[60] See the Black Book of Carmarthen in Evans’ facsimile, p. 47b; Thomas Stephens’ Gododin, p. 146; Dent’s Malory, preface, p. xxvi; and Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, ii. 51, 63, 155. [↑]
[61] See the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen for 1890, p. 512. [↑]
[62] See De Courson’s Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Redon, pp. 163, 186. [↑]
[63] See Reeves’ note to the passage just cited in his edition of Adamnan’s Vita, pp. 6, 7. [↑]
[64] Here possibly one might mention likewise Gilmin Troetu or Troedđu, ‘Gilmin of the Black Foot,’ the legendary ancestor (p. 444) of the Wynns of Glyn Ỻifon, in Carnarvonshire. So the name might be a shortening of some such a combination as Gilla-min, ‘the attendant of Min or Men,’ a name we have also in Mocu-Min, ‘Min’s Kin,’ a family or sept so called more than once by Adamnan. Perhaps one would also be right in regarding as of similar origin the name of Gilberd or Gilbert, son of Cadgyffro, who is mentioned in the Kulhwch, and in the Black Book, fo. 14b: at any rate I am not convinced that the name is to be identified with the Gillebert of the Normans, unless that was itself derived from Celtic. But there is a discrepancy between Gilmin, Gilbert, with unmutated m and b, and Gilvaethwy with its mutation consonant v. In all three, however, Gil, had it been Welsh, would probably have appeared as Giỻ, as indicated by the name Giỻa in the Kulhwch (Oxford Mabinogion, p. 110), in which we seem to have the later form of the old name Gildas. Compare such Irish instances as Fiachna and Cera, which seem to imply stems originally ending in -asa-s (masculine) and -asā (feminine); and see the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1899, P. 402. [↑]
[65] An article in the Rennes Dindṡenchas is devoted to Liath: see the Rev. Celtique, xvi. 78–9. As to Celtchar, genitive Celtchair, the name would seem to have meant ‘him who is fond of concealment.’ The Mabinogi form of the Welsh name is Ỻwyt uab kil coet, which literally meant ‘Ỻ. son of (him of) the Retreat of the Wood.’ But in the Twrch Trwyth story, under a slightly different form of designation, we appear to have the same person as Ỻwydeu mab kelcoet and Ỻwydeu mab kel coet, which would seem to mean ‘Ỻ. son of (him of) the Hidden Wood.’ It looks as if the bilingual story-teller of the language transition had not been able to give up the cel of Celtchar at the same time that he rendered celt by coet, ‘wood or trees,’ as if identifying it with cailt: witness the Medieval Irish caill, ‘a wood or forest,’ dative plural cailtib, derivative adjective caillteamhuil, ‘silvester’; and see Windisch’s Irische Texte, p. 410, s. v. caill. [↑]
[66] Windisch’s Irische Texte, p. 217, and the Book of the Dun Cow, fo. 47b. [↑]
[67] There has been a good deal of confusion as to the name Ỻyr: thus for instance, the Welsh translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth make the Leir of his Latin into Ỻyr, and the personage intended is represented as the father of three daughters named Gonerilla, Regan, and Cordeilla or Cordelia. But Cordelia is probably the Creurđilad of the Black Book, p. 49b, and the Creiđylat of the Kulhwch story (the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 113, 134), and her father was Ỻûd Ỻawereint (= Irish Nuada Airgetlám) and not Ỻyr. Then as to the Leir of Geoffrey’s Latin, that name looks as if given its form on the strength of the legr- of Legraceaster, the Anglo-Saxon name of the town now called Leicester, of which William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontificum, § 176) says, Legrecestra est civitas antiqua in Mediterraneis Anglis, a Legra fluvio præterfluente sic vocata. Mr. Stevenson regards Legra as an old name of the Soar, and as surviving in that of the village of Leire, spelled Legre in Domesday. It seems to point back to a Legere or Ligere, which recalls Liger, ‘the Loire.’ [↑]
[68] I say in that case, as this is not quite conclusive; for Welsh has an appellative ỻyr, ‘mare, æquor,’ which may be a generalizing of Ỻyr; or else it may represent an early lerio-s from lero-s (see p. 549 below), and our Ỻyr may possibly be this and not the Irish genitive Lir retained as Ỻyr. That, however, seems to me improbable on the whole. [↑]
[69] Here it is relevant to direct the reader’s attention to Nutt’s Legend of the Holy Grail, p. 28, where, in giving an abstract of the Petit saint Graal, he speaks of the Brân of that romance, in French Bron, nominative Brons, as having the keeping of the Grail and dwelling ‘in these isles of Ireland.’ [↑]