handbook of the origin of place-names in wales and monmouthshire

Glyn implies a vale narrower but deeper than a dyffryn, through which a river flows. It generally precedes thename of a river that flows through a vale, as Glyn Ceiriog, Glyn Dyfrdwy, &c. From the same root we havethe Gaelic " gleann " and the Anglo-Saxon "glen," both expressing a small valley.Gwydd signifies wood, from which we have gwyddel, which means a brake or bush. Tir gwyddtlawg, landoverrun with brambles. Gwyddel is also the Welsh for Irishman, and some view the few place-names thatcontain the word only as ethnological evidences of the temporary sojourn of the Gaels in Wales. Some,evidently, have the latter signification, but the majority of them have no reference to Irishmen, asGwyddelwern, &c.Hafod is a compound of haf and bod, signifying a summer house. The ancient farmers had their summerdairy-houses, and in that season they resorted thither, as the farmers in the Swiss Alps do to their Sennes.The hafod consisted of a long, low room, with a hole at one end to emit the smoke from the fire which wasmade beneath. Its stools were stones, and beds were made of hay ranged along the sides.Llan is identified with nearly all the names of parish churches in Wales, from which an exceedingly largenumber of places take their names. It has been said that " England is pre-eminently the land of hedges andinclosures." The terminations, ton, ham, worth, stoke, fold, garth, park, burgh, bury, brough, burrow, almostinvariably convey the notion of inclosure and protection. The Welsh prefix Llan, which signifies a sacredinclosure, probably suggested the idea to the Saxon colonists. We find the word in perllan, orchard; gwinllan,vineyard; corlan, sheep-yard, in Welsh place- names it generally means a church, probably including thechurch-yard. Mynedfrllan means'* going to church." The British saints, having been deprived of theirpossessions by the powerful and ever-increasing foreigners and invaders, retired to the most solitary placesin the country to live a wholly religious life, and founded churches which will bear their names as long ashagiology will remain a part of Welsh history. Judging from the number of churches dedicated to the saints, itappears that the most popular among them were St. Mary, St. Michael, and St. David, the patron saint ofWales. It is needless to say that the first two never founded churches, although we find that 26 churches inthe see of Bangor; 27 in the see of St. Asaph; 59 in the see of St. David's; and a few in the see of Llandaff; inall about 150 churches and chapels have been dedicated to St. Mary, and to St. Michael: 48 in the see of St.David's; 8 in the see of St. Asaph; 16 in the see of Bangor; 20 in the see of Llandaff; and a few in the see ofHereford, making a total of nearly 100. Next comes St. David. We find that 42 sacred edifices bear his namein the see of St. David's; 8 in the see of Llandaff; and a few in the see of Hereford. Many churches were alsonamed from their contiguity to water, as well as to -other objects: Llanwrtyd (Llan- wrth-y-rhyd), the church bythe ford ; Llanddaff the church on the Taff, &c. The llan, a public house, and a few cottages, formed thenucleus of the majority of our rural villages and parishes, and when the village or parish became worthy of anappellation, the name of the llan was almost invariably applied to them. The word sant, saint, never becamea popular term in Wales. We have simply the llan and the unadorned name of the saint to whom it wasdedicated, not Llansantddewi, St. David's church, but Llanddewi, David's church.When several churches are dedicated to the same saint some differential words are added, and so we havethose long names which arouse the curiosity of our English friends, and often supply a healthy exercise totheir risible faculties, such as Llanfair-Mathafarneithafy &c.For the sake of euphony and brevity we have, in many of our English equivalents, omitted the word llan ~and have given the names of the saints only, except when they are translatable. When differential words areadded to the hagiological names, as Penybryn, Helygen, &c, we have thought it advisable to omit theecclesiastical term, and give the mundane portion of the name only as an English quasi-equivalent. Forinstance, Llandewi-Aberarth, omitting St. David's, and render Aberarth into an intelligible English name. Wefind the word llan in many place-names in England, in the Cymric part of Scotland, as Lanark, Lanrick, &c,and in Brittany, as Langeac, Lannion, Lanoe, &c. It is now superseded by the word egluys, church, in mostparts of the Principality.Llech, a flat stone, a flag, refers probably to the Druidical circle stones. Notice should be made of thedifference between Cromlech and Cistfaen. The former was a sepulchral monument and always aboveground, and the latter was the coffin, concealed either by a tumulus of earth or stones. The cromlechgenerally had a cistfaen under it. The English league is probably derived from this word, a "league*' was ameasure of distance marked by a stone standing on end.Llwch is the ancient Welsh for an inlet of water, a lake. It corresponds to the Scottish lock, the Irish lough,and the English lake. Loch Leven - smooth lake.Origin of Place-names in Wales & Monmouthshire Page 9