i. 30c:—Coỻ son of Coỻfrewi[11] who guarded Henwen[12], Daỻweir Daỻben’s sow, which went burrowing as far as the Headland of Awstin in Kernyw and then took to the sea. It was at Aber Torogi in Gwent Is-coed that she came to land, with Coỻ keeping his grip on her bristles whatever way she went by sea or by land. Now in Maes Gwenith, ‘Wheat Field,’ in Gwent she dropped a grain of wheat and a bee, and thenceforth that has been the best place for wheat. Then she went as far as Ỻonwen in Penfro and there dropped a grain of barley and a bee, and thenceforth Ỻonwen has been the best place for barley. Then she proceeded to Rhiw Gyferthwch in Eryri and dropped a wolf-cub and an eagle-chick. These Coỻ gave away, the eagle to the Goidel Brynach from the North, and the wolf to Menwaed of Arỻechweđ, and they came to be known as Menwaed’s Wolf and Brynach’s Eagle. Then the sow went as far as the Maen Du at Ỻanfair in Arfon, and there she dropped a kitten, and that kitten Coỻ cast into the Menai: that came later to be known as Cath Paluc, ‘Palug’s Cat.’
ii. 56c:—The third was Coỻ son of Kaỻureuy with the swine of Daỻwyr Daỻben in Daỻwyr’s Glen in Kernyw. Now one of the swine was with young and Henwen was her name; and it was foretold that the Isle of Prydain would be the worse for her litter; and Arthur collected the host of Prydain and went about to destroy it. Then one sow went burrowing, and at the Headland of Hawstin in Kernyw she took to the sea with the swineherd following her. And in Maes Gwenith in Gwent she dropped a grain of wheat and a bee, and ever since Maes Gwenith is the best place for wheat and bees. And at Ỻonyon in Penfro she dropped a grain of barley and another of wheat: therefore the barley of Ỻonyon has passed into a proverb. And on Rhiw Gyferthwch in Arfon she dropped a wolf-cub and an eagle-chick. The wolf was given to Mergaed and the eagle to Breat a prince from the North, and they were the worse for having them. And at Ỻanfair in Arfon, to wit below the Maen Du, she dropped a kitten, and from the Maen Du the swineherd cast it into the sea, but the sons of Paluc reared it to their detriment. It grew to be Cath Paluc, ‘Palug’s Cat,’ and proved one of the three chief molestations of Mona reared in the island: the second was Daronwy and the third was Edwin king of England.
iii. 101b:—The second was Coỻ son of Coỻfrewi who guarded Daỻwaran Daỻben’s sow, that came burrowing as far as the Headland of Penwedic in Kernyw and then took to the sea; and she came to land at Aber Tarogi in Gwent Is-coed with Coỻ keeping his hold of her bristles whithersoever she went on sea or land. At Maes Gwenith in Gwent she dropped three grains of wheat and three bees, and ever since Gwent has the best wheat and bees. From Gwent she proceeded to Dyfed and dropped a grain of barley and a porker, and ever since Dyfed has the best barley and pigs: it was in Ỻonnio Ỻonnwen these were dropped. Afterwards she proceeded to Arfon (sic) and in Ỻeyn she dropped the grain of rye, and ever since Ỻeyn and Eifionyđ have the best rye. And on the side of Rhiw Gyferthwch she dropped a wolf-cub and an eagle-chick. Coỻ gave the eagle to Brynach the Goidel of Dinas Affaraon, and the wolf to Menwaed lord of Arỻechweđ, and one often hears of Brynach’s Wolf and Menwaed’s Eagle [the writer was careless: he has made the owners exchange pests]. Then she went as far as the Maen Du in Arfon, where she dropped a kitten and Coỻ cast it into the Menai. That was the Cath Balwg (sic), ‘Palug’s Cat’: it proved a molestation to the Isle of Mona subsequently.
Such are the versions we have of this story, and a few notes on the names seem necessary before proceeding further. Coỻ is called Coỻ son of Coỻurewy in i. 30, and Coỻ son of Kaỻureuy in ii. 56: all that is known of him comes from other Triads, i. 32–3, ii. 20, and iii. 90. The first two tell us that he was one of the Three chief Enchanters of the Isle of Prydain, and that he was taught his magic by Rhuđlwm the Giant; while ii. 20 calls the latter a dwarf and adds that Coỻ was nephew to him. The matter is differently put in iii. 90, to the effect that Rhuđlwm the Giant learnt his magic from Eiđ[il]ig the Dwarf and from Coỻ son of Coỻfrewi. Nothing is known of Daỻwyr’s Glen in Kernyw, or of the person after whom it was named. Kernyw is the Welsh for Cornwall, but if Penryn Awstin or Hawstin is to be identified with Aust Cliff on the Severn Sea in Gloucestershire, the story would seem to indicate a time when Cornwall extended north-eastwards as far as that point. The later Triad, iii. 101, avoids Penryn Awstin and substitutes Penweđic, which recalls some such a name as Pengwaed[13] or Penwith in Cornwall: elsewhere Penweđic[14] is only given as the name of the most northern hundred of Keredigion. Gwent Is-coed means Gwent below the Wood or Forest, and Aber Torogi or Tarogi—omitted, probably by accident, in ii. 56—is now Caldicot Pill, where the small river Tarogi, now called Troggy, discharges itself not very far from Portskewet. Maes Gwenith in the same neighbourhood is still known by that name. The correct spelling of the name of the place in Penfro was probably Ỻonyon, but it is variously given as Ỻonwen, Ỻonyon, and Ỻonion, not to mention the Ỻonnio Ỻonnwen of the later form of the Triad: should this last prove to be based on any authority one might suggest Ỻonyon Henwen, so called after the sow, as the original. The modern Welsh spelling of Ỻonyon would be Ỻonion, and it is identified by Mr. Egerton Phillimore with Lanion near Pembroke[15]. Rhiw Gyferthwch is guessed to have been one of the slopes of Snowdon on the Beđgelert side; but I have failed to discover anybody who has ever heard the name used in that neighbourhood.
Arỻechweđ was, roughly speaking, that part of Carnarvonshire which drains into the sea between Conway and Bangor. Brynach and Menwaed or Mengwaed[16] seem to be the names underlying the misreadings in ii. 56; but it is quite possible that Brynach, probably for an Irish Bronach, has here superseded an earlier Urnach or Eurnach also a Goidel, to whom I shall have to return in another chapter. Dinas Affaraon[17] is the place called Dinas Ffaraon Dande in the story of Ỻud and Ỻevelys, where we are told that after Ỻud had had the two dragons buried there, which had been dug up at the centre of his realm, to wit at Oxford, Ffaraon, after whom the place was called, died of grief. Later it came to be called Dinas Emrys from Myrđin Emrys, ‘Merlinus Ambrosius,’ who induced Vortigern to go away from there in quest of another place to build his castle[18]. So the reader will see that the mention of this Dinas brings us back to a weird spot with which he has been familiarized in the previous chapter: see pp. 469, 495 above. Ỻanfair in Arfon is Ỻanfair Is-gaer near Port Dinorwic on the Menai Straits, and the Maen Du should be a black rock or black stone on the southern side of those straits. Daronwy and Cath Paluc are both personages on whom light is still wanted. Lastly, by Edwin king of England is to be understood Edwin king of the Angles of Deira and Bernicia, whom Welsh tradition represents as having found refuge for a time in Anglesey.
Now this story as a whole looks like a sort of device for stringing together explanations of the origin of certain place-names and of certain local characteristics. Leaving entirely out of the reckoning the whole of Mid-Wales, that is to say, the more Brythonic portion of the country, it is remarkable as giving to South Wales credit for certain resources, but to North Wales for pests alone and scourges, except that the writer of the late version bethought himself of Ỻeyn and Eifionyđ as having good land for growing rye; but he was very hazy as to the geography of North Wales—both he and the redactors of the other Triads equally belonged doubtless to South Wales. Among the place-names, Maes Gwenith, ‘the Wheat Field,’ is clear; but hardly less so is the case of Aber Torogi, ‘Mouth of the Troggy,’ where torogi is ‘the pregnancy of animals,’ from torrog, ‘being with young.’ So with Rhiw Gyferthwch, ‘the Hillside or Ascent of Cyferthwch,’ where cyferthwch means ‘pantings, pangs, labour.’ The name Maen Du, ‘Black Rock,’ is left to explain itself; and I am not sure that the original story was not so put as also to explain Ỻonion, to wit, as a sort of plural of ỻawn, ‘full,’ in reference, let us say, to the full ears of the barley grown there. But the reference to the place-names seems to have partly escaped the later tellers of the story or to have failed to impress them as worth emphasizing. They appear to have thought more of explaining the origin of Menwaed’s Wolf and Brynach’s Eagle. Whether this means in the former case that the district of Arỻechweđ was more infested by wolves than any other part of Wales, or that Menwaed, lord of Arỻechweđ, had a wolf as his symbol, it is impossible to say. In another Triad, however, i. 23 = ii. 57, he is reckoned one of the Three Battle-knights who were favourites at Arthur’s court, the others being Caradog Freichfras and Ỻyr Ỻüyđog or Ỻuđ Ỻurugog, while in iii. 29 Menwaed’s place is taken by a son of his called Mael Hir. Similarly with regard to Brynach’s Eagle one has nothing to say, except that common parlance some time or other would seem to have associated the eagle in some way with Brynach the Goidel. The former prevalence of the eagle in the Snowdon district seems to be the explanation of its Welsh name of Eryri—as already suggested, p. 479 above—and the association of the bird with the Goidelic chieftain who had his stronghold under the shadow of Snowdon seems to follow naturally enough. But the details are conspicuous by their scarcity in Welsh literature, though Brynach’s Eagle is probably to be identified with the Aquila Fabulosa of Eryri, of which Giraldus makes a curious mention[19]. Perhaps the final disuse of Goidelic speech in the district is to be, to some extent, regarded as accounting for our dearth of data. A change of language involved in all probability the shipwreck of many a familiar mode of thought; and many a homely expression must have been lost in the transition before an equivalent acceptable to the Goidel was discovered by him in his adopted idiom.
This question of linguistic change will be found further illustrated by the story to which I wish now to pass, namely that of the hunting of Twrch Trwyth. It is one of those incorporated in the larger tale known as that of Kulhwch and Olwen, the hero and heroine concerned: see the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 135–41, and Guest’s translation, iii. 306–16. Twrch Trwyth is pictured as a formidable boar at the head of his offspring, consisting of seven swine, and the Twrch himself is represented as carrying between his ears a comb, a razor, and a pair of shears. The plot of the Kulhwch renders it necessary that these precious articles should be procured; so Kulhwch prevails on his cousin Arthur to undertake the hunt. Arthur began by sending one of his men, to wit, Menw[20] son of Teirgwaeđ, to see whether the three precious things mentioned were really where they were said to be, namely, between Twrch Trwyth’s ears. Menw was a great magician who usually formed one of any party of Arthur’s men about to visit a pagan country; for it was his business to subject the inhabitants to magic and enchantment, so that they should not see Arthur’s men, while the latter saw them. Menw found Twrch Trwyth and his offspring at a place in Ireland called Esgeir Oervel[21], and in order to approach them he alighted in the form of a bird near where they were. He tried to snatch one of the three precious articles from Twrch Trwyth, but he only succeeded in securing one of his bristles, whereupon the Twrch stood up and shook himself so vigorously that a drop of venom from his bristles fell on Menw, who never enjoyed a day’s health afterwards as long as he lived. Menw now returned and assured Arthur that the treasures were really about the Twrch’s head as it was reported. Arthur then crossed to Ireland with a host and did not stop until he found Twrch Trwyth and his swine at Esgeir Oervel. The hunt began and was continued for several days, but it did not prevent the Twrch from laying waste a fifth part of Ireland, that is in Medieval Irish cóiced, a province of the island. Arthur’s men, however, succeeded in killing one of the Twrch’s offspring, and they asked Arthur the history[22] of that swine. Arthur replied that it had been a king before being transformed by God into a swine on account of his sins. Here I should remark by the way, that the narrator of the story forgets the death of this young boar, and continues to reckon the Twrch’s herd as seven.
Arthur’s next move was to send one of his men, Gwrhyr, interpreter of tongues[23], to parley with the boars. Gwrhyr, in the form of a bird, alighted above where Twrch Trwyth and his swine lay, and addressed them as follows: ‘For the sake of Him who fashioned you in this shape, if you can speak, I ask one of you to come to converse with Arthur.’ Answer was made by one of the boars, called Grugyn Gwrych Ereint, that is, Grugyn Silver-bristle; for like feathers of silver, we are told, were his bristles wherever he went, and whether in woods or on plains, one saw the gleam of his bristles. The following, then, was Grugyn’s answer: ‘By Him who fashioned us in this shape, we shall not do so, and we shall not converse with Arthur. Enough evil has God done to us when He fashioned us in this shape, without your coming to fight with us.’ Gwrhyr replied: ‘I tell you that Arthur will fight for the comb, the razor, and the shears that are between the ears of Twrch Trwyth.’ ‘Until his life has first been taken,’ said Grugyn, ‘those trinkets shall not be taken, and to-morrow morning we set out hence for Arthur’s own country, and all the harm we can, shall we do there.’
The boars accordingly set out for Wales, while Arthur with his host, his horses, and his hounds, on board his ship Prydwen, kept within sight of them. Twrch Trwyth came to land at Porth Clais, a small creek south of St. David’s, but Arthur went that night to Mynyw, which seems to have been Menevia or St. David’s. The next day Arthur was told that the boars had gone past, and he overtook them killing the herds of Kynnwas Cwrvagyl, after they had destroyed all they could find in Deugleđyf, whether man or beast. Then the Twrch went as far as Presseleu, a name which survives in that of Preselly or Precelly, as in Preselly Top and Preselly Mountains in North Pembrokeshire. Arthur and his men began the hunt again, while his warriors were ranged on both sides of the Nyfer or the river Nevern. The Twrch then left the Glen of the Nevern and made his way to Cwm Kerwyn, the name of which survives in that of Moel Cwm Kerwyn, one of the Preselly heights. In the course of the hunt in that district the Twrch killed Arthur’s four champions and many of the people of the country. He was next overtaken in a district called Peuliniauc[24] or Peuliniog, which appears to have occupied a central area between the mountains, Ỻanđewi Velfrey, Henỻan Amgoed, and Laugharne: it probably covered portions of the parish of Whitland and of that of Ỻandysilio, the church of which is a little to the north of the railway station of Clyn Derwen on the Great Western line. Leaving Peuliniog for the Laugharne Burrows, he crossed, as it seems, from Ginst Point to Aber Towy or Towy Mouth[25], which at low water are separated mostly by tracts of sand interrupted only by one or two channels of no very considerable width; for Aber Towy would seem to have been a little south-east of St. Ishmael’s, on the eastern bank of the Towy. Thence the Twrch makes his way to Glynn Ystu, more correctly perhaps Clyn Ystun, now written Clyn Ystyn[26], the name of a farm between Carmarthen and the junction of the Amman with the Ỻychwr, more exactly about six miles from that junction and about eight and a half from Carmarthen as the crow flies. The hunt is resumed in the Valley of the Ỻychwr or Loughor[27], where Grugyn and another young boar, called Ỻwydawc Gouynnyat[28], committed terrible ravages among the huntsmen. This brought Arthur and his host to the rescue, and Twrch Trwyth, on his part, came to help his boars; but as a tremendous attack was now made on him he moved away, leaving the Ỻychwr, and making eastwards for Mynyđ Amanw, or ‘the Mountain of Amman,’ for Amanw is plentifully preserved in that neighbourhood in the shortened form of Aman or Amman[29]. On Mynyđ Amanw one of his boars was killed, but he is not distinguished by any proper name: he is simply called a banw, ‘a young boar.’ The Twrch was again hard pressed, and lost another called Twrch Ỻawin. Then a third of the swine is killed, called Gwys, whereupon Twrch Trwyth went to Dyffryn Amanw, or the Vale of Amman, where he lost a banw and a benwic, a ‘boar’ and a ‘sow.’ All this evidently takes place in the same district, and Mynyđ Amanw was, if not Bryn Amman, probably one of the mountains to the south or south-east of the river Amman, so that Dyffryn Amanw may have been what is still called Dyffryn Amman, or the Valley of the Amman from Bryn Amman to where the river Amman falls into the Ỻychwr. From the Amman the Twrch and the two remaining boars of his herd made their way to Ỻwch Ewin, ‘the lake or pool of Ewin,’ which is now represented by a bog mere above a farm house called Ỻwch in the parish of Bettws, which covers the southern slope of the Amman Valley. I have found this bog called in a map Ỻwch is Awel, ‘Pool below Breeze,’ whatever that may mean.
We find them next at Ỻwch Tawi, the position of which is indicated by that of Ynys Pen Ỻwch, ‘Pool’s End Isle,’ some distance lower down the Tawe than Pont ar Dawe. At this point the boars separate, and Grugyn goes away to Din Tywi, ‘Towy Fort,’ an unidentified position somewhere on the Towy, possibly Grongar Hill near Ỻandeilo, and thence to a place in Keredigion where he was killed, namely, Garth Grugyn. I have not yet been able to identify the spot, though it must have once had a castle, as we read of a castle called Garthgrugyn being strengthened by Maelgwn Vychan in the year 1242: the Bruts locate it in Keredigion[30], but this part of the story is obscured by careless copying on the part of the scribe[31] of the Red Book. After Grugyn’s death we read of Ỻwydawc having made his way to Ystrad Yw, and, after inflicting slaughter on several of his assailants, he is himself killed there. Now Ystrad Yw, which our mapsters would have us call Ystrad Wy, as if it had been on the Wye[32], is supposed to have covered till Henry VIII’s time the same area approximately as the hundred of Crickhowel has since, namely, the parishes of (1) Crickhowel, (2) Ỻanbedr Ystrad Yw with Patrishow, (3) Ỻanfihangel Cwm Du with Tretower and Penmyarth, (4) Ỻangattock with Ỻangenny, (5) Ỻaneỻy with Brynmawr, and (6) Ỻangynidr. Of these Ỻanbedr perpetuates the name of Ystrad Yw, although it is situated near the junction of the Greater and Lesser Grwynë and not in the Strath of the Yw, which Ystrad Yw means. So one can only treat Lanbedr Ystrad Yw as meaning that particular Ỻanbedr or St. Peter’s Church which belongs to the district comprehensively called Ystrad Yw. Now if one glances at the Red Book list of cantreds and cymwds, dating in the latter part of the fourteenth century, one will find Ystrad Yw and Cruc Howel existing as separate cymwds. So we have to look for the former in the direction of the parish of Cwm Du; and on going back to the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV dating about 1291, we find that practically we have to identify with Cwm Du a name Stratden’, p. 273a, which one is probably to treat as Strat d’Eue[33] or some similar Norman spelling; for most of the other parishes of the district are mentioned by the names which they still bear. That is not all; for from Cwm Du a tributary of the Usk called the Rhiangoỻ comes down and receives at Tretower the waters of a smaller stream called the Yw. The land on both sides of that Yw burn forms the ystrad or strath of which we are in quest. The chief source of this water is called Ỻygad Yw, and gives its name to a house of some pretensions bearing an inscription showing that it was built in its present form about the middle of the seventeenth century by a member of the Gunter family well known in the history of the county. Near the house stands a yew tree on the boundary line of the garden, and close to its trunk, but at a lower level, is a spring of bubbling water: this is Ỻygad Yw, ‘the Eye of the Yw.’ For Ỻygad Yw is a succinct expression for the source of the Yw burn[34], and the stream retains the name Yw to its fall into the Rhiangoỻ; but besides the spring of Llygad Yw it has several other similar sources in the fields near the house. There is nothing, however, in this brook to account for the name of Ystrad Yw having been extended to an important district; but if one traces its short course one will at once guess the explanation. For a few fields below Ỻygad Yw is the hamlet of the Gaer or fortress, consisting of four farm houses called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Gaer, and Pen y Gaer: through this hamlet of the Gaer flows the Yw. These, and more especially Pen y Gaer, are supposed to have been the site of a Roman camp of considerable importance, and close by it the Yw is supposed to have been crossed by the Roman road proceeding towards Brecon[35]. The camp in the Strath of the Yw was the head quarters of the ruling power in the district, and hence the application of the name of Ystrad Yw to a wider area. But for our story one has to regard the name as confined to the land about the Yw burn, or at most to a somewhat larger portion of the parish of Cwm Du, to which the Yw and Tretower belong. The position of the Gaer in Ystrad Yw at the foot of the Bwlch or the gap in the difficult mountain spur stretching down towards the Usk is more likely to have been selected by the Romans than by any of the Celtic inhabitants, whose works are to be found on several of the neighbouring hills, such as Myarth[36] between the Yw and the Usk.