Note 17 — Chapter VI · The Folklore of the Wells
Reading edition
In the Iolo MSS., p. 89, finaun wenestir is made into Ffynon-Wenestr and said to be one of the ornamental epithets of the sea; but I am convinced that it should be rather treated as ffynnon fenestr with wenestir or fenestr mutated from menestr, which meant a servant, attendant, cup-bearer: for one or two instances see Pughe’s Dictionary. The word is probably, as suggested by M. Loth in his Mots Latins, p. 186. the old French menestre, ‘cup-bearer,’ borrowed. Compare the mention of Nechtán’s men having access to the secret well in Sid Nechtáin, p. 390 below, and note that they were his three menestres or cup-bearers. ↑