Quotes from book
Y Gododdin

Name: Y Gododdin
Author: Aneirin

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.

“The men went to Catraeth, swift was their host, the pale mead was their feast and it was their poison.”

Aneirin book Y Gododdin

Stanza A8, pp. 118.
"This famous quotation does not mean that the Gododdin army was too drunk to fight properly, but that they lost their lives in 'earning their mead'" (Jackson The Gododdin p. 35).
Y Gododdin

“Three hundred men hastened forth, wearing gold torques, defending the land – and there was slaughter. Though they were slain they slew, and they shall be honoured to the end of the world; and of all us kinsmen who went, alas, but for one man none escaped.”

Aneirin book Y Gododdin

Stanza B8, p. 101.
Y Gododdin

“He glutted black ravens on the rampart of the stronghold, though he was no Arthur.”

Aneirin book Y Gododdin

Stanza B38, p. 112.
Possibly the earliest reference to King Arthur.
Y Gododdin

“From the retinue of Mynyddog they hastened forth; in a shining array they fed together round the wine-vessel. My heart has become full of grief for the feast of Mynyddog, I have lost too many of my true kinsmen.”

Aneirin book Y Gododdin

Stanza B20, p. 106.
Y Gododdin