Rhiannon wrote:
If Bryn Walters is such an archaeologist, why is the Swindon Advertiser piece full of such utterly speculative stuff...
Bryn Walters is the Director of the Association for Roman Archaeology. The journalistic spiel sounds about right for this type of reporting, I doubt it follows Bryn's material that closely. I am unconvinced by the 'Woden' figure but this is an issue - British academia is largely departmental if not tribal with experts defending their own knowledge base and with much less awareness of neighboring eras: Bryn's specialism is the Roman age. With regard to Welsh mythology the majority of Britain spoke a Brythonic tongue before the Romans (and the Roman Church) introduced Latin and the Anglo-Saxons introduced West Germanic to eastern Britain, so it would be remarkable if Welsh folk tales such as found in the Mabinogion were not also current throughout the rest of Britain. Welsh place names in southern Britain supports Welsh culture here, such as place names like Dover, Andover and the River Avon. In terms of North Wales, the action you speak of would seem to have taken place on the banks of a tributary of the Cynfael and not the Cynfael itself, the water course in question being the Afon Bryn Saeth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llech_Ronw 