Heledd

According to the story of Heledd, a princess of Powys, she was very despondent after the defeat and death of her father and brothers in battle against the Mercians in the mid-8th. Century. So she chose to call herself "Heledd" (the pit of salt) to express her grief and hopelessness. This also comes out in the beautiful poems that make up the "Y Canu Heledd" (The Song of Heledd) that she is said to have written and which comprise one of the earliest extant folios of Welsh poetry.

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But a word of caution; some of my Welsh-speaking friends doubt the "pit of salt" story and simply believe that it is a name from ancient Welsh whose meaning is utterly lost. But it's a great name (pronounced "Heleth") and is still used in the Welsh-speaking communities here in Wales.

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Anyway, the poems are genuine; whoever wrote them.

Heledd means salt pool or saline estuary in Medieval Welsh.

Heledd has been linked to 'hallt', Welsh for salt or salty, but this is pure conjecture. That said, it's a beautiful name, assosciated with the exiled (and rather angsty!) heroine of the 7th century poem "Canu Heledd" (Song of Heledd).

Our copy of the Welsh/English dictionary 'Geriadur Mawr' says that Heledd is welsh for 'Hebrides' i.e. the islands off NW Scotland.