Years ago I published (in my THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON) the piece posted below on the Eildons as the mountain of Merlin of the Fergus romance. Oddly enough, although I also identified the mountain of Aber Craf of 'Gwasgardgerd Verdin yn y bed' as Tinto of Abercarf (modern Wiston), I somehow neglected to treat of the Triad which mentioned the grave of Merddin Embrais on 'newais vynyd.' The name of this grave site is found in the Beddau stanzas in a corrupt text (Pen. 98 B; see Bromwich p. 459).
Now might be the best time to treat of this subject - especially as I have only recently found a number of absurd identifications for the place given in dubious online sources. One serious attempt has been made to link the mountain with Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands (https://www.academia.edu/41999201/The_Grave_of_Merddin_Embrais). Alas, there is no tradition associating Ben Nevis with Myrddin, and the Welsh placed the "Spirit-man" in the Scottish Lowland "Caledonian" forest, not in the ancient tribal territory of the Caledonii to either side of the Highland Grampians.
We could go beyond what some have said in favor of Ben Nevis. For instance, there is an Allt na Caillich on that mountain. While the word is usually rendered 'old woman' and is often associated with pagan goddesses in the folk tradition, the word can mean 'veiled one' and was used to designate a nun. But again, there is no link between Myrddin (or the Scottish version of this personage found in the story of Suibhne Geilt) and Ben Nevis.
Late Welsh accounts localized the 'Newais' Mountain in Wales, of course. To quote from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
https://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/08_M-N.pdf
Anap y Lleian The ‘Cleopatra’ version of Brut y Brenhinedd (fol.61v) when introducing the name of the boy without a father says: Ac An ab y Lleian y gelwit y mab kyn no hynny, ac o hynny allan y dodet arnaw Merdyn o achos y gaffael yNgkaer Vyrdyn. ‘Before that the boy was called An son of the Nun, and after that he was given [the name] Merdyn, because he was found in Caerfyrddin.’ Lewis Morris in his Celtic Remains (p.323 s.n. ‘Myrddyn Emrys’), says: "The poets call him Anap y Lleian, that is, ‘the mischance of the nun’;, which Dr. Davies, in his Catalogue, mistook for a proper name, and wrote it An ap y Lleian.” Thus, in the ‘Stanzas of the Graves’ in Peniarth MS.98B, stanza 17 begins: Bedd Ann ap lleian ymnewais fynydd, and the whole stanza is translated by Thomas Jones: The grave of Ann son of a nun on ... mountain Causing gaps in a host, lion of Emrais; Chief magician of Merddin Embrais. (SG pp.136-7). It seems that ‘of’ should be omitted before ‘Merddin Embrais’, i.e. Chief magician - Myrddin Emrys. Gruffudd Hiraethog in Peniarth MS.176 p.39 wrote a note on a local feature at Llysan in the parish of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, which may be translated: Maen [read Main] y Bardd [The Bard's Stones] is on the road between Cadair Dinmael and the chapel above the fields (cayav) within the township of Llys An vab y lleian. And within those stones is a little round tomb [where] was found An ab y lleian; and Murddyn y lleian [the nun's ruin] is below that, near the place called Y Llysdir. The word murddyn, ‘ruin’, looks like a play on the name Myrddin. Gruffudd Hiraethog seems to have become interested in An ap y leian. In Bonedd y Saint (§42 in EWGT pp.60-61) some late manuscripts add Ananan as a daughter of Helig ap Glannog, but Gruffudd Hiraethog substituted Anan ap y lleian nai vabchwaer, ‘Anan son of the nun, nephew, sister's son’ [i.e.son of a daughter of Helig?]. See further Patrick Sims-Williams in BBCS 28 (1978) pp.90-93.
There is a famous chambered tomb at Maen Y Bardd:
https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/348/details/maen-y-bardd-burial-chamber
The problem is that Maen Y Bardd is nowhere near the Llysan sites. This caused some discomfiture for the Welsh antiquarians, who had to hypothesize a now missing funeral monument:
From https://books.google.com/books?id=98kHnuPa-JIC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=%22llysan%22%2B%22map%22&source=bl&ots=E7wW6yM8N-&sig=ACfU3U2A4te67Wnr7e_xhmrnqQG-4bnvyA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjE1tbPuK7oAhUDs54KHXB7BQ4Q6AEwEHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22llysan%22%2B%22map%22&f=false:
We could go beyond what some have said in favor of Ben Nevis. For instance, there is an Allt na Caillich on that mountain. While the word is usually rendered 'old woman' and is often associated with pagan goddesses in the folk tradition, the word can mean 'veiled one' and was used to designate a nun. But again, there is no link between Myrddin (or the Scottish version of this personage found in the story of Suibhne Geilt) and Ben Nevis.
Late Welsh accounts localized the 'Newais' Mountain in Wales, of course. To quote from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
https://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/08_M-N.pdf
Anap y Lleian The ‘Cleopatra’ version of Brut y Brenhinedd (fol.61v) when introducing the name of the boy without a father says: Ac An ab y Lleian y gelwit y mab kyn no hynny, ac o hynny allan y dodet arnaw Merdyn o achos y gaffael yNgkaer Vyrdyn. ‘Before that the boy was called An son of the Nun, and after that he was given [the name] Merdyn, because he was found in Caerfyrddin.’ Lewis Morris in his Celtic Remains (p.323 s.n. ‘Myrddyn Emrys’), says: "The poets call him Anap y Lleian, that is, ‘the mischance of the nun’;, which Dr. Davies, in his Catalogue, mistook for a proper name, and wrote it An ap y Lleian.” Thus, in the ‘Stanzas of the Graves’ in Peniarth MS.98B, stanza 17 begins: Bedd Ann ap lleian ymnewais fynydd, and the whole stanza is translated by Thomas Jones: The grave of Ann son of a nun on ... mountain Causing gaps in a host, lion of Emrais; Chief magician of Merddin Embrais. (SG pp.136-7). It seems that ‘of’ should be omitted before ‘Merddin Embrais’, i.e. Chief magician - Myrddin Emrys. Gruffudd Hiraethog in Peniarth MS.176 p.39 wrote a note on a local feature at Llysan in the parish of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, which may be translated: Maen [read Main] y Bardd [The Bard's Stones] is on the road between Cadair Dinmael and the chapel above the fields (cayav) within the township of Llys An vab y lleian. And within those stones is a little round tomb [where] was found An ab y lleian; and Murddyn y lleian [the nun's ruin] is below that, near the place called Y Llysdir. The word murddyn, ‘ruin’, looks like a play on the name Myrddin. Gruffudd Hiraethog seems to have become interested in An ap y leian. In Bonedd y Saint (§42 in EWGT pp.60-61) some late manuscripts add Ananan as a daughter of Helig ap Glannog, but Gruffudd Hiraethog substituted Anan ap y lleian nai vabchwaer, ‘Anan son of the nun, nephew, sister's son’ [i.e.son of a daughter of Helig?]. See further Patrick Sims-Williams in BBCS 28 (1978) pp.90-93.
There is a famous chambered tomb at Maen Y Bardd:
https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/348/details/maen-y-bardd-burial-chamber
The problem is that Maen Y Bardd is nowhere near the Llysan sites. This caused some discomfiture for the Welsh antiquarians, who had to hypothesize a now missing funeral monument:
From https://books.google.com/books?id=98kHnuPa-JIC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=%22llysan%22%2B%22map%22&source=bl&ots=E7wW6yM8N-&sig=ACfU3U2A4te67Wnr7e_xhmrnqQG-4bnvyA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjE1tbPuK7oAhUDs54KHXB7BQ4Q6AEwEHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22llysan%22%2B%22map%22&f=false:
Furthermore, the attempt to localize Newais Mountain in Wales ultimately failed because no Newais name could be produced.
The first thing to realize is that the "An son of a nun", as discussed above, was not a real person at all. He is not even a real literary character. The name arose through an error for Merlin as the 'mischance' of a nun. And the whole idea that Merlin was the son of a nun stems from Geoffrey of Monmouth's story which was picked up by the French romance writers. The nun in question was supposedly a daughter of the King of Demetia (Dyfed), as in Geoffrey's fiction Merlin (as Myrddin) was wrongly said to have left his name in Carmarthen/Caerfyrddin. His mother the nun lived at St. Peter's Church in Carmarthen.
Important for us to remember is that Merlin Ambrosius - the Triad's Merddin Embrais - was not the Myrddin of the North. Merlin A. is the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who fused Ambrosius and Myrddin and situated the new entity both at Caerfyrddin (rather than the Campus Elleti of the Ambrosius found in the HISTORIA BIRTTONUM) and Dinas Emrys-Amesbury/Stonehenge. The quest, then, for a grave for Merlin A. in the North is futile and, indeed, rather foolish. Wherever Newais happens to be, it must be in Wales or southern England. Rachel Bromwich (p. 460 Triads) describes how the two Merlins were clearly distinguished:
When it comes to our search for (ym)Newais (itself probably a corrupt form of a known place-name), we must concentrate on those monuments and hills/mountains we know are linked in Welsh tradition with Myrddin.
The most obvious is Mynydd Merddin in Ewyas near the River Dore in the Golden Valley (cf. with the French romance Darnantes, one of the places of Merlin's imprisonment). It would appear that 'Newais' is an attempt at Ewyas, the initial N- being for yn (see GPC under the listing for yn). At some point the /y/ of yn was lost and thought to be a part of the following word. Ym (a variant of yn) was then appended. In other words, the original source probably had something like -
ynewias fynydd for 'in Ewias mountain'
I early times, we find references to Ewyas mountain or mountains. See, for example, Giraldus Cambrensis: https://books.google.com/books?id=eiZWo4JJMO8C&pg=PA353&lpg=PA353&dq=ewyas+mountain&source=bl&ots=WjMHzQVEY8&sig=ACfU3U3z5INQ9soZRS43FiSlfqKIYTSf5w&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwikmcrq0rDoAhWSHjQIHRB1DnAQ6AEwEnoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=ewyas%20mountain&f=false.
Mynydd Merddin is one of the traditional sites of Merlin's tomb.
Myrddin's Mountain
Boundaries in the Book of Llandaff which define Ewyas and the Vale of Ewyas.
(Northern boundary of the claimed Diocese of Llandaff, purple pecked lines. Boundary of
Clodock, red pecked lines. Boundary of Llanvihangel, green pecked lines. The southern
boundary of Ewyas, drawn from later manorial bounds of Ewyas Lacy, pink pecked lines
(Wedell 2009). N.B. the location of Llwyn Celyn continues to be marked with a red star.
[Second map from https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/globalassets/2.-old-website-images/llwyn-celyn/llwyn-celyn-report-v.2-david-austin-oct-2014-with-logo.compressed-1.pdf]
Ewyas Lacy Hundred Showing Mynydd Merddin
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