Blackheath.
231. _The "Gododin."_--In the Note on "The Antiquity of Kilts," MR.
STEPHENS quotes the _Gododin_, an ancient poem, or poems, on which there
is great diversity of opinion regarding its contents. The _Gododin_ was
written or composed by Aneurin, in the dialect of the Northumbrian
Britons, about the year 510, according to Llwyd. It is evident that a
work of this description, with the usual accidents attending on
transmission, must necessarily be somewhat obscure at the present day.
Indeed, it appears to be so much so, that there are two very different
versions; one giving it as the description of a battle, in which the
intoxicated Britons were easy victims to the swords of the "stranger;"
the other version, by the Rev. E. Davies, refers it to the "Brad y
Cyllyll Hirion," (or, Plot of the Long Knives), or massacre of the
British chiefs at Stonehenge, during a feast. Now as this event is
stated to have occurred in 472, the Dinogat of Aneurin is not the
Dinogat of 577. Moreover Davies describes him as Octa, a son of the
Saxon Hengist. As MR. STEPHENS does not follow this version, and as he
has given considerable attention to those subjects, perhaps he is
enabled to decide this _questio vexata_. It should be observed that
Davies accompanies his version with reasons that give it much weight.