Gododdin

The Gododdin (pronounced ) were a Brythonic people of north-eastern Britain in the sub-Roman period, best known as the subject of the 7th century Welsh series of poems known as Y Gododdin, attributed to Aneirin.

The name Gododdin is the Modern Welsh form; it is derived, via earlier Welsh Guotodin, from the Brythonic language word Votadini, attested in Latin texts.Claudius Ptolemaeus, "Geographia" (ca. 2nd century CE)

The Gododdin kingdom

It is not known exactly how far the kingdom of the Gododdin extended, possibly from the Stirling area to the Northumberland kingdom of 'Bryneich', and including what are now the Lothian and Borders regions of eastern Scotland. It was bounded on the west by the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and to the north by the Picts. Those living around Clackmannanshire were known as the Manaw Gododdin (Watson, 1926; Jackson, 1969). According to tradition, local kings of this period lived at both Traprain Law and Din Eidyn (Edinburgh, still known as Dùn Éideann in Scottish Gaelic), and probably also at Din Baer (Dunbar).

In the wake of Roman withdrawal around 410, Coel Hen (Old King Cole), who Morris suggests may have been the last of the Roman Duces Brittanniarum (Dukes of the Britons), seems to have taken over the northern capital at Eburacum (York) and became something akin to a High King of Northern Britain, ruling over what had been the northern provinces, possibly including the lands of the Votadini. This area became known in later poetry as the Hen Ogledd. After his death the North probably began to divide. By about 470 most of the Votadini's lands became the kingdom of Gododdin, while the southern part of their territory between the Tweed and the Tyne seems to have become a separate kingdom then called Bryneich.

The Kings of Gododdin

Ford identifies the Kings of the Gododdin with those of Lothian and suggests they are recorded in 'Pedigree 16' of Harleian MS 3859. King Leudonus, after whom Lothian is named, is remembered in the local legend of St. Kentigern (alias Saint Mungo). Cunedda, legendary founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales, is supposed to have been a Manaw Gododdin warlord who migrated south-west about this time.Nennius (ed.), "Historia Britonum" (ca. early 9th century)

Later history

In the 6th century, Bryneich was invaded by the Angles and become known as Bernicia. The Angles continued to press north. In ca. 600 about 300 men of the Gododdin fell in the battle of Catraeth (almost certainly Catterick in North Yorkshire), as recorded in Aneirin's poem-cycle Y Gododdin.

In 638 'Din Eidyn' was under siege and may have fallen 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 is unknown. Bernicia became part of Northumbria, and by 954 was overrun by the Danish kingdom of York. Shortly afterwards this came under a unified England, then in 1018 Malcolm II brought the region as far as the River Tweed under Scottish rule.

Notes

References

Ian Armit (1998). Scotland's Hidden History (Tempus association with Historic Scotland) ISBN 0-7486-6067-4
Kenneth H. Jackson (1969). The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish poem (Edinburgh: University Press)
John Morris (1973). The Age of Arthur (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson) ISBN 0297176013
Stuart Piggott (1982). Scotland Before History (Edinburgh: University Press) ISBN -07524-1400-3
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 1874744068

External links

History of Scotland | Scottish culture | Post-Roman Scotland | Sub-Roman Britain | Ancient Britons