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Revision as of 00:01, 11 July 2004 by Dave souza (talk | contribs) (formatting corrections)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Gododdin refers to both the people and to the region of a Dark Ages British kingdom south of the Firth of Forth, extending from the Stirling area to the Northumberland kingdom of 'Brynaich', and including what are now the Lothian and Borders regions of eastern Scotland. Those living around Stirling were known as the Manaw Gododdin.
In the 1st century the Romans recorded the Latin form of the name, Votadini, as a British tribe inhabiting the area.
The kingdom apparently formed about 470 AD from the break-up of the ancient British kingdom of the North. Its capital was probably at first the Traprain Law hillfort in East Lothian, moving later to 'Din Eidyn'. Scotland's capital city is still known as Dùn Èideann in Gaelic.
In the 6th century its southern neighbour 'Brynaich' was invaded by the Angles to become Bernicia. The poem Y Gododdin by the bard Aneirin, written in Brythonic (a medieval Celtic language closely akin to Welsh) records the Gododdin expedition to Catterick in North Yorkshire to try to fend off these invaders. The poem tells of the Gododdin king providing his warriors drawn from several British kingdoms with training in the form of a year's feasting in his halls in 'Din Eidyn', with much mead consumed, and gives a lyrical description of their beauty and honour and of the tragedy of their heavy defeat at the Battle of Catraeth.
The Angles invaded, and by about 638 the capital of the Gododdin, 'Din Eidyn', had fallen to siege and was renamed Edinburgh. The region came under Anglo-saxon rule. To what extent the native population was replaced is unknown.