Y Gododdin

Matter of Britain Document

Summary: Elegiac series on a disastrous British raid on Catraeth. One stanza says a warrior 'glutted black ravens on the rampart, though he was no Arthur' - possibly the earliest Arthur reference, if the line is not a later interpolation.
Date: text c. 600, manuscript c. 1250
Language: Old/Middle Welsh
Where scholars disagree: Whether the Arthur line belongs to the archaic core or to a later stratum is unresolved, which makes it unusable as firm evidence for a sixth-century Arthur.