ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1274
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1274
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9 Sep 1998
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked our opinion of your client's Welsh name <Cerridwen yr'Teg
y'Carreg Cawr>, meaning "Cerridwen the Fair of the Stone Giant".  Here are
some quick comments.

We had already received a question about this lady's name from another
herald who she is consulting by e-mail [3], and she has submitted a third
question to us directly.  We wrote to hr for clarification, and she told us
that she's no longer interested in <Cerridwen>.  She's now interested in a
French name, <Ysolt Paixdecoeur>.  We're sending you this reply for your
own information.


<Ceridwen> is the name of a supernatural character in a Welsh tradition
loosely associated with the Arthurian cycle [1].  In many years of
research, no one in the Society has found any evidence that any real person
used the name <Ceridwen> or any of its variants.  The name is popular in
the Society because of its use in modern fantasy fiction and neo-paganism,
and because it was so widely used, the SCA College of Arms decided that it
would register it; but it is not a period name.


<Teg> is a fairly common Welsh epithet in period, which does mean "fair".
We found several examples recorded from the 13th century through the end of
our period, in various spellings.  Depending on the period your client
wants to re-create, we would recommend different spellings.  In the 12th
century, for example, the expected Welsh-context spelling of the root word
would be <tec>; but as a woman's byname, it would become <dec>.  The change
from initial <t> to <d> is an example of "lenition", a softening of the
initial letter in a word that is required by Welsh grammar in some
circumstances.  In the 14th or 15th century, the appropriate spelling is
<deg> [2].

The word <yr> should be dropped.  When there is a descriptive epithet in a
medieval Welsh name, like <Angharat Deg>, the definite article <y> "the" is
not include.  It's tacitly understood [4].


The second byname, <y'Carreg Cawr> doesn't capture the meaning your client
intended.  <Carreg> "rock" and <cawr> "giant" are both nouns; one noun
can't modify another.  The word <y> means "the", not "of the".  Before we
can suggest the grammatically correct phrase, we need to know exactly what
the lady intends the phrase to mean.  Does she mean "from a place called
'Stone Giant'", or "from a large stone that resembles a giant", or
something else?

One possibility that would be fairly good re-creation is a name that means
she lives near "the giant's stone".  While we don't know a Welsh placename
with this meanins, we think it is a reasonable construction.  We know
several period Welsh places named after giants, either using the personal
name of a giant in Welsh legend or the word for "giant".  For example there
is a mountain associated in folklore with a giant named <Idris>; it is
called <Cadair Idris> "the chair of Idris".  There is a town called <Tre'r
Ceiri> "town of the giants" [6].  Given these example, we think it is
perfectly reasonable that a place could have been called <Carreg y Cawr>
"the stone of the giant".

Multiple bynames (descriptive surnames) were rare in Welsh.  Almost all
women mentioned in period Welsh documents are identified by nothing more
than a given name and single byname, usually a patronymic (e.g. <Angharat
verch Rhys>) but sometimes an epithet like <Angharat Deg> "Angharat the
Fair".  Locatives (bynames based on placenames) are particularly unusual.
When Welsh names were recorded in English or Latin documents, more
complicated combinations of bynames were more common.  A lady known in
Welsh as <Angharat Deg> might be recorded by an English scribe as <Angharat
Dek de Carrekecaur [5].


For further information on Welsh names, we recommend "A Simple Guide to
Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names", which you can find on the web at

  http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangywstyl/welsh13.html

Note that this pamphlet was based on an English and Latin source, not
Welsh, so the spellings are non-standard.


I hope this brief letter has been useful.  Please write us again if any
part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  I was assisted
in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy Prytydes, Talan Gwynek,
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Jibra-il al-Nasrani.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  9 Sept 1998


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References

[1] _The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales_, trans. Patrick K.
Ford.  (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977).

[2] Morgan, T.J. and Prys Morgan, _Welsh Surnames_ (Cardiff: University of
Wales Press, 1985), s.n. Teg.

[3] You can find a copy of our report on the earlier question on the web
http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?1264

[4] The phrase <yr'Teg> is grammatically wrong.  The article <yr> should
not be connected to the next word with an apostrophe, and the article
should <y> before a word beginning with a consonant.  <Yr> is used only
before a word starting with a vowel.

[5] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names and
Naming Practices in the Merioneth Lay Subsidy Roll 1292-3", in Known World
Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, 1991 (SCA: Laurel, Maryland, 1991). 

[6] _Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,
several dates).

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