Javan, the Father of the Welsh Cymry
"MAY it please your information, my beloved teacher; pray, tell me who was the first that made a Letter?
"Einiged the Giant, son of Huon, son of Alser,1 son of Javan, 2 son of Japheth, son of Noah the Aged, after the death of his father, for the purpose of preserving a memorial of what he did, and of his praiseworthy actions, warranted in respect of credibility and information. And because it was on wood (pren) that such belief was first placed, both the letters, and what they were inscribed on, were called Coelbren. …
"11:1 p. 10 Probably the same as Elishah, in Gen. x. 4.
"11:2 It is remarkable that, contrary to the popular notion which represents Gomer as the progenitor of the Cymry, Nennius, the Genealogy of Gruffydd ab Cynan, in the 2nd volume of the Myvyrian Archaiology--and other Pedigrees registered by Lewis Dwnn, all support the view of the text as to the descent of that people from Javan. Nennius, indeed, asserts positively that his information was derived "ex traditione veterum, qui incolæ in primo fuerunt Britanniæ."
--Barddas, vol. 1., edited by ab Ithel
"The founder of this people is stated by Josephus and Eustathius' to have been Gomer, which assertion is supported, moreover, by St. Jerome, and St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville. It is due, however, to observe that Nennius, upon the alleged authority of native documents, makes Javan to be the remote progenitor of the Britons, and (though here perhaps not on home evidence) distinguishes them from the Gauls, whom, on the other hand, he derives from Gomer. The genealogy of Gruffydd ab Cynan, in the second volume of the myvyrian Archaic owgtf as well as other pedigrees registered by Lewis Dwnn, are likewise deduced from Javan, and thus far countenance the views of Nennius. Nevertheless, as we have established the common origin of the Cymry and the Gauls, it follows that the pedigrees in question must to a certain extent be erroneous. Nor is it difficult to discover the cause of the mistake, which is, obviously, the habit of regarding the Trojan Brutus as the founder of the aboriginal colony in Britain, or rather as the parent of the whole race of the Cymry, for his name occurs in every, or nearly every, line that professes to be carried up to Adam."
--John William ab Ithel, Traditionary Annals of the Cymry
Williams sees clearly the Irish Picts, and in another place calls them the red Gwyddelians, but doesn't recognize them as the Pictones of Gaul… and here says that the Cymry and Gauls are the same people.
I admit, that I thought that, too, before I read Cymric History according to the Cymry themselves. Apparently the Irish Gaels are the sons of Gomer, and the Cymry are the sons of Javan. What Josephus et al saw during a later time was not what the Cymry tell us in their own history. Roberts says that the Cymry were there before the Gaels, when he footnotes Tysilio's history of Brutus and Goffar, the king of the Picts:
"Pliny notes that Aquitain had once the name of Armorica, "Aquitania, Aremorica ante dicta,'' &c. Lib. iv. C. 17. and Aremorica is a Welsh name, with a Latin termination, viz Ar-y-mor, i. e. the sea coast. Of this name An-go-tan is, if my conjecture be right, simply a translation into the Gael, and the Cymry must have
possessed the country before them."
--Tysilio's Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, footnote, p.20
"MAY it please your information, my beloved teacher; pray, tell me who was the first that made a Letter?
"Einiged the Giant, son of Huon, son of Alser,1 son of Javan, 2 son of Japheth, son of Noah the Aged, after the death of his father, for the purpose of preserving a memorial of what he did, and of his praiseworthy actions, warranted in respect of credibility and information. And because it was on wood (pren) that such belief was first placed, both the letters, and what they were inscribed on, were called Coelbren. …
"11:1 p. 10 Probably the same as Elishah, in Gen. x. 4.
"11:2 It is remarkable that, contrary to the popular notion which represents Gomer as the progenitor of the Cymry, Nennius, the Genealogy of Gruffydd ab Cynan, in the 2nd volume of the Myvyrian Archaiology--and other Pedigrees registered by Lewis Dwnn, all support the view of the text as to the descent of that people from Javan. Nennius, indeed, asserts positively that his information was derived "ex traditione veterum, qui incolæ in primo fuerunt Britanniæ."
--Barddas, vol. 1., edited by ab Ithel
"The founder of this people is stated by Josephus and Eustathius' to have been Gomer, which assertion is supported, moreover, by St. Jerome, and St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville. It is due, however, to observe that Nennius, upon the alleged authority of native documents, makes Javan to be the remote progenitor of the Britons, and (though here perhaps not on home evidence) distinguishes them from the Gauls, whom, on the other hand, he derives from Gomer. The genealogy of Gruffydd ab Cynan, in the second volume of the myvyrian Archaic owgtf as well as other pedigrees registered by Lewis Dwnn, are likewise deduced from Javan, and thus far countenance the views of Nennius. Nevertheless, as we have established the common origin of the Cymry and the Gauls, it follows that the pedigrees in question must to a certain extent be erroneous. Nor is it difficult to discover the cause of the mistake, which is, obviously, the habit of regarding the Trojan Brutus as the founder of the aboriginal colony in Britain, or rather as the parent of the whole race of the Cymry, for his name occurs in every, or nearly every, line that professes to be carried up to Adam."
--John William ab Ithel, Traditionary Annals of the Cymry
Williams sees clearly the Irish Picts, and in another place calls them the red Gwyddelians, but doesn't recognize them as the Pictones of Gaul… and here says that the Cymry and Gauls are the same people.
I admit, that I thought that, too, before I read Cymric History according to the Cymry themselves. Apparently the Irish Gaels are the sons of Gomer, and the Cymry are the sons of Javan. What Josephus et al saw during a later time was not what the Cymry tell us in their own history. Roberts says that the Cymry were there before the Gaels, when he footnotes Tysilio's history of Brutus and Goffar, the king of the Picts:
"Pliny notes that Aquitain had once the name of Armorica, "Aquitania, Aremorica ante dicta,'' &c. Lib. iv. C. 17. and Aremorica is a Welsh name, with a Latin termination, viz Ar-y-mor, i. e. the sea coast. Of this name An-go-tan is, if my conjecture be right, simply a translation into the Gael, and the Cymry must have
possessed the country before them."
--Tysilio's Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, footnote, p.20
