The Gododin of Aneurin Gwawdrydd |
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Author:
| Stephens, Thomas |
Editor:
| Powel, Thomas |
ISBN: | 978-1-4929-9665-1 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2013 |
Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $13.99 |
Book Description:
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The author of the
Gododin was a person named Aneurin, who, at the battle of Cattraeth, appears to have worn the garb of the Bardie order, and at another time to have officiated in a priestly character; but when he lived is uncertain, and who he was has been the subject of discussion. The materials for his biography are nearly all comprised in the poem which has immortalised his name among the Kymric people; and the determination of his parentage, local habitation, and age is,...
More DescriptionThe author of the Gododin was a person named Aneurin, who, at the battle of Cattraeth, appears to have worn the garb of the Bardie order, and at another time to have officiated in a priestly character; but when he lived is uncertain, and who he was has been the subject of discussion. The materials for his biography are nearly all comprised in the poem which has immortalised his name among the Kymric people; and the determination of his parentage, local habitation, and age is, therefore, contingent upon the date of that poem. His era has fluctuated in accordance with varying Gododinian theories, and accordingly it becomes our duty thoroughly to investigate the subject, and to take nothing for granted that we find in memoirs of the bard ; for, on examination, it will be found that former biographies are merely echoes of each other, mixed up with the crude speculations of the respective writers. The facts are very few in number, and only to be ascertained by diligent enquiry ; and it is to be regretted that the three former translators were all destitute of the critical spirit. The first and ablest of the three had the misfortune to live in the days of Jacob Bryant, and lost his way in the labyrinth of mythology; the second (Probert), and most sagacious, lacked courage to express his convictions, and expose the errors of the recognised authorities ; and the third, a scholar and a gentleman, lacks the power to doubt, and, believing in the Cambrian Biography as he would in Holy Writ, has suffered himself to be led astray.
The first translator was the Rev. Edward Davies, author of the Celtic Researches, who, in his Mythology of the Druids, holds that the Gododin has reference to the reported massacre at Stonehenge.