Aneirin

Some records indicate that Aneirin was the son of Caunus (or Caw) and brother to Gildas. According to this version of his life, he was born at Dumbarton on the River Clyde. However, some scholars debate this parentage, and contend that these records are of later invention and are erroneous. Whoever his father was, Aneirin's mother, Dwywei is mentioned in Y Gododdin. She may be the same lady who, according to Old Welsh pedigrees, married King Dunod who is generally thought to have ruled in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The works attributed to Aneirin are preserved in a late 13th-century manuscript known as the Book of Aneirin (Welsh: Llyfr Aneirin). The language has been partially modernized into Middle Welsh, but other portions in Old Welsh indicate that at least some of the poetry dates from around Aneirin's time, and its attribution, therefore, may well be genuine. The work would have survived through oral transmission until first written down, perhaps in the 9th century. Aneirin's best known work is Y Gododdin, a series of elegies for the warriors of the northern Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin who, in about 600, fell against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at the Battle of Catraeth (probably Catterick, North Yorkshire). The poetry abounds in textual difficulties and consequently interpretations vary. One stanza contains what may possibly be the earliest reference to King Arthur, as a paragon of bravery with whom one fallen warrior is compared – the identification is, however, conjectural. The poem tells us that Aneirin was present at this battle and, having been taken prisoner, was one of only two or four Brittonic survivors; he remained a captive until his ransom was paid by Ceneu ap Llywarch Hen.