Manaw Gododdin
Manaw Gododdin was the narrow coastal region on the south side of the Firth of Forth, part of the Brythonic-speaking Kingdom of Gododdin in the post-Roman Era. It is notable as the homeland of Cunedda prior to his conquest of North Wales, and as the homeland of the heroic warriors in the literary epic Y Gododdin. Pressed by the Picts expanding southward and the Northumbrians expanding northward, it was permanently destroyed in the 7th century and its territory absorbed into the then-ascendant Kingdom of Northumbria.
The lands both south and north of the Firth of Forth were known as 'Manaw', but from the post-Roman Era forward, only the southern side is referred to as Manaw Gododdin, the Manaw associated with the people of Gododdin. Manaw Gododdin was adjacent to – and possibly included in – Eidyn, the region surrounding modern Edinburgh.
Though Manaw Gododdin was located within the territory of modern Scotland, as a part of Yr Hen Ogledd it is also an intrinsic part of Welsh history, as both the Welsh and the Men of the North were self-perceived as a single people, collectively referred to as Cymry. The arrival in Wales of Cunedda of Manaw Gododdin in c. 450 is traditionally considered to be the beginning of the history of modern Wales.
The name appears in literature as both Manaw Gododdin and Manau Gododdin. The modern Welsh form is spelled with a 'w'.
Name survivals
The Gaelic form of the name is Manann. Like Manaw, its etymology is uncertain, with neither form necessarily owing a heritage to the other. In the Early Middle Ages, Brythonic was replaced by Gaelic in the region of Manaw. It was common to retain original place-names, but to alter the pronunciation to be in accord with the language that was then current.Manaw Gododdin
South of the Firth of Forth and River Forth the name survives in the name of Slamannan Moor and the village of Slamannan, in Falkirk. This is derived from Sliabh Manann, 'Mount Manann'. It also appears in the name of Dalmeny, some 5 miles northwest of Edinburgh. It was formerly known as Dumanyn, assumed to be derived from Dun Manann.
Pictish Manaw
North of the Forth it survives in the name of the burgh of Clackmannan and the eponymous county of Clackmannanshire. This is derived from Clach Manann, the 'stone of Manann', referring to a monument stone located there.
Treatment by historians
With little known about Manaw Gododdin, there is little that can be said of it with any authority. Aside from parenthetical references to it as Cunedda's homeland, discussion is scant. William Forbes Skene has a chapter on "Manau Gododdin and the Picts", and later historians either repeat him or cite him, but do not add more. Kenneth Jackson provides the same information as Skene, enhanced by his notice and commentary on some of the speculations and conjectures made by historians in the century since Skene published his work. He adds that the early Irish form of the name Gododdin is Fortudán.John Koch incorporates some of Skene's material on Manaw, including an independent view of the historical record, but also asserting conjectures as though they were facts.
John Rhys both repeats and cites Skene, but adds nothing new. John Edward Lloyd makes only a few comments about Manaw in passing, and John Davies omits even that. Christopher Snyder mentions Manaw twice in passing, saying nothing about it there or in his references to the literary Y Gododdin. D. P. Kirby mentions Manaw several times, but only in passing and with no information about it. Alistair Moffat makes several passing references to Manaw Gododdin and Gododdin.
In general, there is as much information about Manaw to be found in literary discussions as in historical ones and often more, though it is not more than Skene provided. For example, John Morris-Jones, in his comprehensive discussion of works attributed to Taliesin, repeats and cites the information provided by Skene that is typically omitted in historical works.
Regional history
The earliest reliable information on the region of the Firth of Forth during the time when Manaw Gododdin existed is from the archaeology of Roman Britain. The homeland of the Votadini, like those of the Damnonii and Novantae, was not planted with forts, suggesting that the peoples of these regions had reached an amicable understanding with the Romans, and consequently these tribes or kingdoms continued to exist throughout the Roman Era. There is no indication that the Romans ever waged war against any of these peoples.However, the Romans were frequently at war with the more northerly peoples now known as Picts, and their military lines of communication were well-fortified. This includes the road through Manaw Gododdin, the northern end of Dere Street.
The earliest reliable historical reference to the peoples of Northern Britain is from the Geography of Ptolemy in c. AD 150. He says that this was the territory of the Otadini, a people later known as the Kingdom of Gododdin. Their lands were along the coast of south-eastern Scotland and north-eastern England, and included the lands along the Firth of Forth, both north and south of it.
Ptolemy says that in 150 both the Damnonii and the Otadini possessed the land north of the Firth of Forth and south of the Firth of Tay. The Picts were constantly pressing southward, and by the early 3rd century the Roman Emperor Severus ineffectively campaigned against them. Known then as the Maeatae, the local Picts would ultimately push south to the Firth of Forth and beyond, and by the 7th century the Votadini were being squeezed between them and the Anglian Bernicians, who were expanding northward.
Neither Gododdin nor Manaw Gododdin could have existed as a kingdom beyond the 7th century. The Kingdom of Northumbria was ascendant, and it would conquer all of Scotland south of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. The definitive years were the middle of the 7th century, when Penda of Mercia led an alliance of Mercians, Cymry, East Anglians, and Deirans against Bernicia. Penda was defeated and killed at the Battle of Winwaed in 655, ending the alliance and cementing Bernician control over all of Britain between the English Midlands and the Scottish firths. Bernicia was again united with Deira to form Northumbria as the premier military power of the era. Alt Clut soon re-established its independence, but all other Brythonic kingdoms north of the Solway and Tyne were gone.