is in Old Welsh poems brought in close relation with Annwvn. To explain such an incarnation a story of removed barrenness or rather some such incident as that found in Compert Conculaind might have been invented. Beside such a story there existed another pedigree explaining Pryderi's birth in some more natural way, and this tradition naturally prevailed in later times. I give here this possibility as a presumption which seems to me a most probable one, but I am quite well aware that it is only a suggestion; if I am, however, not right it must be at least acknowledged that two motives relating to Removed Barrenness and Supernatural Birth have been introduced into Rhiannon's story.
Pryderi's name is in Mabinogi explained as derived from pryder "angor," and the motive of the Abandoned (Calumniated) Wife may have been possibly introduced to explain why such a name was given to Pwyll's son. This cannot be, however, an original form of the story, because all such etiological stories presuppose the name. The original meaning of the name does not seem to me to be that of "angor"; anyhow, it is a derivative from the root *qṛt. . . which appears in Ir. cruth, Cy. pryd, "form, aspect," and in the Old Welsh name of Britain, Prydain, and the Ir. name of the Picts, Cruithne. Now the name of the British heros eponymos[1] Prydain is obviously invented to explain the name of the country. But this personage is unknown in old sagas, and so it seems possible that Pryderi is the original heros eponymos of the race which gave the name to the island.
- ↑ R. B. Mabinogion, p. 309: Kyntaf enw a vu ar yr ynys honn, kynn noe chael nae chyvanhedu Clas Myrdin a gwedy y chael a ae chyvanhedu y Vel Ynys a gwedy y goresgynn o Brydein vab Aed Mawr, y dodet arnei Ynys Prydein (cf. lolo MSS., p. 1–2, llyma 'r enwau a fu ar yr ynys hon: cyn no'i chyfaneddu, sef Clâs Merddin, a chwedi dyfod o rai Cymry iddi y gelwid hi 'r Fel ynys . . . a phan wybu Aedd Mawr (lege Prydain) am hynny a theged gwlawd ydoedd, efe a roddes wŷr a moddion i oresgyn y Fel ynys a hynny a wnaeth efe a'i galw yn ol ei enw ei hun Prydain.
