MATH SON OF MATHONWY OF CAER DATHAL

Craig-Y-Dinas/Caer Dathal, Arfon, Gwynedd.

Caer Dathal, which I've now identified with Craig-Y-Dinas in Arfon, was the home of the bear-god Math son of Mathonwy.  Arthur's father Uther is said to have relatives there (according to P.C. Bartram,  Dathal's Sons of Iaen were "kindred to Arthur on his father's side, or perhaps ‘on their father's side’.").  As Arthur was regularly associated with the Welsh word arth, 'bear', this may simply be another instance of creative license on the part of the storytellers.  But it is still worthwhile to take a closer look at Math and his father, just so that we may learn a little more about this Gwynedd bear divinity.   

Mathonwy is the father of Math, and both names are believed to derive from *matu, a taboo name for the bear.  But no one seems to have seen in Mathonwy a Mathon, 'divine bear', plus the common -wy place-name (regional) suffix discussed by Melville Richards and others.  Could it not be that Mathonwy is something like "place of the divine bear?"  

I asked Professor Peter Schrijver about this.  He replied:

"Yes, certainly that is possible. But a -wy suffix could also the British Celtic cognate of Old Irish aue 'grandson, descendant' (which survives in W wyr, with the same meaning, to which -r was added secondarily on the basis of other kinship terms)."

If so, Mathonwy would be, literally, the 'grandson/descendant' of the divine bear. 

Dr. Simon Rodway has another idea for the name Mathonwy:

"Math could well be borrowed from Irish (cf. Math mac Úmóir in Lebor Gabála Érenn), with Mathonwy being formed from Math + the Welsh suffix –onwy (Euronwy etc.)."

While this is true, it does not detract from the fact that Math meant 'bear.'