Y Gododin: A Poem of the Battle of Cattraeth — John Shaqi
Y Gododin: A Poem of the Battle of CattraethAneirin
History
Y Gododin: A Poem of the Battle of Cattraeth
Aneirin
Cattraeth, Battle of, Catterick, England, ca. 600 -- Poetry
The leader of the hostile forces in the battle of Gwenystrad is not
named, but in the battle of Argoed Llwyvein we find him to be Flamddwyn
or the Torch bearer, a name by which the Britons delighted to designate
the formidable Ida. Flamddwyn’s army on this occasion consisted of four
legions, which reached from Argoed to Arvynydd, and against them were
arrayed the men of Goddeu and Rheged, under the command of Ceneu ab Coel,
and Owain, and “Urien the prince.”
Argoed, bordering on Deivyr and Bryneich, was ruled by Llywarch Hen, who
after his abdication and flight into Powys, pathetically records the
loyal attachment of his former subjects,—
“The men of Argoed have ever supported me.” {4b}
The Historia Britonum enumerates three other kings, who with Urien fought
against the Saxons in the North, viz., Rhydderch, Gwallawg, and Morgant,
though the latter, under the impulse of envy, procured the assassination
of Urien, in the Isle of Lindisfarne.
After the Saxons had finally established themselves on the eastern coast,
in the forementioned countries, an immense rampart, extending nearly from
the Solway to the Frith of Forth, was erected, either with the view of
checking their further progress westward, or else by mutual consent of
the two nations, as a mere line of demarcation between their respective
dominions. This wall cannot have an earlier date, for it runs through
the middle of the country originally occupied by the Gadeni, and could
not of course have been constructed as a boundary by them; nor can it be
referred to a more recent period, as there could be no reason for forming
such a fence after the Saxons had intruded upon the whole country which
it divides. This was the famous CATRAIL, which we presume to be
identical with CATTRAETH, where the disastrous battle of that name, as
sung by Aneurin, was fought.
Catrail means literally “the war fence” (cad-rhail), but on the
supposition that it is synonymous with Cattraeth, the rhyme in the
Gododin would determine the latter to be the correct term, or that by
which Aneurin distinguished the line. The meaning of Cattraeth would be
either “the war tract” (cad-traeth), or “the legal war fence”
(cad-rhaith); the latter of which would give some countenance to the idea
that it was formed by mutual agreement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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