The Folklore of the Wells
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Rhys, John, Sir
Diaspad mererid am gorchuit heno.
ac nimhaut gorlluit.
gnaud guẏdi traha tramguit.
Diaspad mererid ẏ ar gwinev kadir
kedaul duv ae gorev.
gnaud guẏdi gormot eissev.
Diaspad mererid . am kẏmhell heno
ẏ urth uẏistauell.
gnaud guẏdi traha trangc pell.
Bet seithenhin sẏnhuir vann
rug kaer kenedir a glan.
mor maurhidic a kinran.
Seithennin, stand thou forth
And see the vanguard of the main:
Gwyđno’s plain has it covered.
Accursed be the maiden
Who let it loose after supping,
Well cup-bearer of the mighty main.
Accursed be the damsel
Who let it loose after battle,
Well minister of the high sea.
Mererid’s cry from a city’s height,
Even to God is it directed:
After pride comes a long pause.
Mererid’s cry from a city’s height to-day,
Even to God her expiation:
After pride comes reflection.
Mererid’s cry o’ercomes me to-night,
Nor can I readily prosper:
After pride comes a fall.
Mererid’s cry over strong wines,
Bounteous God has wrought it:
After excess comes privation.
Mererid’s cry drives me to-night
From my chamber away:
After insolence comes long death.
Weak-witted Seithennin’s grave is it
Between Kenedyr’s Fort and the shore,
With majestic Mor’s and Kynran’s.
The names in these lines present great difficulties: first comes that of Mererid, which is no other word than Margarita, ‘a pearl,’ borrowed; but what does it here mean? Margarita, besides meaning a pearl, was used in Welsh, e.g. under the form Marereda18, as the proper name written in English Margaret. That is probably how it is to be taken here, namely, as the name given to the negligent guardian of the fairy well. It cannot very well be, however, the name belonging to the original form of the legend; and we have the somewhat parallel case of Ffynnon Grassi, or Grace’s Well; but what old Celtic name that of Mererid has replaced in the story, I cannot say. In the next place, nobody has been able to identify Caer Kenedyr, and I have nothing to say as to Mor Maurhidic, except that a person of that name is mentioned in another of the Englynion of the Graves. It runs thus in the Black Book, fol. 33a:—