Llyfr Aneirin

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Page 23 of the Llyfr Aneirin , transition of the A text (stanza A88) with an incomplete final red ribbon into the B text (stanza B1–4) with black initials

The Llyfr Aneirin (Eng. "Book of Aneirin"), Cardiff (Central Library) MS 2.81, is a Welsh manuscript and the only medieval source for Y Gododdin . It is dated to the second half of the 13th century. The first page of the manuscript begins at the top right with the heading : Hwn yw e gododin. aneirin ae cant. “This is the Gododdin. Aneirin sang it. "

description

The manuscript is approximately 17 cm × 13 cm and has 19 folios (leaves). It was numbered 1-38 in the first half of the 18th century (paginated). The manuscript was never foiled, i.e. H. never provided with a page count.

The manuscript consists of five layers and was written by two scribes (A and B) at different times. The fifth layer is incomplete. Of the original eight folios, three are still included. The text breaks off on the last page in the middle of the stanza. Layers 1–3 and 4–5 were probably kept separately for a longer period of time and were not finally bound together until around 1650 at the instigation of the Welsh manuscript collector Robert Vaughan. The top of layer 4 (page 25) shows significant wear. The text by scribe A was provided with alternating red and blue initials for the individual stanzas and decorative ribbons. The blue ribbons are not always completely executed. Schreiber B only used black ink and followed Schreiber A in handling the initials, but without adding decorative ribbons.

content

In addition to a total of 130 stanzas of Gododdin , the manuscript contains four, compared to the Gododdin stanzas, mostly somewhat longer poems, the so-called gorchanau (Wal. Gorchan or gwarchan , Pl. Gorchanau or gwarchanau "song, poem"), whose title - Gorchan Tutvwlch , Gwarchan Adebon , Gorchan Kynvelyn and Gwarchan Maelderw - to be given in rubrics. Between Gorchan Kynvelyn and Gwarchan Maelderw there is a longer rubric that gives indications of the evaluation of Gododdin and Gorchanau when reciting in a poetic contest (Wal. Ymryson ) and ascribes the authorship of Gwarchan Maelderw to Taliesin . Little historical authority is assigned to this so-called "rubric of the Gorchanau ". With the exception of Gwarchan Adebon , which is a short collection of proverbs, the Gorchanau are also heroic poetry.

Layers 1-3
  • Pp. 1–23 above: Y Gododdin , verses 1–88 of the text by Schreiber A
  • P. 23 above – 24: Y Gododdin , verses 1–6 of the text by scribe B
Layers 4-5
  • Pp. 25–26: Gorchan Tutvwlch (clerk A)
  • Pp. 26–27: Gwarchan Adebon (clerk A)
  • Pp. 27–28: Gorchan Kynvelyn (clerk A)
  • P. 28: Gorchanau rubric (clerk A)
  • P. 28–30: Gwarchan Maelderw (clerk A)
  • Pp. 30–38: Y Gododdin , stanzas 7–42 of the text by Schreiber B

Scribe A put in layers 1–3, copied the Gododdin stanzas he had on hand, and at the end of layer 3 left almost two pages free. At another point in time he started Layer 4 with the Gorchanau , leaving two and a half pages blank after completing Gwarchan Maelderw . At a later point in time, scribe B filled in the pages left blank by scribe A with his text by Gododdin and added another layer (layer 5).

Often in the Gododdin text of scribe A one speaks of "A text" and in the text of scribe B of "B text". Chronologically and historically, the texts fall into three layers. Text B 24–42 is the oldest text, text B 1–23 is more recent, and A text is the youngest text. Some stanzas are contained several times in a maximum of five variants, so that Y Gododdin in Ifor Williams' standard edition Canu Aneirin , in which the stop variants are grouped, has 103 instead of 130 stanzas.

Rubric of the Gorchanau

"Eman e tervyna gwarchan kynvelyn. Canu vn canuawc a dal pob awdyl or gododin herwyd breint yng kerd amrysson. Tri chanu a thriugeint a thrychant a dal pob vn or gwarchaneu. Sef achaws yw am goffau ene gorchaneu riuedi e gwyr a aethant e gatraeth. Noc a dele gwr mynet y emlad heb arveu; ny dele bard mynet e amrysson heb e gerd honn. Eman weithyon e dechreu gwarchan maelderw. Talyessin ae cant ac a rodes breint idaw. not ac e odleu e gododin oll ae dri gwarchan yng kerd amrysson. "

“This is where Gwarchan Kynvelyn ends. Each stanza from the Gododdin is worth as much as a complete poem in terms of competitive standing. Each of the Gwarchanau is worth three poems and three times twenty and three hundred [363]. For the following reason: because in the Gorchanau the number of men who went to Catraeth is thought of. A man should not go into battle without weapons, nor should a bard enter a contest without this poem. This is where Gwarchan Maelderw begins. Talyessin sang it and gave it its prestige - as great as that of the stanzas of the entire Gododdin and his three Gwarchanau in a competition. "

Interpolations

Some stanzas do not belong to Gododdin , but have entered the text through additions in the margins ( marginalia ) that were integrated into the text in later copies:

  • A44 = a stanza ( englyn ) about Cyny the son of Llywarch Hen
  • A45–46 = "Aneirin's captivity"
  • A52 = prologue of the reciter
  • A78 = "The Battle of Srath Carruin"
  • A87 = "Peis Dinogat" (a lullaby)
  • B1 = "The Battle of Srath Carruin"
  • B2 = prologue of the reciter

literature

Facsimile
  • J. Gwenogvryn Evans: The text of the Book of Aneirin . Pwllheli 1908.
  • Daniel Huws & J. Gwenogvryn Evans: Llyfr Aneirin. A facsimile . South Glamorgan County Council, The National Library of Wales, 1989, ISBN 0-907158-33-1 .
Text editions and translations
  • Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson: The Gododdin. The Oldest Scottish Poem . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1969 (English, translation, standard abbreviation GOSP).
  • AOH Jarman: Aneirin: Y Gododdin . Gomer, Llandysul 1988 (edition in modern orthography with English translation).
  • John T. Koch: The Gododdin of Aneirin. Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain . University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1997 (reconstructed original text with English translation).
  • John T. Koch, John Carey: The Celtic heroic age: literary sources for ancient Celtic Europe & early Ireland & Wales . 4th edition. Celtic Studies Publications, Aberystwyth 2009, ISBN 978-1-891271-09-0 .
  • Martin Rockel: Old Welsh hero poetry . Reclam, Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-379-00416-2 (German translation from Cymric).
  • Ifor Williams: Canu Aneirin . Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd 1938 (Welsh edition, standard abbreviation CA).
  • William F. Skene: Book of Aneurin . In: The four ancient books of Wales. Containing the Cymric poems attributed to the bards of the sixth century. tape 2 . Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh 1868, OCLC 502548712 , p. 62-107 (Welsh, archive.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniel Huws & J. Evans Gwenogvryn: Llyfr Aneirin. A facsimile. South Glamorgan County Council, The National Library of Wales 1989.
  2. ↑ cf. z. B. Kenneth H. Jackson: The Gododdin. The Oldest Scottish Poem. Edinburgh 1969, pp. 51-53.
  3. ^ First in Kenneth H. Jackson's English translation The Gododdin. The Oldest Scottish Poem. Edinburgh 1969.
  4. ↑ Ifor Williams: Canu Aneirin. Caerdydd 1938, p. 55.

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