[15] See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 125–8. [↑]
[16] Evans’ Autotype Facsimile, fo. 48a; see also my preface to Dent’s Malory, p. xxvii; likewise p. 457 above. [↑]
[17] See my Lectures on Welsh Philology, pp. 377–9; and, as to the Caer Gai tradition, the Arch. Camb. for 1850, p. 204, and Morris’ Celtic Remains, p. 63. I may add as to Ỻanuwchỻyn, that the oldest inhabitants pronounce that name Ỻanuwỻyn. [↑]
[18] I cannot discover that it has ever been investigated by the Cambrian Archæological Association or any other antiquaries. Compare the case of the neighbouring site with the traces of the copper smeltings mentioned in the note on p. 532 above. To my knowledge the Cambrians have twice failed to make their way nearer to the ruins than Ỻanberis, or at most Ỻanberis Pass, significantly called in Welsh Pen Gorffwysfa for the older name Gorffwysfa Beris, ‘Peris’ Resting-place’: thus we loyally follow the example of resting set by the saint, and leave alone the archæology of the district. [↑]
[19] The subject has been discussed at length by Mr. Jacobs, in a note to the legend, in his Celtic Fairy Tales, pp. 259–64; and quite recently by Mr. D. E. Jenkins in his Beđ Gelert (Portmadoc, 1899), pp. 56–74. [↑]
[20] Professor J. Morris Jones, to whom I am indebted for the particulars connected with these names, informs me that the local pronunciation is Drónwy; but Mrs. Rhys remembers that, years ago, at Amlwch, it was always sounded Darónwy. The Professor also tells me that Dernog is never made into Dyrnog: the Kuwgh of the Record is doubtless to be corrected into Knwgh, and probably also Dornok into Dernok, which is the reading in the margin. Cornewe is doubtless the district name which we have still in Ỻanfair y’Nghornwy, ‘St. Mary’s in Cornwy’: the mill is supposed to be that of Bodronyn. [↑]
[21] The Book of Ỻan Dáv has an old form Cinust for an earlier Cingust or Congust. The early Brythonic nominative must have been Cunogústu-s and the early Goidelic Cúnagusu-s, and from the difference of accentuation come the o of Conghus, Connws, and the y of the Welsh Cynwst: compare Irish Fergus and Welsh Gurgúst, later Gu̯rúst (one syllable), whence Grwst, finally the accented rwst of Ỻanrwst, the name of a small town on the river Conwy. Moreover the accentuation Cúnogusi is the reason why it was not written Cunogussi: compare Bárrivendi and Véndubari in one and the same inscription from Carmarthenshire. [↑]
[22] Such as that of a holding called Wele Dauid ap Gwelsantfrait, the latter part of which is perversely written or wrongly read so for Gwas Sant Freit, a rendering into Welsh of the very Goidelic name, Mael-Brigte, ‘Servant of St. Bridget.’ This Wele, with Wele Conus and Wele More, is contained in the Extent marginally headed Darronwy cum Hameletta de Kuwghdernok. [↑]
[23] This comes in Triad i. 49 = ii. 40; as to which it is to be noted that the name is Catwaỻawn in i and ii, but Caswaỻawn in iii. 27, as in the Oxford Mabinogion. [↑]
[24] Serrigi, Serigi, or Syrigi looks like a Latin genitive torn out of its context, but derived in the last resort from the Norse name Sigtrygg-r, which the Four Masters give as Sitriucc or Sitriug: see their entries from 891 to 1091. The Scandinavians of Dublin and its neighbourhood were addicted to descents on the shores of North Wales; and we have possibly a trace of occupation by them in Gaueỻ Seirith, ‘Seirith’s holding,’ in the Record of Carnarvon, p. 63, where the place in question is represented as being in the manor of Cemmaes, in Anglesey. The name Seirith was probably that written by the Four Masters as Sichfraith Sichraidh (also Serridh, A. D. 971), that is to say the Norse Sigræđ-r before it lost the f retained in its German equivalent Siegfried. We seem to detect Seirith later as Seri in place-names in Anglesey—as for example in the name of the farms called Seri Fawr and Seri Bach between Ỻandrygarn and Ỻannerch y Međ, also in a Pen Seri, ‘Seri’s Knoll or Hill,’ at Bryn Du, near Ty Croes station, and in another Pen Seri on Holyhead Island, between Holyhead and Ỻain Goch, on the way to the South Stack. Lastly Dugdale, v. 672b mentions a Claud Seri, ‘Seri’s Dyke or Ditch,’ as being somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ỻanwnda, in Carnarvonshire—not very far perhaps from the Gwyrfai and the spot where the Iolo MSS. (pp. 81–2) represent Serrigi repulsed by Caswaỻon and driven back to Anglesey, previous to his being crushed at Cerrig y Gwyđyl. The reader must, however, be warned that the modern Seri is sometimes pronounced Si̯eri or Sheri, which suggests the possibility of some of the instances involving rather a form of the English word sheriff. [↑]