You inspired me to finally dig it up, and here it is in English on Google Books!
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That link gives me an error 
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Hi Dee, thank you so much for letting me know! I found a different link, tested it and itās working for me. If it doesnāt work for you again, let me knowā¦ it looks like there are a ton of free editions out there because it is such an old book. 
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Yes, that one works! Now if I could just organise a bit of time to read it - it looks very interesting!
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I know, me too! I keep seeing it mentioned over and over when Iām doing historical research parallel to my genetic genealogy projects for some books Iām hoping to write, so Iād better carve out the time eventually. 
I must have had this conversation in mind this morning when I was listening to the radio and just like plenty before me, I had another theory going on in my mind.
There was a story on the radio saying that itās the 50th anniversary of the Royal Mint (where the coins are made) being moved from London to Wales. It was on Radio Cymru and I learned a new word, which was ābathdyā for mint.
The link to this thread, was that there are events in Historia Brittonum and in a much earlier work from the 5th century by Gildas linked to a famous battle called the battle of Mount Badon. People have been debating for years where exactly Mount Badon might have been - anywhere from Bath to Badbury hill near Gloucester and many more places besides.
The siege of Mount Badon, comes from the original Latin of Glidas: āobsessio badonici montisā. As it happens while Montis is mountain - Monetis means āmintā. I was just wondering today, what if badonici comes from the original Celtic name for Mint and there was a transcription error and Montis is actually Monetis, the Latin word for Mint. That would give something like āsiege of the mint-mintā, which may sound odd, but doubling up happens when you look at Welsh and English place names anyway - āriver avonā is a doubling up of two words for river.
If hypothetically the great battle was a siege of the mint, by pillaging anglo saxons, then that would hypothetically point to this being in the main Mint in Roman Britain which was at the most important town Camulodunon or Colchester or even possibly London.
So Iāve just added in another personal theory to go on top of the thousands that have gone before.
I donāt really know enough to make the connection here maybe, but perhaps the badonici part could have been the name of a mint if there was a transcription error?
Thanks for letting me know about Gildas! I am eager to dig into both of these! I found this link:
What Iāve just mentioned is pure conjecture and simply a fantasy idea of the day - if you google it then there are at least one theory for every day of the week.
Returning to the fantasy though - there certainly were celtic mints here before the Romans came (Colchester is a good example) - so would the ancient britons have given places like that celtic names, perhaps with an older form of the current Welsh words ābathdyā or ābathā, which could simply mean ācoin-houseā or ācoinā. Perhaps to the Romans words like that could possibly have been regarded as just a name (as you say) for a place or building and stuck their word for mint on the end.
I see what you mean, and I love fantasy ideas to play with the potential interpretations of names and events to see if new meaning can be found! In the spirit of fantasy, I mentioned I am doing research for some books and they are going to be based around the lives of some of my ancestors - both real and mythical! There are stories in my family from long ago about faeries from Avalon who became like mermaids, one of whom turned herself into a dragon when her husband pissed her off! Hahaha! 
(Two of their names were Pressyne and Melusine, a mother and daughter, and I totally paraphrased their legends but the longer versions are much, much better!) I totally love the possibilities that come with the imagination. 
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Has anyone else come across the old āEnglishā sheep counting systems of various English counties? Yan tan tethera pethera pimp sethera lethera hovera covera dick, yan a dick etc as far as bumfit for 15, then yan a bumfit etc as far as jiggot for 20. The system only goes as far as 20. Anyway, I find the words very interesting now Iāve learned some Welsh numbers.
To me, this helps give the lie to any notion that āthe Englishā are separate to ā the Welshā We are all mixed in together. The DNA donāt lie. In every Irish person there is Welsh ancestry, in every Scot there is English DNA. We all live together on a set of islands called Britain. Thatās the only nationality I believe in. Iām British - I wonāt even let the fact that Iām mainly Irish stand in the way of that!
Curiously, when I had my DNA done I discovered that the only genetically pure races are Polynesians and Melanesians. Everyone else is a mix.
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My Dad and my bother had their DNA ādoneā too. My Dad came back as 98% Irish with a specific concentration around Roscommon and Galway (where his parents came from). However, culturally, my Dad is very much London Irish. He has that mix of South East London and Irish thatās typical of first generation Irish immigrants in the 1950s. Heās culturally different to his cousins and to many others born in the same part of South London. Also, our surname is Hiberno-Norman, that DNA link is pretty much lost now though. All the DNA test proved was that his ancestors didnāt move very far.
My brotherās DNA was more interesting because there was a percentage from the Mediterranean, which seems to confirm what we thought was a family fable about an Italian in our lineage.
Iām not a massive fan of the DNA link to history because it is very blood and soil and a bit irredentist. I hear many people on social media claim that England was stolen off the Welsh. Which is far too simplistic and implies the Saxons and post-Roman communities were far more homogenous than historical evidence seems to convey.
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The thing is that we all share 99% of the same DNA and the differences are markers of our history. It is history that makes us different. History of culture and traditions, legends and languages. These are what define us and bond us, not our DNA and that is why so many people want to erase or rewrite history and try to create cultural amnesia.
The Saxons were feared by the Romano Celts and the Danes were mercenaries paid for protection.
Very little emphasis is ever placed on Danish influence in England and Danelaw was pretty much half of England for a long time - Harold of the arrow in the eye, was half and half saxon and Dane. The Normans were half and half Franks and Danes.
The modern notion of countries like France and Germany are about nation building and redrawing history - so minority languages are not suported. The modern notion of Britain, post the Union with Scotland is the same. Wales and the Welsh language etc are problematic to the modern notion of Britain and if we want to accept this modern notion we have to give up our past and the language, accept an alternative view of history and then assimilate and thatās the problem.
Do you know what company they used for their DNA tests? I havenāt received anything that even close to being specific through Ancestry or MyHeritage, so Iām wondering if I should do another test with a different company to get more information. Thanks
I donāt Iām afraid, sorry
Good heavens - Iād heard āyan tan tetheraā and wondered what it might come from - but the rest of that is just increasingly obviously Welsh/Old Celtic. Wow. @RichardBuck - is this something you know about? 
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It has its own Wikipedia page.
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Yes Anthony, the trouble with using history as a link is that it is subjective. People get it wrong. Itās all in the mind. Nationality is all in the mind. Itās a human construct. Borders are human constructs. The victors write the history books. E.g. My family history had said for generations that I had a Spanish ancestor. All sorts of stories surrounded this Spanish ancestor. Then I had my ancestry done and discovered that the Spanish ancestor was in fact Polynesian. So, all those stories were b*llocks.
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If its any help, I used Ancestry.com and found them pretty good. They seem to organise their data in a rational way. Theyāre not the cheapest. My sister went to a cheap analyst who came back with a different type of result, one I found dubious. Caveat emptor.
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Thanks! So true.
I have done the Ancestry DNA test, and then I downloaded the raw data so I could upload it to MyHeritage and GEDMatch, which are definitely worth it (and itās FREE 
to upload the raw data, look at the results, and compare to the other people using MyHeritage and GEDMatch).
MyHeritage gives me a slightly different breakdown, and they organize the regions slightly differently. Ancestry lumps Wales in with England and Western Europe, but MyHeritage groups it with Ireland and Scotland instead, which seems more sensible maybe, though I am not an expert.
It has been a fascinating journey as I compare the results from my DNA with all the different branches of my family tree I am now discovering, putting names and dates - and sometimes crazy stories from history - to the data from my DNA. I knew nothing past my birth-mother, born in the 1950s, until very recently, so I am completely blown away. The two seem to match up pretty well - as I struggle to fill in the gaps and then compare the genealogy results to my DNA, itās pretty much a perfect fit. I was able to find a ton more Welsh ancestors last night. So cool. Iām surprised I was able to pry myself away from my computer to go to sleep!
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