A Ỻanfor aiff yn Ỻyn.
Bala old the lake has had, and Bala new
The lake will have, and Ỻanfor too.
This probably implies that old Bala is beneath the lake, and that the present Bala is to meet the like fate at some time to come. This kind of prophecy is not very uncommon: thus there has been one current as to the Montgomeryshire town of Pool, called, in Welsh, Traỻwng or Traỻwm, and in English, Welshpool, to distinguish it from the English town of Pool. As to Welshpool, a very deep water called Ỻyn Du, lying between the town and the Casteỻ Coch or Powys Castle, and right in the domain of the castle, is suddenly to spread itself, and one fine market day to engulf the whole place[14]. Further, when I was a boy in North Cardiganshire, the following couplet was quite familiar to me, and supposed to have been one of Merlin’s prophecies:—
Caer Fyrđin, cei oer fore;
Daear a’th lwnc, dw’r i’th le.
Carmarthen, a cold morn awaits thee;
Earth gapes, and water in thy place will be.
In regard to the earlier half of the line, concerning Bala gone, the story of Ffynnon Gywer might be said to explain it, but there is another which is later and far better known. It is of the same kind as the stories related in Welsh concerning Ỻynclys and Syfađon; but I reserve it with these and others of the same sort for chapter vii.
For the next legend belonging here I have to thank the Rev. J. Fisher, a native of the parish of Ỻandybïe, who, in spite of his name, is a genuine Welshman, and—what is more—a Welsh scholar. The following are his words:—‘Ỻyn Ỻech Owen (the last word is locally sounded w-en, like oo-en in English, as is also the personal name Owen) is on Mynyđ Mawr, in the ecclesiastical parish of Gors Lâs, and the civil parish of Ỻanarthney, Carmarthenshire. It is a small lake, forming the source of the Gwendraeth Fawr. I have heard the tradition about its origin told by several persons, and by all, until quite recently, pretty much in the same form. In 1884 I took it down from my grandfather, Rees Thomas (b. 1809, d. 1892), of Cil Coỻ Ỻandebïe—a very intelligent man, with a good fund of old-world Welsh lore—who had lived all his life in the neighbouring parishes of Ỻandeilo Fawr and Ỻandybïe.