{"id":13970,"date":"2025-03-27T21:42:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T03:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13970"},"modified":"2025-03-27T21:44:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T03:44:25","slug":"the-power-and-sorrow-of-gododdin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13970","title":{"rendered":"The Power and Sorrow of Gododdin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Two things arrived together in a package from Amazon: a new Bluetooth mouse, currently in use, and leading Welsh poet Gillian Clarke’s new version of Y Gododd<\/a>in,<\/em> titled The Gododdin: Lament for the Fallen. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first encountered the poem in my early twenties — was it while shelving books in the college library, being puzzled by the Welsh title, and taking it off the shelf? Or a little later? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had read some of the classics of heroic literature: the Iliad of course, Beowulf <\/a><\/em>in my Old English class, “The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel<\/a>” and other Irish tales, the Arthurian stories — this was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no narrative. Something had happened, something heroic but disastrous. A force of three hundred or so post-Roman British cavalry (armor, flowing cloaks, no stirrups, Christian), probably accompanied by foot soldiers \u2014 maybe PIctish allies — attacked a larger Saxon\/English force (Heathen) at a river ford in what is now northern Yorkshire. Almost all them died in three (four?) days of fighting, even while cutting deep into the larger force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happened in the late sixth century<\/a>, when what is now Britain was a patchwork of kingdoms. <\/a>“Gododdin” is the name of a tribe, with the “dd” pronounced as “th.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work is attributed to the famous Celtic British poet Aneirin, written with a “strict pattern of alliteration, syllabic stress and rhyme . . . an aide-memoir for listeners to hold the poem, recite and pass it on” (viii). It’s impossible to replicate that in English, hence the challenge for translators. Think of it as a garland of flowers, each one named for an individual warrior, a pair, or a trio.1<\/a><\/sup> Here is one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Cadfannan<\/em>

Before the cattle rose in the east, he raced to war,
his soldiers drilled, shield-shatterer.
Weapons rang before the bellowing herd,
belligerent Beli, border guard,

gold-torqued ox, mounted, grizzled warrior,
bone-headed boar at the dangerous border;
‘Lord save us who calls us to heaven,’
he roared, raising his javelin,

Cadfannan, praised soldier,
no doubting he trod armies under.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Or of one of the survivors, Cibno, the poet says<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Cibno, wordless when war was done,
took communion on his return.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More than shields were shattered. Yet why do we care?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2007, I wrote a post titled “Mars and Venus Are in Love<\/a>.” It was partly a response to a then-new book, A Terrible Love of War<\/a><\/em>, by James Hillman <\/a>(1926\u20132011), a psychologist in the lineage of Carl Jung, famous for titling another of his books We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy–And the World’s Getting Worse<\/a><\/em>. Hillman’s “archtypal psychology” is far-reaching, and it spurns a lot of pop psychology clich\u00e9s, like the whole idea of “growth<\/a>“:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hillman, with his profound intellect, disarming charm and a suffer-no-fools-gladly attitude has shaken up all that they were sure about (note-taking, diagnosing, medicating, dream work, the importance of cure) and takes on politics<\/a>, architecture, soul-making and other topics that therapists thought were outside of their purview.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For all his often cap-A Archaic attitudes, however, Hillman was a man of Modernity, of the World War II generation, and like many he no doubt asked, “Why do we still have wars?” His book on war tries to answer the question, yet I felt in reading it that he was frustrated that there was no easy answer. In the end — back to polytheism — it more or less comes down to “We have war because Aphrodite desires Ares.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As another of his readers asked<\/a>, “What if Aphrodite were akin to Pan? What if she valued, not war, but Ares himself, a man-god, a relationship, a lover, yes, a lover, not a warrior?<\/em>“<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have enormous respect for Hillman, although his path is arduous. Like some Witches, he suggests that a “soul” is not something you are born with, but something that you build through your life and works.<\/p>\n

But sometimes I wonder if the answer to the war question is even more chthonic than “Venus Loves Mars.” Maybe it is simply that Earth needs blood. Humans need blood poetry, “a rousing rhyme for a bright-clad band.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two things arrived together in a package from Amazon: a new Bluetooth mouse, currently in use, and leading Welsh poet Gillian Clarke’s new version of Y Gododdin, titled The Gododdin: Lament for the Fallen. I first encountered the poem in my early twenties — was it while shelving books in the college library, being puzzled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"One stanza contains possibly the first written reference to King Arthur, who probably lived earlier in that century: \\\"He fed ravens on the fortress wall \/ though he was no Arthur.\\\" In other words, a great warrior but not the greatest.\",\"id\":\"f980abe4-5062-41ab-8751-ca1f1ee4621f\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[414,38,232,40,101,105],"class_list":["post-13970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anglo-saxon-england","tag-celts","tag-poetry","tag-polytheism","tag-psychology","tag-war"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3Dk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1043,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1043","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":0},"title":"Knee Deep in the Bloody Ford of History","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometime around age 15 I took home Vol. 49 of the Harvard Classics from the Fort Collins (Colo.) public library and read for the first time Beowulf and The Destruction of D\u00e1 Derga's Hostel. (The Ring saga is in there too, but I had already encountered it.)Beowulf is an understandable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Celts\"","block_context":{"text":"Celts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=celts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7866,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7866","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":1},"title":"A Bronze Age Battle Lost in the Misty Past","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Men came to Tollense . . . or whatever it was called about 3,260 years ago.((\"The things they carried\" \u2014 an appropriate literary reference?)) In a river valley north of Berlin, two Bronze Age armies clashed, casualties were at least in the hundreds, and no one can say who fought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tollensetal Impressionsfraktur","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Tollensetal-Impressionsfraktur.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4019,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4019","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":2},"title":"The ‘Fifth Branch’ of the Mabinogion & Some Plagiarizing Pagans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2008, an English academic who works with ancient and modern Celtic languages created \"a piece of Iolosim,\" in other words, a pseudo-ancient tale in the spirit of the Welsh literary forger and Druid revivalist Iolo Morganwg. Written in Middle Welsh and \"translated\" into English, it purports to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":750,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=750","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":3},"title":"Who’s a Celt now? – 4","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1, Part 2, Part 3There is no gene for \"Celtic,\" and, as we have seen (if you followed the links), \"Celtic culture\" is largely an invention of the late 18th and 19th centuries--created by the English and\/or of Welsh, Irish, and other tradition-inventors who went to London to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10752,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10752","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":4},"title":"A Little-Known Welsh Magical Practice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Burying large reptiles under the floor. It must be a \"Pagan survival,\" right? Doubtlessly an apotropaic custom, like scorch marks on wooden beams as charm against fire, or leaving old shoes and such inside the walls during construction.","rel":"","context":"In \"animals\"","block_context":{"text":"animals","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/caiman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7469,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7469","url_meta":{"origin":13970,"position":5},"title":"“Trace What It Means To Be Celtic”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In their book Pop Pagans: Paganism and Popular Music, Donna Weston and Andy Bennett use the term \"cardiac Celts . . . people who feel in their heart that they are Celtic.\" They are not the only ones who use it \u2014 but I wonder if this new British Museum\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13970"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13993,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970\/revisions\/13993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}