night by an armed party,
who, unable to break into it owing to the desperate resistance which they
met with from the sons of Nial, Skarphethin, Helgi, and Grimmr and a
comrade of theirs called Kari, {4} set it in a blaze, in which perished
Nial, the lawyer and man of the second sight, his wife Bergthora, and two
of their sons, the third, Helgi, having been previously slain, and Kari,
who was destined to be the avenger of the ill-fated family, having made
his escape, after performing deeds of heroism which for centuries after
were the themes of song and tale in the ice-bound isle.

CHAPTER XXIX

Snowdon--Caernarvon--Maxen Wledig--Moel y Cynghorion--The Wyddfa--Snow of
Snowdon--Rare Plant.

On the third morning after our arrival at Bangor we set out for Snowdon.

Snowdon or Eryri is no single hill, but a mountainous region, the
loftiest part of which, called Y Wyddfa, nearly four thousand feet above
the level of the sea, is generally considered to be the highest point of
Southern Britain. The name Snowdon was bestowed upon this region by the
early English on account of its snowy appearance in winter; Eryri by the
Britons, because in the old time it abounded with eagles, Eryri {5} in
the ancient British language signifying an eyrie or breeding-place of
eagles.

Snowdon is interesting on various accounts. It is interesting for its
picturesque beauty. Perhaps in the whole world there is no region more
picturesquely beautiful than Snowdon, a region of mountains, lakes,
cataracts, and, groves in which nature shows herself in her most grand
and beautiful forms.

It is interesting from its connection with history: it was to Snowdon
that Vortigern retired from the fury of his own subjects, caused by the
favour which he showed to the detested Saxons. It was there that he
called to his counsels Merlin, said to be begotten on a hag by an
incubus, but who was in reality the son of a Roman consul by a British
woman. It was in Snowdon that he built the castle, which he fondly
deemed would prove impregnable, but which his enemies destroyed by
flinging wild-fire over its walls; and it was in a wind-beaten valley of
Snowdon, near the sea, that his dead body decked in green armour had a
mound of earth and stones raised over it. It was on the heights of
Snowdon that the brave but unfortunate Llywelin ap Griffith made his last
stand for Cambrian independence; and it was to Snowdon that that very
remarkable man, Owen Glen