Welsh Journals

Boars with Llwyd and his people except what Mr. Evans has directed attention to, namely, the similarity between the name Llwydawc of one of the principal Boars, and Llwyd's own name. His ingenious conjecture is well worth bearing in mind, though by itself it cannot be considered to identify Llwyd with the Boars under the lead of Twrch Trwyth. This would be an important conclusion if it could be established, as there is more to say about the Boar Lady Banba: I seem to detect her in the Germania as the goddess of a Celtic people who protected their persons with boar amulets. "The story of Llwyd does identify him with an ally called Gwawl, son of Clud and it was to avenge Gwawl that Llwyd put Dyfed under the spell of his magic. Gwawl's territory seems to have been near that of Hyfeydd Hên, whose name seems to connect him with Maeshyfed (formerly Maeshyfaidd') and Kadnor. Now, Gwawl's mother, Clud, seems to have left her name to a district for the Bruts mention, in the twelfth century, a prince named Einion Clud, that is, Einion of Clud, who is specially associated with the cantref of Elvael. In any case, Clud, as the name of a district, had not gone wholly out of use for Cynddelw mentions it in his elegy to Cadwallon ah Madog—that Cadwallon was brother to Einion Clud, and, in his brotherly way 'he sent him prisoner to Owen Gwynedd, who delivered him over to the Normans but in vain, as he managed to escape. He had probably been troublesome. This is how Cynddelw sings of Cadwallon (Myv., vol. i, p. 220):— Prif arglwyt brolwyt bro din eithon, Priodawr cloduawr clud ac aeron.' Chief lord and success of Din Eithon's land, Far-famed possessor of and Aeron.' Din Eithon appears to have been a castle on the river Eithon in Maelienydd but where was Clud exactly? Did it embrace a part of Padnorshire and Brycheiniog, and extend westwards to the Teifi ? On the answer to this must depend, to some extent, possibly, the answer to another question which is more exactly in point here: How were Llwyd and Gwawl brought into contact with one another? It seems probable, at all events, that we cannot regard Llwyd's power as confined to Cemais, or even to the seven cantrefs of Dyfed. As this rambling letter has grown so long, I must reserve for another dav some queries which I wish to put to the readers of the Guardian. "JOHN RHYS New Year's Day, 1003."