[13] See the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 104, and the Oxford Bruts, p. 292. [↑]
[14] See the Oxford Bruts, pp. 299, 317, 345–6, 348, 384. I learn from Prof. Anwyl that Casteỻ Penweđig is still remembered at Ỻanfihangel Genau’r Glyn as the old name of Casteỻ Gwaỻter in that parish. [↑]
[15] See his note in Owen’s Pembrokeshire, p. 237, where he also notices Aber Tarogi, and the editor’s notes to p. 55. [↑]
[16] Mergaed for Mengwaed hardly requires any explanation; and as to Breat or rather Vreat, as it occurs in mutation, we have only to suppose the original carelessly written Vrēac for Vrēach, and we have the usual error of neglecting the stroke indicating the n, and the very common one of confounding c with t. This first-mentioned name should possibly be analysed into Mengw-aed or Menw-aed for an Irish Menb-aed, with the menb, ‘little,’ noticed at p. 510 below; in that case one might compare such compounds of Aed as Beo-aed and Lug-aed in the Martyrology of Gorman. Should this prove well founded the Mod. Welsh transcription of Menwaed should be Menwaeđ. I have had the use of other versions of the Triads from MSS. in the Peniarth collection; but they contribute nothing of any great importance as regards the proper names in the passages here in question. [↑]
[17] See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 41, 98, and Guest’s trans., iii. 313. [↑]
[18] See Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniæ, vi. 19, viii. 1, 2; also Giraldus, Itinerarium Kambriæ, ii. 8 (p. 133). [↑]
[19] Itinerarium Kambriæ, ii. 9 (p. 136). [↑]
[20] Menw’s name is to be equated with the Irish word menb, ‘little, small,’ and connected with the Welsh derivative di-fenw-i, ‘belittling or reviling’: it will be seen that he takes the form of a bird, and his designation Menw fab Teirgwaeđ might perhaps be rendered ‘Little, son of Three-Cries.’ [↑]
[21] Identified by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society, 1895–6, p. 73, with a place in Leinster called Sescenn Uairbeóil, ‘the Marsh of Uairbhél,’ where Uairbhél may possibly be a man’s name, but more likely that of a pass or gap described as Cold-mouth: compare the Slack or Sloc in the Isle of Man, called in Manx ‘the big Mouth of the Wind.’ The Irish name comes near in part to the Welsh Esgeir Oervel or Oerfel, which means ‘the mountain Spur of cold Weather.’ [↑]
[22] The word used in the text is ystyr, which now means ‘meaning or signification’; but it is there used in the sense of ‘history,’ or of the Latin ‘historia,’ from which it is probably borrowed. [↑]