differed so materially from his own.

The Gododin was evidently composed when the various occurrences that it
records were as yet fresh in the author's mind and recollection. It is
divided into stanzas, which, though they now amount to only ninety-seven, are
supposed to have originally corresponded in point of number with the
chieftains that went to Cattraeth. This is strongly intimated in the
declaration subjoined to Gorchan Cynvelyn, and cited in the notes at page 86,
and thence would we infer that the Gorchanau themselves are portions of the
Gododin, having for their object the commemoration of the persons whose names
they bear. Of course all of them, with the exception of the short one of
Adebon, contain passages that have been transposed from other stanzas, which
may account for their disproportionate lengths. This is especially the case
with Gorchan Maelderw, the latter, and by far the greater portion whereof, is
in the Carnhuanawc MS. detached from the former, and separately entitled
"Fragments of the Gododin and other pieces of the sixth century." That they
were "incantations," cannot be admitted; and if the word "gorchan," or
"gwarchan" mean here anything except simply "a canon, or fundamental part of
song," we should be inclined to consider it as synonymous with "gwarthan,"
and to suppose that the poems in question referred to the camps of Adebon,
Maelderw, and Cynvelyn:-


"Gwarchan Cynvelyn ar Ododin." {0d}


According to the tenor of the Cynvelyn statement, every stanza would bring
before us a fresh hero. This principle we have not overlooked in the
discrimination and arrangements of proper names, though owing to evident
omissions and interpolations, an irregularity in this respect occasionally