMabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding Irish word isabhac, which according to O’Reilly means ‘a dwarf, pigmy, manikin; a sprite.’↑19I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe’s rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: that involves difficult questions.↑20The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would seem to have had a water etymology on the brain.↑21This involves the name of the river called Disynni, andDiswnwyembodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing.↑22It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:—Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.But one would like to know whetherDodinought not rather to be writtenDodyn, to rhyme withỺyn.↑23Hywel’s real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for clues to several others.↑24OrỺech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I takeỺech y Derwyđto be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any place called by the other name either.↑25Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, pp. 142, 146.↑26B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, as I learn from Gwynionyđ, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man.↑27This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen meet.↑28The name Ỻan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts,A.D.987 and 1089, and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the EnglishSt. Dogmael’sshows that it is derived from that of Dogfael’s name when the mutation consonantforvwas still writtenm. In Welsh the name of the saint has been worn down toDogwel, as in St. Dogwell’s near Fishguard, and Ỻanđogwel in Ỻanrhuđlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece’sWelsh Saints, p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic formDoco-maglos, withdocoof the same origin as Latindux,dŭcis, ‘a leader,’ andmaglo-s= Irishmāl, ‘a lord or prince.’ Dogfael’s name assumes in ỺanDydocha Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in IrishDoch-mhāl, which, cut down toDochwith the honorific prefixto, has yieldedTy-doch; but I am not clear why it is notTy-đoch. Another instance of a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this day offers itself inCyfelachand ỺanGyfelachin Glamorganshire. The Welsh was formerlyCimeliauc(Reece, p. 274). Here may also be mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise calledDocwinnus(Reece, p. 183), but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both asDocunn-iandDocguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as Goidelic for an early form ofCyngar, namelyCuno-caros, from which would be formedTo-chunorDo-chun. This is what seems to underlie the LatinDocunnus, whileDocguinniis possibly a Goidelic modification of the writtenDocunni, unless some such a name asDoco-vindo-shas been confounded withDocunnus. In one instance the Book of Ỻan Dâv has instead ofAbbas DocunniorDocguinni, the shorter designation,Abbas Dochou(p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat asDochon, seeing thatDochouwould be in later book WelshDochau, and in the dialect of the districtDocha; and that this occurs in the name of the church of Ỻandough near Cardiff, and Ỻandough near Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is required to help one to understand these and similar church names.↑29This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname intoDaviesandJones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, p. 68.↑30I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used this name.↑31This name as it is now written should mean ‘the Gold’s Foot,’ but in the Demetian dialectauris pronouncedoer, and I learn from the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes been writtenTref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist’s futile attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly informs me,Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. BeneathDroyresome personal name possibly lies concealed.↑32Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa(‘The Maid of Cefn Ydfa’), by Isaac Craigfryn Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881.↑33In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he was perfectly familiarwith the traditions of the neighbourhood and had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement at St. Fagan’s.↑34This term is sometimes represented as beingBendith eu Mamau, ‘their Mother’s Blessing,’ as if each fairy were such a delightful offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency ofBendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan,Béndith ĭ Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman times as the Mothers.↑35On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:—It was the residence of Dafyđ Morgan or ‘Counsellor Morgan,’ who, he says, wasexecuted on Kennington Common for taking the side of the Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:—Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.↑36Atònis any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken for years by the plough.↑37On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough for the making of two cheeses.↑38Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o’r Gerwyn Đu ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river.↑39The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones have, as he states, been frequently found there.↑40The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the story ofBwca’r Trwynin chapter x.↑
1These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions usually given of them, exactly as I have seen akermessorkirchmessecelebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with whose name thekermesswas supposed to be connected: the chief features of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for a WelshGwyl Fabsantto bring together to a rural neighbourhood far more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day calledgwely g’l’absant, as it were ‘a bed (for the time) of a saint’s festival.’ Rightly or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class of people set their faces against them.↑2Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Ỻwyd version of the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter.↑3This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken in Gwyneđ.↑4Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this intoTryfaenso as to extractmaen, ‘stone,’ from it. They do not trouble themselves to find out whether it ever wasTryfaenor not: in fact they rather like altering everything as much as they can.↑5Ystrádỻyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronouncedStráỻyn, and means ‘the strand of the lake,’ and the hollow is named after itCwm Stráỻyn, and the lake in itỺyn Cwm Stráỻyn, which literally means ‘the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the Lake’—all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain.↑6So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they are eight days old.↑7I cannot account for this spelling, but thellinBellisis Englishll, not the Welshỻ, which represents a sound very different from that ofl.↑8Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881.↑9See Giraldus’Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75–8); some discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this volume.↑10Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded and mixed with butter or lard.↑11It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter and others of Ỻwyd’s once in the possession of the canon, for it is not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS.↑12There is also aSarn yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Stepping Stones,’ on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant’sTours in Wales, iii. 101.↑13The oxen should accordingly have been calledYchain Pannog; but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will come under the reader’s notice again, to wit in chapter x.↑14The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25–30) ofThe Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion by Gwaỻter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837.↑15This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies.↑16SeeChoice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries’(London, 1859), p. 147.↑17It is more likely that it is a shortening ofỺyn y Barfog, meaning the Lake of the Bearded One,Lacus Barbatias it were, the Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127.↑18So far fromafancmeaning a crocodile, anafancis represented in the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave inhabited by it; see the OxfordMabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding Irish word isabhac, which according to O’Reilly means ‘a dwarf, pigmy, manikin; a sprite.’↑19I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe’s rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: that involves difficult questions.↑20The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would seem to have had a water etymology on the brain.↑21This involves the name of the river called Disynni, andDiswnwyembodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing.↑22It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:—Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.But one would like to know whetherDodinought not rather to be writtenDodyn, to rhyme withỺyn.↑23Hywel’s real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for clues to several others.↑24OrỺech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I takeỺech y Derwyđto be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any place called by the other name either.↑25Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, pp. 142, 146.↑26B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, as I learn from Gwynionyđ, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man.↑27This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen meet.↑28The name Ỻan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts,A.D.987 and 1089, and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the EnglishSt. Dogmael’sshows that it is derived from that of Dogfael’s name when the mutation consonantforvwas still writtenm. In Welsh the name of the saint has been worn down toDogwel, as in St. Dogwell’s near Fishguard, and Ỻanđogwel in Ỻanrhuđlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece’sWelsh Saints, p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic formDoco-maglos, withdocoof the same origin as Latindux,dŭcis, ‘a leader,’ andmaglo-s= Irishmāl, ‘a lord or prince.’ Dogfael’s name assumes in ỺanDydocha Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in IrishDoch-mhāl, which, cut down toDochwith the honorific prefixto, has yieldedTy-doch; but I am not clear why it is notTy-đoch. Another instance of a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this day offers itself inCyfelachand ỺanGyfelachin Glamorganshire. The Welsh was formerlyCimeliauc(Reece, p. 274). Here may also be mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise calledDocwinnus(Reece, p. 183), but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both asDocunn-iandDocguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as Goidelic for an early form ofCyngar, namelyCuno-caros, from which would be formedTo-chunorDo-chun. This is what seems to underlie the LatinDocunnus, whileDocguinniis possibly a Goidelic modification of the writtenDocunni, unless some such a name asDoco-vindo-shas been confounded withDocunnus. In one instance the Book of Ỻan Dâv has instead ofAbbas DocunniorDocguinni, the shorter designation,Abbas Dochou(p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat asDochon, seeing thatDochouwould be in later book WelshDochau, and in the dialect of the districtDocha; and that this occurs in the name of the church of Ỻandough near Cardiff, and Ỻandough near Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is required to help one to understand these and similar church names.↑29This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname intoDaviesandJones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, p. 68.↑30I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used this name.↑31This name as it is now written should mean ‘the Gold’s Foot,’ but in the Demetian dialectauris pronouncedoer, and I learn from the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes been writtenTref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist’s futile attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly informs me,Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. BeneathDroyresome personal name possibly lies concealed.↑32Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa(‘The Maid of Cefn Ydfa’), by Isaac Craigfryn Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881.↑33In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he was perfectly familiarwith the traditions of the neighbourhood and had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement at St. Fagan’s.↑34This term is sometimes represented as beingBendith eu Mamau, ‘their Mother’s Blessing,’ as if each fairy were such a delightful offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency ofBendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan,Béndith ĭ Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman times as the Mothers.↑35On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:—It was the residence of Dafyđ Morgan or ‘Counsellor Morgan,’ who, he says, wasexecuted on Kennington Common for taking the side of the Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:—Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.↑36Atònis any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken for years by the plough.↑37On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough for the making of two cheeses.↑38Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o’r Gerwyn Đu ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river.↑39The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones have, as he states, been frequently found there.↑40The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the story ofBwca’r Trwynin chapter x.↑
1These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions usually given of them, exactly as I have seen akermessorkirchmessecelebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with whose name thekermesswas supposed to be connected: the chief features of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for a WelshGwyl Fabsantto bring together to a rural neighbourhood far more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day calledgwely g’l’absant, as it were ‘a bed (for the time) of a saint’s festival.’ Rightly or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class of people set their faces against them.↑2Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Ỻwyd version of the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter.↑3This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken in Gwyneđ.↑4Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this intoTryfaenso as to extractmaen, ‘stone,’ from it. They do not trouble themselves to find out whether it ever wasTryfaenor not: in fact they rather like altering everything as much as they can.↑5Ystrádỻyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronouncedStráỻyn, and means ‘the strand of the lake,’ and the hollow is named after itCwm Stráỻyn, and the lake in itỺyn Cwm Stráỻyn, which literally means ‘the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the Lake’—all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain.↑6So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they are eight days old.↑7I cannot account for this spelling, but thellinBellisis Englishll, not the Welshỻ, which represents a sound very different from that ofl.↑8Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881.↑9See Giraldus’Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75–8); some discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this volume.↑10Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded and mixed with butter or lard.↑11It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter and others of Ỻwyd’s once in the possession of the canon, for it is not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS.↑12There is also aSarn yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Stepping Stones,’ on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant’sTours in Wales, iii. 101.↑13The oxen should accordingly have been calledYchain Pannog; but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will come under the reader’s notice again, to wit in chapter x.↑14The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25–30) ofThe Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion by Gwaỻter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837.↑15This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies.↑16SeeChoice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries’(London, 1859), p. 147.↑17It is more likely that it is a shortening ofỺyn y Barfog, meaning the Lake of the Bearded One,Lacus Barbatias it were, the Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127.↑18So far fromafancmeaning a crocodile, anafancis represented in the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave inhabited by it; see the OxfordMabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding Irish word isabhac, which according to O’Reilly means ‘a dwarf, pigmy, manikin; a sprite.’↑19I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe’s rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: that involves difficult questions.↑20The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would seem to have had a water etymology on the brain.↑21This involves the name of the river called Disynni, andDiswnwyembodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing.↑22It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:—Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.But one would like to know whetherDodinought not rather to be writtenDodyn, to rhyme withỺyn.↑23Hywel’s real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for clues to several others.↑24OrỺech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I takeỺech y Derwyđto be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any place called by the other name either.↑25Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, pp. 142, 146.↑26B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, as I learn from Gwynionyđ, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man.↑27This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen meet.↑28The name Ỻan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts,A.D.987 and 1089, and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the EnglishSt. Dogmael’sshows that it is derived from that of Dogfael’s name when the mutation consonantforvwas still writtenm. In Welsh the name of the saint has been worn down toDogwel, as in St. Dogwell’s near Fishguard, and Ỻanđogwel in Ỻanrhuđlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece’sWelsh Saints, p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic formDoco-maglos, withdocoof the same origin as Latindux,dŭcis, ‘a leader,’ andmaglo-s= Irishmāl, ‘a lord or prince.’ Dogfael’s name assumes in ỺanDydocha Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in IrishDoch-mhāl, which, cut down toDochwith the honorific prefixto, has yieldedTy-doch; but I am not clear why it is notTy-đoch. Another instance of a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this day offers itself inCyfelachand ỺanGyfelachin Glamorganshire. The Welsh was formerlyCimeliauc(Reece, p. 274). Here may also be mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise calledDocwinnus(Reece, p. 183), but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both asDocunn-iandDocguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as Goidelic for an early form ofCyngar, namelyCuno-caros, from which would be formedTo-chunorDo-chun. This is what seems to underlie the LatinDocunnus, whileDocguinniis possibly a Goidelic modification of the writtenDocunni, unless some such a name asDoco-vindo-shas been confounded withDocunnus. In one instance the Book of Ỻan Dâv has instead ofAbbas DocunniorDocguinni, the shorter designation,Abbas Dochou(p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat asDochon, seeing thatDochouwould be in later book WelshDochau, and in the dialect of the districtDocha; and that this occurs in the name of the church of Ỻandough near Cardiff, and Ỻandough near Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is required to help one to understand these and similar church names.↑29This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname intoDaviesandJones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, p. 68.↑30I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used this name.↑31This name as it is now written should mean ‘the Gold’s Foot,’ but in the Demetian dialectauris pronouncedoer, and I learn from the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes been writtenTref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist’s futile attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly informs me,Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. BeneathDroyresome personal name possibly lies concealed.↑32Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa(‘The Maid of Cefn Ydfa’), by Isaac Craigfryn Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881.↑33In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he was perfectly familiarwith the traditions of the neighbourhood and had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement at St. Fagan’s.↑34This term is sometimes represented as beingBendith eu Mamau, ‘their Mother’s Blessing,’ as if each fairy were such a delightful offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency ofBendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan,Béndith ĭ Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman times as the Mothers.↑35On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:—It was the residence of Dafyđ Morgan or ‘Counsellor Morgan,’ who, he says, wasexecuted on Kennington Common for taking the side of the Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:—Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.↑36Atònis any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken for years by the plough.↑37On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough for the making of two cheeses.↑38Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o’r Gerwyn Đu ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river.↑39The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones have, as he states, been frequently found there.↑40The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the story ofBwca’r Trwynin chapter x.↑
1These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions usually given of them, exactly as I have seen akermessorkirchmessecelebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with whose name thekermesswas supposed to be connected: the chief features of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for a WelshGwyl Fabsantto bring together to a rural neighbourhood far more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day calledgwely g’l’absant, as it were ‘a bed (for the time) of a saint’s festival.’ Rightly or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class of people set their faces against them.↑2Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Ỻwyd version of the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter.↑3This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken in Gwyneđ.↑4Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this intoTryfaenso as to extractmaen, ‘stone,’ from it. They do not trouble themselves to find out whether it ever wasTryfaenor not: in fact they rather like altering everything as much as they can.↑5Ystrádỻyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronouncedStráỻyn, and means ‘the strand of the lake,’ and the hollow is named after itCwm Stráỻyn, and the lake in itỺyn Cwm Stráỻyn, which literally means ‘the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the Lake’—all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain.↑6So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they are eight days old.↑7I cannot account for this spelling, but thellinBellisis Englishll, not the Welshỻ, which represents a sound very different from that ofl.↑8Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881.↑9See Giraldus’Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75–8); some discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this volume.↑10Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded and mixed with butter or lard.↑11It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter and others of Ỻwyd’s once in the possession of the canon, for it is not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS.↑12There is also aSarn yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Stepping Stones,’ on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant’sTours in Wales, iii. 101.↑13The oxen should accordingly have been calledYchain Pannog; but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will come under the reader’s notice again, to wit in chapter x.↑14The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25–30) ofThe Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion by Gwaỻter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837.↑15This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies.↑16SeeChoice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries’(London, 1859), p. 147.↑17It is more likely that it is a shortening ofỺyn y Barfog, meaning the Lake of the Bearded One,Lacus Barbatias it were, the Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127.↑18So far fromafancmeaning a crocodile, anafancis represented in the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave inhabited by it; see the OxfordMabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding Irish word isabhac, which according to O’Reilly means ‘a dwarf, pigmy, manikin; a sprite.’↑19I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe’s rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: that involves difficult questions.↑20The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would seem to have had a water etymology on the brain.↑21This involves the name of the river called Disynni, andDiswnwyembodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing.↑22It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:—Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.But one would like to know whetherDodinought not rather to be writtenDodyn, to rhyme withỺyn.↑23Hywel’s real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for clues to several others.↑24OrỺech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I takeỺech y Derwyđto be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any place called by the other name either.↑25Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, pp. 142, 146.↑26B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, as I learn from Gwynionyđ, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man.↑27This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen meet.↑28The name Ỻan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts,A.D.987 and 1089, and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the EnglishSt. Dogmael’sshows that it is derived from that of Dogfael’s name when the mutation consonantforvwas still writtenm. In Welsh the name of the saint has been worn down toDogwel, as in St. Dogwell’s near Fishguard, and Ỻanđogwel in Ỻanrhuđlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece’sWelsh Saints, p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic formDoco-maglos, withdocoof the same origin as Latindux,dŭcis, ‘a leader,’ andmaglo-s= Irishmāl, ‘a lord or prince.’ Dogfael’s name assumes in ỺanDydocha Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in IrishDoch-mhāl, which, cut down toDochwith the honorific prefixto, has yieldedTy-doch; but I am not clear why it is notTy-đoch. Another instance of a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this day offers itself inCyfelachand ỺanGyfelachin Glamorganshire. The Welsh was formerlyCimeliauc(Reece, p. 274). Here may also be mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise calledDocwinnus(Reece, p. 183), but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both asDocunn-iandDocguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as Goidelic for an early form ofCyngar, namelyCuno-caros, from which would be formedTo-chunorDo-chun. This is what seems to underlie the LatinDocunnus, whileDocguinniis possibly a Goidelic modification of the writtenDocunni, unless some such a name asDoco-vindo-shas been confounded withDocunnus. In one instance the Book of Ỻan Dâv has instead ofAbbas DocunniorDocguinni, the shorter designation,Abbas Dochou(p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat asDochon, seeing thatDochouwould be in later book WelshDochau, and in the dialect of the districtDocha; and that this occurs in the name of the church of Ỻandough near Cardiff, and Ỻandough near Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is required to help one to understand these and similar church names.↑29This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname intoDaviesandJones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, p. 68.↑30I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used this name.↑31This name as it is now written should mean ‘the Gold’s Foot,’ but in the Demetian dialectauris pronouncedoer, and I learn from the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes been writtenTref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist’s futile attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly informs me,Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. BeneathDroyresome personal name possibly lies concealed.↑32Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa(‘The Maid of Cefn Ydfa’), by Isaac Craigfryn Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881.↑33In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he was perfectly familiarwith the traditions of the neighbourhood and had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement at St. Fagan’s.↑34This term is sometimes represented as beingBendith eu Mamau, ‘their Mother’s Blessing,’ as if each fairy were such a delightful offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency ofBendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan,Béndith ĭ Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman times as the Mothers.↑35On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:—It was the residence of Dafyđ Morgan or ‘Counsellor Morgan,’ who, he says, wasexecuted on Kennington Common for taking the side of the Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:—Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.↑36Atònis any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken for years by the plough.↑37On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough for the making of two cheeses.↑38Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o’r Gerwyn Đu ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river.↑39The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones have, as he states, been frequently found there.↑40The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the story ofBwca’r Trwynin chapter x.↑
1These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions usually given of them, exactly as I have seen akermessorkirchmessecelebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with whose name thekermesswas supposed to be connected: the chief features of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for a WelshGwyl Fabsantto bring together to a rural neighbourhood far more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day calledgwely g’l’absant, as it were ‘a bed (for the time) of a saint’s festival.’ Rightly or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class of people set their faces against them.↑
2Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Ỻwyd version of the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter.↑
3This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken in Gwyneđ.↑
4Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this intoTryfaenso as to extractmaen, ‘stone,’ from it. They do not trouble themselves to find out whether it ever wasTryfaenor not: in fact they rather like altering everything as much as they can.↑
5Ystrádỻyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronouncedStráỻyn, and means ‘the strand of the lake,’ and the hollow is named after itCwm Stráỻyn, and the lake in itỺyn Cwm Stráỻyn, which literally means ‘the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the Lake’—all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain.↑
6So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they are eight days old.↑
7I cannot account for this spelling, but thellinBellisis Englishll, not the Welshỻ, which represents a sound very different from that ofl.↑
8Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881.↑
9See Giraldus’Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75–8); some discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this volume.↑
10Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded and mixed with butter or lard.↑
11It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter and others of Ỻwyd’s once in the possession of the canon, for it is not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS.↑
12There is also aSarn yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Stepping Stones,’ on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant’sTours in Wales, iii. 101.↑
13The oxen should accordingly have been calledYchain Pannog; but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will come under the reader’s notice again, to wit in chapter x.↑
14The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25–30) ofThe Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion by Gwaỻter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837.↑
15This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies.↑
16SeeChoice Notes from ‘Notes and Queries’(London, 1859), p. 147.↑
17It is more likely that it is a shortening ofỺyn y Barfog, meaning the Lake of the Bearded One,Lacus Barbatias it were, the Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127.↑
18So far fromafancmeaning a crocodile, anafancis represented in the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave inhabited by it; see the OxfordMabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding Irish word isabhac, which according to O’Reilly means ‘a dwarf, pigmy, manikin; a sprite.’↑
19I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe’s rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: that involves difficult questions.↑
20The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would seem to have had a water etymology on the brain.↑
21This involves the name of the river called Disynni, andDiswnwyembodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing.↑
22It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:—
Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.
Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.
Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.
Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,And the Hornless Dodin:Arise, come home.
Come thou, Einion’s Yellow One,
Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow,
And the Hornless Dodin:
Arise, come home.
But one would like to know whetherDodinought not rather to be writtenDodyn, to rhyme withỺyn.↑
23Hywel’s real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for clues to several others.↑
24OrỺech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I takeỺech y Derwyđto be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any place called by the other name either.↑
25Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, pp. 142, 146.↑
26B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, as I learn from Gwynionyđ, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man.↑
27This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen meet.↑
28The name Ỻan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts,A.D.987 and 1089, and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the EnglishSt. Dogmael’sshows that it is derived from that of Dogfael’s name when the mutation consonantforvwas still writtenm. In Welsh the name of the saint has been worn down toDogwel, as in St. Dogwell’s near Fishguard, and Ỻanđogwel in Ỻanrhuđlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece’sWelsh Saints, p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic formDoco-maglos, withdocoof the same origin as Latindux,dŭcis, ‘a leader,’ andmaglo-s= Irishmāl, ‘a lord or prince.’ Dogfael’s name assumes in ỺanDydocha Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in IrishDoch-mhāl, which, cut down toDochwith the honorific prefixto, has yieldedTy-doch; but I am not clear why it is notTy-đoch. Another instance of a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this day offers itself inCyfelachand ỺanGyfelachin Glamorganshire. The Welsh was formerlyCimeliauc(Reece, p. 274). Here may also be mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise calledDocwinnus(Reece, p. 183), but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both asDocunn-iandDocguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as Goidelic for an early form ofCyngar, namelyCuno-caros, from which would be formedTo-chunorDo-chun. This is what seems to underlie the LatinDocunnus, whileDocguinniis possibly a Goidelic modification of the writtenDocunni, unless some such a name asDoco-vindo-shas been confounded withDocunnus. In one instance the Book of Ỻan Dâv has instead ofAbbas DocunniorDocguinni, the shorter designation,Abbas Dochou(p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat asDochon, seeing thatDochouwould be in later book WelshDochau, and in the dialect of the districtDocha; and that this occurs in the name of the church of Ỻandough near Cardiff, and Ỻandough near Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is required to help one to understand these and similar church names.↑
29This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname intoDaviesandJones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, p. 68.↑
30I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used this name.↑
31This name as it is now written should mean ‘the Gold’s Foot,’ but in the Demetian dialectauris pronouncedoer, and I learn from the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes been writtenTref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist’s futile attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly informs me,Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. BeneathDroyresome personal name possibly lies concealed.↑
32Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa(‘The Maid of Cefn Ydfa’), by Isaac Craigfryn Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881.↑
33In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he was perfectly familiarwith the traditions of the neighbourhood and had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement at St. Fagan’s.↑
34This term is sometimes represented as beingBendith eu Mamau, ‘their Mother’s Blessing,’ as if each fairy were such a delightful offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency ofBendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan,Béndith ĭ Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman times as the Mothers.↑
35On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:—It was the residence of Dafyđ Morgan or ‘Counsellor Morgan,’ who, he says, wasexecuted on Kennington Common for taking the side of the Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:—
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:Fe neidod naid atrebelhaidPan drođ o blaid Pretender.
Dafyđ Morgan ffel a ffol,
Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder:
Fe neidod naid atrebelhaid
Pan drođ o blaid Pretender.
Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,He did his bent go after:He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,To arm for a Pretender.
Taffy Morgan, sly and daft,
He did his bent go after:
He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm,
To arm for a Pretender.
↑
36Atònis any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken for years by the plough.↑
37On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough for the making of two cheeses.↑
38Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o’r Gerwyn Đu ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river.↑
39The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones have, as he states, been frequently found there.↑
40The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the story ofBwca’r Trwynin chapter x.↑