Lullaby, little porker, white sow porker.
For the last four words Stokes suggests ‘O pigling of a white sow’; but perhaps the most natural rendering of the words would be ‘O white porker of a sow!’—which does not recommend itself greatly on the score of sense, I must admit. The word occurs, also, in Breton as gwiz or gwéz, ‘truie, femelle du porc,’ and as gwys or guis in Old Cornish, while in Irish it was feis. Nevertheless, the editor of the Twrch Trwyth story did not know it; but it would be in no way surprising that a Welshman, who knew his language fairly well, should be baffled by such a word in case it was not in use in his own district in his own time. This, however, barely touches the fringe of the question. The range of the hunt, as already given, was mostly within the boundaries, so to say, of the portion of South Wales where we find Goidelic inscriptions in the Ogam character of the fifth or sixth century; and I am persuaded that the Goidelic language must have lived down to the sixth or seventh century in the south and in the north of Wales[44], a tract of Mid-Wales being then, probably, the only district which can be assumed to have been completely Brythonic in point of speech. In this very story, probably, such a name as Garth Grugyn is but slightly modified from a Goidelic Gort Grucaind, ‘the enclosure of Grucand[45] or Grugan’: compare Cúchulaind or Cúchulainn made in Welsh into Cocholyn. But the capital instance in the story of Twrch Trwyth as has already been indicated is that of Amanw, which I detect also as Ammann (probably to be read Ammanu), in the Book of Ỻan Dâv (or Liber Landavensis), p. 199: it is there borne by a lay witness to a grant of land called Tir Dimuner, which would appear to have been in what is now Monmouthshire. Interpreted as standing for in Banbh, ‘the Boar,’ it would make a man’s name of the same class as Ibleid, found elsewhere in the same manuscript (pp. 178, 184), meaning evidently i Bleiđ, now y Blaiđ, ‘the Wolf.’ But observe that the latter was Welsh and the former Goidelic, which makes all the difference for our story. The Goidel relating the story would say that a boar, banbh, was killed on the mountain or hill of in Banbh or of ‘the Boar’; and his Goidelic hearer could not fail to associate the place-name with the appellative. But a Brython could hardly understand what the words in Banbh meant, and certainly not after he had transformed them into Ammanw, with the nb assimilated into mm, and the accent shifted to the first syllable. It is needless to say that my remarks have no meaning unless Goidelic was the original language of the tale.
In the summary I have given of the hunt, I omitted a number of proper names of the men who fell at the different spots where the Twrch is represented brought to bay. I wish now to return to them with the question, why were their names inserted in the story at all? It may be suspected that they also, or at any rate some of them, were intended to explain place-names; but I must confess to having had little success in identifying traces of them in the ordnance maps. Others, however, may fare better, who have a better acquaintance with the districts in point, and in that hope I append them in their order in the story:—
1. Arthur sends to the hunt on the banks of the Nevern, in Pembrokeshire, his men, Eli and Trachmyr, Gwarthegyđ son of Caw, and Bedwyr; also Tri meib Cleđyv Divwlch, ‘three Sons of the Gapless Sword.’ The dogs are also mentioned: Drudwyn, Greid son of Eri’s whelp, led by Arthur himself; Glythmyr Ledewig’s two dogs, led by Gwarthegyđ son of Caw; and Arthur’s dog Cavaỻ, led by Bedwyr.
2. Twrch Trwyth makes for Cwm Kerwyn in the Preselly Mountains, and turns to bay, killing the following men, who are called Arthur’s four rhyswyr[46] or champions—Gwarthegyđ son of Caw, Tarawg of Aỻt Clwyd, Rheiđwn son of Eli Atver, and Iscovan Hael.
3. He turns to bay a second time in Cwm Kerwyn, and kills Gwydre son of Arthur, Garselid Wyđel, Glew son of Yscawt, and Iscawyn son of Bannon or Panon.
4. Next day he is overtaken in the same neighbourhood, and he kills Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr’s three men, Huandaw, Gogigwr, and Penn Pingon, many of the men of the country also, and Gwlyđyn Saer, one of Arthur’s chief architects.
5. Arthur overtakes the Twrch next in Peuliniauc (p. 512 above); and the Twrch there kills Madawc son of Teithion, Gwyn son of Tringad son of Neued, and Eiriawn Penỻoran.
6. Twrch Trwyth next turns to bay at Aber Towy, ‘Towy Mouth,’ and kills Cynlas son of Cynan, and Gwilenhin, king of France.
7. The next occasion of his killing any men whose names are given, is when he reaches Ỻwch Ewin (p. 515), near which he killed Echel Vorđwyd-twỻ, Arwyli eil Gwyđawg Gwyr, and many men and dogs besides.