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[[Image:Gododdin1.jpg|thumb|220px|right|Pajenn eus dornskrid Levr Aneirin.]]
'''Y Gododdin''' (distagañ /ə gɔ'dɔðɪn/) eo [[barzhoneg]] meur [[Aneirin]], ur [[marvnad]] skrivet e [[kembraeg]] (hengembraeg ha kembraeg krenn) pe e [[Cumbric|kumbrieg]], hag unan eus koshañ skridoù barzhoniezh an Henvrezhoned. Savet eo d'ar vrezelourien vrezhon eus rouantelezh [[Gododdin]] a varvas o stourm ouzh [[Angled]] rouantelezhioù [[Deira]] ha [[Bernicia]] e [[Catraeth]], a vije [[Catterick]] e [[Yorkshire]] hiziv, war-dro ar bloaz 600.
Dizemglev zo avat diwar-benn pegoulz ha pelec'h e voe skrivet ar varzhoneg. Lenneien zo a lavar e voe savet e broioù [[ brezhon]] kreisteiz [[Bro-Skos]], tost war-lerc'h an emgann; re all a soñj gante e voe savet e [[Kembre]], en IXvet pe Xvet kantved. Mard Mar deoeo en IXvet kantved ez eo unan eus ar barzhonegoù koshañ skrivet e [[kembraeg]], hag ar c'hoshañ barzhoneg eus ar vro-hont.
Ar [[Gododdin]], anavezet evel [[Votadini]] en amzer [[proviñs Britannia]], a oa o rouantelezh e gevred Skos, anavezet evel an ''[[Hen Ogledd]]'' e [[Kembre]], pe [[Hanternoz kozh]].
Goude emgannañ e-pad meur a zevezh ne zistroas nemet ur brezelour. E doareoù all eus ar varzhonegez ec'h eas 363 gwaz betek Catraeth ha tri eo a zistroas.
Anavezet eo ar varzhoneg dre un dornskrid eus eil hanterenn an XIIIvet kantved, skrivet un darn anezhañ e krenngembraeg, hag an darn all e hengembraeg. Lavarout a ra lod e vije skrivet e predeneg an hanternoz ma vije eus ar VIvet kantved.
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and its allies
En ur poz eus ''Y Gododdin'' eo meneget ar Roue Arzhur, pezh a vije a bouez bras ma c'halljed prouiñ e oa bet skrivet ar poz e dibenn ar VIvet kantved pe e deroù ar VIIvet: neuze e vije ar c'hoshañ meneg eus Arzhur. .
The poem is similar in ethos to [[Epic poetry|heroic poetry]], with the emphasis on the heroes fighting primarily for glory, but is not a narrative.
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Anavezet eo ar varzhoneg dre un dornskrid eus eil hanterenn an XIIIvet kantved , skrivet un darn anezhañ e krenngembraeg, hag an darn all e hengembraeg. Lavarout a ra lod e vije skrivet e predeneg an hanternoz ma vije eus ar VIvet kantved.
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If it dates from the late 6th century it would originally have been composed in the [[Cumbric language]], related to the [[Old Welsh language]], also called "Archaic Neo-Brittonic". The manuscript contains several stanzas which have no connection with the Gododdin and are considered to be interpolations. -->
En ur poz eus ''Y Gododdin'' eo meneget ar Roue Arzhur, pezh a vije a bouez bras ma c'halljed prouiñ e oa bet skrivet ar poz e dibenn ar VIvet kantved pe e deroù ar VIIvet: neuze e vije ar c'hoshañ meneg eus Arzhur. .
N'eus nemet un dornskrid eus ''Y Gododdin'', [[Levr Aneirin]] an hini eo, eus eil hanterenn an XIIIvet kantved a soñjer. Peurvuiañ e kreder e voeskrivet gant daou zen, anvet A ha B.
88 [[poz]] eus ar varzhoneg a voe skrivet gant an dornskriver A<ref>Rannet eo ar pozioù gant pennlizherennoù bras, met n'eo ket rannet ar gwerzennoù. Peurvuiañ e ra an embannerien evel ma reas [[Ifor Williams]] en e embannadur er bloaz 1938.</ref> ha neuze e laoskas ur bajenn wenn a-raok skrivañ peder barzhoneg anavezet evel ''Gorchanau''.<ref>Klar, O Hehir ha Sweetser a soñje gante e oa un trede dornskriver, a anvont C, a skrivas ar ''Gorchanau''. N'a ket Huws a -du gante , pa gav dezhañ eo labour an dornskriver A. Gwelout Huws, pp. 34, 48</ref>
Gant ar skriver A eo skrivet e doare-skrivañ ar c'hrenngembraeg. Gant ar skriver B ez eus bet ouzhpennet danvez goude, ha war a greder en devoa tro da welout un dornskrid koshoc'h peogwir e skrivas traoù e doare-skrivañ an hengembraeg. Ar skriver B en deus skrivet 35 poz, ha darn zo doareoù all eus pozioù skrivet gant A, met darn n'int letket.
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There are differences within the material added by Scribe B. The first 23 stanzas of the B material shows signs of partial modernisation of the orthography, while the remainder show much more retention of Old Welsh features. Jarman explains this by suggesting that Scribe B started by partially modernising the orthography as he copied the stanzas, but after a while tired of this and copied the remaining stanzas as they were in the older manuscript. Isaac suggested that Scribe B was using two sources, called B1 and B2.<ref>Koch, p. lxvi</ref> If this is correct, the material in the Books of Aneirin is from three sources.
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===Ar varzhoneg===
[[Image:Edinburgh-castle.jpg|thumb|240px|right|[[Kastell Edinburgh]] gwelet eus [[Princes Street]]. War-dro 600 e oa aze kastell [[Mynyddawg Mwynfawr]], ma voe korfatet a-raok an emgann.]]
Ar pozioù a ya d'ober ar varzhoneg <ref>Hervez O Hehir eo ret kompren ''Y Gododdin'' evel un heuliad barzhonegoù distag diwar-benn traoù kenstag. Gwelout O Hehir, p. 66</ref> zo un heuliad klemmganoù d'ar vrezelourien kouezhet en emgann ouzh enebourien niverusoc'h. Darn eus ar gwerzennoù a gan meuleudi d'an arme vrezhon, re all d'an harozed unan hag unan. Kontet eo penaos e reas ar roue [[gododdin]] [[Mynyddog Mwynfawr]] da vodañ brezelourien eus un toullad rouantelezhioù brezhon , penaos e vagas anezho e-pad bloaz o korfata hag o lonkañ [[mez (mel)|mez]], en e gastell e [[Din Eidyn]], a-raok stagañ gant un dro-vrezel a echuas evel un drouziwezh pa voent lazhet hogozik holl.
<!-- fighting against overwhelming odds.<ref>In one stanza it is said that there were 100,000 of the enemy, in another that there were 180 for each one of the warriors of the Gododdin.</ref> The poetry is based on a fixed number of syllables, though there is some irregularity which may be due to modernisation of the language during oral transmission. It uses [[rhyme]], both end-rhyme and internal, and some parts use [[alliteration]]. A number of stanzas may open with the same words, for example "Gwyr a aeth gatraeth gan wawr" ("Men went to Catraeth at dawn").
The collection appears to have been compiled from two different versions: according to some verses there were 300 men of the Gododdin, and only one, Cynon fab Clytno, survived; in others there were 363 warriors and three survivors, in addition to the poet, who as a [[bard]] would have almost certainly not have been counted as one of the warriors. The names of about eighty warriors are given in the poem.<ref>The names are listed in Jarman, pp. xxx-xxxi</ref>
The Book of Aneirin begins with the introduction ''Hwn yw e gododin. aneirin ae cant'' ("This is the Gododdin; Aneirin sang it"). The first stanza appears to be a reciter's prologue, composed after the death of Aneirin: {{quote|Gododdin, gomynaf oth blegyt <br>yg gwyd cant en aryal en emwyt: ... <br>Er pan want maws mur trin,<br>er pan aeth daear ar Aneirin,<br>nu neut ysgaras nat a Gododin.}}
{{quote|Gododdin, I make claim on thy behalf<br>In the presence of the throng boldly in the court: ...<br>Since the gentle one, the wall of battle, was slain,<br>Since the earth covered Aneirin,<br>Poetry is now parted from the Gododdin.<ref>Jarman, p. 2</ref>}}
The second stanza praises an individual hero:
{{quote|In might a man, a youth in years,<br>Of boisterous valour,<br>Swift long-maned steeds<br>Under the thigh of a handsome youth ...<br>Quicker to a field of blood<br>Than to a wedding<br>Quicker to the ravens' feast<br> Than to a burial,<br>A beloved friend was Ywain,<br>It is wrong that he is beneath a cairn.<br>It is a sad wonder to me in what land<br>Marro's only son was slain.<ref>Jarman, p. 2. Jarman emends the ''dan vrein'' ("under the ravens") given in the MS to ''dan vein'' ("under stones" i.e. "beneath a cairn"). This stanza is one of the best-known parts of the poem, but is considered by most authors to be a later addition on the basis of a rhyme which would not be possible in Primitive Welsh. The stanza does not mention "Gododdin" or "Catraeth".</ref>}}
Other stanzas praise the entire host, for example number 13:
{{quote|Men went to Catraeth at morn<br>Their high spirits lessened their life-span<br>They drank mead, gold and sweet, ensnaring;<br>For a year the minstrels were merry.<br>Red their swords, let the blades remain<br>Uncleansed, white shields and four-sided spearheads,<br>Before Mynyddog Mwynfawr's men.<ref>Clancy, p. 36</ref>}}
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[[Mez]] a zo meneget e meur a werzenn , ma c'haller soñjal ez eo kaoz d'o marv. Tud zo o deus bet skrivet en XIXvet kantved ez eas ar Vrezhoned-se d'en em gannañ en mezv. ,<ref>This idea goes back at least to Turner in 1803.</ref>
Met hervez Williams eo ret kompren ''mez'' evel kement tra roet gant an [[aotrou]] d'e wizien. En eskemm ec'hortozed anezho da ''baeañ o mez'' dre vezañ leal d'o aotrou betek ar marv. Kemend-all a gaver er varzhoniezh [[hensaoznek]].<ref>Williams 1938, pp. xlviii-xlvix.</ref> Marc'hegerien eo ar gadourien, hag anv zo a gezeg meur a wech er varzhoneg. Kaoz a glezeier, goafoù ha skoedoù zo ivez, hag eus an harnezioù ivez (''llurug'', eus ar ger [[latin]] ''lorica'').<ref>Williams 1938, pp. lxii-lxiii.</ref> Meura c'hera ziskouez e oant kristenien, pa'z eus kaoz eus [[pinijenn]] hag [[aoter]]
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while the enemy are described as "heathens". Several of these features can be seen in stanza 33:
{{quote|Men went to Catraeth with a war-cry,<br>Speedy steeds and dark armour and shields,<br>Spear-shafts held high and spear-points sharp-edged,<br> And glittering coats-of-mail and swords,<br>He led the way, he thrust through armies,<br>Five companies fell before his blades.<br>Rhufawn His gave gold to the altar,<br>And a rich reward to the minstrel."<ref>Clancy 1970, p. 44.</ref>}}
D. Simon Evans has suggested that most, if not all, of the references which point to Christianity may be later additions.<ref>Evans 1977, p. 44.</ref> Short comments:
{{quote|Many of the values in the Gododdin are explicitly pagan. When, for example, we read that a warrior in pursuit "…was merciless; till his blood dripped…" or hear a man praised for his cruelty, we know that this is a world in which the Christian virtues of compassion and mercy are little valued.<ref>Short, p. 10.</ref>}}
Many personal names are given, but only two are recorded in other sources. One of the warriors was Cynon fab Clytno, whom Williams identifies with the Cynon fab Clydno Eidin who is mentioned in old pedigrees.<ref>Williams, p. 175.</ref> The other personal name recorded in other sources is Arthur. If the mention of Arthur formed part of the original poem this could be the earliest reference to [[King Arthur|Arthur]], as a paragon of bravery.<ref>Jarman in his 1988 edition lists the stanza as a possible interpolation. Koch in his 1997 study considers the stanza as probably archaic, before 638. Within the stanza, the reference to Arthur is proved by the rhyme. See Koch, pp. 147-8.</ref> In stanza 99, the poet praises one of the warriors, Gwawrddur:
{{quote|He fed black ravens on the rampart of a fortress<br> Though he was no Arthur<br>Among the powerful ones in battle<br>In the front rank, Gwawrddur was a palisade<ref>Jarman, p. 64.</ref>}}
Many of the warriors were not from the lands of the Gododdin. Among the places mentioned are ''Aeron'', thought to be the area around the [[River Ayr]] and ''Elfed'', the area around [[Leeds]] still called [[Elmet]]. Others came from further afield, for example one came from "beyond Bannog", a reference to the mountains between [[Stirling]] (thought to have been ''Manaw [[Gododdin]]'' territory) and [[Dumbarton]] (chief fort of the Brythonic [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]]) – this warrior must have come from [[Pictland]]. Others came from [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]] in north Wales.<ref>Jackson 1969, pp. 5-7.</ref>
===Interpolations===
Three of the stanzas included in the manuscript have no connection with the subject matter of the remainder except that they are also associated with southern Scotland or northern England rather than Wales. One of these is a stanza which celebrates the victory of the Britons of the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]] under [[Eugein I of Alt Clut|Eugein I]], here described as "the grandson of Neithon", over [[Domnall Brecc]] ("Dyfnwal Frych" in Welsh), king of [[Dál Riata]], at the Battle of Strathcarron in 642:
{{quote|I saw an array that came from Kintyre<ref>''Pentir'' in the original</ref><br>who brought themselves as a sacrifice to a holocaust.<br>I saw a second [array] who had come down from their settlement,<br>who had been roused by the grandson of Neithon.<br>I saw mighty men who came with dawn.<br>And it was Domnall Brecc's head that the ravens gnawed."<ref>Koch, p. 27.</ref>}}
Another stanza appears to be part of the separate cycle of poems associated with [[Llywarch Hen]]. The third interpolation is a poem entitled "Dinogad's Smock", a cradle-song addressed to a baby named Dinogad, describing how his father goes hunting and fishing.<ref>Jarman, pp. lxi-lxiii.</ref> The interpolations are thought to have been added to the poem after it had been written down, these stanzas first being written down where there was a space in the manuscript, then being incorporated in the poem by a later copier who failed to realise that they did not belong. The Strathcarron stanza, for example, is the first stanza in the B text of the Book of Aneirin, and [[Kenneth H. Jackson|Jackson]] suggested that it had probably been inserted on a blank space at the top of the first page of the original manuscript.<ref>Jackson, p. 48.</ref> According to Koch's reconstruction, this stanza was deliberately added to the text in Strathclyde.
==Analysis and interpretation==
===Date===
The date of ''Y Gododdin'' has been the subject of debate among scholars since the early 19th century.<ref>Turner, pp. iii-iv.</ref> If the poem was composed soon after the battle, it must pre-date 638, when the fall of Din Eidyn was recorded in the reign of [[Oswy]] king of Bernicia, an event which is thought to have meant the collapse of the kingdom of the Gododdin.<ref>Jackson 1969, p. 10.</ref> If it is a later composition, the latest date which could be ascribed to it is determined by the orthography of the second part of Scribe B's text. This is usually considered to be that of the ninth or tenth centuries, although some scholars consider that it could be from the 11th century.<ref> Evans 1982, p. 17.</ref>
Most of the debate about the date of the poem has employed lingustic arguments. Kenneth Jackson concludes that the majority of the changes which transformed [[British language (Celtic)|British]] into [[Old Welsh|Primitive Welsh]] belong to the period from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 6th century.<ref>Jackson 1953, p. 690.</ref> This involved [[Syncope (phonetics)|syncope]] and the loss of final syllables. Sweetser gives the example of the name ''Cynfelyn'' found in the Gododdin; in British this would have been ''Cunobelinos''. The middle unstressed ''o'' and the final unstressed ''os'' have been lost.<ref>Sweetser, p. 140.</ref> [[Ifor Williams]], whose 1938 text laid the foundations for modern scholarly study of the poetry, considered that part of it could be regarded as being of likely late 6th century origin. This would have been orally transmitted for a period before being written down.<ref>Williams 1938, pp. xc-xciii.</ref> Dillon cast doubt on the date of composition, arguing that it is unlikely that by the end of the 6th century Primitive Welsh would have developed into a language "not notably earlier than that of the ninth century". He suggests that the poetry may have been composed in the 9th century on traditional themes and attributed to Aneirin.<ref>Dillon, pp. 267-8.</ref> Jackson however considers that there is "no real substance" in these arguments, and points out that the poetry would have been transmitted orally for a long period before being written down, and would have been modernised by reciters, and that there is in any case nothing in the language used which would rule out a date around 600.<ref>Jackson 1969 pp. 88-91</ref> Koch suggests a rather earlier date, about 570, and also suggests that the poem may have existed in written form by the 7th century, much earlier than usually thought. Koch, reviewing the arguments about the date of the poetry in 1997, states:
{{quote|Today, the possibility of an outright forgery - which would amount to the anachronistic imposition of a modern literary concept onto early Welsh tradition - is no longer in serious contention. Rather, the narrowing spectrum of alternatives ranges from a Gododdin ''corpus'' which is mostly a literary creation of mediaeval Wales based on a fairly slender thread of traditions from the old Brittonic North to a ''corpus'' which is in large part recoverable as a text actually composed in that earlier time and place."<ref>Koch, pp. l-li.</ref>}}
Koch himself believes that a considerable part of the poem can be dated to the 6th century. Greene in 1971 considered that the language of the poem was 9th century rather than 6th century,<ref>Greene, pp. 1-11.</ref> and Isaac, writing in 1999, stated that the linguistic evidence did not necessitate dating the poem as a whole before the 9th or 10th century.<ref>Isaac 1999, pp. 55-78.</ref>
The other approach to dating the poetry has been to look at it from a historical point of view. Charles-Edwards writing in 1978 concluded that:
{{quote|The historical arguments, therefore, suggest that the poem is the authentic work of Aneirin; that we can establish the essential nature of the poem from the two surviving versions; but that we cannot, except in favourable circumstances, establish the wording of the original.<ref>Charles-Edwards, p. 66.</ref>}}
Dumville, commenting on these attempts to establish the historicity of the poem in 1988, said, "The case for authenticity, whatever exactly we mean by that, is not proven; but that does not mean that it cannot be."<ref>Dumville, p. 8.</ref> The fact that the great majority of the warriors mentioned in the poem are not known from other sources has been put forward by several authors as an argument against the idea that the poem could be a later composition. The poems which are known to be later "forgeries" have clearly been written for a purpose, for example to strengthen the claims of a particular dynasty. The men commemorated in ''Y Gododdin'' do not appear in the pedigrees of any Welsh dynasty.<ref>Jarman, p. lxix.</ref> Breeze comments, "it is difficult to see why a later poet should take the trouble to commemorate men who, but for the poem, would be forgotten".<ref>Breeze, p. 14.</ref>
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===Istor===
[[Image:North Britain 547-685.png|thumb|left|240px|Ar Gododdin hag ar rouantelezhioù tro-war-dro]]
An istor kontet er varzhoneg a c'hoarvez er vro a zo hiziv gevred Skos ha biz Saoz hag a oa enni meur a [[rouantelezh vrezhon]] war-dro ar bloavezh 600. .
Ouzhpenn [[Gododdin]] e oa [[Strat Clut]] (e [[Strathclyde]]), [[Rheged]] en un darn eus [[Galloway]], [[Lancashire]] ha [[Cumbria]].Pelloc'h war-zu ar c'hreisteiz e oa [[Elmet]] war-dro [[Leeds]] . Eus ar vro-se e vez graet [[Hen Ogledd]] e kembraeg, an [[Hanternoz Kozh]].
Ar Gododdin, pe [[Votadini]] en amzer ma oa ar Romaned er vro, a oa o bro etre ar [[Firth of Forth]] en hanternoz betek ar stêr [[ Wear]] er c'hreisteiz. Da lavarout eo an darn vrasañ eus [[Clackmannanshire]] ha [[Lothian]] hag ar [[Scottish Borders]] . E ''Din Eidyn'', pe ([[EdinburghDinedin]]), e oa o c'hêrbennhêr-benn.<ref>Jackson, p. 5.</ref> Goude e voe aloubet un darn vras eus o bro gant Angled Bernikia ha Deira, ha dont a reas da vezañ [[Northumbria]]
<!-- By this time the area that later became ... had been invaded and increasingly occupied by the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of [[Deira (kingdom)|Deira]] and [[Bernicia]].<ref>Jackson, pp. 5-9.</ref>
In the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'', attributed to [[Nennius]], there is a reference to several poets in this area during the 6th century. Having mentioned [[Ida of Bernicia]], the founder of the Northumbrian royal line who ruled between 547 and 559, the Historia goes on to say:
{{quote|At that time Talhaearn the Father of the Muse was famous in poetry, and Neirin, Taliesin, Blwchfardd and Cian who is called Gweinthgwawd, at one and the same time were renowned in British poetry."<ref>''Historia Brittonum'', quoted in Williams 1972, p. 43.</ref>}}
Nothing has been preserved of the work of Talhaearn, Blwchfardd and Cian, but poems attributed to [[Taliesin]] were published by Ifor Williams in ''Canu Taliesin'' and were considered by him to be comparable in antiquity to the Gododdin. This poetry praises Urien of Rheged and his son Owain, and refers to Urien as lord of Catraeth.<ref>Williams 1972, p. 49.</ref>
===Interpretation===
''Y Gododdin'' is not a narrative poem but a series of elegies for heroes who died in a battle whose history would have been familiar to the original listeners. The context of the poem has to be worked out from the text itself. There have been various interpretations of the events recorded in the poem. The 19th-century Welsh scholar [[Thomas Stephens (historian)|Thomas Stephens]] identified the ''Gododdin'' with the Votadini and ''Catraeth'' as [[Catterick, North Yorkshire|Catterick]] in North Yorkshire.<ref>Stephens p. 3</ref> He linked the poem to the [[Battle of Degsastan]] in c.603 between king [[Æthelfrith of Northumbria|Æthelfrith of Bernicia]] and the [[Gaels]] under [[Áedán mac Gabráin]], king of [[Dál Riada]]. Gwenogvryn Evans in his 1922 edition and translation of the Book of Aneirin claimed that the poem referred to a battle around the [[Menai Strait]] in 1098, emending the text to fit the theory.<ref>Williams 1972, pp. 58-9.</ref> The generally accepted interpretation for the [[Battle of Catterick]] is that put forward by Ifor Williams in his ''Canu Aneirin'' first published in 1938. Williams interpreted ''mynydawc mwynvawr'' in the text to refer to a person, Mynyddog Mwynfawr in modern Welsh. Mynyddog, in his version, was the king of the Gododdin, with his chief seat at ''Din Eidyn'' (modern [[Edinburgh]]). Around the year 600 Mynyddog gathered about 300 selected warriors, some from as far afield as [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]]. He feasted them at Din Eidyn for a year, then launched an attack on ''Catraeth'', which Williams agrees with Stephens in identifying as Catterick, which was in [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] hands. They were opposed by a larger army from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of [[Deira (kingdom)|Deira]] and [[Bernicia]].<ref>Williams, pp. xxiii-xlviii.</ref>
The battle at Catraeth has been seen as an attempt to resist the advance of the Angles, who had probably by then occupied the former Votadini lands of Bryneich in modern north-eastern England and made it their kingdom of Bernicia. At some time after the battle, the Angles absorbed the Gododdin kingdom, possibly after the fall of their capital ''Din Eidyn'' in 638, and incorporated it into the kingdom of [[Northumbria]].
This interpretation has been accepted by most modern scholars. Jackson accepts the interpretation but suggests that a force of 300 men would be much too small to undertake the task demanded of them. He considers that the 300 mounted warriors would have been accompanied by a larger number of foot soldiers, not considered worthy of mention in the poem.<ref>Jackson, pp. 13-18.</ref> Jarman also follows Williams' interpretation.<ref>Jarman, pp. xxi-xxiv.</ref> Jackson suggested that after the fall of the kingdom of Gododdin, in or about 638, the poem was preserved in Strathclyde, which maintained its independence for several centuries. He considers that it was first written down in Strathclyde after a period of oral transmission, and may have reached Wales in manuscript form between the end of the 8th and the end of the 9th century.<ref>Jackson, pp. 63-7.</ref> There would be particular interest in matters relating to the Gododdin in [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]], since the [[founding myth]] of the kingdom involved the coming of [[Cunedda Wledig]] from Manaw Gododdin.
===Alternative interpretation===
In 1997, John Koch published a new study of ''Y Gododdin'' which involved an attempt to reconstruct the original poetry written in Primitive Welsh, or as Koch prefers to call this language "Archaic Neo-Brittonic". This work also included a new and very different interpretation of the background of the poetry. He draws attention to a poem in ''Canu Taliesin'' entitled ''Gweith Gwen Ystrat'' (The Battle of Gwen Ystrat):
{{quote|The men of Catraeth arise with the day<br>around a battle-victorious, cattle-rich sovereign<br>this is Uryen by name, the most senior leader."<ref>Koch, p. xxvii.</ref>}}
There is also a reference to ''Catraeth'' in the slightly later poem ''Moliant Cadwallon'', a panegyric addressed to [[Cadwallon ap Cadfan]] of Gwynedd, thought to have been composed in about 633.<ref>Woolf has recently suggested that the British king, Caedualla, who led a coalition including Penda of Mercia to overthrow and kill Edwin, king of Deira, was from northern England, rather than Gwynedd. However this would not affect Koch's argument here.</ref> Two lines in this poem are translated by Koch as "fierce Gwallawc wrought the great and renowned mortality at Catraeth". He identifies Gwallawc as the "Guallauc" who was one of the kings who fought against Bernicia in alliance with Urien. Koch draws attention to the mention of ''meibion Godebawc'' (the sons of Godebog) as an enemy in stanza 15 of the Gododdin and points out that according to old Welsh genealogies Urien and other Brittonic kings were descendants of "Coïl Hen Guotepauc".<ref>Koch, pp. xxiii-xxv.</ref> He considers that, in view of the references in the three poems, there is a case for identifying the attack on Catraeth recorded in ''Y Gododdin'' with the Battle of Gwen Ystrat. This would date the poem to about 570 rather than the c. 600 favoured by Williams and others. He interprets the Gododdin as having fought the Brythons of [[Rheged]] and [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Alt Clut]] over a power struggle in [[Elmet]], with Anglian allies on both sides, Rheged being in an alliance with Deira. He points out that according to the ''Historia Britonnum'' it was Rhun, son of [[Urien|Urien Rheged]] who baptized the princess Aenfled of Deira, her father Edwin and 12,000 of his subjects in 626/7.<ref>Koch, p. xxxiii.</ref> Urien Rheged was thus the real victor of the battle. Mynyddog Mwynfawr was not a person's name but a personal description meaning 'mountain feast' or 'mountain chief'.<ref>Wmffre (2002) agrees that ''Mynyddog'' is not a personal name, but suggests that it is a reference to the Christian God. See Wmffre, pp. 83-105.</ref> Some aspects of Koch's view of the historical context have been criticised by both [[Oliver Padel]] and Tim Clarkson. Clarkson, for example, makes the point that the reference in ''Gweith Gwen Ystrat'' is to "the men of Catraeth"; it does not state that the battle was fought at Catraeth, and also that according to Bede it was Paulinus, not Rhun, who baptized the Deirans.<ref>Clarkson. [http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/1/hatf.htm#gododdin "The Gododdin Revisited"]. Retrieved 21 August 2006.</ref>
==Editions and translations==
The first known translation of ''Y Gododdin'' was by Evan Evans ("Ieuan Fardd") who printed ten stanzas with a Latin translation in his book ''Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards'' published in 1764.<ref>Jarman, p. lxxxii.</ref> The full text was printed for the first time by [[Owen Jones (antiquary)|Owen Jones]] in the ''Myvyrian Archaiology'' in 1801. English translations of the poem were published by William Probert in 1820 and by [[John Williams (archdeacon)|John Williams (Ab Ithel)]] in 1852, followed by translations by [[William Forbes Skene]] in his ''Four Ancient Books of Wales'' (1866) and by [[Thomas Stephens (historian)|Thomas Stephens]] for the Cymmrodorion Society in 1888. Gwenogvryn Evans produced a facsimilie copy of the Book of Aneirin in 1908 and an edition with a translation in 1922.
The first reliable edition was ''Canu Aneirin'' by Ifor Williams with notes in Welsh, published in 1938. New translations based on this work were published by Kenneth H. Jackson in 1969 and, with modernized Welsh text and glossary, by A.O.H. Jarman in 1988. A colour facsimile edition of the manuscript with an introduction by Daniel Huws was published by South Glamorgan County Council and the [[National Library of Wales]] in 1989. John Koch's new edition, which aimed to recreate the original text, appeared in 1997.
There have also been a number of translations which aim to present the Gododdin as literature rather than as a subject of scholarly study. Examples are the translation by Joseph P. Clancy in ''The earliest Welsh poetry'' (1970) and Steve Short's 1994 translation.
==Cultural influence==
There are a number of references to ''Y Gododdin'' in later Medieval Welsh poetry. The well-known 12th-century poem ''Hirlas Owain'' by [[Owain Cyfeiliog]], in which Owain praises his own war-band, likens them to the heroes of the Gododdin and uses ''Y Gododdin'' as a model. A slightly later poet, [[Dafydd Benfras]], in a eulogy addressed to [[Llywelyn the Great]], wishes to be inspired "to sing as Aneirin sang / The day he sang the Gododdin". After this period this poetry seems to have been forgotten in Wales for centuries until Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) discovered the manuscript in the late 18th century. From the early 19th century onwards there are many allusions in Welsh poetry.
In English, ''Y Gododdin'' was a major influence on the long poem
[[In_Parenthesis|''In Parenthesis'']] (1937) by [[David Jones (poet)|David Jones]], in which he reflects on the carnage he witnessed in the First World War.<ref>Jarman, p.lxxxvi.</ref> Jones put a quotation from the Gododdin at the beginning of each of the seven sections of ''In Parenthesis''. Another poet writing in English, [[Richard Caddel]], used 'Y Gododdin' as the basis of his difficult but much-admired poem ''For the Fallen'' (1997), written in memory of his son Tom.<ref>http://www.epoetry.org/issues/issue6/text/prose/corless-smith1.htm. Retrieved 8 October 2007.</ref>
The poem has also inspired a number of historical novels, including ''Men Went to Cattraeth'' (1969) by John James and ''The Shining Company'' (1990) by [[Rosemary Sutcliff]].
In 1989 the British [[industrial band]] [[Test Dept]] brought out an album entitled ''Gododdin'', in which the words of the poem were set to music, part in the original and part in English translation. This was a collaboration with the Welsh avant-garde theatre company Brith Gof and was performed in Wales, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Scotland.<ref>[http://www.esophagus.com/htdb/td/history.html Test Dept: a short history]. Retrieved 24 August 2006.</ref>
==Notes==
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==Lennadurezh==
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