Welsh Mountains Names Explained!

Place names are not just names, they are an expression of a culture, a history, and the language they are told it opens a door onto who we are. In this video we look at what some Welsh Mountains' names mean in the Welsh Language, along with some mythology, and tips about the Welsh Language which we can take from these wonderful places.
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Equipment: Canon2000D: amzn.to/3ndGZep
Rode VideoMic Pro Plus camera microphone amzn.to/3uvkRjq
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Images:
Picws Du gan Dmitry Djouce www.flickr.com/photos/nothing...
Yr Wyddfa o Foel Smytho, © Ceri Thomas www.geograph.org.uk/photo/736...
Castell y Gwynt gan Robert J. Heath www.flickr.com/photos/6776997...
Rhobell Fawr a'r Rhinogydd © Ian Medcalf www.geograph.org.uk/photo/387...
Cadair Berwyn gan © John Hughes, www.flickr.com/photos/jmxhugh...
Mike Erskine - Mynydd Pen y Fâl unsplash.com/photos/Z5uIG6Xheis
Mynydd Pen y Fâl © gan Philip Halling www.geograph.org.uk/photo/428...
Rhos Dirion © Colin Park www.geograph.org.uk/photo/649001
Pumlumon gan John Lucas © www.geograph.org.uk/photo/439...
Picws Du gan Alan Hughes © www.geograph.org.uk/photo/677...
Pen Llithrig y Wrach gan Brian Pritchard www.geograph.org.uk/photo/714554
Tal y Mignedd © Dave Dunford www.geograph.org.uk/photo/134...
Mynydd Drws y Coed © Peter Trimming www.geograph.org.uk/photo/403...
O fynydd Drws y Coed i'r Garn © Gareth James www.geograph.org.uk/photo/416...
Y Cnicht © Clive Giddis www.geograph.org.uk/photo/407...
Y lliwedd © Andy Stephenson www.geograph.org.uk/photo/590990
Pumlumon Fach gan Nigel Brown www.geograph.org.uk/photo/162...

[@codexamalgam5939]

Would love place names to be a regular series!

[@BenLlywelyn]

If they could fund an entire channel that would be a nice gig.

[@thebeststoryevertold]

A beautiful country, Wales.

[@popacristian2056]

Some similarities with Romanian words: *Mynydd = munte* *coed = codru* *fawr ~ faur* (but "faur" means blacksmith in Romanian) *"Faur"* is present in folk tales under the name "faurul pământului" as a magical character that produces enchanted objects. *cadair ~ căldare* (but "căldare" in Romanian means bucket) *castell = castel* *gwint = vînt* *bre ~ bre* "bre" in Romanian is a term that is used in many situations, such as to draw someone's attention and express admiration or amazement for something special, such as the case of a very high hill, or in any very special case that we want to report it to someone. *tirion = țarină* or *teren* *wrach = vraci* or *vrăjitor*

[@BenLlywelyn]

Coed and Coedru is fascinating. Also, Welsh went through a Gw / V sound shift as it moved out of British, so it would have been very much closer to Vînt a long time ago.

[@melysmelys2622]

Craig y Llyn is a mountain that overlooks Llyn Fawr near Hirwaun. When work was carried out to deepen the lake, they found Bronze Age items which are now in the museum of Wales in Cardiff. (More info. on Wikipedia). They used to have one of the cauldrons on display there.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Bronze Age. Wow that is a long time ago! Good find then.

[@NatSatFat]

Spot on Ben, I am positive your old Texan friends would be amazed at your transformation! you are now properly Welsh (I am sure you will develop "Hiraeth" strongly), well done that man, loved the pronounciation, this must be regular, and must include place names, to help the English, who always get it wrong, they have no idea of FF or DD.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Over time we will get more placename videos. Diolch am y gefnogaeth (thank you for your support).

[@gwilwilliams5831]

I read in a leaflet that Cader in Cader Idris means ‘throne’. My favourite Welsh mountain word is Cwm. It is so good it emigrated to Everest. Edmund Hillary and his team were based in Capel Curig where they practiced their climbing on the rocks overlooking the Llanberis Pass.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Yes. Throne, Seat, Chair. It can mean all in this context.

[@napoleonbonaparte2236]

Long live the Welsh 🫡

[@Lusitani74]

Chair in portuguese is...cadeira. Interesting.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

Great video Ben. Really enjoyed this one. Diolch. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@BenLlywelyn]

Da iawn. Da clywed. Glad you liked it.

[@ftumschk]

There is an obsolete Welsh word "picws", which referred to a kind of pudding made by crumbling oat cakes into buttermilk - perhaps Weetabix should bring out a special version called "Weetabicws" in Wales, but I digress! Anyway, I thought that was a pretty odd thing to name a hill after, until I found out that Picws Du's neighbouring peak is called Waun Lefrith ("Milk Moor").

[@BenLlywelyn]

Weetabicws is genius.

[@gillesauffret9739]

​@@BenLlywelyn hello Ben . In breton ( llydaweg) " pigos " is the word for bird’s beak.

[@cennethadameveson3715]

I have a few mountain names, most you covered here! there is Carnedd Y Ddelw (Carn of the Idol), sadly ancient but from a gold statue found on its in the 18 century. Tryfan (three stones) Looking up from the A5 road towards Tryfan there appears to be two people standing at the summit. These are really two very tall monolithic like stones named Adam and Eve. I think there were three of these stones but nature deemed one not to survive. In the south Corn Du (black horn) and of course Fan Y Big, oh, how funny to our english cousins! Cnicht also known as the Matterhorn of Wales when viewed from Porthmadog.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Corn Du is beautiful.

[@davythfear1582]

Tryfan does not mean 'three stones' at all. 'Try' is an intensifier, meaning in this case very. Fan is from the same root as Bannau Brycheiniog, i.e. peak. Tryfan means 'very peaky'.

[@Weejie2011]

Pumlumon - In Scotland, a chimney is called a "lum". The Gàidhlig word is "similear", which is quite dissimilar (though closer to modern Welsh simnai - and English chimney).

[@BenLlywelyn]

Lum. That is quite close to the Welsh one.

[@mawkernewek]

In Cornish meur means ' great, large' = W. mawr and ugh means 'above' as used in ughel 'high', so Merrick could be 'Great High' or something to that effect. Although adjectives usually come after the noun in Cornish and Welsh, this isn't always the case and I think the reverse ordering was more common in earlier forms of the language.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Probably a way to praise a ruler, no doubt.

[@davythfear1582]

Drog yw genev, Davydh, mes an hanow a dheu a-dhyworth an Albanek 'meurach', ow styrya skorrek (dhyworth 'meur' po bys). Hemm yw dell yw Merrick an ughella mell war leuv - yma pymp krib ughel gans nansow down yntredha war an menydh ma.

[@SlaviSokol]

I find it fascinating. YR WYDDFA - Hor Vidma ( the seeing hill) CADAIR BERWYN - Sadar Perun ( saddle of Perun) RHOS - Rosa (dew) BANNA - Baňa ( mine) LLITHRIG - chitrých ( of the fast,quick) MIGNEDD - Mokneď, Moknuť - ( be, get wet)

[@BenLlywelyn]

Polish?

[@SlaviSokol]

@@BenLlywelyn Slovak. Polish is not far away.

[@kevinmoore.7426]

What happened to sll our forests ? Fires, building materials ? It would be a nice place to conceal yourselves,

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fuelling human history's largest Empire during the birth of modern industry required a few trees be burned.

[@marksadventures3889]

The Brecons are imprinted on my soul I think. I think you'd know why. Been up and down them a few times including a dance. I now restart my lessons in gymraig as I want to know all British Celtic tongues.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Glad to help your journey to learn the Celtic tongues.

[@christopherellis2663]

Gwrach, vrajitoare, 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♀️

[@BenLlywelyn]

That is a fascinating similarity, isn't it?

[@popacristian2056]

@@BenLlywelyn *gwrach* = also *vraci* means *vrăjitor* in romanian.

[@ruadhan1798]

Fíorsuimúil! Its a pity that all too often the meaning in these names our lost. One of my favourite places in the world, and one of my favourite place names is a place in my native County of Cill Mhantáin (Wicklow) called Gleann Dhá Loch, which means the Glenn of the two Lakes, because there are, you guessed it, two lakes in a glenn there lol. The anglisized version is Glenndalock which has no meaning and I feel really devalues the simple beauty to be found in our native place names, which simply describe the places. Go raibh maith agat, and please know that the Welsh language's success is an inspiration to your Gaelic friends here across the sea.

[@BenLlywelyn]

So many simple Irish words a Welshman and pick out (with context). I hope your country finds a way to revive it as the natural majority language - by default it would make Wales stronger.

[@ruadhan1798]

@@BenLlywelyn indeed it would, and vice versa, if Wales manages to keep on with the revival of Welsh, we could shutup the Common arguments about how it's useless. In Ireland I feel our biggest problem is some kind of subconscious "cringe" at speaking Irish unless it's been established that we are intending to beforehand. Just today I was sitting with my uncle and though we are both fluent in Irish, we spoke English out of fear of being judged by the other Irish people around us, or being thought of as "show offs". We need to work on expelling this idea and I feel then we'd get much farther considering most of us have some amount of at least understanding of the language.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

9:27 Picws du maybe from picwns meaning wasps as in black wasps.🤔🤷

[@mihaiilie8808]

Picws could mean pisc in romanian wich is mountain peak.

[@popacristian2056]

Ai dreptate. Mi-a scapat pasajul asta din film. Si eu cred ca trebuie sa fie vorba de "pisc=Picws*

[@BenLlywelyn]

Pește în vârful unui munte?

[@mihaiilie8808]

@@BenLlywelyn Pește means fish in romanian but pisc means literally peak and i think picws is peak.

[@popacristian2056]

@@BenLlywelyn As Mihai Ilie said, *pisc* means in Romanian the (unforested, rocky) *peak* of a mountain.

[@michellegoliath]

man the music is much louder than your voice which creates some jumpscares great content though

[@BenLlywelyn]

1 was a joke. i hope not too many jump scares. Thank you for watching.

[@popacristian2056]

*gwint* means *vînt* in romanian.

[@davythfear1582]

Rwyt wedi cael yr enw yn anghywir. Pen Llithrig y Wrach ydi o, felly 'Slippery Peak of the Witch', nid Pen y Llithrig Wrach

[@BenLlywelyn]

Oh diâr.

[@mtmabon643]

Fidio da Iawn! Roeddwn yn meddwl er ddim yn y trefi cywir na pen llythrig y wrach Yw yr ystur. Sef bod y llethr sydd ar ddangos yn y fideo fel gwallt seimllyd llithryg ar gefn pen y wrach 😁 hefyd erioed Wedi clywed am picws orblaen ond efallai bod yn cynwys Yr gair cwsg erstalwm 🤔

[@BenLlywelyn]

Dw i'n cytuno â ti o ran wallt seimllyd dan draed. Mae mynyddoedd y Carneddi'n gallu bod fel hyn ac yn beryglus iawn! Diolch.