Cad Goddeu

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Cad Goddeu (English: The Battle of the Trees) is a sixth century Welsh poem from the Book of Taliesin. It is set during a battle fought between Gwydion and Arawn, the god of the underworld, Annwn, in which Gwydion animates the trees of the forest to fight for him. According to a summary of the story preserved in Peniarth MS 98B, the fight breaks out after the divine plowman Amaethon, Gwydion's teacher, steals dog, a lapwing, and a roebuck from Arawn, and Gwydion ultimately triumphs by guessing the name of one of Arawn's men, Bran (possibly Bran the Blessed).

Interpretation of Robert Graves

Robert Graves, who speculated that Arawn and Bran were names for the same underworld god, wrote that the battle was probably not meant as a physical one but rather a struggle of wits and scholarship. Gwydion's forces can only be defeated if the name of his companion, Lady Achren, was guessed (her name meant "Trees"), and Arawn's host can only be defeated if Bran's name is guessed (which Gwydion did). By Graves' interpretation, the trees who fight in the battle correspond to characters in the Druidic alphabet known as Ogham, where each sound is represented by a pattern of notches and a particular tree. Each tree had a meaning and significance of its own, which is how Gwydion is able to win the battle: he guesses Bran's name by the alder branch Bran carries – the alder being one of Bran's prime symbols.

Other uses

John Williams used a version of Cad Goddeu translated into Sanskrit for the soundtrack to the film . The motif of an army of trees was possibly well known in British folklore; it appears in William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

External links

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