Afallach (
Old Welsh
Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
Aballac) is a man's name found in several medieval Welsh genealogies, where he is made the son of
Beli Mawr. According to a medieval Welsh
triad
Triad or triade may refer to:
* a group of three
Businesses and organisations
* Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America
* Triad (organized crime), a Chinese transnational orga ...
, Afallach was the father of the goddess
Modron. The Welsh redactions of
Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''
Historia Regum Britanniae'',
Brut y Brenhinedd, associate him with Ynys Afallach, which is substituted as the Welsh name for Geoffrey's ''Insula Avalonsis'' (Island of
Avalon), but this is fanciful medieval etymology and it is more likely his name derives from the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
word ''afall'' "apple tree" (modern Welsh ''afal'' "apple", afallen "apple tree"
[ Bernhard Maier, ''Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture'' (trans. Cyril Edwards, The Boydell Press, 1997).] cf.
Proto-Celtic *''aballo-'' "apple"
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. (See als
this page
for background and disclaimers.) Cf. also th
University of Leiden database
.); from which, granted, the name of Avalon is also often thought to derive, so that the meaning of "Afallach" is associated but not necessarily directly. In the tale of Urien and Modron he is referred to by his daughter as the King of Annwn, therefore he may originally been cognate with Arawn or Gwyn or perhaps all three were once regional variants of the same Deity.
References
Pen. 147. trans. Rachel Bromwich. ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein''. Cardiff: UWP, 1963. p.459.
Welsh mythology
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