[1] This was written at the end of 1892, and read to a joint meeting of the Cymmrodorion and Folk-Lore Societies on January 11, 1893. [↑]
[2] Some account of them was given by me in Folk-Lore for 1892, p. 380; but somehow or other my contribution was printed unrevised, with results more peculiar than edifying. [↑]
[3] In Folk-Lore for 1893, pp. 58–9. [↑]
[4] In the neighbourhood I find that the word gwaeldyn in this verse is sometimes explained to mean not a worthless but an ailing person, on the strength of the fact that the adjective gwael is colloquially used both for vile and for ailing. [↑]
[5] Since writing the above remarks the following paragraph, purporting to be copied from the Liverpool Mercury for November 18, 1896, appeared in the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1899, p. 334:—‘Two new fishes have just been put in the “Sacred Well,” Ffynnon y Sant, at Tyn y Ffynnon, in the village of Nant Peris, Ỻanberis. Invalids in large numbers came, during the last century and the first half of the present century, to this well to drink of its “miraculous waters”; and the oak box, where the contributions of those who visited the spot were kept, is still in its place at the side of the well. There have always been two “sacred fishes” in this well; and there is a tradition in the village to the effect that if one of the Tyn y Ffynnon fishes came out of its hiding-place when an invalid took some of the water for drinking or for bathing purposes, cure was certain; but if the fishes remained in their den, the water would do those who took it no good. Two fishes only are to be put in the well at a time, and they generally live in its waters for about half a century. If one dies before the other, it would be of no use to put in a new fish, for the old fish would not associate with it, and it would die. The experiment has been tried. The last of the two fishes put in the well about fifty years ago died last August. It had been blind for some time previous to its death. When taken out of the water it measured seventeen inches, and was buried in the garden adjoining the well. It is stated in a document of the year 1776 that the parish clerk was to receive the money put in the box of the well by visitors. This money, together with the amount of 6s. 4d., was his annual stipend.’ Tyn y Ffynnon means ‘the Tenement of the Well,’ tyn being a shortened form of tyđyn, ‘a tenement,’as mentioned at p. 33 above; but the mapsters make it into ty’n = ty yn, ‘a house in,’ so that the present instance, Ty’n y Ffynnon, could only mean ‘the House in the Well,’ which, needless to say, it is not. But one would like to know whether the house and land were once held rent-free on condition that the tenant took care of the sacred fish. [↑]
[6] See Ashton’s Iolo Goch, p. 234, and Lewis’ Top. Dict. [↑]
[7] See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 229, and the Iolo MSS., pp. 42–3, 420–1. [↑]
[8] A curious note bearing on this name occurs in the Jesus College MS. 20 (Cymmrodor, viii. p. 86) in reference to the name Morgannwg, ‘Glamorgan’:—O enỽ Morgant vchot y gelwir Morgannỽc. Ereiỻ a dyweit. Mae o enỽ Mochteyrn Predein. ‘It is from the name of the above Morgan that Morgannwg is called. Others say that it is from the name of the mochdeyrn of Pictland.’ The mochteyrn must have been a Pictish king or mórmáer called Morgan. The name occurs in the charters from the Book of Deer in Stokes’ Goidelica. pp. 109, 111, as Morcunt, Morcunn, and Morgunn undeclined, also with Morgainn for genitive; and so in Skene’s Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, pp. 77, 317, where it is printed Morgaind; see also Stokes’ Tigernach, in the Revue Celtique, xvii. 198. Compare Geoffrey’s story, ii. 15, which introduces a northern Marganus to account for the name Margan, now Margam, in Morgannwg. [↑]
[9] M. Loth’s remarks in point will be found in the Revue Celtique, xiii. 496–7, where he compares with tut the Breton teuz, ‘lutin, génie malfaisant ou bienfaisant’; and for the successive guesses on the subject of the name Morgan tut one should also consult Zimmer’s remarks in Foerster’s Introduction to his Erec, pp. xxvii–xxxi, and my Arthurian Legend, p. 391, to which I should add a reference to the Book of Ballymote, fo. 360a, where we have o na bantuathaib, which O’Curry has rendered ‘on the part of their Witches’ in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, iii. 526–7. Compare dá bhantuathaigh, ‘two female sorcerers,’ in Joyce’s Keating’s History of Ireland, pp. 122–3. [↑]