 Bodedern is a village in Anglesey , Wales , about 5 miles ( 8 km ) from the port town of Holyhead . " Aeternus " , known in Welsh as St Edern or sometimes in a variant spelling as " St Ederyn " , is recorded in the Welsh genealogies as the son or grandson of Beli ap Rhun ( a 6th @-@ century king of Gwynedd ) . He appears as " Edern ap Nudd " , one of the knights of King Arthur , in the Mabinogion ( a collection of medieval Welsh prose tales ) . He established a church in the area in the 6th century , perhaps at Pen Eglwys Edern , a site about half a mile away ( 800 m ) from the present building ( eglwys means " church " and pen means " head " or " top " ) . Excavations there in the early 1970s revealed a cemetery from the 5th or 6th century . The village takes its name from the saint ; the Welsh prefix bod means " dwelling of " . The present building stands in a churchyard in the centre of Bodedern , on the north side of Church Street . 
