Note 37 — Chapter VII · Triumphs of the Water-world

The dwy, dwyf, duiu, of the river’s Welsh name represent an early form dēva or dēiva, whence the Romans called their station on its banks Deva, possibly as a shortening of ad Devam; but that Dēva should have simply and directly meant the river is rendered probable by the fact that Ptolemy elsewhere gives it as the name of the northern Dee, which enters the sea near Aberdeen. From the same stem were formed the names Dwyf-an and Dwyf-ach, which are treated in the Triads as masculine and feminine respectively. In its course the Welsh Dee receives a river Ceirw not far above Corwen, and that river flows through farms called Ar-đwyfan and Hendre’ Ar-đwyfan, and adjoining Arđwyfan is another farm called Foty Arđwyfan, ‘Shielings of Arđwyfan,’ while Hendre’ Arđwyfan means the old stead or winter abode of Arđwyfan. Arđwyfan itself would seem to mean ‘On Dwyfan,’ and Hendre’ Arđwyfan, which may be supposed the original homestead, stands near a burn which flows into the Ceirw. That burn I should suppose to have been the Dwyfan, and perhaps the name extended to the Ceirw itself; but Dwyfan is not now known as the name of any stream in the neighbourhood. Elsewhere we have two rivers called Dwyfor or Dwyfawr and Dwyfach, which unite a little below the village of Ỻan Ystumdwy; and from there to the sea, the stream is called Dwyfor, the mouth of which is between Criccieth and Afon Wen, in Carnarvonshire. Ystumdwy, commonly corrupted into Stindwy, seems to mean Ystum-dwy, ‘the bend of the Dwy’; so that here also we have Dwyfach and Dwy, as in the case of the Dee. Possibly Dwyfor was previously called simply Dwy or even Dwyfan; but it is now explained as Dwy-fawr, ‘great Dwy,’ which was most likely suggested by Dwyfach, as this latter explains itself to the country people as Dwy-fach, ‘little Dwy.’ However, it is but right to say that in Ỻywelyn ab Gruffyđ’s grant of lands to the monks of Aber Conwy they seem to be called Dwyuech and Dwyuaur37.