[23] In the original his designation is Gwrhyr Gwalstawt Ieithoeđ, and the man so called is in the Kulhwch credited with the mastery of all languages, including those of certain birds and quadrupeds. Gwalstawt, found written also gwalstot, is the Anglo-Saxon word wealhstód, ‘an interpreter,’ borrowed. The name Gwrhyr is possibly identical with that of Ferghoir, borne by the Stentor of Fionn mac Cumhaill’s following. Ferghoir’s every shout is said to have been audible over three cantreds. Naturally one who was to parley with a savage host had good reason to cultivate a far-reaching voice, if he wished to be certain of returning to his friends. For more about it see the footnote at p. 489 of my Hibbert Lectures. [↑]
[24] The original has Pelumyawc, p. 138, and the name occurs in the (Red Book) Bruts, p. 355, as Pelunyawc, and p. 411, as Pelunea(wc) between the commots of Amgoed and Velfrey. The identification here suggested comes from Mr. Phillimore, who has seen that Peuliniawc must be a derivative from the name Paulinus, that is of the Paulinus, probably, who is mentioned in an ancient inscription at Ỻandysilio. There are other churches called after Tysilio, so this one used to be distinguished as Ỻandysilio yn Nyfed, that is, Ỻandysilio-in-Dyfed; but the pronunciation was much the same as if it had been written Ỻandysilio yn Yfed, meaning ‘Ỻandysilio a-drinking,’ ‘whereof arose a merrye jest,’ as George Owen tells us in his Pembrokeshire, p. 9. It is now sometimes called Ỻandysilio’r Gynffon, or ‘Ỻandysilio of the Tail,’ from the situation of a part of the parish on a strip, as it were a tail, of Carmarthenshire land running into Pembrokeshire. [↑]
[25] This Aber Towy appears to have been a town with a harbour in 1042, for we read in Brut y Tywysogion of a cruel engagement fought there between Gruffyđ ab Ỻewelyn and Howel ab Edwin, who, with Irish auxiliaries, tried to effect a landing. Not long ago a storm, carrying away the accumulation of sand, laid bare a good deal of the site. It is to be hoped that excavations will be made soon on the spot. [↑]
[26] See the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, 1894–5, pp. 146–7. There are a good many clyns about South Wales, but our etymologists are careful to have them in most cases written glyn, ‘a glen.’ Our story, however, shows that the word came under the influence of glyn long ago, for it should be, when accented, clûn, corresponding to Irish cluain, ‘a meadow.’ We have it as clun in Clun Kein in the Black Book, p. 34b, where I guess it to mean the place now called Cilcain, ‘Kilken’ in Flintshire, which is accented on the first syllabic; and we have had it in y Clun Hir, ‘the Long Meadow,’ mentioned above at p. 22. [↑]
[27] Cas Ỻychwr, ‘Loughor Castle,’ is supposed to involve in its Ỻychwr, Ỻwchwr, or Loughor, the name of the place in the Antoninus Itinerary, 484, 1, to wit Leucarum; but the guttural spirant ch between vowels in Ỻychwr argues a phonetic process which was Goidelic rather than Brythonic. [↑]
[28] Ỻwydawc Gouynnyat would seem to mean Ỻwydawc the Asker or Demander, and the epithet occurs also in the Kulhwch in the name Gaỻcoyt Gouynynat (Mabinogion, 106), to be read doubtless G. Gouynnyat, ‘G. who asks or demands’: possibly one should rather compare with Go-uynnyat the word tra-mynyat, ‘a wild boar’: see Williams’ Seint Greal, pp. 374, 381. However, the epithets in the Twrch Trwyth story do not count so far as concerns the place-names derived. [↑]
[29] Other instances of the like shortening occur in words like cefnder, ‘a cousin,’ for cefnderw, and arđel, ‘to own,’ for arđelw. As to Amman, it enters, also, into a group of Glamorganshire place-names: witness Aber Amman and Cwm Amman, near Aberdare. [↑]
[30] It should perhaps be looked for near Brechfa, where there is a Hafod Grugyn, and, as I am told, a Garth also which is, however, not further defined. For it appears that both Brechfa and Cayo, though now in Carmarthenshire, once belonged to Keredigion: see Owen’s Pembrokeshire, p. 216. But perhaps another spot should be considered: J. D. Rhys, the grammarian (p. 22 above), gives in the Peniarth MS. 118 a list of caers or castles called after giants, and among them is that of Grugyn in the parish, he says, of ‘Ỻan Hilar.’ I have, however, not been able to hear of any trace of the name there, though I should guess the spot to have been Pen y Casteỻ, called in English Castle Hill, the residence of Mr. Loxdale in the parish of Ỻanilar, near Aberystwyth. [↑]
[31] I have re-examined the passage, and I have no doubt that the editors were wrong in printing Gregyn: the manuscript has Grugyn, which comes in the last line of column 841. Now besides that the line is in part somewhat faint, the scribe has evidently omitted something from the original story, and I guess that the lacuna occurs in the first line of the next column after the words y ỻas, ‘was killed,’ which seem to end the story of Grugyn. [↑]
[32] Those who have discovered an independent Welsh appellative wy meaning water are not to be reasoned with. The Welsh wy only means an egg, while the meaning of Gwy as the name of the Wye has still to be discovered. [↑]