Gododdin, kingdom of the

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Gododdin, kingdom of the. A British kingdom of the 6th cent. in south-east Scotland. Ptolemy recorded that the area was occupied in Roman times by the Votadini, whose capital was at Traprain Law, near Haddington. In the 5th cent. they seem to have moved their capital west to Edinburgh and re-emerge as the Gododdin. Aneurin's heroic poem in Welsh tells of a carefully planned raid by the Gododdin on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, and of the battle at Catterick (c.600). The Gododdin were utterly routed: ‘of three hundred, save one man, none returned.’ The Anglo-Saxons continued their advance into Lothian and after they had taken Edinburgh in 638, the kingdom of the Gododdin disappeared.

J. A. Cannon