The Celtic Literature Collective

The Towyn Stone

A stone, originally a grave marker, which was later "recycled" into a fence post, and later discovered to be Old Welsh. Ifor Williams gives the transcription and translation as follows, with the footnotes found at the end of the stones given beneath the main text:

Side A: tengrui [or cengrui] cimalted gu adgan
footnote: mozt
              cicpe
              tuar
transcription: mort cic petuar

Side B: cun ben celen

Side C: tricet nitanam
footnote: mc
              Ertri
transcription: mc er tri

Side D: ant erunc du but marciau



Translation:
A. Tengrui (Cengrui) the wife of Adgan
D. (lies here) close to Bud (and) Meirchiaw
ft. "memorial of the four" (Cengrui, Adgan, Bud, Meirchiaw) (or Cengrui, Bud, Meirchiaw, Cun?)

B. Cun, wife of Celen
C. grief adn loss remain.
ft. "memorial of the three" (Ceinrwy, Bud, Meirchiaw)

SOURCE
Williams, Ifor. "An Old Welsh Verse". The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry. ed. Rachel Bromwich. Cardiff: UoW Press, 1972.