Note 17 — Chapter VIII · Welsh Cave Legends

See Derfel Hughes’ Ỻandegai and Ỻanỻechid, p. 53. As to Drystan it is the Pictish name Drostan, but a kindred form occurs in Cornwall on a stone near Fowey, where years ago I guessed the ancient genitive Drustagni; and after examining it recently I am able to confirm my original guess. The name of Drystan recalls that of Essyỻt, which offers some difficulty. It first occurs in Welsh in the Nennian Genealogies in the Harleian MS. 3859: see Pedigree I in the Cymmrodor, ix. 169, where we read that Mermin (Merfyn) was son of Etthil daughter of Cinnan (Cynan), who succeeded his father Rhodri Molwynog in the sovereignty of Gwyneđ in 754. The spelling Etthil is to be regarded like that of the Welsh names in Nennius, for some instances of which see § 73 (quoted in the next chapter) and the Old Welsh words calaur, nouel, patel, so spelt in the Juvencus Codex: see Skene, ii. 2: in all these l does duty for ỻ. So Etthil is to be treated as pronounced Ethiỻ or Ethyỻ; but Jesus College MS. 20 gives a more ancient pronunciation (at least as regards the consonants) when it calls Cynan’s daughter Etheỻt: see the Cymmrodor, viii. 87. Powell, in his History of Wales by Caradog of Ỻancarfan, as edited by Wynne, writes the name Esylht; and the Medieval Welsh spelling has usually been Essyỻt or Esyỻt, which agrees in its sibilant with the French Iselt or Iseut; but who made the Breton-looking change from Eth to Es or Is in this name remains a somewhat doubtful point. Professor Zimmer, in the Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Litteratur, xiii. 73–5, points out that the name is an Anglo-Saxon Ethylda borrowed, which he treats as a ‘Kurzform für Ethelhild’: see also the Revue Celtique, xii. 397, xiii. 495. The adoption of this name in Wales may be regarded as proof of intermarriage or alliance between an English family and the royal house of Gwyneđ as early as the eighth century. ↑