Y Gododdin

by Aneirin

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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The timeless and compelling 'word-music' of one of Britain's oldest cultural treasures is captured in this new bilingual edition. The Gododdin charts the rise and fall of 363 warriors in the battle of Catraeth, around the year AD 600. The men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin rose to unite the Welsh and the Picts against the Angles, only to meet a devastating fate. Composed by the poet Aneirin, the poem was originally orally transmitted as a sung elegy, passed down for seven centuries before being written down in early Welsh by two medieval scribes. It is composed of one hundred laments to the named characters who fell, and follows a sophisticated alliterative poetics. Former National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke animates this historical epic with a modern musicality, making it live in the language of today and underscoring that, in a world still beset by the misery of war, Aneirin's lamentation is not done.… (more)

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" There was food for the ravens, the raven there did triumph."

I'm sad to admit this is my first gamble into Celtic older reading. I tried to imagine this as a bard song, something sung at a community hall area where everyone is drunk on mead (beer) and telling stories.

And this is quite a story. So many deaths, so many widows. There is so much blood on the ground, you can almost see it all. The poem is well done but I"m sure there are about a 1000 other details I missed since I'm not used to reading like this.

I think the piece that kept me going was just imagining the Raven Boys digging through old poems of war and really digging all the references to wolves and birds of prey - and of course, Ravens. (

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Trisha_Thomas | Nov 14, 2024 |

The version I had (Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, editor) has extensive notes and a modern English translation of all the extant texts. However, the texts are so broken up with notes that I would not recommend this edition to people who just want to read the poem.

aulsmith | Mar 20, 2014 |

Y Gododdin: Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem (Welsh Classics)by A. O. H. Jarman: An excellent edition with Welsh and English on facing pages, this is the one I turn to first of the six versions I have. It includes 116 pages of introduction, a full glossary of Welsh words, and a list of the heroes' names. (

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gwernin | Mar 11, 2008 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Aneirin	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Clarke, Gillian	Translator	main author	some editions	confirmed
Ab Ithel, John Williams	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone	Editor	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Jarman, A. O. H.	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Welsh Classics

Is contained in

Altwalisische Heldendichtung. Kymrisch und Deutsch by Taliesin

Inspired

The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff

Men Went to Cattraeth by John James

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Introductory Reading Lists by University of Cambridge (Medieval Welsh language and literature)

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Canonical title

Y Gododdin

Original title

Y Gododdin

Alternative titles

The Gododdin

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Important events

Battle of Catraeth (c. 600)

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Early Welsh

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (5)

Battle of Catraeth

Etymology of Edinburgh

List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

Manaw Gododdin

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/King Arthur

▾Book descriptions

The timeless and compelling 'word-music' of one of Britain's oldest cultural treasures is captured in this new bilingual edition. The Gododdin charts the rise and fall of 363 warriors in the battle of Catraeth, around the year AD 600. The men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin rose to unite the Welsh and the Picts against the Angles, only to meet a devastating fate. Composed by the poet Aneirin, the poem was originally orally transmitted as a sung elegy, passed down for seven centuries before being written down in early Welsh by two medieval scribes. It is composed of one hundred laments to the named characters who fell, and follows a sophisticated alliterative poetics. Former National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke animates this historical epic with a modern musicality, making it live in the language of today and underscoring that, in a world still beset by the misery of war, Aneirin's lamentation is not done.

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