part of the Canon of Welsh Romance. Therefore, although I have
translated and examined them, I have given them no place in these
volumes.

There is one argument in favour of the high antiquity in Wales of
many of the Mabinogion, which deserves to be mentioned here. This
argument is founded on the topography of the country. It is found
that Saxon names of places are very frequently definitions of the
nature of the locality to which they are attached, as Clifton,
Deepden, Bridge-ford, Thorpe, Ham, Wick, and the like; whereas those
of Wales are more frequently commemorative of some event, real or
supposed, said to have happened on or near the spot, or bearing
allusion to some person renowned in the story of the country or
district. Such are "Llyn y Morwynion," the Lake of the Maidens;
"Rhyd y Bedd," the Ford of the Grave; "Bryn Cyfergyr," the Hill of
Assault; and so on. But as these names could not have preceded the
events to which they refer, the events themselves must be not
unfrequently as old as the early settlement in the country. And as
some of these events and fictions are the subjects of, and are
explained by, existing Welsh legends, it follows that the legends
must be, in some shape or other, of very remote antiquity. It will
be observed that this argument supports REMOTE antiquity only for
such legends as are connected with the greater topographical
features, as mountains, lakes, rivers, seas, which must have been
named at an early period in the inhabitation of the country by man.
But there exist, also, legends connected with the lesser features, as
pools, hills, detached rocks, caves, fords, and the like, places not
necessarily named by the earlier settlers, but the names of which
are, nevertheless, probably very old, since the words of which they
are composed are in many cases not retained in the colloquial tongue,