Note 65 — Chapter IX · Place-name Stories

An article in the Rennes Dindṡenchas is devoted to Liath: see the Rev. Celtique, xvi. 78–9. As to Celtchar, genitive Celtchair, the name would seem to have meant ‘him who is fond of concealment.’ The Mabinogi form of the Welsh name is Ỻwyt uab kil coet, which literally meant ‘Ỻ. son of (him of) the Retreat of the Wood.’ But in the Twrch Trwyth story, under a slightly different form of designation, we appear to have the same person as Ỻwydeu mab kelcoet and Ỻwydeu mab kel coet, which would seem to mean ‘Ỻ. son of (him of) the Hidden Wood.’ It looks as if the bilingual story-teller of the language transition had not been able to give up the cel of Celtchar at the same time that he rendered celt by coet, ‘wood or trees,’ as if identifying it with cailt: witness the Medieval Irish caill, ‘a wood or forest,’ dative plural cailtib, derivative adjective caillteamhuil, ‘silvester’; and see Windisch’s Irische Texte, p. 410, s. v. caill. ↑