Dyfed

Dyfed , former county, W Wales. It was created in the 1974 administrative reorganization of Wales from the counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, and Pembrokeshire, but in 1996 the county was dissolved and the unitary authorities of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, and Pembrokeshire (corresponding respectively to the old counties) were established.

Dyfed County of south‐west Wales, extant between 1974 and 1996. The name given to the new county under the Local Government Act of 1972 was derived from that of the post‐Roman kingdom. At the statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, the county of Cardiganshire was created, and by the Act of Union with England in 1536, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. It was not until 1972 that these were united as a new county and given the name Dyfed. The county had little in the way of contemporary common interest and in 1996 authority reverted to the former three counties and Dyfed as a formal administrative area ceased to exist.

Dyfed, Dyved. A region of south-western Wales much associated with the action of the Mabinogi, the home of Pwyll, and one of the most Irish-influenced areas of the principality. The modern county of Dyfed, created 1974, containing the former shires of Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan, is far more extensive than the ancient kingdom. The Romans called the region Demetia after the P-Celtic people Demetae, who had lived here from pre-Roman times. From late Roman times the area was invaded and settled by the Déisi and by the ‘sons of Liathán’, the Uí Liatháin of what is now east Co. Cork, whose descendants formed the ruling dynasty until at least the 10th century. In Irish stories these invaders are described as the Déisi, from adjacent Co. Waterford, as led by Eochaid (9). The first and third branches of the Mabinogi are set here, both concerning the family of Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed. Pryderi, son of Pwyll, who figures in all four branches, is born in Dyfed. A mysterious realm lies within or beside it, where Pwyll loses his companions while hunting and comes face to face with fearful Arawn, king of the deathly realm of Annwfn. In the third branch Manawydan is given land in Dyfed when suddenly, following a thunderclap, it is left desolate, without creature or habitation. Later it is revealed that this enchantment was caused by Llwyd in revenge for the treatment of Gwawl; Llwyd then restores the land. Pendaran is the ‘chief thunderer of Dyfed’. According to medieval materials collected in The Myvyrrian Archaiology of Wales (1801–7), giving characteristics of the people of different parts of the principality, those from Dyfed are serfs.