| Corpus Refs: | Macalister/1949:971 Nash-Williams/1950:35 |
| Site: | NBRGH |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 1722 Lhuyd, E. |
| History: | Jones/1846a, 428, describes the stone as `forming the eastern post of what was once a gateway into a field' on the eastern side of the road from Newborough to Langaffo. Williams/1865, 88--89, in a letter dated November 29th 1844, (this last a mistake for 1864), describes the movement of the stone from Frondeg `to the vestry room of Llangaffo church, and there let into a wall'. Macalister/1949, 129: `built into the E. wall of the vestry, inside face'.
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| Geology: | Macalister/1949, 129: `slate'. RCAHMW/1937, 89: `rough schist'. Jones/1846a, 429: `chloritic schist'. |
| Dimensions: | 1.4 x 0.43 x 0.0 (converted from Macalister/1949) |
| Setting: | in struct |
| Location: | Llangaffo parish church; Built into the interior E wall of the vestry of the parish church of St Caffo, Llangaffo (Macalister/1945, 129; RCAHMW/1937, 89). |
| Form: | plain |
| Condition: | incomplete , poor Macalister/1949, 129: `The surface gives the impression of having been dragged for some distance over the surface of the ground, the sinister side of the inscribed face being worn almost smooth; but this must have taken place before the old drawing published in 1898, which shews the lettering much in its present state'. Williams/1865, 89, states that the move from Frondeg to Llangaffo did not damage the stone. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | no other decoration |
| Radford, C.A.R. (1937): | --]VI | RNIN | FILIUS | CUURIS | CINI | ERE | XIT | HUNC | LAPI | DEM Expansion: (G)VIRNIN FILIUS CUURIS CINI EREXIT HUNC LAPIDEM Radford/1937b cvi reading only |
| RCAHMW (1937): | --]VI | RNIN | FILIUS | CUURIS | CINI | ERE | XIT | HUNC | LAPI | DEM Expansion: (G)VIRNIN FILIUS CUURIS CINI EREXIT HUNC LAPIDEM RCAHMW/1937 89 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1949): | US[-- | --] NIH | FILIUS | CUURIS | CINI | ERE | XIT | HUNC | LAP | IDEM Expansion: USI[--]NIH I FILIUS | CUURIS | CINI | ERE | XIT | HUNC | LAPI | DEM Macalister/1949 129 concise discussion |
| Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950): | --]VS | --]NIN |FILIU[S] |CUURI[S] | CINI | ERE | XIT | HUNC | LAPI | DEM Expansion: [-]US [-]NIN FILIUS CUURIS CINI EREXIT HUNC LAPIDEM Translation: [-]us, son of Curis Cini (PN), erected this stone. Nash-Williams/1950 65 reading only |
| Orientation: | horizontal |
| Position: | inc ; broad ; n/a ; undecorated The inscription is in ten short horizontal lines down the broad face of the stone. |
| Incision: | inc Macalister/1949, 129: `Inscription cut'. Nash-Williams/1950, 65: `fairly deeply incised'. |
| Date: | 600 - 899 (Nash-Williams/1950) 600 - 633 (RCAHMW/1937) 633 - 666 (Jackson/1953) |
| Language: | Latin (rbook) |
| Ling. Notes: | Jackson/1953, 188, 620-621, sees this stone as the first example of where all the `Celtic names [are] without any termination in the Latin'. |
| Palaeography: | Nash-Williams/1950, 65: `Mixed Roman capitals and round half-uncials (mainly)'. Westwood/1879, 188: `the letters mostly in the Anglo-Saxon minuscule form'. RCAHMW/1937, cvi: `the general form may be compared with Llangadwaladr'. Jackson/1953, 161, argues that this stone `is reminiscent' of that at Llangadwaladr, and that it might `represent a local epigraphic development which had no effect on the rest of Britain'. Some of the letters are in standard capitalis form, such as the `F' and the `V' in the 1st line. Others are in more decorative forms such as the flat-bottomed `Us', the open-bowed `Rs', or the H-shaped Ns. The Es, T, D, H, and P are half-uncial, the `X' is `wayward' and the A is like that known from Llangadwaladr. The `M' is made of three vertical strokes joined by two strokes sloping downwards from left to right. |
| Legibility: | good Macalister/1949, 129: `the letters are worn and are confused by superficial flaws. The surface gives the impression of having been dragged for some distance over the surface of the ground, the sinister side of the inscribed face being worn almost smooth'. |
| Lines: | 10 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |
Williams/1980, 18, argues that Virnin might be a variant of Guernin and a diminutive of Gwern.
Williams/1980, 17, `The double U can be compared to the VV of the Llangefni stone, ORVVITE … Still more apposite is the Glan Usk, PVVERI. … I suggest that the doubling in Welsh names might have been intended to differentiate the w sound (Latin u) from the sound expressed by u in Welsh … Assuming that CUURIS was pronounced Cwris circa 625, the next step would be for the w in the penult to weaken into the obscure sound of Welsh y. Jackson/1953, 188, `VIRNIN FILIUS CUURIS CINI, where all three names are Primitive Welsh without endings, the last two being M[iddle] W[elsh] Cyrys and Cyny'.