Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 450

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 450

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/450

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on your 11th-century Welsh name, "Bronwyn ferch Elys ap Llewellyn."

"Bronwyn" is a modern American variant of "Branwen." In Welsh, '-wen' and '-wyn' are not interchangeable--"-wyn" is only found in male names in Welsh in period. The spelling "Bronwyn" is a modern American invention.

"Branwen" is the name of a fictional character from Welsh legend. Despite many attempts to find one, no one in the SCA has never found an example of "Branwen" used by a real person. We didn't find any names which were very similar, but we can suggest Gwen and Gwenllian. The 11th-century forms of these names would be "Guen" and "Guenlliant." (1)

"Elys" is short form of the male name "Elisedd" which was first used in the late medieval period (around 1300). We found the form "Elised" in a source from near your period. (2)

"Llywelyn" is a common Welsh name. The same source uses the form "Liuelin."

"ferch" and "ap" are modern words meaning "daughter of" and "son of." Their 11th-century forms were "verch" and "vap."

Thus, a name like "Guen verch Elised vap Liuelin" would be a good example of an 11th-century Welsh name.

Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn researched this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Tangwystl's research

(2) Book of Llan Dav