Aneirin

Aneirin (flourished 6th century ad) was one of five poets renowned among the Welsh in the 6th century, according to the Historia Brittonum (written c. 830). (The other poets are Taliesin, Talhaearn Tad Awen, Blwchbardd, and Cian, whose works are unknown.) Aneirin’s reputation rests on a single work, Y Gododdin, preserved in a manuscript known as The Book of Aneirin, which dates from about 1265. The language of the poem is direct for the most part, although simile and metaphor are skillfully used, and alliteration and internal rhyme abound. The poem praises the courage and prowess of Aneirin’s contemporaries in the army of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr (Mynyddawg the Wealthy) of Caereidyn (near Edinburgh) and consists of a series of sharp characterizations of each hero in the ill-starred expedition of the war band of 300 men sent by their lord Mynyddawg Mwynfawr to recapture the old Roman stronghold of Catraeth (Catterick in North Yorkshire, Eng.) from the Saxons of Deira about ad 600.