Note 23 — Chapter VIII · Welsh Cave Legends

For the account of Owen’s life see the Chroniques de J. Froissart publiées pour la Société de l’Histoire de France, edited with abstracts and notes by Siméon Luce, more especially vols. viii. pp. 44–9, 64, 66–71, 84, 122, 190, and ix. pp. 74–9, where a summary is given of his life and a complete account of his death. In Lord Berners’ translation, published in Henry VIII’s time, Owen is called Yuan of Wales, as if anybody could even glance at the romances without finding that Owen ab Urien, for instance, became in French Ywains or Ivains le fils Urien in the nominative, and Ywain or Ivain in régime. Thomas Johnes of Hafod, whose translation was published in 1803–6, betrays still greater ignorance by giving him the modern name Evan; but he had the excuse of being himself a Welshman. ↑