[10] For all about the Children of Lir, and about Liban and Lough Neagh, see Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances, pp. 4–36, 97–105. [↑]
[11] On my appealing to Cadrawd, one of the later editors, he has found me the exact reference, to wit, volume ix of the Cyfaiỻ (published in 1889), p. 50; and he has since contributed a translation of the story to the columns of the South Wales Daily News for February 15, 1899, where he has also given an account of Crymlyn, which is to be mentioned later. [↑]
[12] Judging from the three best-known instances, y bala meant the outlet of a lake: I allude to this Bala at the outlet of Ỻyn Tegid; Pont y Bala, ‘the Bridge of the bala,’ across the water flowing from the Upper into the Lower Lake at Ỻanberis; and Bala Deulyn, ‘the bala of two lakes,’ at Nantỻe. Two places called Bryn y Bala are mentioned s. v. Bala in Morris’ Celtic Remains, one near Aberystwyth, at a spot which I have never seen, and the other near the lower end of the Lower Lake of Ỻanberis, as to which it has been suggested to me that it is an error for Bryn y Bela. It is needless to say that bala has nothing to do with the Anglo-Irish bally, of such names as Ballymurphy or Ballynahunt: this vocable is in English bailey, and in South Wales beili, ‘a farm yard or enclosure,’ all three probably from the late Latin balium or ballium, ‘locus palis munitus et circumseptus.’ Our etymologists never stop short with bally: they go as far as Balaklava and, probably, Ballarat, to claim cognates for our Bala. [↑]
[13] Cadrawd here gives the Welsh as ‘2 bladur … 2 đyđ o wair,’ and observes that the lacuna consists of an illegible word of three letters. If that word was either sef, ‘that is,’ or neu, ‘or,’ the sense would be as given above. In North Cardiganshire we speak of a day’s mowing as gwaith gwr, ‘a man’s work for a day,’ and sometimes of a gwaith gwr bach, ‘a man’s work for a short day.’ [↑]
[14] See By-Gones for May 24, 1899. The full name of Welshpool in Welsh is Traỻwng Ỻywelyn, so called after a Ỻywelyn descended from Cuneđa, and supposed to have established a religious house there; for there are other Traỻwngs, and at first sight it would seem as if Traỻwng had something to do with a lake or piece of water. But there is a Traỻwng, for instance, near Brecon, where there is no lake to give it the name; and my attention has been called to Thos. Richards’ Welsh-English Dictionary, where a traỻwng is said to be ‘such a soft place on the road (or elsewhere) as travellers may be apt to sink into, a dirty pool.’ So the word seems to be partly of the same derivation as go-ỻwng, ‘to let go, to give way.’ The form of the word in use now is Traỻwm, not Traỻwng or Traỻwn. [↑]
[15] See the Book of the Dun Cow, fo. 39a–41b and Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances, pp. 97–105; but the story may now be consulted in O’Grady’s Silva Gadelica, i. 233–7, translated in ii. 265–9. On turning over the leaves of this great collection of Irish lore, I chanced, i. 174, ii. 196, on an allusion to a well which, when uncovered, was about to drown the whole locality but for a miracle performed by St. Patrick to arrest the flow of its waters. A similar story of a well bursting and forming Lough Reagh, in County Galway, will be found told in verse in the Book of Leinster; fo. 202b: see also fo. 170a, and the editor’s notes, pp. 45, 53. [↑]
[16] See Evans’ autotype edition of the Black Book of Carmarthen, fos. 53b, 54a, also 32a: the punctuation is that of the MS. In the seventh triplet kedaul is written keadaul, which seems to mean kadaul corrected into kedaul; but the a is not deleted, so other readings are possible. [↑]
[17] In the Iolo MSS., p. 89, finaun wenestir is made into Ffynon-Wenestr and said to be one of the ornamental epithets of the sea; but I am convinced that it should be rather treated as ffynnon fenestr with wenestir or fenestr mutated from menestr, which meant a servant, attendant, cup-bearer: for one or two instances see Pughe’s Dictionary. The word is probably, as suggested by M. Loth in his Mots Latins, p. 186. the old French menestre, ‘cup-bearer,’ borrowed. Compare the mention of Nechtán’s men having access to the secret well in Sid Nechtáin, p. 390 below, and note that they were his three menestres or cup-bearers. [↑]
[18] See the Cymmrodor, viii. 88 (No. xxix), where a Marereda is mentioned as a daughter of Madog son of Meredyđ brother to Rhys Gryg. [↑]
[19] There is another reading which would make them into Segantii, and render it irrelevant—to say the least of it—to mention them here. [↑]