Caernarvon
A city and bay in Gwynedd, North Wales.
While the Arthurian legends are spread throughout various regions and stories, Caernarfon and its surrounding areas in Wales are particularly significant in this regard.
Arthur’s Birthplace
According to some versions of the Arthurian legend, Caernarfon is associated with Arthur’s birthplace. While Tintagel in Cornwall is more commonly known as Arthur’s birthplace, there is a variation of the legend that suggests Arthur was actually born in Caernarfon Castle.
Ffynnon Cegin Arthur
There is a well known as Ffynnon Cegin Arthur (“Arthur’s Kitchen Well”), near Caernarfon.
Notes
Caer is a Welsh name for a wall or mound for defence – a city or castle wall, a fortress.
The root to this word might be cau, to shut up, to close, to fence, to enclose with a hedge. Cue means a field enclosed with hedges. When the Britons began to build cities they built a fortified wall to surround them, which were called caer.
The name Chester is a Saxonized form of the Latin castruni, a fort (and one of the few words recognised as directly inherited from the Roman invaders), is a common prefix and suffix in English place-names, such as: Colchester, Manchester, Chesterford, Chesterton. In the Danish and Anglian districts “Chester” is replaced with “caster”, such as: Doncaster and Lancaster, but both forms are allied to casirum, a Latinization of the Celtic caer.