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47-609: Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use for certain ceremonial and other purposes. The name Dyfed is an ancient one, appearing in the Mabinogion with a history predating that work. It is derived from Demetae (the Iron Age tribe that inhabited the area), with this tribal name deriving from a Celtic element related to the Welsh language word defaid (sheep) as well as

94-614: A Celtic army and assumed the title of Roman Emperor in 383. He was defeated in battle in 385 and beheaded at the direction of the Eastern Roman emperor . The story of Taliesin is a later survival, not present in the Red or White Books, and is omitted from many of the more recent translations. The tales called the Three Welsh Romances ( Y Tair Rhamant ) are Welsh-language versions of Arthurian tales that also appear in

141-653: A book, the level of detail being too much for the memory to handle. The comment suggests it was not popular with storytellers, though this was more likely due to its position as a literary tale rather than a traditional one. The tale The Dream of Macsen Wledig is a romanticised story about the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus , called Macsen Wledig in Welsh. Born in Hispania , he became a legionary commander in Britain, assembled

188-450: A date prior to 1100, based on linguistic and historical arguments, while later Saunders Lewis set forth a number of arguments for a date between 1170 and 1190; Thomas Charles-Edwards , in a paper published in 1970, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of both viewpoints, and while critical of the arguments of both scholars, noted that the language of the stories best fits the 11th century, (specifically 1050–1120), although much more work

235-419: A few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, " Culhwch and Olwen "; a historic legend in " Lludd and Llefelys ", complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from

282-605: A long coast on the Irish Sea to the west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It is bounded by the preserved counties of Gwynedd to the north, Powys to the east and West Glamorgan to the southeast. Ceredigion , the northernmost part of Dyfed, has a narrow coastal strip and the Cambrian Mountains cover much of the east of the county. The highest point is Plynlimon at 752 metres (2,467 ft), on

329-504: A publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Mabinogion ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. The Guest translation can be found with all original notes and illustrations at: The original Welsh texts can be found at: Versions without the notes, presumably mostly from the Project Gutenberg edition, can be found on numerous sites, including: A discussion of

376-602: Is a compact version by Sioned Davies. John Bollard has published a series of volumes with his own translation, with copious photography of the sites in the stories. The tales continue to inspire new fiction, dramatic retellings, visual artwork, and research. The name first appears in 1795 in William Owen Pughe 's translation of Pwyll in the journal Cambrian Register under the title "The Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements, being Ancient Welsh Romances". The name appears to have been current among Welsh scholars of

423-416: Is critically compared to the illustrious Arthurian age. However, Arthur's time is portrayed as illogical and silly, leading to suggestions that this is a satire on both contemporary times and the myth of a heroic age. Rhonabwy is the most literary of the medieval Welsh prose tales. It may have also been the last written. A colophon at the end declares that no one is able to recite the work in full without

470-679: Is mostly hilly, except for the river valleys and coastal strip. Fforest Fawr and Black Mountain extend into the east of Carmarthenshire and the Cambrian Mountains into the north. The highest point in Carmarthenshire is Fan Foel , 781 metres (2,562 ft), on the border with Powys. The River Towy is the largest river and drains into the Bristol Channel, as do the River Loughor , the River Gwendraeth and

517-484: Is needed. In 1991, Patrick Sims-Williams argued for a plausible range of about 1060 to 1200, which seems to be the current scholarly consensus (fitting all the previously suggested date ranges). The collection represents the vast majority of prose found in medieval Welsh manuscripts which is not translated from other languages. Notable exceptions are the Areithiau Pros . None of the titles are contemporary with

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564-585: Is now a National Nature Reserve maintained by the National Trust and Natural Resources Wales and is an area of sand dunes supporting several rare species. Just off the tip of the point is one of the few remaining cast-iron lighthouses , long since disused and in need of preservation. During World War II several gun batteries were established to both the east and west of Penclawdd, where gun-barrels were calibrated and shells (of various types including high-explosive and mustard gas ) were fired across

611-519: The Common Brittonic word defod (wealth, property or riches). This suggests that the area that became Dyfed was noted for the cultivation of sheep from ancient times, and that this was associated with great wealth. The name persisted in the post-Roman Kingdom of Dyfed (clearly a continuation of this pre-Roman etymon ) and even survived the Norman conquest of Wales and the introduction of

658-523: The Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe . Dyfed County Council was abolished on 1 April 1996, when the three historic counties were reinstated for administrative purposes with Cardiganshire being renamed Ceredigion on the following day. The name "Dyfed" remains used for some ceremonial and administrative purposes. The administrative headquarters of Dyfed County Council

705-515: The River Taf . Carmarthenshire has a long coastline which is deeply cut by the estuaries of the Loughor, Gwendraeth, Tywi and Taf. The south coast has many fishing villages and sandy beaches and the eastern part around Llanelli and Burry Port is more industrial. Pembrokeshire, the southwestern part of Dyfed, juts out into the Irish Sea and has a long, much indented, coastline. It does not have

752-571: The Shire system , with Thomas Morgan noting that the Welsh inhabitants of Pembrokeshire still referred to the area as Dyfed in the nineteenth century. Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales . It was originally created as an administrative county council on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972 , and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth , although excluding

799-710: The 186-mile walking trail, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path . 51°56′N 4°31′W  /  51.94°N 4.51°W  / 51.94; -4.51 Mabinogion The Mabinogion ( Welsh pronunciation: [mabɪˈnɔɡjɔn] ) are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain . The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts , created c.  1350 –1410, as well as

846-483: The 1970s, an understanding of the integrity of the tales has developed, with investigation of their plot structures, characterisation, and language styles. They are now seen as a sophisticated narrative tradition, both oral and written, with ancestral construction from oral storytelling, and overlay from Anglo-French influences. The first modern publications were English translations by William Owen Pughe of several tales in journals in 1795, 1821, and 1829. However it

893-516: The 19th century due to increasing pollution from industrialisation. Carmarthenshire County Council is currently undertaking studies into the possibility of constructing a barrage across the River Loughor upstream from the Loughor bridges. The Loughor Estuary (aka Burry inlet or Burry estuary , from the small Burry River which enters on the Gower side near its mouth) is the region of

940-612: The Daugleddau estuary, which forms the important harbour of Milford Haven which enters the sea at the southwestern corner of the county. The areas around the River Cleddau are mainly level, low-lying land with many inlets and creeks. The coastline of Pembrokeshire has cliffs in places, and numerous bays and sandy beaches. The county contains the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park , which contains

987-549: The Four Branches, which is a tightly organised quartet very likely by one author, where the other seven are so very diverse (see below). Each of these four tales ends with the colophon "thus ends this branch of the Mabinogi" (in various spellings), hence the name. Lady Charlotte Guest's work was helped by the earlier research and translation work of William Owen Pughe. The first part of Charlotte Guest's translation of

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1034-587: The London-Welsh Societies and the regional eisteddfodau in Wales. It was inherited as the title by the first publisher of the complete collection, Lady Charlotte Guest . The form mabynnogyon occurs once at the end of the first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi in one manuscript. It is now generally agreed that this one instance was a mediaeval scribal error which assumed 'mabinogion'

1081-511: The Mabinogion appeared in 1838, and it was completed in seven parts in 1845. A three-volume edition followed in 1846, and a revised edition in 1877. Her version of the Mabinogion was the most frequently used English version until the 1948 translation by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, which has been widely praised for its combination of literal accuracy and elegant literary style. Several more, listed below, have since appeared. Dates for

1128-465: The Welsh as "eye of the Loughor". It flows past Ammanford and Hendy in Carmarthenshire and Pontarddulais in Swansea . The river divides Carmarthenshire from Swansea for much of its course and it separates Hendy from Pontarddulais at the point where the river becomes tidal. The Loughor meets the sea at its estuary near the town of Loughor where it separates the south coast of Carmarthenshire from

1175-539: The characters described events that happened long before medieval times. After the departure of the Roman Legions, the later half of the 5th century was a difficult time in Britain. King Arthur's twelve battles and defeat of invaders and raiders are said to have culminated in the Battle of Badon . There is no consensus about the ultimate meaning of The Dream of Rhonabwy . On one hand it derides Madoc 's time, which

1222-444: The control of oystercatchers ( Haematopus ostralegus ), which feed on cockles. The estuary cuts through the southern part of a once-important coalfield. Llanelli , on its north shore, was noted for its tinplate industry, whilst Penclawdd, on the south side, smelted copper from ore shipped in from Anglesey . Both required ready access to the Bristol Channel via Carmarthen Bay. The main channel has fluctuated from side to side of

1269-462: The development of Arthurian legend, with links to Nennius and early Welsh poetry. By contrast, The Dream of Rhonabwy is set in the reign of the historical Madog ap Maredudd (1130–60), and must therefore either be contemporary with or postdate his reign, being perhaps early 13th C. Much debate has been focused on the dating of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi . Ifor Williams offered

1316-634: The earliest extant versions of the stories, but are on the whole modern ascriptions. The eleven tales are not adjacent in either of the main early manuscript sources, the White Book of Rhydderch ( c.  1375 ) and the Red Book of Hergest ( c.  1400 ), and indeed Breuddwyd Rhonabwy is absent from the White Book. The Four Branches of the Mabinogi ( Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi ) are

1363-401: The economy of the villages of Crofty , Llanmorlais and Penclawdd . Anyone can take a bucket of cockles for their personal use, but the commercial fishery is restricted to a relatively small number of licence holders. Cockle density fluctuates from year to year. The estuary is also an internationally important location for waders and other wildfowl, which has led to demands from cocklers for

1410-579: The estuary in the past; in the late 19th century, the Llanelli Port Authority obtained legislation permitting the construction of a training wall intended to confine it to the north side of the estuary; unfortunately, this merely dissipated the currents, accelerating the silting-up not only of the entrance to Llanelli North Dock but also of the Penclawdd anchorage. The wall has since been breached in several places. A later influence on

1457-570: The late Tony Banks in January 1987. In the 1960s, the Ministry of Defence proposed to move its main artillery and explosives testing facility at Foulness , at the mouth of the River Thames , to a site between Burry Port and Kidwelly , which was already used in a very sporadic way as an air-to-ground rocket range. The intention was to make way for a planned third London airport. The proposal

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1504-482: The later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection. Scholars from the 18th century to the 1970s predominantly viewed the tales as fragmentary pre-Christian Celtic mythology , or in terms of international folklore . There are certainly components of pre-Christian Celtic mythology and folklore; however, since

1551-458: The most clearly mythological stories contained in the Mabinogion collection. Pryderi appears in all four, though not always as the central character. Also included in Guest's compilation are five stories from Welsh tradition and legend: The tales Culhwch and Olwen and The Dream of Rhonabwy have interested scholars because they preserve older traditions of King Arthur. The subject matter and

1598-650: The mountains found in other parts of Dyfed but much of the interior is still hilly. In the north are the Preseli Hills (Mynydd Preseli), a wide stretch of high moorland . The highest point in the Preseli Hills is Foel Cwmcerwyn at 536 metres (1,759 ft), and this is the highest point in Pembrokeshire. The largest river is the River Cleddau which has two main branches which join to form

1645-550: The north coast of the Gower Peninsula . Among its tributaries is the River Amman and the River Morlais , with the former joining the Loughor near Pantyffynnon . The area of the catchment is some 262 square kilometres (101 sq mi). In the 18th century, the river was a noted salmon and sea trout river. Fish from the river was then carried on ponies to be sold at Swansea Market . The fishing declined in

1692-484: The physical environment was the planting of cordgrass ( Spartina anglica ) to claim grazing land at the western end of the Gower side during the 1930s. This vigorous grass has since spread in a wide band all along the south side, forming the basis of a salt-marsh supporting the grazing of sheep, ponies and cattle. The estuary is partly closed off by Whiteford Point, which extends from Llanmadoc in Gower towards Burry Port and Cefn Sidan in Carmarthenshire. This

1739-472: The salt marsh towards Whiteford Point ; quantities of unwanted munitions were also buried on the seaward side of this point. The area is regularly swept by the Royal Navy 's bomb disposal team, although few shells are now recovered. Persistent rumours that anthrax biological warfare shells were tested against sheep in the estuary were finally substantiated in a reply to a parliamentary question from

1786-806: The slopes of which five rivers have their sources: the Severn , the Wye , the Dulas , the Llyfnant and the Rheidol , the first two of which flow eastwards into England and the last three of which flow westwards to the Irish Sea. Further south in Ceredigion the land is less mountainous, and the River Teifi forms the border with Carmarthenshire for part of its length. Carmarthenshire, the southeastern part of Dyfed,

1833-468: The tale of Culhwch ac Olwen, with its primitive warlord Arthur and his court based at Celliwig , is generally accepted to precede the Arthurian romances, which themselves show the influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae (1134–36) and the romances of Chrétien de Troyes . Those following R. S. Loomis would date it before 1100, and see it as providing important evidence for

1880-418: The tales have been preserved in earlier 13th century and later manuscripts. Scholars agree that the tales are older than the existing manuscripts, but disagree over just how much older. It is clear that the different texts included in the Mabinogion originated at different times (though regardless their importance as records of early myth, legend, folklore, culture, and language of Wales remains immense). Thus

1927-480: The tales in the Mabinogion have been much debated, a range from 1050 to 1225 being proposed, with the consensus being that they are to be dated to the late 11th and 12th centuries. The stories of the Mabinogion appear in either or both of two medieval Welsh manuscripts, the White Book of Rhydderch or Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch , written c.  1350 , and the Red Book of Hergest or Llyfr Coch Hergest , written about 1382–1410, though texts or fragments of some of

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1974-472: The waterway below the road and rail bridges at Loughor, where it turns abruptly from a southerly to a westerly direction towards Carmarthen Bay . The Afon Lliw empties into the estuary just below the Loughor bridges. This region almost completely empties at low tide, exposing extensive sandy areas supporting a thriving cockle industry. On the south side of the inlet, the gathering and processing of cockles ( Cerastoderma edule ) contributes significantly to

2021-539: The words Mabinogi and Mabinogion can be found at A theory on authorship can be found at River Loughor The River Loughor ( / ˈ l ʌ x ər / ) ( Welsh : Afon Llwchwr ) is a river in Wales which marks the border between Carmarthenshire and Swansea . The river is sourced from an underground lake at the Black Mountain emerging at the surface from Llygad Llwchwr which translates from

2068-612: The work of Chrétien de Troyes . Critics have debated whether the Welsh Romances are based on Chrétien's poems or if they derive from a shared original. Though it is arguable that the surviving Romances might derive, directly or indirectly, from Chrétien, it is probable that he in turn based his tales on older, Celtic sources. The Welsh stories are not direct translations and include material not found in Chrétien's work. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

2115-628: Was Carmarthen , whilst the largest settlement was Llanelli . Other significant centres of population included Haverfordwest , Milford Haven and Aberystwyth . The name Dyfed was retained for such purely ceremonial purposes as the Lord Lieutenancy and in the name of some regional bodies such as Dyfed–Powys Police , Dyfed Telecom, and Dyfed Digital, but some databases, including that of the Royal Mail , continued its use at least until 2008, causing confusion in online commerce. Dyfed has

2162-584: Was Lady Charlotte Guest in 1838–45 who first published the full collection, bilingually in Welsh and English. She is often assumed to be responsible for the name "Mabinogion", but this was already in standard use in the 18th century. Indeed, as early as 1632 the lexicographer John Davies quotes a sentence from Math fab Mathonwy with the notation "Mabin" in his Antiquae linguae Britannicae ... dictionarium duplex , article "Hob". The later Guest translation of 1877 in one volume has been widely influential and remains actively read today. The most recent translation

2209-510: Was the plural of 'mabinogi', which is already a Welsh plural occurring correctly at the end of the remaining three branches. The word mabinogi itself is something of a puzzle, although clearly derived from the Welsh mab , which means "son, boy, young person". Eric P. Hamp , of the earlier school traditions in mythology, found a suggestive connection with Maponos , "the Divine Son", a Gaulish deity . Mabinogi properly applies only to

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