[16] The MSS. except B have y ỽylva, which is clearly not the right word, as it could only mean ‘his place of watching.’ [↑]
[17] See Derfel Hughes’ Ỻandegai and Ỻanỻechid, p. 53. As to Drystan it is the Pictish name Drostan, but a kindred form occurs in Cornwall on a stone near Fowey, where years ago I guessed the ancient genitive Drustagni; and after examining it recently I am able to confirm my original guess. The name of Drystan recalls that of Essyỻt, which offers some difficulty. It first occurs in Welsh in the Nennian Genealogies in the Harleian MS. 3859: see Pedigree I in the Cymmrodor, ix. 169, where we read that Mermin (Merfyn) was son of Etthil daughter of Cinnan (Cynan), who succeeded his father Rhodri Molwynog in the sovereignty of Gwyneđ in 754. The spelling Etthil is to be regarded like that of the Welsh names in Nennius, for some instances of which see § 73 (quoted in the next chapter) and the Old Welsh words calaur, nouel, patel, so spelt in the Juvencus Codex: see Skene, ii. 2: in all these l does duty for ỻ. So Etthil is to be treated as pronounced Ethiỻ or Ethyỻ; but Jesus College MS. 20 gives a more ancient pronunciation (at least as regards the consonants) when it calls Cynan’s daughter Etheỻt: see the Cymmrodor, viii. 87. Powell, in his History of Wales by Caradog of Ỻancarfan, as edited by Wynne, writes the name Esylht; and the Medieval Welsh spelling has usually been Essyỻt or Esyỻt, which agrees in its sibilant with the French Iselt or Iseut; but who made the Breton-looking change from Eth to Es or Is in this name remains a somewhat doubtful point. Professor Zimmer, in the Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Litteratur, xiii. 73–5, points out that the name is an Anglo-Saxon Ethylda borrowed, which he treats as a ‘Kurzform für Ethelhild’: see also the Revue Celtique, xii. 397, xiii. 495. The adoption of this name in Wales may be regarded as proof of intermarriage or alliance between an English family and the royal house of Gwyneđ as early as the eighth century. [↑]
[18] See the Brython for 1861, pp. 331–2, also Cymru Fu, p. 468, where Glasynys was also inclined to regard the Hairy Fellow as being Owen. [↑]
[19] I have never seen a copy, but Mr. Fisher gives me the title as follows: Prophwydoliaeth Myrđin Wyỻt yn nghyda ber Hanes o’i Fywyd, wedi eu tynu aỻan o Lyfr y Daroganau … Caerfyrđin … Pris dwy Geiniog. It has no date, but Mr. Fisher once had a copy with the date 1847. Recently he has come across another versified prophecy written in the same style as the printed ones, and referring to an Owain who may have been Owen Lawgoch. The personage meant is compared to the most brilliant of pearls, Owain glain golyaf. The prophecy is to be found at the Swansea Public Library, and occurs in a seventeenth century manuscript manual of Roman Catholic Devotion, Latin and Welsh. It gives 1440 as the year of the deliverance of the Brytaniaid. It forms the first of two poems (fo. 37), the second of which is ascribed to Taliessin. Such is Mr. Fisher’s account of it, and the lines which he has copied for me cling to the same theme of the ultimate triumph of the Kymry. Quite recently I have received further information as to these prophecies from Mr. J. H. Davies, of Lincoln’s Inn (p. 354), who will, it is to be hoped, soon publish the results of his intimate study of their history in South Wales. [↑]
[20] Record of Carnarvon, p. 133, to which attention was called by me in the Report of the Welsh Land Commission, p. 648: see now The Welsh People, pp. 343–4, 593–4. [↑]
[21] Nor was Owen the only Welshman in the king of France’s service: there was Owen’s chaplain, who on one occasion distinguished himself greatly in battle. He is called in Froissart’s text David House, but the editor has found from other documents that the name was Honvel Flinc, which is doubtless Howel, whatever the second vocable may have been: see Froissart, viii, pp. xxxviii, 69. [↑]
[22] As to the original destination of the flotilla, see Kervyn de Lettenhove’s edition of Froissart (Brussels, 1870–7), viii. 435–7, where the editor has brought together several notes, from which it appears that Owen tried unsuccessfully to recruit an army in Spain, but that he readily got together in France a considerable force. For Charles V, on May 8, 1372, ordered the formation of an army, to be placed under Owen’s command for the reconquest of his ancestors’ lands in Wales, and two days later Owen issued a declaration as to his Welsh claims and his obligations to the French king; but the flotilla stopped short with Guernsey. It is not improbable, however, that the fear in England of a descent on Wales by Owen began at least as early as 1369. In his declaration Owen calls himself Evain de Gales, which approaches the Welsh spelling Ewein, more frequently Ywein, modern Ywain, except that all these forms tended to be supplanted by Owain or Owen. This last is, strictly speaking, the colloquial form, just as Howel is the colloquial form of Hywel, and bowyd of bywyd, ‘life.’ [↑]
[23] For the account of Owen’s life see the Chroniques de J. Froissart publiées pour la Société de l’Histoire de France, edited with abstracts and notes by Siméon Luce, more especially vols. viii. pp. 44–9, 64, 66–71, 84, 122, 190, and ix. pp. 74–9, where a summary is given of his life and a complete account of his death. In Lord Berners’ translation, published in Henry VIII’s time, Owen is called Yuan of Wales, as if anybody could even glance at the romances without finding that Owen ab Urien, for instance, became in French Ywains or Ivains le fils Urien in the nominative, and Ywain or Ivain in régime. Thomas Johnes of Hafod, whose translation was published in 1803–6, betrays still greater ignorance by giving him the modern name Evan; but he had the excuse of being himself a Welshman. [↑]
[24] For copies of some of the documents in point see Rymer’s Fœdera, viii. 356, 365, 382. [↑]
[25] I have not been able to find a copy of this work, and for drawing my attention to the passage in Hanes Cymru I have again to thank Mr. Fisher. The pedigree in question will be found printed in Table I in Askew Roberts’ edition of Sir John Wynne’s History of the Gwydir Family (Oswestry, 1878); and a note, apparently copied from Miss Ỻwyd, states that it was in a Hengwrt MS. she found the identification of Owen Lawgoch. The editor surmises that to refer to p. 865 of Hengwrt MS. 351, which he represents as being a copy of Hengwrt MS. 96 in the handwriting of Robert Vaughan the Antiquary. [↑]