Thank you to Gretchen McCulloch for fielding this question, and sorry that as a result the world’s foremost internet linguist has been devoured by the brown one. She will be missed.
Arth is the Welsh word for bear.
Which suggests that Welsh people are either just always down to meet a bear, or have somehow broken the bear curse. Either way, impressed.
they know the bears can’t make it to wales without going through england first. an acceptable cost.