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''Y Gododdin'' () is a medieval
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and
Bernicia Bernicia ( ang, Bernice, Bryneich, Beornice; la, Bernicia) was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was ap ...
at a place named ''
Catraeth The Battle of Catraeth was fought around AD 600 between a force raised by the Gododdin, a Brythonic people of the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" of Britain, and the Angles of Bernicia and Deira. It was evidently an assault by the Gododdin party on ...
'' in about AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin and survives only in one manuscript, the '' Book of Aneirin''. The ''Book of Aneirin'' manuscript is from the later 13th century, but ''Y Gododdin'' has been dated to between the 7th and the early 11th centuries. The text is partly written in
Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...
orthography and partly in
Old Welsh Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
. The early date would place its oral composition soon after the battle, presumably in the ''
Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd (), in English the Old North, is the historical region which is now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its population sp ...
'' ("Old North"); as such it would have originated in the
Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the '' Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the south ...
dialect of
Common Brittonic Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany. It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, ...
.Elliott (2005), p. 583. Others consider it the work of a poet from Wales in the 9th, 10th, or 11th century. Even a 9th-century date would make it one of the oldest surviving Welsh works of poetry. The Gododdin, known in
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
times as the
Votadini The Votadini, also known as the ''Uotadini'', ''Wotādīni'', ''Votādīni'', or ''Otadini'' were a Celtic Britons, Brittonic people of the British Iron Age, Iron Age in Great Britain. Their territory was in what is now south-east Scotland and ...
, held territories in what is now southeast Scotland and
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...
, part of the ''Hen Ogledd''. The poem tells how a force of 300 (or 363) picked warriors were assembled, some from as far afield as
Pictland The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...
and
Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...
. After a year of feasting at
Din Eidyn Eidyn was the region around modern Edinburgh in Britain's sub-Roman and early medieval periods, approximately the 5th–7th centuries. It centred on the stronghold of Din Eidyn, thought to have been at Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, now t ...
, now
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, they attacked Catraeth, which is usually identified with Catterick,
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...
. After several days of fighting against overwhelming odds, nearly all the warriors are killed. The poem is similar in ethos to heroic poetry, with the emphasis on the heroes fighting primarily for glory, but is not a narrative. The manuscript contains several stanzas which have no connection with the Gododdin and are considered to be interpolations. One stanza in particular has received attention because it mentions
King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...
in passing, which, if not an interpolation, would be the earliest known reference to that character.


''Book of Aneirin''


Manuscript

Only one early manuscript of ''Y Gododdin'' is known, the '' Book of Aneirin'', thought to date from the second half of the 13th century. The currently accepted view is that this manuscript contains the work of two scribes, usually known as A and B. Scribe A wrote down 88 stanzas of the poem, then left a blank page before writing down four related poems known as ''Gorchanau''. This scribe wrote the material down in
Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...
orthography. Scribe B added material later, and apparently had access to an earlier manuscript since the material added by this scribe is in Old Welsh orthography. Scribe B wrote 35 stanzas, some of which are variants of stanzas also given by Scribe A, while others are not given by A. The last stanza is incomplete and three folios are missing from the end of the manuscript, so some material may have been lost. Differences exist within the material added by Scribe B. The first 23 stanzas of the B material show signs of partial modernisation of the orthography, while the remainder shows much more retention of Old Welsh features. Jarman explains this by suggesting that Scribe B started by partially modernising the orthography as he copied the stanzas, but after a while tired of this and copied the remaining stanzas as they were in the older manuscript. Isaac suggested that Scribe B was using two sources, called B1 and B2. If this is correct, the material in the ''Book of Aneirin'' is from three sources.


Poem

The stanzas that make up the poem are a series of elegies for warriors who fell in battle against vastly superior numbers. Some of the verses refer to the entire host, and others eulogize individual heroes. They tell how the ruler of the Gododdin, Mynyddog Mwynfawr, gathered warriors from several Brittonic kingdoms and provided them with a year's feasting and drinking
mead Mead () is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. The defining characte ...
in his halls at Din Eidyn, before launching a campaign in which almost all of them were killed fighting against overwhelming odds. The poetry is based on a fixed number of syllables, though some irregularity occurs, which may be due to modernisation of the language during oral transmission. It uses
rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
, both end-rhyme and internal, and some parts use
alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
. A number of stanzas may open with the same words, for example "''Gwyr a aeth gatraeth gan wawr''" ("Men went to Catraeth at dawn"). The collection appears to have been compiled from two different versions: according to some verses, there were 300 men of the Gododdin, and only one,
Cynon ap Clydno Cynon ap Clydno or in some translations KynonIn her translation of ''The Mabinogion'', Guest uses the spelling Kynon, but in the notes to her translation she acknowledges the character as Cynon ap Clydno or Cynan was an Arthurian hero from Welsh m ...
, survived; others have 363 warriors and three survivors, in addition to the poet, who as a
bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise ...
, almost certainly would not have been counted as one of the warriors. The names of about 80 warriors are given in the poem. The ''Book of Aneirin'' begins with the introduction "" ('This is the Gododdin; Aneirin sang it'). A stanza, a version of which is found in both texts, but which forms the beginning of the B text, appears to be a reciter's prologue:Jarman (1998), p. 2. Text A begins with an awdl in praise of an individual hero: Other stanzas praise the entire host, for example number 13:
Mead Mead () is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. The defining characte ...
is mentioned in many stanzas, sometimes with the suggestion that it is linked to their deaths. This led some 19th-century editors to assume that the warriors went into battle drunk, however Williams explained that "mead" here stood for everything the warriors received from their lord. In return, they were expected to "pay their mead" by being loyal to their lord unto death. A similar concept is found in Anglo-Saxon poetry. The heroes commemorated in the poem are mounted warriors; there are many references to horses in the poem. There are references to spears, swords and shields, and to the use of armour (''llurug'', from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''lorica''). There are several references which indicate that they were Christians, for example "penance" and "altar", while the enemy are described as "heathens". Several of these features can be seen in stanza 33: However, D. Simon Evans has suggested that most, if not all, of the references which point to Christianity may be later additions. Many personal names are given, but only two are recorded in other sources. One of the warriors was Cynon ap Clydno, whom Williams identifies with the Cynon ap Clydno Eiddin who is mentioned in old pedigrees. The other personal name recorded in other sources is Arthur. If the mention of Arthur formed part of the original poem this could be the earliest reference to Arthur, as a paragon of bravery. In stanza 99, the poet praises one of the warriors, Gwawrddur: Many of the warriors were not from the lands of the Gododdin. Among the places mentioned are Aeron, thought to be the area around the
River Ayr The River Ayr (pronounced like ''air'', ''Uisge Àir'' in Gaelic) is a river in Ayrshire, Scotland. At it is the longest river in the county. The river was held as sacred by pre-Christian cultures. The remains of several prehistoric sacrificia ...
and ''Elfed'', the area around
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
still called
Elmet Elmet ( cy, Elfed), sometimes Elmed or Elmete, was an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century, in what later became the smaller area of the West Riding of Yorkshire then West Yorkshire, South Yorks ...
. Others came from further afield, for example one came from "beyond Bannog", a reference to the mountains between
Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
(thought to have been '' Manaw Gododdin'' territory) and
Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...
(chief fort of the Brittonic
Kingdom of Strathclyde Strathclyde (lit. " Strath of the River Clyde", and Strað-Clota in Old English), was a Brittonic successor state of the Roman Empire and one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, located in the region the Welsh tribes referred to as ...
) – this warrior must have come from
Pictland The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...
. Others came from
Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...
in north Wales.


Interpolations

Three of the stanzas included in the manuscript have no connection with the subject matter of the remainder except that they are also associated with southern Scotland or northern England rather than Wales. One of these is a stanza which celebrates the victory of the Britons of the
Kingdom of Strathclyde Strathclyde (lit. " Strath of the River Clyde", and Strað-Clota in Old English), was a Brittonic successor state of the Roman Empire and one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, located in the region the Welsh tribes referred to as ...
under Eugein I, here described as "the grandson of Neithon", over
Domnall Brecc Domnall Brecc (Welsh: ''Dyfnwal Frych''; English: ''Donald the Freckled'') (died 642 in Strathcarron) was king of Dál Riata, in modern Scotland, from about 629 until 642. He was the son of Eochaid Buide. He was counted as Donald II of Scotland ...
("Dyfnwal Frych" in Welsh), king of
Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is n ...
, at the Battle of Strathcarron in 642: Another stanza appears to be part of the separate cycle of poems associated with
Llywarch Hen Llywarch Hen (, "Llywarch the Old"; c. 534 – c. 608), was a prince and poet of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain (modern southern Scotland and northern England). Along with Taliesin, A ...
. The third interpolation is a poem entitled " Dinogad's Smock", a cradle-song addressed to a baby named Dinogad, describing how his father goes hunting and fishing. The interpolations are thought to have been added to the poem after it had been written down, these stanzas first being written down where there was a space in the manuscript, then being incorporated in the poem by a later copier who failed to realise that they did not belong. The Strathcarron stanza, for example, is the first stanza in the B text of the ''Book of Aneirin'', and Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that it had probably been inserted on a blank space at the top of the first page of the original manuscript. According to
John T. Koch John T. Koch is an American academic, historian and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory and the early Middle Ages. He is the editor of the five-volume ''Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2006, ABC Clio). He ...
's reconstruction, this stanza was deliberately added to the text in Strathclyde.


Analysis and interpretation


Date

The date of ''Y Gododdin'' has been the subject of debate among scholars since the early 19th century. If the poem was composed soon after the battle, it must predate 638, when the fall of Din Eidyn was recorded in the reign of
Oswy Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig ( ang, Ōswīg; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the chur ...
king of Bernicia, an event which is thought to have meant the collapse of the kingdom of the Gododdin. If it is a later composition, the latest date which could be ascribed to it is determined by the orthography of the second part of Scribe B's text. This is usually considered to be that of the 9th or 10th centuries, although some scholars consider that it could be from the 11th century. Most of the debate about the date of the poem has employed linguistic arguments, mostly concerning rhyme (since more is known about early Welsh phonology than other aspects of the language, like syntax). It is believed that around the time of the battle, the British language was transitioning into its daughter languages: the primitive form of
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, of Cornish and Breton in southwestern Britain and
Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, and
Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the '' Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the south ...
in northern Britain. Kenneth H. Jackson concluded that the majority of the changes that transformed British into Primitive Welsh belong to the period from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 6th century. This involved syncope and the loss of final syllables. If the poem dates to this time, it would have originated in an early form of
Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the '' Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the south ...
, the usual name for the Brittonic speech of the Hen Ogledd. Jackson suggested the name "Primitive Cumbric" for the dialect spoken at the time. Sweetser gives the example of the name ''Cynfelyn'' found in ''Y Gododdin''; in British this would have been ''Cunobelinos''. The middle unstressed ''o'' and the final unstressed ''os'' have been lost. Ifor Williams, whose 1938 text laid the foundations for modern scholarly study of the poetry, considered that part of it could be regarded as being of likely late 6th-century origin. This would have been orally transmitted for a period before being written down. Dillon cast doubt on the date of composition, arguing that it is unlikely that by the end of the 6th century Primitive Welsh would have developed into a language "not notably earlier than that of the ninth century". He suggests that the poetry may have been composed in the 9th century on traditional themes and attributed to Aneirin. Jackson however considers that there is "no real substance" in these arguments, and points out that the poetry would have been transmitted orally for a long period before being written down, and would have been modernised by reciters, and that there is in any case nothing in the language used which would rule out a date around 600. Koch suggests a rather earlier date, about 570, and also suggests that the poem may have existed in written form by the 7th century, much earlier than usually thought. Koch, reviewing the arguments about the date of the poetry in 1997, states: Koch himself believes that a considerable part of the poem can be dated to the 6th century. Greene in 1971 considered that the language of the poem was 9th-century rather than 6th-century, and Isaac, writing in 1999, stated that the linguistic evidence did not necessitate dating the poem as a whole before the 9th or 10th century. The other approach to dating the poetry has been to look at it from a historical point of view. Charles-Edwards writing in 1978 concluded that: Dumville, commenting on these attempts to establish the historicity of the poem in 1988, said, "The case for authenticity, whatever exactly we mean by that, is not proven; but that does not mean that it cannot be." Likewise, Patrick Sims-Williams concluded in 2016 that, 'evaluating the supposed proofs that poems in the Books of Aneirin and Taliesin cannot go back to the sixth century, we have found them either to be incorrect or to apply to only a very few lines or stanzas that may be explained as additions. It seems impossible to prove, however, that any poem must go back to the sixth century linguistically and cannot be a century or more later'. The fact that the great majority of the warriors mentioned in the poem are not known from other sources has been put forward by several authors as an argument against the idea that the poem could be a later composition. The poems which are known to be later "forgeries" have clearly been written for a purpose, for example to strengthen the claims of a particular dynasty. The men commemorated in ''Y Gododdin'' do not appear in the pedigrees of any Welsh dynasty. Breeze comments, "it is difficult to see why a later poet should take the trouble to commemorate men who, but for the poem, would be forgotten".


Background

The poem is set in the area which is now southern Scotland and north-east England. Around the year 600 this area included a number of Brittonic kingdoms. Apart from the Gododdin, the kingdom of Alt Clut occupied the Strathclyde area and
Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and b ...
covered parts of
Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or ...
,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...
and
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...
. Further south lay the kingdom of
Elmet Elmet ( cy, Elfed), sometimes Elmed or Elmete, was an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century, in what later became the smaller area of the West Riding of Yorkshire then West Yorkshire, South Yorks ...
in the
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
area. These areas made up what was later known in Welsh as ''Yr Hen Ogledd'' (The Old North). The Gododdin, known as the
Votadini The Votadini, also known as the ''Uotadini'', ''Wotādīni'', ''Votādīni'', or ''Otadini'' were a Celtic Britons, Brittonic people of the British Iron Age, Iron Age in Great Britain. Their territory was in what is now south-east Scotland and ...
in the Romano-British period, occupied a territory from the area around the head of the
Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...
as far south as the
River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through ...
. In modern terms their lands included much of
Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; sco, Clackmannanshire; gd, Siorrachd Chlach Mhannainn) is a historic county, council area, registration county and Lieutenancy area in Scotland, bordering the council areas of Stirling, Fife, and Perth & Kinross and the ...
and the
Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scott ...
and
Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
regions. Their capital at this period may have been called ''Din Eidyn'', now known as
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
. By this time the area that later became
Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
had been invaded and increasingly occupied by the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and
Bernicia Bernicia ( ang, Bernice, Bryneich, Beornice; la, Bernicia) was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was ap ...
. In the ''
Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...
'', attributed to
Nennius Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the '' Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considere ...
, there is a reference to several poets in this area during the 6th century. Having mentioned Ida of Bernicia, the founder of the Northumbrian royal line who ruled between 547 and 559, the Historia goes on to say: Nothing has been preserved of the work of Talhaearn, Blwchfardd and Cian, but poems attributed to
Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the court ...
were published by Ifor Williams in ''Canu Taliesin'' and were considered by him to be comparable in antiquity to the Gododdin. This poetry praises Urien of Rheged and his son Owain, and refers to Urien as lord of Catraeth.


Interpretation

''Y Gododdin'' is not a narrative poem but rather a series of elegies for heroes who died in a battle whose history would have been familiar to the original listeners. The context of the poem has to be worked out from the text itself. There have been various interpretations of the events recorded in the poem. The 19th-century Welsh scholar Thomas Stephens identified ''Y Gododdin'' with the Votadini and ''Catraeth'' as Catterick in North Yorkshire. He linked the poem to the Battle of Degsastan in c. 603 between King Æthelfrith of Bernicia and the
Gaels The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langua ...
under
Áedán mac Gabráin Áedán mac Gabráin (pronounced in Old Irish; ga, Aodhán mac Gabhráin, lang), also written as Aedan, was a king of Dál Riata from 574 until c. 609 AD. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and pa ...
, king of Dál Riada. Gwenogvryn Evans in his 1922 edition and translation of the ''Book of Aneirin'' claimed that the poem referred to a battle around the
Menai Strait The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...
in 1098, emending the text to fit the theory. The generally accepted interpretation for the Battle of Catraeth is that put forward by Ifor Williams in his ''Canu Aneirin'' first published in 1938. Williams interpreted ''mynydawc mwynvawr'' in the text to refer to a person, Mynyddog Mwynfawr in modern Welsh. Mynyddog, in his version, was the king of the Gododdin, with his chief seat at Din Eidyn (modern
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
). Around the year 600 Mynyddog gathered about 300 selected warriors, some from as far afield as
Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...
. He feasted them at Din Eidyn for a year, then launched an attack on ''Catraeth'', which Williams agrees with Stephens in identifying as Catterick, which was in
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
hands. They were opposed by a larger army from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and
Bernicia Bernicia ( ang, Bernice, Bryneich, Beornice; la, Bernicia) was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was ap ...
. The battle at Catraeth has been seen as an attempt to resist the advance of the Angles, who had probably by then occupied the former Votadini lands of Bryneich in modern north-eastern England and made it their kingdom of Bernicia. At some time after the battle, the Angles absorbed the Gododdin kingdom, possibly after the fall of their capital Din Eidyn in 638, and incorporated it into the kingdom of
Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
. This interpretation has been accepted by most modern scholars. Jackson accepts the interpretation but suggests that a force of 300 men would be much too small to undertake the task demanded of them. He considers that the 300 mounted warriors would have been accompanied by a larger number of foot soldiers, not considered worthy of mention in the poem. Jarman also follows Williams' interpretation. Jackson suggested that after the fall of the kingdom of Gododdin, in or about 638, the poem was preserved in Strathclyde, which maintained its independence for several centuries. He considers that it was first written down in Strathclyde after a period of oral transmission, and may have reached Wales in manuscript form between the end of the 8th and the end of the 9th century. There would be particular interest in matters relating to the Gododdin in
Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...
, since the
founding myth An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...
of the kingdom involved the coming of
Cunedda Wledig Cunedda ap Edern, also called Cunedda ''Wledig'' ( 5th century), was an important early Welsh leader, and the progenitor of the Royal dynasty of Gwynedd, one of the very oldest of western Europe. Name The name ''Cunedda'' (spelled ''Cunedag ...
from Manaw Gododdin.


Alternative interpretation

In 1997, John T. Koch published a new study of ''Y Gododdin'' which involved an attempt to reconstruct the original poetry written in what Koch terms "Archaic Neo- Brittonic". This work also included a new and very different interpretation of the background of the poetry. He draws attention to a poem in ''Canu Taliesin'' entitled '' Gweith Gwen Ystrat'' ('Battle of Gwen Ystrat'): There is also a reference to ''Catraeth'' in the slightly later poem ''Moliant Cadwallon'', a
panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of gr ...
addressed to Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, thought to have been composed in about 633. Two lines in this poem are translated by Koch as "fierce Gwallawc wrought the great and renowned mortality at Catraeth". He identifies Gwallawc as the "Guallauc" who was one of the kings who fought against Bernicia in alliance with Urien. Koch draws attention to the mention of ''meibion Godebawc'' (the sons of Godebog) as an enemy in stanza 15 of ''Y Gododdin'' and points out that according to old Welsh genealogies Urien and other Brittonic kings were descendants of "Coïl Hen Guotepauc" ( Coel Hen). He considers that, in view of the references in the three poems, there is a case for identifying the attack on Catraeth recorded in ''Y Gododdin'' with the Battle of Gwen Ystrat. This would date the poem to about 570 rather than the c. 600 favoured by Williams and others. He interprets the Gododdin as having fought the Britons of
Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and b ...
and Alt Clut over a power struggle in
Elmet Elmet ( cy, Elfed), sometimes Elmed or Elmete, was an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century, in what later became the smaller area of the West Riding of Yorkshire then West Yorkshire, South Yorks ...
, with Anglian allies on both sides, Rheged being in an alliance with Deira. He points out that according to the ''Historia Britonnum'' it was Rhun, son of
Urien Rheged Urien (; ), often referred to as Urien Rheged or Uriens, was a late 6th-century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd (today's northern England and southern Scotland) of the House of Rheged. His power and his victories, ...
who baptized the princess Eanflæd of Deira, her father Edwin, and 12,000 of his subjects in 626 or 627. Urien Rheged was thus the real victor of the battle. ''Mynyddog Mwynfawr'' was not a person's name but a personal description meaning 'mountain feast' or 'mountain chief'. Some aspects of Koch's view of the historical context have been criticised by both Oliver Padel and Tim Clarkson. Clarkson, for example, makes the point that the reference in ''Gweith Gwen Ystrat'' is to "the men of Catraeth"; it does not state that the battle was fought at Catraeth, and also that according to Bede it was Paulinus, not Rhun, who baptized the Deirans.


Editions and translations

The first known translation of ''Y Gododdin'' was by Evan Evans ("Ieuan Fardd") who printed ten stanzas with a Latin translation in his book ''Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards'' in 1764. The full text was printed for the first time by
Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for '' The Guardian'' and contributes to the '' New Statesman'' and '' Tribune.'' He has ...
in the in 1801. English translations of the poem were published by William Probert in 1820 and by John Williams (Ab Ithel) in 1852, followed by translations by William Forbes Skene in his ''Four Ancient Books of Wales'' (1866), and by Thomas Stephens for the Cymmrodorion Society in 1888. Gwenogvryn Evans produced a facsimile copy of the ''Book of Aneirin'' in 1908 and an edition with a translation in 1922. The first reliable edition was ''Canu Aneirin'' by Ifor Williams with notes in Welsh, published in 1938. New translations based on this work were published by Kenneth H. Jackson in 1969 and, with modernized Welsh text and glossary, by Jarman in 1988. A colour facsimile edition of the manuscript with an introduction by Daniel Huws was published by South Glamorgan County Council and the
National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million ...
in 1989. John T. Koch's new edition, which aimed to recreate the original text, appeared in 1997. There have also been a number of translations which aim to present the Gododdin as literature rather than as a subject of scholarly study. Examples are the translation by Joseph P. Clancy in ''The earliest Welsh poetry'' (1970) and Steve Short's 1994 translation.


Cultural influence

There are a number of references to ''Y Gododdin'' in later Medieval Welsh poetry. The well-known 12th-century poem ''Hirlas Owain'' by Owain Cyfeiliog, in which Owain praises his own war-band, likens them to the heroes of the Gododdin and uses ''Y Gododdin'' as a model. A slightly later poet,
Dafydd Benfras Dafydd Benfras () was a court poet in the Welsh language, regarded by Saunders Lewis and others as one of the greatest of the Poets of the Princes (''Beirdd y Tywysogion''). Dafydd Benfras was a poet of the court of the kingdom of Gwynedd and mos ...
, in a eulogy addressed to
Llywelyn the Great Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and ...
, wishes to be inspired "to sing as Aneirin sang / The day he sang the Gododdin". After this period this poetry seems to have been forgotten in Wales for centuries until Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) discovered the manuscript in the late 18th century. From the early 19th century onwards there are many allusions in Welsh poetry. In English, ''Y Gododdin'' was a major influence on the long poem '' In Parenthesis'' (1937) by David Jones, in which he reflects on the carnage he witnessed in the First World War. Jones put a quotation from ''Y Gododdin'' at the beginning of each of the seven sections of ''In Parenthesis''. Another poet writing in English, Richard Caddel, used ''Y Gododdin'' as the basis of his difficult but much-admired poem ''For the Fallen'' (1997), written in memory of his son Tom. Tony Conran's poem ''Elegy for the Welsh Dead, in the Falklands Islands, 1982'' opens with the line "Men went to Catraeth", using the original poem to comment on a contemporary conflict. The theme and rhythm of ''Y Gododdin'' are also the undercurrent for Owen Sheers's Pink Mist (2012), an epic elegy to dead and wounded soldiers who served in Afghanistan; the poem, which drew on 30 interviews with returned servicemen, was originally commissioned for radio and then produced by the Old Vic theatre company as a stage play. The poem has also inspired a number of historical novels, including ''Men Went to Cattraeth'' (1969) by John James, ''The Shining Company'' (1990) by
Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...
, and ''The Amber Treasure'' (2009) by Richard J Denning. In 1989, the British
industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initial ...
band
Test Dept. Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" material ...
brought out an album titled ''Gododdin'', in which the words of the poem were set to music, part in the original and part in English translation. This was a collaboration with the Welsh avant-garde theatre company Brith Gof and was performed in Wales, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Scotland."Test Dept: A Short History", ''Esophagus''
Retrieved 24 August 2006.


Notes


References


Works cited

* Berggren, J. Lennartl Jones, Alexander. ''Ptolemy's ''Geography:'' An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters''. Princeton University Press. * Breeze, Andrew. 1997. ''Medieval Welsh Literature''. Four Courts Press. * Charles-Edwards, Thomas. 1978. "The Authenticity of the ''Gododdin'': A Historian's View", in Bromwich, Rachel, and Jones, R. Brinley (eds.) ''Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd: Cyflwynedig i Syr Idris Foster''. Cardiff: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. pp. 44–71 * Clancy, Joseph P. 1970. ''The Earliest Welsh Poetry''. Macmillan. * Clarkson, Tim. 1999

in ''The Heroic Age'' 1. Retrieved August 21, 2006. * Davies, Wendy. 2005. "The Celtic Kingdoms". In Fouracre, Paul, and McKitterick, Rosamond (eds.), ''The New Cambridge Medieval History: C. 500 – c. 700''. Cambridge University Press. * Dillon, Myles; Chadwick, Nora K. 1973. ''The Celtic Realms'' Cardinal. * Dumville, D. 1988. "Early Welsh poetry: Problems of historicity" in Roberts, Brynley F. (ed.), ''Early Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin''. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. * Elliott, Elizabeth. 2005. "Scottish Writing". In Fouracre, Paul, and McKitterick, Rosamond (eds.), ''The New Cambridge Medieval History: C. 500 – c. 700''. Cambridge University Press. * Evans, D. Simon. 1977. "Aneirin – bardd Cristionogol?" in ''Ysgrifau Beirniadol'' 10. Gwasg Gee. pp. 35–44 * Evans, D. Simon. 1978. "Iaith y ''Gododdin''" in Bromwich, Rachel, and Jones, R. Brinley (eds.), ''Astudiaethau ar yr hengerdd: Cyflwynedig i Syr Idris Foster''. Cardiff: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. pp. 72–88 * Evans, D. Simon. 1982. ''Llafar a Llyfr yn yr Hen Gyfnod: Darlith Goffa G. J. Williams'' Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. * Evans, Stephen S. 1997. ''The Heroic Poetry of Dark-age Britain: An Introduction to its Dating, Composition, and Use as a Historical Source''. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. * Greene, David. 1971. "Linguistic considerations in the dating of early Welsh verse". ''Studia Celtica'' VI, pp. 1–11 * Huws, Daniel (ed.). 1989. ''Llyfr Aneurin: A facsimile''. South Glamorgan County Council / The National Library of Wales. * Isaac, G. R. 1999. "Readings in the history and transmission of the ''Gododdin''". ''Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies'' 37 pp. 55–78 * Jackson, Kenneth H. 1953. ''Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages, First to Twelfth Centuries A.D.'' Edinburgh University Press. * Jackson, Kenneth H. 1969. ''The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem''. Edinburgh University Press. * Jarman, A. O. H. (ed.). 1988. ''Y Gododdin: Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem''. "The Welsh Classics" series, vol. 3. Gomer. * Koch, John T. 1997. ''The Gododdin of Aneurin: Text and Context from Dark-age North Britain''. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. * O'Hehir, Brendan. 1988. "What is the ''Gododdin''?" in Roberts, Brynley F. (ed.), ''Early Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin''. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. * Padel, Oliver. 1998. "A New Study of the Gododdin" in ''Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies'' 35. * Short, Steve (transl.). 1994. ''Aneirin: The Gododdin''. Llanerch Publishers. * Stephens, Thomas. 1876. ''The Literature of the Kymry: Being a Critical Essay on the History of the Language and Literature of Wales'', 2nd ed. Longmans, Green and Co. * Sweetser, Eve. 1988. "Line-structure and ''rhan''-structure: the metrical units of the ''Gododdin'' corpus", in Roberts, Brynley F. (ed) ''Early Welsh poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin''. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. pp. 139–154 * Turner, Sharon. 1803. ''A Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems of Aneurin, Taliesyn, Llywarch Hen and Merddin, with Specimens of the Poems''. E. Williams. * Williams, Ifor. 1938. ''Canu Aneirin: Gyda rhagymadrodd a nodiadau''. Aberystwyth: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. * Williams, Ifor. 1944. ''Lectures on Early Welsh Poetry''. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1944. * Williams, Ifor; Bromwich, Rachel (ed.). 1980. ''The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: Studies'', 2nd ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. * Wmffre, Iwan. 2002. "Mynydawc – Ruler of Edinburgh?", ''Studi Celtici'' 1 pp. 83–105


External links


Colour facsimile of the ''Book of Aneirin'' from "Gathering the Jewels
in Welsh and English translation by John Williams

original text and English translation by Skene
''Hwn yw e Gododin. Aneirin ae Cant''
a diplomatic transcription of the poem by Karel Jongeling {{good article Medieval Welsh literature Welsh-language poems Arthurian literature in Welsh Hen Ogledd