Y Gododdin is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth in about AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin and survives only in one manuscript, the "Book of Aneirin".
Page from the Book of Aneirin, showing the first part of the text added by Scribe B
Edinburgh Castle viewed from Princes Street: Around 600 AD, this may have been the site of the hall of Mynyddog Mwynfawr, where the warriors feasted before setting forth to battle.
The Gododdin were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North, 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.
Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North) c. 550 – c. 650