The Book of Aneirin ( cy, Llyfr Aneirin) is a late 13th century

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

containing

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

and

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...

attributed to the late 6th century Northern

Brython The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', la, Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were people of Celtic language and culture who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age and into the Middle Ages, at which point the ...

ic poet,

Aneirin Aneirin , Aneurin or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet. 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 c ...

, who is believed to have lived in present-day Scotland. The manuscript is kept at the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million ...

, Aberystwyth. It is made of

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins ...

and was written in Wales around 1265, probably in a monastery, but is probably a copy of a lost 9th century original. There is minimal decoration, consisting only of a few coloured capital letters. The poetry recorded in the book, which has only 38 pages, would previously have been kept alive through

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and Culture, cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Traditio ...

. The best-known poem contained within its pages is ''

Y Gododdin ''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 a ...

'', an early Welsh-language poem commemorating the warriors from

Gododdin The Gododdin () were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North (modern south-east Scotland and north-east England), in the sub-Roman period. Descendants of the Votadini, they are best known ...

(

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scott ...

in modern

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

) who fell at the

Battle of Catraeth The Battle of Catraeth was fought around AD 600 between a force raised by the Gododdin, a Brythonic people of the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" of Britain, and the Angles of Bernicia and Deira. It was evidently an assault by the Gododdin party on ...

(probably Catterick in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

) around the year 600. Parts of this do appear to be contemporary with Aneirin, who, it is claimed, was a survivor of the battle. Military activities are described in great detail in the poem. The other poetry, with no connection to this battle, includes, amongst others, " Peis Dinogat", a short poem for a child named Dinogad, in the form of a

lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledg ...

, describing how his father goes hunting and fishing. The literary scholar, Sir

Ifor Williams Sir Ifor Williams, (16 April 1881 – 4 November 1965) was a Welsh scholar who laid the foundations for the academic study of Old Welsh, particularly early Welsh poetry. Early life and education Ifor Williams was born at Pendinas, Tregarth near ...

, suggested that its incongruous presence within the Book of Aneirin might have been the result of it having been written in the margin of the original manuscript. The other works in the volume are an elegy to a victim of a massacre, and "The true verses of Gorchan Adrefon and Gorchan Maeldderw", which is attributed to the poet

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the court ...

. Sir Ifor Williams proposed that the contents of the manuscript demonstrate that the Welsh language was spoken in northern parts of the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

. During the 15th century, the poet

Dafydd Nanmor Dafydd Nanmor (fl. 1450 – 1490) was a Welsh language poet born at Nanmor (or Nantmor), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. He is one of the most significant poets of this period. It is said that he was exiled to south Wales for overstepping the mark ...

owned the manuscript, and it later passed into the hands of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, a well-known collector. It remained in the Hengwrt collection until the 1780s, when it was stolen. Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc) later acquired it and, following his death in 1848, it was bought by another collector, Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet. In 1896 it was bought by Cardiff Free Library and thus passed to the

, where it has been restored and rebound.

References

{{reflist

External links

Llyfr Aneirin, ca. 1265
from th
Gathering the Jewels
website. ''Includes full colour images of the entire manuscript.''

English Translation, from th

website. 1260s books Welsh manuscripts Welsh poetry Welsh-language literature Medieval Welsh literature