Welsh Journals

belong to the same reign, Wade Evans translates 'alumpnus', V.C. 59 (62), by 'foster son'.94 Is it strange that Guengarth, the King's 'foster son' should accompany his royal 'foster father' in his 'progress' through his kingdom, and be at hand to witness any charter, B.L.D. or V.C, when called upon to do so? What evidence of borrowing or forgery is there in this? He next claims that, because the VC. 61 (65) contains the names of Eudoce, bishop (Oudoceus) and of 8 witnesses of Oudoceus's election as bishop, the election narrative must have been constructed from the evidence of the V.C. charter. But the names of twelve of the witnesses are found also in B.L.D. charters, and, as stated above, the written evidence shows that the B.L.D. MS. is fifty years earlier than the Vespasian text of the Llancarfan Charters. How could the earlier MS. borrow from the later? There is no evidence in either instance to justify Doble's contention. Of group 'b', the land-granting charters, Doble writes, 'Four at least of the charters with which the Vita Cadoci concludes have been reproduced or utilized in the Book of Llandaff,95 the first of which, V.C. 59 (62), granting 'land at Llan- sannor, is mentioned in a charter on p. 148 of the Book of Llandaff'. The relevant B.L.D. charter is the Riu Graenauc charter, 147-8, but the V.C. and the B.L.D. charters differ in every detail. The V.C. names one Villa-Cadroc, but four are named in the B.L.D, Riu Graenauc, Nantauan, Ultra Nadauan and Trans Nadauan or Gurberdh. The two charters belong to different centuries. Two of the V.C. witnesses are Sulien and Danoc, who are styled abbots of Llancarfan in B.L.D. charters of Morgan II, 706-736 :96 abbot Sulien and King Morgan are both named in the V.C. Lanngatgualader V.C. charter, 63 (67), obviously 8th century. But the B.L.D. charter is 6th century: it names King Meurig, his son Frioc, and his grandson, Morgan ab Athrwys (later King Morgan I), the bishop is the genuine Oudoceus, and the three abbots, Concenn of Nantcarfan, Catgen of Lann Ildut, and Sulgen of Docguinni: all the witnesses belong to 570-600. The site of the V.C. Villa Cadroc is neither located nor identifiable: Doble, without any warrant, places it 'at Llansannor'. But the B.L.D. gives the extent of one of its four villas, Trans- Nadhauan, 'a palude Elleti usque ad Nadauan, id est, Villa Gurberdh'. The name 'Elleti' appears in Nennius's History of the Britons' as 'Campus Elleti in Glywysing', where Vortigern's envoys found the boy with no father.97 J. E. Lloyd notes that the name 'Eltutus' becomes Elltud in Merioneth, but Illtud in Glamorgan, which he considers a Goidelic form'.98 If Eltutus yields Illtud, Elleti similarly would become Ilid in Glamorgan; and 'Llan-ilid' is the name of the parish through which the upper course of the Nadhauan or Thaw (to give it modern name) flows. The Latin term 'palus'-a marsh or pool,- is several times in the B.L.D. rendered 'pull' modem 'pwll'-a pool; the 'paludem Mourici of B.L.D. 179 corresponds to the Welsh 'pull Mouric' of B.L.D. 142, 166, 262, the modern 'pool-Meyrick' near Chepstow.99 The name Welsh-pool' in Montgomeryshire is 'Trallwm' in Welsh: and in the parish of Llanilid, one mile due south of the parish church there is a farm called 'Trallwrn', a name which corresponds to the site of the B.L.D. 'Palus Elleti',100