Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/170

154 in the stories mentioned, originally meant Gwas Gwyn, the White Mansion, the mythical abode of the happy dead; but it was misinterpreted to refer to Gascony, which came to be known in Welsh as Gwasgwyn. It is to this mythic land of the White Mansion or Blissful Abode, whither the sun-god's bride had been hurried away by a rival, that the boy Merlin Emrys drove the aged and uxorious monarch once correctly styled Vortigern or supreme king.

It may here be remarked that Vortigern resembled Cronus more closely in point of character than did the Dagda, whose name appears to stand for an earlier Dagodêvos, meaning the 'good god,' in reference probably to the goodnatured disposition usually ascribed him in his last sphere of activity; but no description of the corresponding portion of Vortigern's career has reached us, while we know that previous to his expulsion from his realm his reputation for cruelty and treachery was such that he was hated of his subjects. The crowning crime of his reign was his alliance with the enemies of his country and his marrying Rhonwen, 'White-mane,' daughter of one of their two leaders, known by the similarly equine names, Hengist and Horsa. This has to some extent to be regarded as history, for the confounding of Aurelius Ambrosius, who was probably engaged in opposing German invasions, with a mythic Ambrosius