Welsh Journals

IS "PORTH KERDIN" IN MOYLGROVE? BY A. W. WADE-EVANS. [The following appeared last December and January, in the now well-known Amsang" column in the Pembroke County Guardian (H. W. Williams, Solva). With Mr. Williams' permission, it is here reproduced and revised. For the photographs we are indebted to the Rev. J. T. Evans, Rector of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire]. THERE are certain reasons for believing that the place called Porth Kerdin," in the story of Kulhwch (Oxford Mabinogion. p. 110), is in the parish of Moyl- grove, in North Pembrokeshire. The following is the relevant passage from Lady Guest's translation (Nutt's Ed., 1902, p. 140) :— After this Arthur sent an embassy to Odgar, the son of Aedd, King of Ireland, to ask for the cauldron of Diwrnach Wyddel, his purveyor. And Odgar commanded him to give it. But Diwrnach said: 'Heaven is my witness if it should avail him anything even to look at it, he should not do so.' And the embassy of Arthur returned with this denial. And Arthur set forward with a small retinue, and entered 1'rydwen his ship, and went over to Ireland. And they slew Diwrnach Wyddel and his company Arthur with his men went forward to the ship, carrying away the cauldron fall of Irish money. And he disembarked at the house of Llwyddeu, the son of Kelcoed, at Forth Kerdin in Dyfed. And there is the measure of the cauldron." The part in italics is as follows in the original Welsh (Oxford Mabinogion, p. 136) :— ar peir yn llawn o swllt iwerdon gantunt. Adiskynnu yn ty llwydeu mab kel coet ym porth kerdin yn dyuet. Ac yno y mae messur y peir." Now where is this "Porth Kerdin yn Dyuet"? Lady Guest suggests Pwllcrochan in Pencaer, and this is supported not only by the name itself, which means the pool of the pot or cauldron," but also by 6TH SER., VOL. IV. 3