Note 13 — Chapter IX · Place-name Stories

Such are the versions we have of this story, and a few notes on the names seem necessary before proceeding further. Coỻ is called Coỻ son of Coỻurewy in i. 30, and Coỻ son of Kaỻureuy in ii. 56: all that is known of him comes from other Triads, i. 32–3, ii. 20, and iii. 90. The first two tell us that he was one of the Three chief Enchanters of the Isle of Prydain, and that he was taught his magic by Rhuđlwm the Giant; while ii. 20 calls the latter a dwarf and adds that Coỻ was nephew to him. The matter is differently put in iii. 90, to the effect that Rhuđlwm the Giant learnt his magic from Eiđ[il]ig the Dwarf and from Coỻ son of Coỻfrewi. Nothing is known of Daỻwyr’s Glen in Kernyw, or of the person after whom it was named. Kernyw is the Welsh for Cornwall, but if Penryn Awstin or Hawstin is to be identified with Aust Cliff on the Severn Sea in Gloucestershire, the story would seem to indicate a time when Cornwall extended north-eastwards as far as that point. The later Triad, iii. 101, avoids Penryn Awstin and substitutes Penweđic, which recalls some such a name as Pengwaed13 or Penwith in Cornwall: elsewhere Penweđic14 is only given as the name of the most northern hundred of Keredigion. Gwent Is-coed means Gwent below the Wood or Forest, and Aber Torogi or Tarogi—omitted, probably by accident, in ii. 56—is now Caldicot Pill, where the small river Tarogi, now called Troggy, discharges itself not very far from Portskewet. Maes Gwenith in the same neighbourhood is still known by that name. The correct spelling of the name of the place in Penfro was probably Ỻonyon, but it is variously given as Ỻonwen, Ỻonyon, and Ỻonion, not to mention the Ỻonnio Ỻonnwen of the later form of the Triad: should this last prove to be based on any authority one might suggest Ỻonyon Henwen, so called after the sow, as the original. The modern Welsh spelling of Ỻonyon would be Ỻonion, and it is identified by Mr. Egerton Phillimore with Lanion near Pembroke15. Rhiw Gyferthwch is guessed to have been one of the slopes of Snowdon on the Beđgelert side; but I have failed to discover anybody who has ever heard the name used in that neighbourhood.