Gwyr a aeth gatraeth gan wawr
trauodynt eu hed eu hovnawr.
milcant a thrychant a emdaflawr.
gwyarllyt gwynnodynt waewawr.
ef gorsaf yng gwryaf, eggwryawr.
rac gosgord mynydawc mwynvawr.

Men went to Catraeth with the dawn.
Their fears left them,
A hundred thousand and three hundred clashed together.
They stained their spears, splashed with blood,
He was at the forefront, foremost in battle,
Before the retinue of Mynyddog Mwynfawr.

The Gododdin (Y Gododdin) is a gathering of poems forming part of the Llyfr Aneirin, the book of lays attributed to the Welsh bard Aneirin. The written text has been dated to around 1250, when it seems to have been copied by two different hands, producing both Middle and Old Welsh versions. But the poems were composed considerably earlier, probably in the second half of the sixth century.

To set the scene, Gododdin was a region that extended from southern Scotland to north-east England and included a number of Brythonic kingdoms. Y Gododdin refers to the men who had been summoned to Edinburgh by King Mynyddawg Mwynfawr, arriving from various parts of the north, including North Wales, to muster against the Angle tribes occupying Deira (Derwent) in the south. Mynyddawg feasted them royally for a year, as was the custom. In return, they were expected to serve their host’s cause on the battlefield. The Gododdin duly marched to the fortified crossroads of Catraeth (modern Catterick in North Yorkshire) and “charged in the green of the dawn”. They found themselves hopelessly outnumbered: “Only one man in a hundred came back,” Aneirin laments later in the poem.

It is extremely readable, not a long narrative route march but a mosaic of elegies and eulogies to the fallen. Many of the names are unique to this text, but not all: there’s a brief recollection of the courage of Arthur, for instance, which may constitute the first ever literary mention of King Arthur.

Aneirin himself seems to have feasted and fought alongside the warriors and, although he frequently describes their heroism in stock phrases, similar to kennings, their naming is a powerful device. It suggests both personal grief and formal respect. The bard never merely glorifies battle heroics: he recognises the price in physical and mental suffering, and he doesn’t forget the mourning women, either. There are wonderful flashes of vivid and singular imagery among the stock “golden torques” and “prancing horses”, as in LXXII, where the leader’s “cheeks are covered with armour all around” and “for light on the course, shrubs blaze on the spears”.

Gwŷr y Gogledd ~ Men of the North

Gododdin ~ Arderydd @ Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQBcXZ6REqs)

The Battle of Arfderydd/Arderydd was fought, according to the Annales Cambriae, in 573. The opposing armies are variously given in a number of Old Welsh sources, perhaps suggesting a number of allied armies were involved. The main adversaries appear to have been Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio and either the princely brothers, Peredur and Gwrgi, or King Riderch Hael of Strathclyde. Gwenddoleu was defeated and killed. His bard, Myrddin Wyllt, went mad and ran into the forest. He is probably the original of the Arthurian character, Merlin. The Welsh Triads refer to this battle as one of the "Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain", along with the Battle of Camlann and the Battle of the Trees.

The 14th-century chronicler John of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scotorum places the battle on the plain between Liddel and Carwannok. This was identified by W. F. Skene as being at Arthuret, near Longtown, in Cumberland (now Cumbria).

The battle of Arfderydd/Arderydd is mentioned numerous times in a number of medieval Welsh texts, including the Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein) and the Red Book of Hergest (Llyfr Coch Hergest). The Welsh Triads name Gwenddoleu's Warband as one of the "Three Faithful Warbands of the Island of Britain", going on to say that they "continued to battle for a fortnight and a month after their lord was slain." The retinue of Dreon the Brave "at the Dyke of Arfderydd/Arderydd" is named as one of the "Three Noble Retinues", while a listing of the three "Horse-Burdens" of Britain relates that Gwrgi, Peredur, Dunawd the Stout and Cynfelyn Drwsgl were carried by a horse called Corvan, which enabled them to watch the clouds of dust ("battle-fog") coming from Gwenddolau and his (mounted) forces in the battle of Arfderydd/Arderydd.

The Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesin, the first song of the Black Book of Carmarthen (Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin), refers frequently to the battle, and many warriors said to have fought in the conflict are named: Cedfyl, Cadfan, Maelgwn, Erith, Gwrith, Bran, Melgan, Rhys, Cynelyn, Cyndur, the sons of Eliffer, and Dywel fab Erbin. A further poem Apple Trees states that Myrddin wore a golden torque at the battle before fleeing into the Caledonian Forest, while the poem The Dialogue of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir states that Gwyn ap Nudd, a mythological psychopomp, was "at the place where was killed Gwendoleu, the son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs, where the ravens screamed over blood.

Excerpt from: Yr Afallennau ('The Apple Trees').

Nym gogaun guarvy.
Nym goffvy gorterch.
Ac igueith Arywderit oet eur wygorthorch.

No diversions attend me.
Nor fair women visit me.
Though at Arderydd I wore a golden torque.

Arderydd - Arthuret

A warm welcome to visitors!

Gododdin is a one-man 
project based in Argyll, Scotland. 

The very act of acknowledging our ancestors
helps us to find our place in the world,
a sense of belonging within the tribe.
Our past and our future!

© All songs composed by Siôn Mawr (Seán Mór).

Gododdin

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