Page from the Book of Aneirin, showing the first part of the text added by Scribe B
Author(s)
anonymous
Ascribed to
Aneirin
Language
Old Welsh and Middle Welsh
Date
disputed (7th–11th century)
Manuscript(s)
Book of Aneirin (second half of the 13th century)
Genre
heroic and elegiac poetry
Setting
especially Mynyddog's feasts at Din Eidyn and the disastrous battle at Catraeth
Period covered
Hen Ogledd
Personages
include Mynyddog Mwynfawr
Y Gododdin (Welsh:[əːɡɔˈdɔðɪn]) is a medieval Welsh 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 at a place named Catraeth 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 orthography and partly in Old Welsh. The early date would place its oral composition soon after the battle, presumably in the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"); as such it would have originated in the Cumbric dialect of Common Brittonic.[1][2] 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 times as the Votadini, held territories in what is now southeast Scotland and Northumberland, 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 and Gwynedd. After a year of feasting at Din Eidyn, now Edinburgh, they attacked Catraeth, which is usually identified with Catterick, North Yorkshire. 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 in passing, which, if not an interpolation, would be the earliest known reference to that character.
YGododdin (Welsh: [əː ɡɔˈdɔðɪn]) is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies...
6th-century Welsh poem YGododdin, which memorialises the Battle of Catraeth and is attributed to Aneirin. The name Gododdin is the Modern Welsh form...
erroneous. Whoever his father was, Aneirin's mother, Dwywei is mentioned in YGododdin. She may be the same lady who, according to Old Welsh pedigrees, married...
Wales, and as the homeland of the heroic warriors in the literary epic YGododdin. Pressed by the Picts expanding southward and the Northumbrians expanding...
of their successors, the Gododdin kingdom. Eidyn's importance to the Hen Ogledd is reflected in the medieval poem YGododdin, which concerns a war band...
began to take the form of a term for a war leader, prince or ruler. In YGododdin, Aneirin describes his patron, Mynyddog Mwynfawr as "the dragon" when...
historical figure. His name also occurs in early Welsh poetic sources such as YGododdin. The character developed through Welsh mythology, appearing either as...
Aeron and Calchfynydd. Eidyn, Lleuddiniawn, and Manaw Gododdin were evidently parts of Gododdin. The later Angle kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia both had...
important early poem YGododdin, attributed to Aneirin. In his Canu Aneirin Ifor Williams interpreted mynydawc mwynvawr in the text of YGododdin to refer to a...
Gildas and the poetry attributed to Taliesin and Aneirin—in particular yGododdin, thought to have been composed in Scotland in the 6th century—Welsh sources...
founded on the early Welsh language poem YGododdin (attributed to Aneirin), a Brittonic ruler of the kingdom of Gododdin in the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"; a Welsh...
mentioned poets, who is famed as the author of YGododdin, a series of elegies to the men of the kingdom of Gododdin (now Lothian) who died fighting the Angles...
and in later Welsh as Gododdin [ɡoˈdoðin]. One of the oldest known pieces of British literature is a poem called YGododdin, written in Old Welsh, having...
of the Mabinogi. He is also to be found in the 6th century epic poem YGododdin where the word "Hir" is used to describe no less than seven individuals...
century. YGododdin was similarly copied around the same time. The two poems differ in the relative archaic quality of their language, that of YGododdin being...
are prominent in early Welsh mythology, with the Medieval Welsh poem YGododdin repeatedly associating ravens with battles, bravery and death. The poem...
Welsh writings, suggested by way of pun in the YGododdin, and explicitly explained as "Steel Spear" in Y Seint Greal. Groos & Lacy 2002, p. 9. Koch, John...
literature. The earliest tales are based on oral traditions: the British YGododdin and Preiddeu Annwfn, along with the Germanic Beowulf and Nibelungenlied...
the poem relates that the Gododdin were massacred. The Irish annals record that in 638, after the events related in YGododdin, "Etin" was besieged by the...
Caswallon. Reference is made to the "land of Manawyd" in the epic poem YGododdin. In 2001, the Yu-Gi-Oh! video game The Duelists of the Roses included...
evolved into Old Welsh. The surviving poem YGododdin is in early Welsh and refers to the British kingdom of Gododdin with a capital at Din Eidyn (Edinburgh)...
may well be an older attribution of red to the colour of the dragon in YGododdin. The story of Lludd a Llefelys in the Mabinogion wrote that the red dragon...
the Coeling or descendants of Coel Hen, and the Gododdin, who in Gweith Gwen Ystrat, as in YGododdin, are shown assisted by the Pictish troops (see above)...
create one long poem called YGododdin. It records the Battle of Catraeth, fought between the Britons of the kingdom of Gododdin (centred on Eidyn, the modern...
that time. Among the more important written works that have survived are YGododdin and the Mabinogion. From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse...
Prince Aneirin of the Pennines (North West of England), writes the poem, "YGododdin", recording the events of the Battle of Catraeth. The Britons of Strathclyde...
own continuous tradition going back to the sixth century poem known as YGododdin. The phrase "Welsh writing in English" has replaced the earlier "Anglo-Welsh...
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