Y Gododin

John Williams ab Ithel edition (1852)

Manuscript Source: Llyfr Aneirin, Lyfrgell Ganolog Caerdydd (Cardiff Central Library) MS 2.81
Digitisation Source: John Williams ab Ithel, Y Gododin. A Poem on the Battle of Cattraeth (London: 1852)

Project Homepage

This page offers a work-in-progress towards a semi-diplomatic edition of Williams's Welsh text. His original omits several major passages from the manuscript and also contains a large number of complex annotations on each page, cataloguing the variants in a range of early modern manuscript transcriptions (see below). Williams's footnotes are problematic in that they not only contain occasional errors (even in numbering), but are also presented in a rather crammed layout that makes them difficult to use. For the time being, the first page here (p.9) includes the footnotes, but laid out on separate lines for easier reading. With this important exception, the final version of the current reprint will be diplomatic in textual detail and overall layout. Prior to completion of this version, it is being presented in a modern font.

As a guide to Williams's complex footnotes, the following extract from of his Preface (p.x) is provided:

The different copies or versions used are distinguished as follows ;—

Nos 1 and 6 are those which are printed in the Archaiology of Wales, vol. i. All words that differ in form and meaning, though not in orthography, from those of No. 7, are duly arranged at the foot of the page, from which it will be seen that 1,2,3,5, generally agree one with the other, whilst 4 and 6 also for the most part go together.

It is to be observed, moreover, that though we have taken No.7 as our text, we have not servilely confined ourself to it, but that wherever any of the other versions have been considered preferable, we have unhesitatingly adopted them. The different meanings, however, are generally inserted in the notes.

Fuller references to the early modern transcriptions used by Williams will be provided in the near future.

This edition copyright © CyberScotia Books 2007.
Digital transcriptions, notes & additional materials copyright © Steve Sweeney-Turner 2007.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means
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without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Originally published in John Williams ab Ithel,
Y Gododin. A Poem on the Battle of Cattraeth,
By Aneurin, A Welsh Bard of the Sixth Century,
With an English Translation, & Numerous Historical & Critical Annotations.
London: William Rees 1852, pp.9-76.