It
may be, indeed, that the Welsh name given to the llyn in the book
is merely a rough translation of the gipsies' name for it, the
'Knockers' being gnomes or goblins of the mine; hence 'Coblynau'
equals goblins. If so, the name itself can give us no clue unless
we are lucky enough to secure the last of the Welsh gipsies for a
guide. In any case, the only point from which to explore Snowdon
for the small llyn, or perhaps llyns (of which Llyn Coblynau is a
kind of composite ideal picture), is no doubt, as E. W. has
suggested, Capel Curig; and I imagine the actual scene lies about a
mile south from Glaslyn, while it owes something at least of its
colouring in the book to that strange lake. The 'Knockers,' it must
be remembered, usually depend upon the existence of a mine near by,
with old partly fallen mine-workings where the dropping of water or
other subterranean noises produce the curious phenomenon which is
turned to such imaginative account in the Snowdon chapters of
_Aylwin_.
There is another question--a question of a very different
kind--raised by several correspondents of _Notes and Queries_,
upon which I should like to say a word--a question as to _The
Veiled Queen_ and the use therein of the phrase 'The Renascence of
Wonder'--a phrase which has been said to 'express the artistic motif
of the book.
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