_Nao, a Ship_ (Vol. iii., pp. 477. 509.).--I perfectly agree with GOMER
that the early Britons must have possessed vessels more capacious than
osier baskets or _cyry-glau_ before they were able to transport warlike
assistance to their brethren the Armoricans of Gaul; but I can inform
GOMER and A. N. in addition, that a much older term for a ship was made
use of by the first inhabitants of Britain, namely _Naf_, from whence no
doubt the Latin _Navis_ sprang; and from the same root the Welsh word
_Nawf_, a swim (now used), was derived. This term _Naf_ is handed down
to us in one of the oldest British triads, but which has been always, in
my opinion, improperly interpreted. In speaking of the three master
works of the island of Britain, is the ship of Nefydd Naf Neifion (or
_Noah_); the translation is simply this--
Nefydd _i. e._ The ship constructor
naf of the ship
neifion. of ships.
Here you have the hero personified by his avocation, and the _noun_ from
which the proper name is derived, both in the singular and plural
number; in the latter sense it is made use of by D. ab Gwilym in the
following couplet:
"Y nofiad a wnaeth _Neifion_
O Droia fawr draw i Fôn."
"The swimming, that the ships performed
From great Troy, afar, to Monâ."