(brother's son) to the king. It is noticeable that in this way succession through the mother such as prevailed among the Picts in Bede's time was carefully guarded against. Traces of this Pictish mode of succession, as in use in old Wales, are found in the Mabinogion and elsewhere.[1] In Peniarth MS. 28 the edling is called givrthrych; in the present text the royal issue are termed gwrthrychiaid, the word edling being confined to the particular gwrthrych who was to succeed the king.
enllyn, what is to be eaten with bread. In the Latin texts printed by Aneurin Owen it is sometimes left untranslated and at other times represented by such Latin equivalents as pulmentum. In Vespasian E XI we have ' Precium regalis cene est libra : dimidium libre de pane ; et LX denarii pro potu ; et LX pro dapibus aliis, id est, enlyn.'[2]
erw [lit. what has been tilled], a measurement applicable to arable land. It seems to have varied in extent. According to the present text,
18 rods = length of erw
2 rods = breadth of erw
312 erws = rhandir.
According to the Latin Peniarth MS. 28,
galanas, murder and murder-fine. It varied in amount according to the status of the individual murdered. The murderer was assisted in paying by his kindred to the fifth cousin, whose liabilities were fixed by law. The fine undoubtedly originated as a means of obviating the feud to which our present text refers under the term dial, vengeance. As galanas implied insult, disgrace, injury (sarhad), sarhad was always to be paid with the galanas. See sarhad.
gobr, a reward, fee. Latin, merces.
gobr estyn, investiture fee. In Peniarth MS. 28 in the passage corresponding to that in which this expression occurs in our present text, gobr estyn is represented by kynhasset, left untranslated.[4] In the late fifteenth-century text of the Book of Blegywryd, denominated S,[5] the same passage appears as follows.
