Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/299

 NOTICES OF ARCIIAHOmoiCAL PUnLirATIONS. 217 The third .side, marked C, lie reads — an ? termic thihiit murciau. The fourth, marked D, he thinks must be read thus — molt tricot clode tuar nitanam He considers the inscription to belong to the seventh or eighth century. Ho remarks, that *' supposing the stone to be standing erect (it is now how- ever lying flat on the floor of Towyu Churcli), the inscription on the side, j marked A, is to be read from the ground t(pwards, — so also the side, H. I The third side, C, which like A is one of the narroio sides of the stone, is i to be read ihnvnwards towaids the ground ; and the fourth side, D, has I the inscription arranged downwards in the same manner. Mr. Williams, I an eminent Welsh scholar, undertakes the interpretation of this inscrip-
 * tion. lie decides the inscription to be in the Welsh language, and reading

the side A and its opposite, C, together, he interprets them thus : — " The j body of Cyngen is on the side between where the marks will be." The expression, " the marks " {marciau — the c pronounced hard), he says, must " evidently refer to certain monuments, placed to mark the I spot where the deceased lay interred ; probably stones, which according to the Welsh laws, were used as marks for various purposes. Such, no doubt, was the stone found in the Isle of Bardsey, bearing the inscription MARC VELIO. There might have been a stone, a maen Mr, at each end of the grave, as was the case with the grave of Beli, ap Beidli Gawr (see Hemes' Cymru, p. 35), and thus the body of Cyngen would in truth be between the marks." The sides B and D he likewise reads together, and thus translates the inscriptions : — " Beneath a similar mound is extended Cadvan, sad that it should enclose the praise of the earth : may he rest i without blemish." The last sentence of this inscription, Mr. Williams says is "an expression equivalent to the Latin requiescat in jycice, or rest his soul, which pious ejaculation assumes various shapes in the elegiac com- positions of the bards." In interpreting this inscription, he enters into a very learned philological discussion upon ancient and modern Welsh, citing examples in support of his views from early Welsh writings — this we must leave to Welsh scholars. In reference to this monument it only remains to notice the valuable information respecting the individuals whom it com- memorates, furnished by Mr. Wakeman (p. 205), and drawn " from Gregory of Tours ; Eginard, contemporary of Charlemagne ; the fragment of a chronicle, by Ingomar, of uncertain date ; the clironiclcs of the churches of Nantes and Mount St. Michael; and the lives of some of the Breton i saints, by contemporaries; and some other historians and chroniclers." Mr. Wakeman refutes the common story, that St. Cadvan was the grandson of Emyr Llydaw, one of the princes of Armorica, and shows that Emyr iLlydaw is not a name, but merely a title, signifying " Prince of Llydaw," ipossibly a contraction of Emmerawd, or Emperor, hence that " son of" (in Welsh rt/)) " Emyr Llydaw," means nothing more than son of a Prince of Llydaw. Cadvan he seems to regard as the grandson of an Emyr Llydaw, and nephew of Ilowel ap Emyr Llydaw, who ruled Armorica in the early part of the sixth century, and was murdered in the year 524. On his death his dominions were divided among his sons, who, in the year 54G, going jto war with each other, occasioned the immigration of the families of jthe princes who were slain to Britain. This was the second inmiigratiun jfrom Armorica since the commencement of this century. About this time VOL. VIII. G G