This is a welcome reference book that fills a former gap on the place-names bookshelf. Until the publication of this dictionary, sources ofWelsh toponymy were scattered and not easily accessible. The Foreword describes the book as “the first accredited compilation of its kind in Wales.” As such it is sure to be of great use to scholars and interested non-specialists alike.
The Introduction is very good: thorough, clear, and confident, but at the same time appealingly humble. There is a useful Bibliography, including a section on relevant websites and databases, and a lengthy Glossary of Elements. The authors have chosen to follow the conventions of English place-name dictionaries, including the alphabetisation, which speakers and readers of Welsh will know is slightly different in the two languages.
This has led to a faintly odd situation in which the entries in a Welsh place-name dictionary are alphabetised by their English forms (where one is well established). Thus, “Cardiff, Caerdydd,” “Ludchurch, Yr Eglwys Lwyd,” rather than the other way around. However, this convention has not been extended to river names, which are listed with the Welsh first, as follows: “Dyfi, Afon, River Dovey.” It is hardly an insurmountable problem, but it does slow the reader down a little when looking for specific entries. I was also perplexed to find no entry for the River Severn, whether under “Severn” or “Hafren.” The entry for “Bristol Channel” gives the alternate names “Mo? r Hafren, Aber Hafren,” but there is no separate listing and nor is any derivation or discussion provided for “Hafren.” There are a few other oddities. I was uncertain why the Glossary of Elements needed to include very obvious English elements such as “four” and “road.” There are also several Old English elements, such as a?c, “oak,” which do not appear to occur in any of the names (although their modern equivalents do). Finally, leaving out the commas when referring to place-names in England (“Poole Dorset,” rather than “Poole, Dorset”) could also lead to confusion. It is obvious enough in an English dictionary, where the town or village would be in boldface or capitals and the county in a different font, but here it is a little unclear without punctuation.
Another minor quibble concerns the derivations of some of the river names from purported divinities. While “Dee/Dyfrdwy” from British De?ua?, “goddess,” is reasonable enough, some of the others might better have been put more tentatively. For instance, I would like to see more evidence to back up the statement that there was an “Aerfen the goddess of war associated with the river Dee which flows from Llyn Tegid” (p. 300). Although Llyn Tegid was called Llyn Aerfen in the fifteenth century, it is a very big jump to get from there to a pre-Christian deity.
That said, this is otherwise an excellent reference book and an engaging read. There are some enlightening correctives to popular misconceptions. For instance, “Eryri” is apparently not, as often believed, from eryr, “eagle,” but from eryr, “ridge, rise,” and thus means “highland” (p. 443, s.v. “Snowdonia”). Likewise, and of particular interest for folklorists, “Beddgelert” is not “the grave of Gelert” (from the tale of Llywelyn’s hound), but “the grave of Celert,” an unknown individual about whom the authors say “he was certainly a man and not a dog” (p. 26). There are also some new discoveries, made by the authors while researching the book. One such is “Llay, Llai,” which they derive from “*llai ‘river meadow, pasture’ . . . a hitherto unrecognised cymricized el[ement] derived from OE le?ah . . . preserved only in p[lace]-n[ame]s” (p. 292).
Scattered throughout the dictionary are fascinating lengthy historical entries on a variety of names, including, for example, “Menai Bridge, Porthaethwy,” “Pembroke, Penfro,” and “Caer-Went.”
Gomer Press has once again lived up to its reputation for excellent production values. The dictionary is a handsome, good-quality hardback, with a sewn binding, lovely cream paper stock, and the publisher’s signature ribbon bookmark, which should be standard for all reference volumes. I noted a few typographical mistakes which they might like to correct in a subsequent edition: “indeeed” (p. xxiii); “Arbeth” (p. 342), “house, of prayer” (p. xxvii), “beonging” (p. lii), “agreeabale” (p. liii).
Overall this dictionary is to be recommended to anyone interested in the place-names of Britain, and it should certainly be stocked routinely in the reference sections of university libraries.