The Gododdin cover art

The Gododdin

Lament for the Fallen

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The Gododdin

By: Gillian Clarke
Narrated by: Ceri Wyn Jones, Gillian Clarke
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About this listen

The timeless and compelling 'word-music' of one of Britain's oldest cultural treasures is captured in this new bilingual edition.

The Gododdin charts the rise and fall of 363 warriors in the battle of Catraeth, around the year AD 600. The men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin rose to unite the Welsh and the Picts against the Angles, only to meet a devastating fate. Composed by the poet Aneirin, the poem was originally orally transmitted as a sung elegy, passed down for seven centuries before being written down in early Welsh by two medieval scribes. It is composed of one hundred laments to the named characters who fell and follows a sophisticated alliterative poetics. Former National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke animates this historical epic with a modern musicality, making it live in the language of today and underscoring that, in a world still beset by the misery of war, Aneirin's lamentation is not done.

©2021 Gillian Clarke (P)2021 Faber Audio European Poetry World Literature

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A paean from one poet to another, resurrecting the glory and grief of war and the passing of a way of life. I loved hearing the old Welsh, the beauty of the complex musical rhyming making it not only a sublime art form but exemplifying how sung versions would be easily remembered and passed on down the centuries . Gillian Clarke brings a poet’s sensibility to the English translation.

Echoes through time

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To hear the welsh and English side by side was fantastic! The work is emotional and Gillian has fulfilled an epic! Best work I have listen to in years. Thank you Gillian

The most amazing and beautiful art!

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I only have O level Welsh language but could hear the metrical construction. I was wondering if it could be reconfigured to give optional all Welsh or all English playthrough? Generally, a cautionary tale. Don't fight a battle after getting wasted on mead for a year

I rather liked the Welsh / English format

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What a wonderful telling of a great battle.
The Welsh reader is magnificent. Read with emotion . The English translation is also emotional. I purchased the book to read
Along with.
Highly recommended. Such beauty. Raw emotion something to listen to again and again.


Wow emotional

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After Gillian Clarke gives a greatly informative introduction, the amazing journey of this piece of digital audio artwork begins. The combination of stanzas in Welsh & English next to each other is remarkable in the way it works. The passion comes through with great force. Ceri Wyn Jones is truly stunning in his reading and even if you don't know a word of the language he will transmit the emotion across perfectly. Gillians translation is wonderful too in the way it does much the same despite being in English and her performance is exquisite.

This audiobook will be the most played in my library within a couple of days, it is everything an audiobook should be and is a true work of art. Diolch.

A must buy on Audible, breathtaking.

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