111-518: Y Gododdin ( Welsh: [əː ɡɔˈdɔðɪn] ) 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,
222-636: A panegyric addressed to Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, thought to have been composed in about 633. Two lines in this poem are translated by Koch as "fierce Gwallawc wrought the great and renowned mortality at Catraeth". He identifies Gwallawc as the "Guallauc" who was one of the kings who fought against Bernicia in alliance with Urien. Koch draws attention to the mention of meibion Godebawc (the sons of Godebog) as an enemy in stanza 15 of Y Gododdin and points out that according to old Welsh genealogies Urien and other Brittonic kings were descendants of "Coïl Hen Guotepauc" ( Coel Hen ). He considers that, in view of
333-452: A Gododin. Gododdin, I make claim on thy behalf In the presence of the throng boldly in the court: ... Since the gentle one, the wall of battle, was slain, Since the earth covered Aneirin, Poetry is now parted from the Gododdin. Text A begins with an awdl in praise of an individual hero: In might a man, a youth in years, Of boisterous valour, Swift long-maned steeds Under
444-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under
555-586: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified
666-647: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had
777-421: A date around 600. Koch suggests a rather earlier date, about 570, and also suggests that the poem may have existed in written form by the 7th century, much earlier than usually thought. Koch, reviewing the arguments about the date of the poetry in 1997, states: Today, the possibility of an outright forgery – which would amount to the anachronistic imposition of a modern literary concept onto early Welsh tradition –
888-529: A facsimile copy of the Book of Aneirin in 1908 and an edition with a translation in 1922. The first reliable edition was Canu Aneirin by Ifor Williams with notes in Welsh, published in 1938. New translations based on this work were published by Kenneth H. Jackson in 1969 and, with modernized Welsh text and glossary, by A. O. H. Jarman in 1988. A colour facsimile edition of the manuscript with an introduction by Daniel Huws
999-405: A fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase the number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered
1110-508: A larger number of foot soldiers, not considered worthy of mention in the poem. Jarman also follows Williams' interpretation. Jackson suggested that after the fall of the kingdom of Gododdin, in or about 638, the poem was preserved in Strathclyde, which maintained its independence for several centuries. He considers that it was first written down in Strathclyde after a period of oral transmission, and may have reached Wales in manuscript form between
1221-465: A new and very different interpretation of the background of the poetry. He draws attention to a poem in Canu Taliesin entitled Gweith Gwen Ystrat ('Battle of Gwen Ystrat'): The men of Catraeth arise with the day around a battle-victorious, cattle-rich sovereign this is Uryen by name, the most senior leader. There is also a reference to Catraeth in the slightly later poem Moliant Cadwallon ,
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#17328584702251332-399: A new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded,
1443-454: A number of historical novels, including Men Went to Cattraeth (1969) by John James , The Shining Company (1990) by Rosemary Sutcliff , and The Amber Treasure (2009) by Richard J Denning . In 1989, the British industrial music band Test Dept. brought out an album titled Gododdin , in which the words of the poem were set to music, part in the original and part in English translation. This
1554-510: A number of references to Y Gododdin in later Medieval Welsh poetry. The well-known 12th-century poem Hirlas Owain by Owain Cyfeiliog , in which Owain praises his own war-band, likens them to the heroes of the Gododdin and uses Y Gododdin as a model. A slightly later poet, Dafydd Benfras , in a eulogy addressed to Llywelyn the Great , wishes to be inspired "to sing as Aneirin sang / The day he sang
1665-473: A rich reward to the minstrel." However, D. Simon Evans has suggested that most, if not all, of the references which point to Christianity may be later additions. Many personal names are given, but only two are recorded in other sources. One of the warriors was Cynon ap Clydno, whom Williams identifies with the Cynon ap Clydno Eiddin who is mentioned in old pedigrees. The other personal name recorded in other sources
1776-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into
1887-489: A year of feasting at Din Eidyn , now Edinburgh , they attacked Catraeth, which is usually identified with Catterick , North Yorkshire . After several days of fighting against overwhelming odds, nearly all the warriors are killed. The poem is similar in ethos to heroic poetry , with the emphasis on the heroes fighting primarily for glory, but is not a narrative. The manuscript contains several stanzas which have no connection with
1998-469: A year the minstrels were merry. Red their swords, let the blades remain Uncleansed, white shields and four-sided spearheads, Before Mynyddog Mwynfawr's men. Mead is mentioned in many stanzas, sometimes with the suggestion that it is linked to their deaths. This led some 19th-century editors to assume that the warriors went into battle drunk, however Williams explained that "mead" here stood for everything
2109-445: A year's feasting and drinking mead in his halls at Din Eidyn, before launching a campaign in which almost all of them were killed fighting against overwhelming odds. The poetry is based on a fixed number of syllables, though some irregularity occurs, which may be due to modernisation of the language during oral transmission. It uses rhyme , both end-rhyme and internal, and some parts use alliteration . A number of stanzas may open with
2220-645: A year, then launched an attack on Catraeth , which Williams agrees with Stephens in identifying as Catterick, which was in Anglo-Saxon hands. They were opposed by a larger army from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia . The battle at Catraeth has been seen as an attempt to resist the advance of the Angles, who had probably by then occupied the former Votadini lands of Bryneich in modern north-eastern England and made it their kingdom of Bernicia. At some time after
2331-401: Is Arthur. If the mention of Arthur formed part of the original poem this could be the earliest reference to Arthur , as a paragon of bravery. In stanza 99, the poet praises one of the warriors, Gwawrddur: He fed black ravens on the rampart of a fortress Though he was no Arthur Among the powerful ones in battle In the front rank, Gwawrddur was a palisade Many of the warriors were not from
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#17328584702252442-456: Is a poem entitled " Dinogad's Smock ", a cradle-song addressed to a baby named Dinogad, describing how his father goes hunting and fishing. The interpolations are thought to have been added to the poem after it had been written down, these stanzas first being written down where there was a space in the manuscript, then being incorporated in the poem by a later copier who failed to realise that they did not belong. The Strathcarron stanza, for example,
2553-573: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Rhyme Too Many Requests If you report this error to
2664-503: Is difficult to see why a later poet should take the trouble to commemorate men who, but for the poem, would be forgotten". The poem is set in the area which is now southern Scotland and north-east England. Around the year 600 this area included a number of Brittonic kingdoms. Apart from the Gododdin, the kingdom of Alt Clut occupied the Strathclyde area and Rheged covered parts of Galloway , Lancashire and Cumbria . Further south lay
2775-420: Is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as
2886-467: Is in Old Welsh orthography. Scribe B wrote 35 stanzas, some of which are variants of stanzas also given by Scribe A, while others are not given by A. The last stanza is incomplete and three folios are missing from the end of the manuscript, so some material may have been lost. Differences exist within the material added by Scribe B. The first 23 stanzas of the B material show signs of partial modernisation of
2997-405: Is no longer in serious contention. Rather, the narrowing spectrum of alternatives ranges from a Gododdin corpus which is mostly a literary creation of mediaeval Wales based on a fairly slender thread of traditions from the old Brittonic North to a corpus which is in large part recoverable as a text actually composed in that earlier time and place. Koch himself believes that a considerable part of
3108-555: Is not a narrative poem but rather a series of elegies for heroes who died in a battle whose history would have been familiar to the original listeners. The context of the poem has to be worked out from the text itself. There have been various interpretations of the events recorded in the poem. The 19th-century Welsh scholar Thomas Stephens identified Y Gododdin with the Votadini and Catraeth as Catterick in North Yorkshire. He linked
3219-617: Is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of
3330-444: Is that put forward by Ifor Williams in his Canu Aneirin first published in 1938. Williams interpreted mynydawc mwynvawr in the text to refer to a person, Mynyddog Mwynfawr in modern Welsh. Mynyddog, in his version, was the king of the Gododdin, with his chief seat at Din Eidyn (modern Edinburgh ). Around the year 600 Mynyddog gathered about 300 selected warriors, some from as far afield as Gwynedd . He feasted them at Din Eidyn for
3441-454: Is that this manuscript contains the work of two scribes, usually known as A and B. Scribe A wrote down 88 stanzas of the poem, then left a blank page before writing down four related poems known as Gorchanau . This scribe wrote the material down in Middle Welsh orthography. Scribe B added material later, and apparently had access to an earlier manuscript since the material added by this scribe
Y Gododdin - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-420: Is the first stanza in the B text of the Book of Aneirin, and Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that it had probably been inserted on a blank space at the top of the first page of the original manuscript. According to John T. Koch 's reconstruction, this stanza was deliberately added to the text in Strathclyde. The date of Y Gododdin has been the subject of debate among scholars since the early 19th century. If
3663-494: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in
3774-461: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in
3885-659: The Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by
3996-706: The Cumbric dialect of Common Brittonic . Others consider it the work of a poet from Wales in the 9th, 10th, or 11th century. Even a 9th-century date would make it one of the oldest surviving Welsh works of poetry. The Gododdin, known in Roman times as the Votadini , held territories in what is now southeast Scotland and Northumberland , part of the Hen Ogledd . The poem tells how a force of 300 (or 363) picked warriors were assembled, some from as far afield as Pictland and Gwynedd . After
4107-525: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol
4218-540: The Historia Britonnum it was Rhun, son of Urien Rheged who baptized the princess Eanflæd of Deira, her father Edwin, and 12,000 of his subjects in 626 or 627. Urien Rheged was thus the real victor of the battle. Mynyddog Mwynfawr was not a person's name but a personal description meaning 'mountain feast' or 'mountain chief'. Some aspects of Koch's view of the historical context have been criticised by both Oliver Padel and Tim Clarkson. Clarkson, for example, makes
4329-508: The Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of
4440-662: The Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into
4551-618: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has
Y Gododdin - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-460: The " Book of Aneirin ". The Book of Aneirin manuscript is from the later 13th century, but Y Gododdin has been dated to between the 7th and the early 11th centuries. The text is partly written in Middle Welsh orthography and partly in Old Welsh . The early date would place its oral composition soon after the battle, presumably in the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"); as such it would have originated in
4773-525: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for
4884-467: The 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain
4995-589: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in
5106-522: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,
5217-474: The 9th or 10th centuries, although some scholars consider that it could be from the 11th century. Most of the debate about the date of the poem has employed linguistic arguments, mostly concerning rhyme (since more is known about early Welsh phonology than other aspects of the language, like syntax). It is believed that around the time of the battle, the British language was transitioning into its daughter languages:
5328-624: The Ancient Welsh Bards in 1764. The full text was printed for the first time by Owen Jones in the Myvyrian Archaiology in 1801. English translations of the poem were published by William Probert in 1820 and by John Williams (Ab Ithel) in 1852, followed by translations by William Forbes Skene in his Four Ancient Books of Wales (1866), and by Thomas Stephens for the Cymmrodorion Society in 1888. Gwenogvryn Evans produced
5439-481: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for
5550-514: The Battle of Strathcarron in 642: I saw an array that came from Kintyre who brought themselves as a sacrifice to a holocaust. I saw a second [array] who had come down from their settlement, who had been roused by the grandson of Neithon. I saw mighty men who came with dawn. And it was Domnall Brecc's head that the ravens gnawed. Another stanza appears to be part of the separate cycle of poems associated with Llywarch Hen . The third interpolation
5661-508: The Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c. 600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol ) is the label attached to the Welsh of
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#17328584702255772-655: The Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and
5883-614: The Father of the Muse was famous in poetry, and Neirin, Taliesin, Blwchfardd and Cian who is called Gweinthgwawd, at one and the same time were renowned in British poetry. Nothing has been preserved of the work of Talhaearn, Blwchfardd and Cian, but poems attributed to Taliesin were published by Ifor Williams in Canu Taliesin and were considered by him to be comparable in antiquity to the Gododdin. This poetry praises Urien of Rheged and his son Owain, and refers to Urien as lord of Catraeth. Y Gododdin
5994-656: The First World War. Jones put a quotation from Y Gododdin at the beginning of each of the seven sections of In Parenthesis . Another poet writing in English, Richard Caddel , used Y Gododdin as the basis of his difficult but much-admired poem For the Fallen (1997), written in memory of his son Tom. Tony Conran's poem Elegy for the Welsh Dead, in the Falklands Islands, 1982 opens with the line "Men went to Catraeth", using
6105-453: The Gododdin and are considered to be interpolations . One stanza in particular has received attention because it mentions a hero called Arthur in passing, which, if not an interpolation, might be the earliest known reference to King Arthur . Only one early manuscript of Y Gododdin is known, the Book of Aneirin , thought to date from the second half of the 13th century. The currently accepted view
6216-419: The Gododdin". After this period this poetry seems to have been forgotten in Wales for centuries until Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) discovered the manuscript in the late 18th century. From the early 19th century onwards there are many allusions in Welsh poetry. In English, Y Gododdin was a major influence on the long poem In Parenthesis (1937) by David Jones , in which he reflects on the carnage he witnessed in
6327-539: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published
6438-489: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,
6549-673: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither
6660-865: The Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak
6771-515: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer
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#17328584702256882-481: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to
6993-606: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of
7104-509: The ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd , raising further questions about the dating of
7215-436: The area that later became Northumbria had been invaded and increasingly occupied by the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia . In the Historia Brittonum , attributed to Nennius , there is a reference to several poets in this area during the 6th century. Having mentioned Ida of Bernicia , the founder of the Northumbrian royal line who ruled between 547 and 559, the Historia goes on to say: At that time Talhaearn
7326-442: The battle, the Angles absorbed the Gododdin kingdom, possibly after the fall of their capital Din Eidyn in 638, and incorporated it into the kingdom of Northumbria . This interpretation has been accepted by most modern scholars. Jackson accepts the interpretation but suggests that a force of 300 men would be much too small to undertake the task demanded of them. He considers that the 300 mounted warriors would have been accompanied by
7437-408: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of
7548-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within
7659-408: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over
7770-438: The end of the 8th and the end of the 9th century. There would be particular interest in matters relating to the Gododdin in Gwynedd , since the founding myth of the kingdom involved the coming of Cunedda Wledig from Manaw Gododdin. In 1997, John T. Koch published a new study of Y Gododdin which involved an attempt to reconstruct the original poetry written in what Koch terms "Archaic Neo- Brittonic ". This work also included
7881-401: The enemy are described as "heathens". Several of these features can be seen in stanza 33: Men went to Catraeth with a war-cry, Speedy steeds and dark armour and shields, Spear-shafts held high and spear-points sharp-edged, And glittering coats-of-mail and swords, He led the way, he thrust through armies, Five companies fell before his blades. Rhufawn His gave gold to the altar, And
7992-485: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of
8103-463: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval
8214-469: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to
8325-720: The kingdom of Elmet in the Leeds area. These areas made up what was later known in Welsh as Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North). The Gododdin, known as the Votadini in the Romano-British period, occupied a territory from the area around the head of the Firth of Forth as far south as the River Wear . In modern terms their lands included much of Clackmannanshire and the Lothian and Borders regions. Their capital at this period may have been called Din Eidyn , now known as Edinburgh . By this time
8436-631: The lands of the Gododdin. Among the places mentioned are Aeron , thought to be the area around the River Ayr and Elfed , the area around Leeds still called Elmet . Others came from further afield, for example one came from "beyond Bannog", a reference to the mountains between Stirling (thought to have been Manaw Gododdin territory) and Dumbarton (chief fort of the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde ) – this warrior must have come from Pictland . Others came from Gwynedd in north Wales. Three of
8547-496: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to
8658-402: The least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson ,
8769-655: The material and language in which it was originally composed. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This
8880-404: The material in the Book of Aneirin is from three sources. The stanzas that make up the poem are a series of elegies for warriors who fell in battle against vastly superior numbers. Some of the verses refer to the entire host, and others eulogize individual heroes. They tell how the ruler of the Gododdin, Mynyddog Mwynfawr , gathered warriors from several Brittonic kingdoms and provided them with
8991-564: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in
9102-592: The name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi , the Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic ,
9213-526: The original poem to comment on a contemporary conflict. The theme and rhythm of Y Gododdin are also the undercurrent for Owen Sheers's Pink Mist (2012), an epic elegy to dead and wounded soldiers who served in Afghanistan; the poem, which drew on 30 interviews with returned servicemen, was originally commissioned for radio and then produced by the Old Vic theatre company as a stage play. The poem has also inspired
9324-403: The orthography, while the remainder shows much more retention of Old Welsh features. Jarman explains this by suggesting that Scribe B started by partially modernising the orthography as he copied the stanzas, but after a while tired of this and copied the remaining stanzas as they were in the older manuscript. Isaac suggested that Scribe B was using two sources, called B1 and B2. If this is correct,
9435-613: The other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been
9546-464: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to
9657-479: The poem can be dated to the 6th century. Greene in 1971 considered that the language of the poem was 9th-century rather than 6th-century, and Isaac, writing in 1999, stated that the linguistic evidence did not necessitate dating the poem as a whole before the 9th or 10th century. The other approach to dating the poetry has been to look at it from a historical point of view. Charles-Edwards writing in 1978 concluded that: The historical arguments, therefore, suggest that
9768-511: The poem is the authentic work of Aneirin; that we can establish the essential nature of the poem from the two surviving versions; but that we cannot, except in favourable circumstances, establish the wording of the original. Dumville, commenting on these attempts to establish the historicity of the poem in 1988, said, "The case for authenticity, whatever exactly we mean by that, is not proven; but that does not mean that it cannot be." Likewise, Patrick Sims-Williams concluded in 2016 that, 'evaluating
9879-511: The poem to the Battle of Degsastan in c. 603 between King Æthelfrith of Bernicia and the Gaels under Áedán mac Gabráin , king of Dál Riada . Gwenogvryn Evans in his 1922 edition and translation of the Book of Aneirin claimed that the poem referred to a battle around the Menai Strait in 1098, emending the text to fit the theory. The generally accepted interpretation for the Battle of Catraeth
9990-420: The poem was composed soon after the battle, it must predate 638, when the fall of Din Eidyn was recorded in the reign of Oswy king of Bernicia, an event which is thought to have meant the collapse of the kingdom of the Gododdin. If it is a later composition, the latest date which could be ascribed to it is determined by the orthography of the second part of Scribe B's text. This is usually considered to be that of
10101-416: The poetry may have been composed in the 9th century on traditional themes and attributed to Aneirin. Jackson however considers that there is "no real substance" in these arguments, and points out that the poetry would have been transmitted orally for a long period before being written down, and would have been modernised by reciters, and that there is in any case nothing in the language used which would rule out
10212-413: The poetry, considered that part of it could be regarded as being of likely late 6th-century origin. This would have been orally transmitted for a period before being written down. Dillon cast doubt on the date of composition, arguing that it is unlikely that by the end of the 6th century Primitive Welsh would have developed into a language "not notably earlier than that of the ninth century". He suggests that
10323-559: The point that the reference in Gweith Gwen Ystrat is to "the men of Catraeth"; it does not state that the battle was fought at Catraeth, and also that according to Bede it was Paulinus, not Rhun, who baptized the Deirans. The first known translation of Y Gododdin was by Evan Evans ("Ieuan Fardd") who printed ten stanzas with a Latin translation in his book Some Specimens of the Poetry of
10434-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over
10545-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by
10656-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in
10767-523: The primitive form of Welsh in Wales , of Cornish and Breton in southwestern Britain and Brittany , and Cumbric in northern Britain. Kenneth H. Jackson concluded that the majority of the changes that transformed British into Primitive Welsh belong to the period from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 6th century. This involved syncope and the loss of final syllables. If the poem dates to this time, it would have originated in an early form of Cumbric ,
10878-512: The references in the three poems, there is a case for identifying the attack on Catraeth recorded in Y Gododdin with the Battle of Gwen Ystrat. This would date the poem to about 570 rather than the c. 600 favoured by Williams and others. He interprets the Gododdin as having fought the Britons of Rheged and Alt Clut over a power struggle in Elmet , with Anglian allies on both sides, Rheged being in an alliance with Deira. He points out that according to
10989-409: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of
11100-419: The same words, for example " Gwyr a aeth gatraeth gan wawr " ("Men went to Catraeth at dawn"). The collection appears to have been compiled from two different versions: according to some verses, there were 300 men of the Gododdin, and only one, Cynon ap Clydno , survived; others have 363 warriors and three survivors, in addition to the poet, who as a bard , almost certainly would not have been counted as one of
11211-531: The stanzas included in the manuscript have no connection with the subject matter of the remainder except that they are also associated with southern Scotland or northern England rather than Wales. One of these is a stanza which celebrates the victory of the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde under Eugein I , here described as "the grandson of Neithon", over Domnall Brecc ("Dyfnwal Frych" in Welsh), king of Dál Riata , at
11322-456: The supposed proofs that poems in the Books of Aneirin and Taliesin cannot go back to the sixth century, we have found them either to be incorrect or to apply to only a very few lines or stanzas that may be explained as additions. It seems impossible to prove, however, that any poem must go back to the sixth century linguistically and cannot be a century or more later'. The fact that the great majority of
11433-465: The thigh of a handsome youth … Quicker to a field of blood Than to a wedding Quicker to the ravens' feast Than to a burial, A beloved friend was Ywain, It is wrong that he is beneath a cairn. It is a sad wonder to me in what land Marro's only son was slain. Other stanzas praise the entire host, for example number 13: Men went to Catraeth at morn Their high spirits lessened their life-span They drank mead, gold and sweet, ensnaring; For
11544-518: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from
11655-421: The usual name for the Brittonic speech of the Hen Ogledd. Jackson suggested the name "Primitive Cumbric" for the dialect spoken at the time. Sweetser gives the example of the name Cynfelyn found in Y Gododdin ; in British this would have been Cunobelinos . The middle unstressed o and the final unstressed os have been lost. Ifor Williams, whose 1938 text laid the foundations for modern scholarly study of
11766-447: The warriors mentioned in the poem are not known from other sources has been put forward by several authors as an argument against the idea that the poem could be a later composition. The poems which are known to be later "forgeries" have clearly been written for a purpose, for example to strengthen the claims of a particular dynasty. The men commemorated in Y Gododdin do not appear in the pedigrees of any Welsh dynasty. Breeze comments, "it
11877-562: The warriors received from their lord. In return, they were expected to "pay their mead" by being loyal to their lord unto death. A similar concept is found in Anglo-Saxon poetry. The heroes commemorated in the poem are mounted warriors; there are many references to horses in the poem. There are references to spears, swords and shields, and to the use of armour ( llurug , from the Latin lorica ). There are several references which indicate that they were Christians, for example "penance" and "altar", while
11988-496: The warriors. The names of about 80 warriors are given in the poem. The Book of Aneirin begins with the introduction " Hwn yw e Gododin. Aneirin ae cant " ("This is the Gododdin; Aneirin sang it"). A stanza, a version of which is found in both texts, but which forms the beginning of the B text, appears to be a reciter's prologue: Gododin, gomynnaf oth blegyt yg gwyd cant en aryal en emwyt: ... er pan want maws mur trin, er pan aeth daear ar Aneirin, nu neut ysgaras nat
12099-716: Was a collaboration with the Welsh avant-garde theatre company Brith Gof and was performed in Wales, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Scotland. Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It
12210-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through
12321-562: Was published by South Glamorgan County Council and the National Library of Wales in 1989. John T. Koch's new edition, which aimed to recreate the original text, appeared in 1997. There have also been a number of translations which aim to present the Gododdin as literature rather than as a subject of scholarly study. Examples are the translation by Joseph P. Clancy in The earliest Welsh poetry (1970) and Steve Short's 1994 translation. There are
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