Page:Welsh Medieval Law.djvu/434

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the dominating class alone, the free men of privileged blood, who were known by this name, those of the stock of Cunedda and his companions. The portions of Wales not occupied by them, such as the south-east, Brycheiniog, Glywysing, Gwent, &c., must still have been held by Brittones or Britanni, Scotti, and even Romani, but by the twelfth century we find the general name of Cymry (Lat. Cambria) being accepted by all.


cymwd, a division of a cantrev. A cymwd as such was intended from the first to be a strictly territorial entity, and never, as possibly in the case of a cantrev, a personal one. The present text speaks of a river as a familiar boundary between cymwds (vide p. 55). In such a case as Gwrtheyrnion we have a cymwd which appears to have been originally a gwlad, viz. the patria of the celebrated Vortigern. Perhaps, however, the original patria is here limited in area, the name being retained for a territory of lesser extent.


Cyrchell, the name of a brook, now called Crychell, which flows into another brook, called on the One Inch Ordnance Survey Map Bachell Brook, which itself flows into the Clywedog Brook, a little below Abbey Cwm Hir in Radnorshire. The Clywedog is a tributary of the Ieithon. Trachyrchell means ' beyond the Cyrchell ', and inasmuch as Buallt, which is south of the Wye, is mentioned as distinct from Deheubarth, it is reasonable to suppose that the district immediately north-east of Buallt, between the Wye and the Ieithon, is also excluded. Moreover, as ' beyond the Cyrchell ' is mentioned before Buallt, it is clear that the writer is situated east or north-east of the Cyrchell, so that trachyrchell would mean the district west of the Cyrchell and between it and Buallt, that is to say, the district of Gwrtheyrnion. See Deheubarth and Buallt.


dadannudd [lit. re-uncovering] of the parental hearth. A term for a peculiar suit at law for the recovery of patrimony held formerly by an ancestor of the claimant. There was a custom of covering the fire with ashes previous to retiring to rest, by which a smouldering fire was kept up ; in the morning it was uncovered. In this particular suit, the suitor metaphorically claims to re-uncover the fire of his ancestor's hearth.[1]


daered appears to be the money paid with or in lieu of the dawnbwyds or food-rents, due to the king from his taeogs. Where the Latin text Brit. Mus. Cott. Vesp. E XI, written about 1250, has 'Judex curie debet habere partem viri de nummis dayret ' the Peniarth MS. 28 reads ' . . . de nummis qui

  1. Anc. Laws II. 11135 Seebohm's Tribal System in Wales, 82.