The place referred to in these verses was beyond doubt hard by the deu-lynn, or two lakes near Bala Deulyn, in the valley of Nantỻe in Carnarvonshire. The old pronunciation of the name Nantỻe was Nantỻeu, meaning Nant-Lleu, the Valley or Glenn of Lieu; but when it came to be pronounced as a single word accented on the first syllable, the u was liable to be dropped off, as in other words: compare bore for boreu, 'morning,' and gele for geleu, 'a leech;' but we need not rely on this alone, for there is evidence ready to hand in one of the Verses of the Graves, which, reduced to a consistent spelling, runs thus:[1]
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Y beᵭ yngorthir Nantỻeu |
The grave in the upland of Nantỻe, |
The scribe of the Mabinogi makes the valley called after Lleu into Nant y Llew, 'the Lion's Glen,' as he was led to do so by his habit of making Lleu's name into Llew, and confirmed in his error by misinterpreting the Nantllev or Nantlleu of the manuscript he had before him. This incidentally proves that he had no personal acquaintance with the neighbourhood of Snowdon; and the same want of familiarity with North Wales is suggested by his once making into Cynwael the Ffestiniog river Cynvael, now called the Kynval, in Merioneth.[2] From the same lack of acquaintance with the district, he wrote also Dinỻef[3]
