We do not know the date of Aneurin's birth, we only know the date of his death which occurred in 578; he is therefore a 6th century Bard. His father is given as Caw-al-Geraint, chief of the Gododins, that is to say inhabitants of a region neighboring the forests.
Aneurin the Bard
Having escaped death following the Battle of Cattracth, he took refuge at the court of King Arthur in South Wales, where he befriended Taliésin. Aneurin left us only one poem, the Gododins, which contains no less than 900 rhymed lines, but of irregular length, and this whole only forms a part, a fragment of the poem dedicated to the memory of the warriors , who succumbed at the battle of Cattracth, defeated by the Saxons, in which battle 359 chiefs perished.
Only four were able to escape death and Aneurin was one of the four; but he was taken prisoner after the battle. It was during his captivity that he composed his poem, as he is careful to teach us himself:
“In this underground house, despite the iron chain that binds my knees, is not my song of the Gododins more beautiful than the Dawn? »
