Y Gododdin
Also known as: The Gododdin, Canu Aneirin (Y Gododdin)
Aneirin’s Y Gododdin is a sequence of heroic elegies mourning warriors of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin who feasted at Eidyn and rode to their defeat at Catraeth, likely against the Angles, preserving one of the earliest Welsh poetic voices.
Description
Y Gododdin consists of tightly wrought englynion praising and lamenting the war-band raised by Mynyddog Mwynfawr of Eidyn. After a year of feasting and gift-giving, the select company rides to Catraeth and is largely annihilated in battle—an ordeal memorialized through recurring names, formulae, and stark images of mead, iron, horses, and banners. The poem blends praise-poetry with elegy, setting exemplary courage and loyalty against the brevity of life and the ruin of war. Its language preserves archaic Brittonic features; a later manuscript witnesses multiple recensions, suggesting layered transmission and editorial shaping.
Historiography
Survives primarily in the Book of Aneirin (13th century), which contains at least two textual strata often labeled A and B recensions, indicating earlier exemplars. Scholars have long debated the historical Catraeth (frequently identified with Catterick) and the precise date of composition, though a 7th-century core is widely posited. Editorial landmarks include work by Ifor Williams and A. O. H. Jarman, who analyzed linguistic archaisms and stanzaic structure. Reception ties the poem to the wider Cynfeirdd corpus and early medieval Brittonic resistance traditions.
Date Notes
Often read as a 7th-century heroic elegy transmitted orally and written down in Old/Middle Welsh layers; preserved in the 13th-century Book of Aneirin with A/B recensions.
Major Characters
- Aneirin
- Mynyddog Mwynfawr
- Gwawrddur
Myths
- The Mustering at Din Eidyn
- The Battle of Catraeth
- The Fall of the Champions
- Aneirin’s Elegies for the Dead
Facts
- Commonly linked to a historical battle at Catraeth, often identified with Catterick in North Yorkshire.
- Preserves early Brittonic/Welsh poetic diction and the englyn tradition.
- Centers on a picked war-band said to have feasted for a year before battle.
- Survives in a 13th-century manuscript but likely derives from a 7th-century core.
- Frequently interpreted as elegiac praise-poetry rather than a continuous narrative.
- Contains a famous comparative allusion to Arthur as a measure of heroism.
- Associated with the kingdom of Gododdin, based around Eidyn (later Edinburgh).
- Textual layers (A/B) suggest scribal redaction and composite transmission.
- Aneirin is the traditional author and speaker, embodying the bardic witness.
- Forms part of the early Welsh Cynfeirdd corpus alongside the Book of Taliesin.