Gododdin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the medieval Welsh poem, see Y Gododdin.

Kingdom of Gododdin
circa 4th century
Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North) c. 550 – c. 650
Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North) c. 550 – c. 650
Common languagesBrythonic
Religion
Celtic Christianity
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
Historical eraEarly Middle Ages
• Established
circa 4th century
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Hen Ogledd
Votadini
Kingdom of Northumbria

The Gododdin (Welsh pronunciation:

Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North (modern south-east Scotland and north-east England), in the sub-Roman period. Descendants of the Votadini, they are best known as the subject of the 6th-century Welsh poem Y Gododdin, which memorialises the Battle of Catraeth and is attributed to Aneirin
.

The name Gododdin is the Modern Welsh form, but the name appeared in Old Welsh as Guotodin and derived from the tribal name Votadini recorded in Classical sources, such as in Greek texts from the Roman period.[1]

Kingdom

It is not known exactly how far the kingdom of the Gododdin extended, possibly from the

Scottish Gaelic it is still known as Dùn Èideann), and probably also at Din Baer (Dunbar, Scottish Gaelic Dùn Bàrr). Gododdin included districts such as Manaw Gododdin and Eidyn south of the Firth of Forth
.

Cunedda, legendary founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales, is supposed to have been a Manaw Gododdin warlord who migrated southwest during the 5th century.[4]

Later history

Map of place-names between the Firth of Forth and the River Tees: in green, names probably containing Brittonic elements; in red and orange, names probably containing the Old English elements -ham and -ingaham respectively. Brittonic names lie mostly to the north of the Lammermuir and Moorfoot Hills and may reflect the territory of the Gododdin.[5]

In the 6th century, Bryneich was invaded by the

Catraeth, perhaps Catterick, North Yorkshire. The battle, which ended disastrously for the Britons, was memorialised in the poem Y Gododdin
.

In 638, Eidyn, modern Edinburgh, was under siege and fell to the Angles, for the Gododdin seem to have come under the rule of Bernicia around this time. To what extent the native population was replaced or assimilated is unknown. Bernicia became part of

Malcolm II brought the region as far as the River Tweed
under Scottish rule.

See also

  • Mynyddawg Mwynfawr

Notes

  1. Geographia
    " (ca. 2nd century)
  2. ^ Watson, 1926 [page needed]
  3. ^ Jackson, 1969 [page needed]
  4. ^ Historia Britonum, retrieved 4 April 2009.
  5. ^ Map by Alaric Hall, first published here as part of Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007).

References

  • Kenneth H. Jackson (1969). The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish poem (Edinburgh: University Press) * W.J. Watson (1926, 1986). The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland: being the Rhind lectures on archaeology (expanded) delivered in 1916. (Edinburgh, London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1926; Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1986, reprint edition).
    ISBN 1-874744-06-8
  • W.J. Watson (1926, 1986). The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland: being the Rhind lectures on archaeology (expanded) delivered in 1916. (Edinburgh, London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1926; Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1986, reprint edition).
    ISBN 1-874744-06-8
  • Davies, John. "Dinas Powys, Catraeth, and Llantwit Major." A History of Wales. London: Allen Lane :, 1993. 61–62. Print.
  • Davies, Norman. "The Germanico-Celtic Isles." The Isles: A History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. 165–166, 185–187, 195, 207. Print.

Further reading

External links
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