The Gododdin of Aneirin: A New Version

Three Hundred Warriors. One Survivor. An Ancient Song of Glory and Loss.

One of Britain's oldest epic poems returns in this vivid and haunting new poetic version. The Gododdin is a song of courage and catastrophe—a lament for three hundred warriors who rode out from the Old North to face overwhelming odds at the Battle of Catraeth, and never returned. Attributed to the early medieval bard Aneirin, this stark and beautiful work stands alongside Beowulf and The Iliad as a foundational text of heroic literature.

In this powerful new rendering, mythologist and poet John Matthews approaches The Gododdin not as a literal translator, but as a poet listening for the living voice behind the ancient words. Drawing on decades of study and immersion in early British and Celtic tradition, Matthews reshapes the fragmented original into a sequence of lucid, emotionally charged poems that speak directly to modern readers—without sacrificing the gravity or mythic force of the source.

This is not simply a battle poem. It is a threnody:
 

• a roll call of names and deeds,
• a meditation on loyalty, honor, intoxication, and loss,
• and a bard's act of remembrance for friends who fell and a world already passing away.

The book is richly illustrated with evocative paintings by Meg Falconer, created in the landscape where the battle is believed to have taken place, deepening the atmosphere of violence, beauty, and sorrow that permeates the poem.

For readers of Celtic mythology, early medieval poetry, and heroic epics, The Gododdin of Aneirin offers a rare encounter with one of the earliest voices of the British imagination—still singing across fifteen centuries of time.