Madog Elfed Explained

Madog Elfed (Modern Welsh spelling; Madawc Elvet in standardised Middle Welsh spelling) is a hero mentioned in the medieval Welsh poem Y Gododdin, set sometime around 600, who fights and dies at the Battle of Catraeth. His real place in history has been the subject of debate.

The name Madog appears several times in Y Gododdin. In one stanza, it is associated with the epithet Elfed:

!Welsh text as found in Llyfr Aneirin!Speculative reconstruction of putative early text by John T. Koch

Neut eryueis y ued ar yg kerdetgwinuaeth rac catraeth yn vn gwaret pan ladhei ae lavnawr ynysgoget yn dayr nyt oed wael men yt welet nyt oed hyll ydellyll en emwaret. atwythic scyndauc madauc eluet.^[1]	Ar·ïbẹs med ar-ï·cerdet.Guinmaïth	rac Catraïth	ïn ünguoret. Pan·lade hâ-ï·lamno̧r, an(co)sco̧cet ï·ntaïr. Nït·ȩd guoël	men-ït·guel	et. Nït·ȩd hïll,	ȩd·ellïll	ïn·ïmm-guoret atŭuïthic scẹto̧c	Mato̧c	Elmet.^[2]
I drank off mead at one draughtOn my journey, wine-fed before Catraeth. When he struck with blades, steadfastly And eagerly, his behaviour was not base to see, He was no wretched wraith in giving support. Madog of Elfed was a destructive bearer of a shield.^[3]	He drank mead in his mobilisation for hosting.He was wine nourished for Catraeth in that same provision. When he slew with his blades, he was unshaken in battle. He was not weak wherever he was to be seen. The vengeful shield-bearer Madawg of Elmet was not inept, he was a [battle-]sprite providing deliverance.

This is the only stanza clearly to refer specifically to a 'Madog Elfed', but the other mentions of a 'Madog' are usually assumed to refer to the same character: the poem has warriors returning to 'Madog's tent' ('Pebyll Madawc'). Stanza 31 mentions him in passing alongside other fallen warriors. It is possible but not certain that we are to imagine Madog as king of Elfed.^{[4] [5]}

The Elfed in Madog's epithet has traditionally been assumed to refer to the Brittonic kingdom of Elmet in what is now West Yorkshire, in which case Y Gododdin provides interesting evidence for the salience of this kingdom in either post-Roman history, later Welsh literary imagination, or both. However, recent work has suggested that the name Elfed could have occurred elsewhere in Britain too, including Elvet near Durham,^[6] and Elvet Hundred in Carmarthenshire,^[7] and that Madog Elfed might in fact have been imagined to have come from either of those.

Notes and References

1. K. Jongeling, Hwn yw e gododin. aneirin ae cant (Gouda 2016), pp. 33-34 (XCVI, 93, B 22).
2. The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain, ed. by John T. Koch (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1997), pp. 50-51 (lines 1174-79; B 22). .
3. K. H. Jackson, The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969), p. 106.
4. K. H. Jackson, The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969), pp. 106, 109, 116, 129, 143.
5. Peter C. Bartrum, A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000 ([Aberystwyth]: National Library of Wales, 1993), s.v. Madog Elfed.
6. Mark Reginald Wakeford, 'The British Church and Anglo-Saxon Expansion: The Evidence of Saints' Cults' (unpublished Ph.D. theses, Durham University, 1998), pp. 17-19.
7. Tim Clarkson, The Men of the North: The Britons of Southern Scotland (Edinburgh: Donald, 2010), .