Note 24 — Chapter X · Difficulties of the Folklorist

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. ↑