Y Gododdin. Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem

Early Welsh poem Y Gododdin, recounting the slaughter of Brittonic warriors by the invading English in the Scottish borders in 600 AD, is the earliest literary work in a native language of the British Isles, and of huge cultural importance. With English translation, Introduction, Notes and Glossary.

The Brittonic kingdom of the Gododdin lay in the south-east of modern-day Scotland and the north-east of modern-day England. Around 600 AD, a 300-strong band of crack warriors set out from the region to attack the invading English, meeting in battle at Catraeth (Catterick). Though the men of the Gododdin were reputed to have slain seven times their number of the enemy, they were overwhelmed by superior numbers and perished without a survivor. Y Gododdin is a poem composed as if by a witness of these catastrophic events, in a form of Early Welsh, the spoken language of that part of northern Britain in the sixth century. As the earliest known major work of literature in a native language of the British Isles, and likely to predate Beowulf, it is of huge cultural importance. It survives for us in a thirteenth-century written source known as the Book of Aneirin. The poem is both an elegy for the fallen warriors and a eulogy to their fidelity to both their chieftain and the ideal of heroic conduct in battle. Although it records an event which ended in total disaster, Y Gododdin exalts the concept of the warrior who welcomes a death in battle which leads to enduring fame and honour. It does so memorably, using the Welsh language of the early period in its pristine vigour. By presenting the text for the first time in modern orthography, with the stanzas translated line by line, and providing a superbly informative Introduction, Bibliography, Notes and Glossary, Professor Jarman made the earliest existing Welsh literary masterpiece accessible even to the casual reader. Now in paperback after many years out of print.