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

derive Tintern from din, fortified hill, a camp; and Teyron, or Tegernacus, the grandson of Gwladys. We ratherthink the correct wording is Din-Teytn. The prefix is quite clear, as the ruined abbey occupies a gentleeminence in the middle of a circular valley. The suffix teytn means a king, a supreme ruler, in allusion hereprobably to the royal founder of the abbey, who was a scion of Gilbert, Earl of Brionne. Tintern Parva, or LittleTintern, takes its name from this celebrated abbey. English name— Rexhill Abbey.Tredegar. — Troedygaer, say some, is the right wording, which signifies a place at the foot of the fort. Othersthink it is Tre-deg-aradr, the town of ten ploughs, or Tre-deg-erw, the town of ten acres. A very plausiblederivation is the following: tre, abode; deg- teg, fair; and dry land; signifying an abode situated on a fair land,or a fine abode situated on arable land. Mr. Octavius Morgan in the " Archaeological Cambrensis " offers thefollowing derivation: — The earliest mention of this name is in an old copy of a poem by a Welsh poet whoflourished between 1430 and 1470, and presided at a gorsedd in Glamorgan in 1460, about which time hewrote a poem in praise of Sir John Morgan, whom in the title he styles " Syr Sion ap forgan o Dre-Degyr (tand d being interchangeable consonants in the Welsh language). The Tre and Degyr in both instances areseparated by a hyphen, and Degyr in both instances has a capital D, indicating a proper name. In a MS. ofthe seventeenth century, in the possession of the late Mr. S. R. Bosanquet, is this statement, "The house ofTrefddigr, holden by inheritance of blood from time to time, is the most ancient in Wales ;" " Teigr ap Tegonwywas an ancient prince in King Arthur's time." The t is changed into d for the sake of euphony. The place,again, is called Tref-Deigr, and though Teigr may be as mythical as King Arthur, this is strong presumptiveevidence that there was such a traditionary personage connected with this place, at whatever time he mayhave lived. Again, in a pedigree by Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, made about 1660, and now among theHengwrt MSS. at Peniarth, the name is written " Thomas Morgan de Dref-deg-yr, Esq." From this evidence itseems to me clear that Tredegar received its name from its early possessor, whose name was Teigr, thoughwhen he lived and who he was is not known, but his name was attached to his tref or homestead, and hascontinued to this day, as is the case with an adjoining hamlet in the same parish, which now retains its nameof Tre-Gwilym, derived from being the tref, residence or homestead, of William de Berkerolles, a Normanwho came over at the Conquest, and was father to Roger de Berkerolles, who built a small castle adjoining it,which after the Norman usage he called Rogerstone, and both names are retained at the present day ; theone being the Welsh name of the tref and hamlet, and the other the name of the manor founded by Roger,the builder of the small castle, a scanty fragment of the wall of which still exists." We have a few instances inwhich tref has been changed to troed. Troedyraur was anciently called Tredeyrn, the king's abode; but wecannot find a single instance of troed being changed to tref Troed-rhiwgwair is in the immediateneighbourhood of Tredegar, but we can find no etymological reason to think the one is allied with the other.The rendering of the name into Tre-deg-erw f the town of ten acres, is too wide of the mark, because theterritory is immensely more than ten acres. Tri-deg-erw, sixty acres, would be more feasible from thenumerical point of view, but this mode of counting is far too modern to be applied to this ancient place-name.We were once inclined to derive it thus: tre, abode; deg, fair; gwar, the nape of the neck, a ridge; signifying afair abode on an elevated place; but since we saw Mr. Octavius Morgan's exposition of the name we adopthis in preference to all others. Many Welsh personal names contain the word teyrn, a king, a monarch, theIrish form of which is tigern, tighearna; and in our early inscriptions we have tigirn-i and tegern-o. Tegyrn wasthe Brythonic for Teyrn. From Cornwall we have Tegtrnomaliy which means king-like or lord-like, hence weare induced to think .that Tegyr is an ancient form of Teyrn. English name — Kington.Trefethin. — Some derive it from Tref-y-din, camp town; but we rather think it is a compound of tref, abode,and eithin, furze, gorse; signifying an abode situated on furzy land. English name — Gorseton.Trelleck. — A corruption of Trelech a place of stones; so called from three stone pillars which stand in asmall field in the place. Tradition says that they were erected by Harold in commemoration of a victory overthe Britons. It is more probable that they are relics of Druidism, and the spot whereon they stand wasincluded within the precincts of a consecrated grove. English name — Stoneham.Twyngwyn. — A compound of twyn, a hillock, and gwyn, white. Ar dwyn, on an eminence. The name is quitedescriptive of the position of this place. English name — Whitehill.Tydee. — A corruption of Ty-du, which means black house, probably from an ancient homestead of thename. English name — Blackham.Usk. — The Welsh name is Bryn-biga; bryn, a hill, and pig-byga a point. The English peak specifically meansthe sharp top of a hill or mountain, which is quite descriptive of the hill in the place, which terminates in apoint or peak. The present name, Usk, is an Anglicized form of Wysg, water, the name of the river uponwhich the town is situated. It assumes various forms — Exe, Ax, Ux, and Ox, &c. The Exe has given its nameOrigin of Place-names in Wales & Monmouthshire Page 82