Gododdin, Y

Gododdin, Y. Welsh title for the long poem (1,480 lines) attributed to Aneirin (late 6th cent.), which contains the only full-length exposition in Welsh literature of the ideals of the heroic age. The single surviving text in the Book of Aneirin (mid-13th cent.) comprises a series of elegies for the heroes who fell at the disastrous Battle of Catraeth (c.600) on the River Swale in Yorkshire. As the Gododdin does not form a continuous narrative it is not classed as an epic, but events of epic proportions lie behind it. Although no corroborating references to the battle exist outside the poem, the name Gododdin denotes a historical people and their territory, part of which was known as Manaw Gododdin, that extended south from the Firth of Forth and included a capital at Din Eidyn (the Rock of Edinburgh?). A Brythonic or P-Celtic people, the Gododdin spoke a language anticipating Welsh, even though they lived in what is today Scotland. At the time of the action in the poem, they were resisting the encroachments of their English neighbours; the site of the battle may have been a waterfall [L Cataracto; W Catraeth] on a river separating the Anglian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, whose forces were not yet allied.

The Gododdin celebrates the heroic values of the early British/Welsh warrior aristocracy and laments their passing. While there is little attempt to describe the battle itself, early passages explain its background and setting. Sensing a threat to his kingdom, Mynyddog Mwynfawr [W, the wealthy] gathered warriors to his capital at Din Eidyn, where they feasted for a year. After this he selected 300 mail-clad horsemen to be in the war party; accompanying foot-soldiers are not described. The text cites many names, but these cannot always be attached to the heroic characters portrayed. Once in battle, the British horsemen killed seven English infantry for each of their own who fell. The enemy numbers were too large and they were too well entrenched; all but two or three of the Gododdin war party were slain. Many stanzas applaud the fighting prowess and bravery of the British horsemen as well as their unyielding pride in the face of defeat. Such a noble end, the text implies, is the means of winning deathless fame.

Bibliography

Editions: Ifor Williams , Canu Aneirin (Cardiff, 1938);
A. O. H. Jarman , Aneirin: Y Gododdin (Llandysul, UK, 1988).
Translations: Joseph P. Clancy , The Earliest Welsh Poetry (New York, 1970);
Desmond O'Grady , The Gododdin (Dublin, 1977);
Anthony Conran , The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse (Harmondsworth, 1967).
Studies: Kenneth H. Jackson , The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem (Edinburgh, 1969);
Ifor Williams , The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry, ed. R. Bromwich (Cardiff, 1972);
A. O. H. Jarman , ‘Aneirin-The Gododdin’, in A Guide to Welsh Literature, i (Swansea, 1976), 68–80.
Thomas Gray (1716–71) adapted his ode The Death of Hoel from the Gododdin.