Aneirin
{{Short description|Medieval Welsh poet}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{More footnotes|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Aneirin
|image= {{#statements:P18}}
|occupation = Poet
|notable_works = Book of Aneirin, including Y Gododdin
}}
Aneirin ({{IPA|cy|aˈnɛirɪn}}), also rendered as Aneurin or Neirin and Aneurin Gwawdrydd, was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet who lived during the 6th century. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland. From the 17th century, he was usually known as Aneurin.Miller, Arthur (1885). "Aneurin". In Dictionary of National Biography. 1. London. pp. 411-412.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aneurin". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 4.
Life
Some records indicate that Aneirin was the son of Caunus (or Caw) and brother to Gildas.{{Cite journal |last=Skene |first=William F |title=The Four Ancient Books of Wales, Containing the Cymric Poems attributed to the Bards of the Sixth Century |journal=The Dublin University Magazine |date=August 1868 |volume=LXXII |issue=CCCCXXVIII |pages=226–240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOARAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1}} 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. He may also be kin to another Brythonic poet, Cian Gwenith Gwawd.
Aneirin's patrons were the noble Urien and his son, Owain. Owain was slain at the Battle of Catraeth, in which Brythonic warriors of Gododdin went up against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia. Nearly all of the Brythonic warriors were slain and their lands were absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Aneirin wrote Y Gododdin after this battle, in remembrance of his fallen patrons and lords, in which he hints that he is likely the sole survivor.[http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=6493 "The Book of Aneirin", Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru]
After the fall of Owain, Aneirin is said to have been murdered, either by Eidyn son of Einygan{{cite book |last1=Skene |first1=W. F. |title=Welsh Triads |date=1868 |edition=Peniarth MS 54 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Welsh_Triads/Peniarth_MS_54}} or at the hands of an unnamed Cymric lord, whom the poet had offended by reproaching him in his poem Y Gododdin for not coming to the aid of Owain.
Reputation
The Welsh Triads describe Aneirin as "prince of bards" and "of flowing verse".{{quote needs citation|date=July 2024}} Nennius praises him amongst the earliest Welsh poets or Cynfeirdd, a contemporary of Talhaearn, Taliesin, Bluchbardd and Cian. References to Aneirin are found in the work of the Poets of the Princes (Beirdd y Tywysogion), but his fame declined in the later Middle Ages until the re-assertion of Welsh identity by antiquarian writers of the Tudor period. Today, the reputation of his poetry remains high, though the exact identity of the author is more controversial.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
Poetry
The works attributed to Aneirin are preserved in a late 13th-century manuscript known as the Book of Aneirin ({{langx|cy|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.
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
{{refbegin|30em}}
- {{Cite book |author=Peter C. Bartrum |year=1966 |title=Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press|oclc=897105}}
- {{Cite book |author=Rachel Bromwich |year=1978 |title=Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9780708306901|oclc=5334104}}
- {{cite book |last=Bromwich |first=Rachel |last2=Jones |first2=R. Brinley |last3=Foster |first3=Idris Llewelyn |title=Astudiaethau Ar Yr Hengerdd = Studies in Old Welsh Poetry |publisher=Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru |year=1978 |location=Caerdydd |isbn= 9780708306963|oclc=4982659}}
- {{Cite book |author=Kenneth H. Jackson |year=1969 |title=The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish poem |location=Edinburgh |publisher=University Press|oclc=4903114|isbn=9780852243534}}
- {{Cite book |author=A. O. H. Jarman |year=1988 |title=Aneirin: Y Gododdin, Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem |location=Llandysul |publisher=Gomer|isbn=9780863833540|oclc=24070429}}
- {{Cite book |author=John Morris |year=1973 |title=The Age of Arthur |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson}}
- {{Cite book |author=William O. Pughe |year=1803 |title=Cambrian Biography |location=London |publisher=E. Williams}}
- {{cite book |last=Stephens |first=Thomas |title=The Gododin of Aneurin Gwawdrydd |quote=An English Translation, with Copious Explanatory Notes; a Life of Aneurin; and Several Lengthy Dissertations Illustrative of the “Gododin,” and the Battle of Cattraeth |editor=Thomas Powel |translator=Thomas Stephens| author-link=Thomas Stephens (historian)|publisher=Printed for the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion by Whiting & Co. |year=1888 |location=London |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=o2Y9AAAAYAAJ|oclc= 919795190}}
- {{Cite book |author=Ifor Williams |year=1938 |title=Canu Aneirin |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press}}
{{refend}}
External links
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{{EB1911 poster|Aneurin}}
{{wikisourcelang|cy|Categori:Aneirin|Aneirin}}
- {{Gutenberg author | id=3167| name=Aneirin}}
- {{Internet Archive author}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090607090718/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/aindex.html Celtic literature Collective: The Book of Aneurin], text and translations
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20041116124659/http://www.gtj.org.uk/item.php?lang=en&id=17975&t=1 Gathering the Jewels: Llyfr Aneirin], includes full colour images of the entire manuscript
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Category:6th-century Welsh poets