Note 21 — Chapter IX · Place-name Stories

Identified by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society, 1895–6, p. 73, with a place in Leinster called Sescenn Uairbeóil, ‘the Marsh of Uairbhél,’ where Uairbhél may possibly be a man’s name, but more likely that of a pass or gap described as Cold-mouth: compare the Slack or Sloc in the Isle of Man, called in Manx ‘the big Mouth of the Wind.’ The Irish name comes near in part to the Welsh Esgeir Oervel or Oerfel, which means ‘the mountain Spur of cold Weather.’ ↑