Note 14 — Chapter III · OF ARTHUR THE KING AND MERLIN THE ENCHANTER
Reading edition
Mr. Glennie thinks the scene is in Carnarvonshire, to the south of Snowdon, overlooking the lower end of Llyn y Dinas. Here is Dinas Emrys, a singular isolated rock, clothed on all sides with wood, containing on the summit some faint remains of a building defended by ramparts. It was of this place Drayton wrote—
“And from the top of Brith, so high and wondrous steep Where Dinas Emris stood, showed where the serpents fought, The White that tore the Red; from whence the prophet wrought The Briton’s sad decay then shortly to ensue.”
On the south of Carnarvon Bay is Nant Gwrtheryn, the Hollow of Vortigern, a precipitous ravine by the sea, said to be the last resting-place of the usurper, when he fled to escape the rage of his subjects on finding themselves betrayed to the Saxons.