the name of Arthur's wife, Gwenhwyvar, resolves itself into White Phantom or White Apparition, in harmony with Arthur's line of descent from the region of phantoms and apparitions and fairy-folk. Thus:--_Gwenhwyvar_ or _Gwenhwyfar_ equals _Gwen_ or _Gwenn_, a Brythonic word meaning white, and _hwyvar_, a word not found in the Brythonic dialects, but undoubtedly cognate with the Irish word _siabhradh_, a fairy, equal to _siabhra_, _siabrae_, _siabur_, a fairy, or ghost, the Welsh and the Irish word going back to the form _*seibaro_.[272] Hence the name of Arthur's wife means the _white ghost_ or _white phantom_, quite in keeping with the nature of the Tuatha De Danann and that of the fairy-folk of Wales or _Tylwyth Teg_--the 'Fair Family'. Fourth, as a link in the chain of evidence connecting Arthur with the invisible world where the Fairy-People live, his own sister is called _Morgan le Fay_ in the romances,[273] and is thus definitely one of the fairy women who, according to tradition, are inhabitants of the Celtic Otherworld sometimes known as Avalon. Fifth, in the Welsh Triads,[274] Llacheu, the son of Arthur and Gwenhwyvar, is credited with clairvoyant vision, like the fairy-folk, so that he understands the secret nature of all solid and material things; and 'the story of his death as given in the second part of the Welsh version of the Grail, makes him hardly human at all.'[275] Sixth, the name of Melwas, the abductor of Arthur's wife, is shown by Sir John Rhŷs to mean a prince-youth or a princely youth, and the same authority considers it probable that, as such, Melwas or Maelwas was a being endowed with eternal youth,--even as Midir, the King of the Tuatha De Danann, who though a thousand years old appeared handsome and youthful. So it seems that the abduction of Gwenhwyfar was really a fairy abduction, such as we read about in the domestic troubles of the Irish fairy-folk, on a level with the abduction of Etain by her Otherworld husband Midir.[276] And in keeping with this superhuman character of the abductor of the White Phantom or Fairy, Chrétien de Troyes, in his metrical romance _Le Conte de la Charrette_, describes the realm of which Melwas was lord as a place whence no traveller returns.[277] As further proof that the realm of Melwas was meant by Chrétien to be the subjective world, where the god-like Tuatha De Danann, the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the shades of the dead equally exist, it is said that access to it was by two narrow bridges; 'one called _li Ponz Evages_ or the Water Bridge, because it was a narrow passage a foot and a half wide and as much in height, with water above and below it as well as on both sides'; the other _li Ponz de l'Espée_ or the Sword Bridge, because it consisted of the edge of a sword two lances in length.[278] The first bridge, considered less perilous than the other, was chosen by Gauvain (Gwalchmei), when with Lancelot he was seeking to rescue Gwenhwyfar; but he failed to cross it. Lancelot with great