ty, and are
drawn chiefly from his allusion to himself in his poem. He was the son
of Cwm Cawlwyd, a chief of the tribe of Gododin. He seems to have been
educated at St. Cadoc's College at Llancarvan, and afterwards entered
the bardic order. As appears from the 'Gododin,' he was present at the
battle of Cattraeth both as bard and as priest. He fled, but was taken
prisoner. In his poem he refers to the hardships he endured in his
captivity. After his release he returned to Llancarvan, Wales, and in
his old age he went north to live with his brother in Galloway. Here he
was murdered; his death is referred to as one of the "three accursed
hatchet-strokes of the isle of Britain." His friendship with Taliessin
is commemorated by both bards.

The 'Gododin' is at once the longest and the most important composition
in early Welsh literature. It has been variously interpreted, but is
thought to celebrate the battle of Cattraeth. This battle was fought in
570 between the Britons, who had formed a league to defend their
country, and their Teutonic invaders. It "began on a Tuesday, lasted for
a week, and ended with great slaughter of the Britons, who fought
desperately till they perished on the field." Three hundred and sixty
chieftains were slain; only three escaped by flight, among whom was
Aneurin, who afterwards commemorated the slaughter in the 'Gododin,' a
lament for the dead. Ninety-seven of the stanzas remain. In various
measures of alliterative and assonant verse they sing the praises of
ninety of the fallen chiefs, usually giving one stanza to each hero. One
of these stanzas is known to readers of Gray, who translated it under
the name of 'The Death of Hoel.'

Again the 'Gododin' is assumed to be, like many early epic poems whose
origin is wrapped in mystery, not the commemoration of one single,
particular event, but a collection of lays composed at various times,
which compresses into one battle the long and disastrous period of the
Anglo-Saxon invasion, ending in the subjugation of the Britons.

But whatever its history, the 'Gododin' is one of the finest monuments
of Cymric literature. "In the brevity of the narrative, the careless
boldness of the actors as they present themselves, the condensed energy
of the action, and the fierce exultation of the slaughter, together with
the recurring elegiac note, this poem (or poems if it be the work of two
authors) has some of the highest epic qualities. The ideas and manners