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NOTES.
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daughter Creirwy. Of theee it may be sufficient to instance the Triad which celebrates her with Arianrod and Gwenn, verch Cywryd ab Crjdon, as one of the three beauteous ladies of the island.[1] One of the two Triads extant on the subject of Morvran has been already cited. (See p. 273.) It alhides to the extreme ugliness assigned him in the text, to which, nevertheless, he was indebted for the preservation of his life in the battle of Camla; the other ranks him with Gilbert mab Cadgyffro and Gwgan Gleddyvrudd, as one of the three stayers of slaughter,[2] No further particulars of him are preserved.

Gwyddno Garanhir.Page 472.

Gwyddno Garanhir was Sovereign of Cantref y Gwaelod, a territory bordering on the sea, and protected from its ravages by a high embankment. One evening there was revelry at the Court, and Seithenin,[3] the son of Seithyn Saidi, King of Dyved, upon whom it devolved to look after the embankment,[4] and see that all was safe, became inebriated and neglected his charge. The consequence was that the sea broke in through the bank in the course of the night. Gwyddno and his Court escaped with difficulty from the impending ruin, and the Cantrev y Gwaelod was submerged and irretrievably lost. By this calamity sixteen fortified cities, the largest and finest that were in Wales, excepting only Caerlleon upon Usk, were entirely destroyed, and Cardigan Bay occupies the spot where the fertile plains of the Cantrev had been the habitation and support of a flourishing population. Such as escaped the inundation fled to Ardudwy, and the country of Arvon, and the mountains of Eryri (Snowdon), and other places not previously inhabited. By none was this misfortune more severely felt than by Gwyddno Garanhir, to whom the reverse of circumstances it occasioned was so great that, from being an opulent monarch, he was all at once reduced to
  1. Triad 107.
  2. Triad xxix.
  3. Seithinyn the Drunkard's mischance in letting the sea overflow the Cantrev y Gwaelod, is related in Triad xli.
  4. Traces of three ancient stone embankments are said to be still visible in the district where this inundation took place. They are called Sam Cynvelyn, Sam y Bwch, and Sam Padrig. " The latter is particularly conspicuous, being left dry at low water to the extent of about nine miles, and the sailors of the neighbouring ports describe its whole length to be twenty-one miles, beginning near Harlech, and ranniDg in a sonth-west direction." (Cambro-Briton, 1. 362.) The Hanes Cymra contains some interesting remarks on this subject.