| Corpus Refs: | Huebner/1876:122 Huebner/1876:123 Macalister/1949:994 Nash-Williams/1950:125 |
| Site: | LWNNW |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 16 Lhuyd, E. |
| History: | First mentioned by Edward Lhuyd, in his Parochialia (Lhwyd/1910), and again by Lewis Morris in 1745, see Owen/1896, 135. Stone visited in 1873 by Rhys. Stone visited by the Cambrian Archaeological Association in Sept. 1896 at which time is was still in the churchyard. Macalister/1949, 141: `Standing in the churchyard on the N. side when I saw it, but now, I understand, placed in the church porch...The upper dexter angle, which was complete in 1745, is now broken'. |
| Geology: | Nash-Williams/1950, 100: `Dark grit, characteristic of the Cwm Ystwyth district'. |
| Dimensions: | 0.99 x 0.36 x 0.15 (converted from Macalister/1949) |
| Setting: | in ground |
| Location: | earliest Macalister/1949, 141: `but now, I understand, placed in the church porch'. Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `Standing in churchyard (in bad condition) on N. side of church'. |
| Form: | cross-marked Westwood/1879, 144: `a venerable stone about 3 feet 9 inches high, with the upper part injured on the left side'. Nash-Williams/1950, 100: `Rough pillar-stone (upper left-hand angle fractured away). 38+" h. x '5" w. x 6" t.'. |
| Condition: | incomplete , poor Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `in bad condition'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | Westwood/1879, 144: `an elegant representation of the cross composed of double raised lines, or rather of treble incised ones, the arms united by similar circular lines interlacing with the former, the ends of the limbs of the cross dilated, and the spaces between the arms bearing raised circular concentric bosses. The upper and left-hand portion of the wheel of the cross thus formed is damaged'. Macalister/1949, 141: `On the face of the slab is a cross, with triquetra ends, having a circle surround the centre, and concentric circles in the cantons'. Nash-Williams/1950, 100: `The face bears a lightly carved Latin ring-cross, formed of double ribbon- bands in the Irish manner, with bifid knotted terminals and carved ring-bosses in the inter-spaces'. |
| Westwood, J.O. (1876): | {XPS} || Q/ICUNQ; | EXPLI | CAV~IT | H~NO~ | DE/TB | ENE | DIXIONE | MPROANI | MAHIROID | IL FILIUS | CARO | TINN Expansion: {XPS} QUICUNQUE EXPLICAVERIT HOC NOMEN DET BENEDIXIONEM PRO ANIMA HIROIDIL FILIUS CAROTINN Westwood/1876 144 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1945): | [...] || {XP~S} || Q/ICUNQ: | EXPLI | CAU~IT | H~NO~ | DETB | ENE | DIXIONE | MPROANI | MAHIROID | IL FILIUS | CARO | TINN Expansion: [IHS] CHRISTUS QUICUNQUE EXPLICAUERIT HOC NOMEN DET BENEDIXIONEM PRO ANIMA HIROIDIL FILIUS CAROTINN Macalister/1949 141, Plate II reading only |
| Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950): | [IHS] || {XPS} || Q/ICUNQ | EXPLI | CAU~IT | HNO~ | DE/TB | ENE | DIXIONE | MPROANI | MAHIROID | IL FILIUS | CARO | TINN Expansion: [IHS] CHRISTUS Q[U]ICUNQ[UE] EXPLICAU[ER]IT H[OC] NO[MEN] DET BENEDIXIONEM PRO ANIMA HIROIDIL FILIUS CAROTINN Translation: (The Cross) of Jesus Christ. Whoever shall (have) explain(ed) this Name, let him give a blessing for the soul of Carotinn (PN). [the son of Hiroidil (PN). These words were omitted by typographic error] Nash-Williams/1950 100--102 reading only |
| Orientation: | horizontal |
| Position: | inc ; broad ; within quadrants ; undecorated Macalister/1949, 141: `The inscription is in the lower sinister canton and below the cross, in 12 lines of half-uncials. Above the cross is IH~S --- XP~S'. CISP: the IHS is no more than a proposal since this part of the stone is missing. Nash-Williams/1950, 100: `In the upper field to the r. are the letters XPS, the Greek contraction for Christus, probably balanced originally by IHS, for Jesus, in the opposite space (now scaled away)...Filling the field to the r. of the cross-stem and continuing below the foot is a Latin inscription in twelve lines reading horizontally'. |
| Incision: | cut Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `deeply cut'. |
| Date: | 800 - 850 (Nash-Williams/1950) Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `The phrase explicaverit hoc nomen refers to the (contracted) name at the top of the stone; for the latter see No. 380. The formula used in the inscription recurs in Wales on No. 82 (dated early 9th century) and in Ireland, in variant forms, in the Gospels of MacRegol (c. 800) and on the well-known Tullylease cross-slab 2 (dated 839). The present stone therefore can be assigned fairly narrowly to the early 9th century'. 800 - 850 (Jackson/1953) Jackson/1953, 337: `first half of the ninth century'. |
| Language: | Latin (rbook) |
| Ling. Notes: | Westwood/1879, 145: `With regard to the peculiar formula of this inscription it appears to have been in use in Ireland in the eighth and ninth centuries. In the Gospels of Mac Regol in the Bodleian Library we have an entry, (`Quicumque legeret et intellegeret istam narrationem orat pro Mac Reguil scriptori'), and in the cross at Tullylease, Ireland (Irish Inscriptions, vol. ii. P1. XXX), we have a curious identity with the Llanwnnws stone, the figure of the cross being supplemented at top on the right-hand with the xps and the inscription being `Quicumque hunc titulum legerit orat pro Berechtuire'. Rhys/1905, 96--97, discusses the linguistics of the name and the metre of the inscription as a whole. Macalister/1949, 141: `The formula is similar to that on stones at Tullylease, Cork (908), and Llanveynoe, Hereford, and was probably suggested by a passage in the inscription of Eliseg (1000). The word NOMEN doubtless refers to the sacred Name represented in abbreviation above the cross'. Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `The phrase explicaverit hoc nomen refers to the (contracted) name at the top of the stone; for the latter see No. 380. The formula used in the inscription recurs in Wales on No. 82 (dated early 9th century) and in Ireland, in variant forms, in the Gospels of MacRegol (c. 800) and on the well-known Tullylease cross-slab (dated 839)'. |
| Palaeography: | Rhys/1873, 4: `It grew too dark for us to read it, but we could see that it was in Hiberno-Saxon characters, and that the stone had a cross on it'. Westwood/1879, 144: `On the upper part of the stone to the right are inscribed the letters xps (the monogram of Christ; just as in the Gurmarc stone), and down the right side of the stone is the inscription in minuscule letters...The letter r is thrice repeated in the Anglo-Saxon form, like n. The stone was figured by Sir S. Meyrick (Cardiganshire, P1. VII. fig. 6), but the middle and end of the inscription were incorrectly read'. Nash-Williams/1950, 102: `Round half-uncials...cut in good style. The abbreviations used are those normally employed in manuscripts of the period. In l.1 Q with suprascript I is the normal Irish (and Welsh) contraction for qui from the 8th century onwards. U~ (for uer) in l. 3 and H with a dot over it (for hoc) and N~O~ (for nomen) in 1.4, the two latter representing abbreviations by suspension, are also normal. The D's with closed loop and inclined tail are an Irish form met with at Clonmacnois and elsewhere'. The words Hiroidil Filius have been omitted from Nash-William's translation, by typographic error? |
| Legibility: | poor |
| Lines: | 12 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |
Rhys/1905, 97: `Carotinn, Modern Welsh Carodyn, meant a lover or a friend; but I have never met either [name]...anywhere else as proper names'.
Rhys/1905, 97: `Hiroidil is a dissyllable, the last i being an irrational vowel which would have been written y in Medieval Welsh : in Modern book Welsh the name would be Hirhoedl `long-lived'. In Old and Medieval Welsh r represented both r and rh. and here we have a very decided instance of the latter value, as the name is a compound Hir-hoedl. ...I have never met... Hiroidil anywhere else as [a] proper name.' Jackson/1953, 337: sees HIROIDIL as ninth-century evidence for the development of an `epenthetic vowel in certain groups of final consonants in monosyllables'.