Waeddryn?

[Kernos]

If Waeddryn were a Welsh word from some age, what would it mean?

I am wondering if 'waed' is related to blood and dryn is a mutation from 'bryn'. So could this be blood-hill or bloody-hill?

[Aethnen]

Is this a word from a trance, a book or ...? I'm asking because I'm just having a think. As for the "bryn" suggestion, it would never mutate to "dryn" in Welsh. And "gwaed" mutating to "waed" would depend entirely on what preceded it. On its own it wouldn't be 'waed' ..... at the same time, there is "gwaedd" which is a cry or shout. Quite frankly, no I can't find anything logically that it comes out to mean, although that doesn't mean it isn't valid. Older Welsh words can be very strange! I'm looking things up in Y Geiriadur Cyfoes, the Modern Welsh Dictionary, and so not sure what you might discover otherwise.

If this word is from a trance, which I've known folk to do, then you don't need to treat the word quite so literally. An interesting etymology could be "bought blood" .... which sounds wonderful, fantastical, etc. It isn't probable in actual reality, but in the grey-lit realm, there is some half-sense. Gwaed (blood) + prŷn (bought, akin to the idea of redeemed).

I don't know otherwise. Anyone else better qualified have any suggestions?

[Kernos]

Thanks Aethnen,

Actually the word comes from a fantasy series I recently discovered. The author, Brent Weeks, an American, spent some time in Carnarfon and included a number of Welsh place names in his novel. Some like Carnarvon were straight from Wales others, like Waeddryn and Llandarin, the Wy River etc. look Welsh-oid.

The authors has a forum and interacts with readers. When I pointed out the Welsh terms,he confirmed some and explained why he used them, but with 'Waeddryn: says, "The other word is indeed Waeddryn, and I'm not talking about that one. "

Which I took as a challenge to figure out the word. Waed is also an Arabic word, a Saudi musician and an old Germanic word meaning "an item of clothing" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wæd

So I may be way off base thing it is related to Welsh at all, even though the city is on the Wy River.