Aneirin, the sixth century Welsh poet, is reputed to have been one of a handful of survivors from the battle of Catraeth, which inspired his epic poem, The Gododdin. Aneirin's poem is a universal celebration of the undying theme of the ideal hero. O'Grady's belief that what Aneirin wrote of his war is true of all wars informs the purpose of his version, which is to give a `reading' of the poem as one way in which it might have been written today. With magnificent brush drawings by Louis Le Brocquy.
