The Gododdin

by Aneirin

Other authorsSteve Short (Translator)
Paperback, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

808

Genres

Publication

Llanerch Publishers (1994), 138 pages

Description

The first English translation by a poet of one of Britain's oldest cultural treasures, which captures its compelling 'word-music'.

User reviews

LibraryThing member gwernin
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'
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names.
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LibraryThing member aulsmith
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.

Language

Original language

Welsh

Original publication date

7th-11th Century

Physical description

138 p.; 5.91 x 0.87 inches

ISBN

1897853270 / 9781897853276

Local notes

The Gododdin is a heroic epic poem from the British Dark Ages, written in Old Welsh in Southern Scotland about a battle fought in Northern England, possibly at Catterick in Yorkshire. Unlike most heroic poems, it celebrates a defeat, not a victory, and takes the form of a series of elegies for the fallen. The emotional impact of the poem is heightened by the fact that Aneirin, the poet, was at the battle and knew the dead personally.

This translation seeks to transmit something of this immediacy, and to provide an accessible introduction to an unjustly neglected classic of European literature.
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