Men Went To Cattraeth

by John James

The Battle of Cattreath is one of the great unknowns of early British history. A small band of men from the 'Old North' of Britain, the Gododdin, mount an audacious assault on the Angle stronghold of Cattreath.

Most of the information we have comes from a single poem, the Y GODODDIN, and it is this that inspires John James' dark, powerful and original retelling of the attack. With stark prose and powerful description, James takes an almost-forgotten story and makes it real.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

David John James was a Welsh author of Historical Novels.

He attended St David's University College, and also read psychology at Cambridge. In addition to writing he has also worked as a teacher and later for the Scientific Civil Service working on aviation problems.

He is known for writing four historical novels set in early medieval Britain and Europe. Neil Gaiman is an admirer of James, especially his novel Votan, which provided one model for American Gods calling it “I think probably the best book ever done about the Norse”. . James's skilful evocation of life and myths of Dark Age Europe also won him the admiration of neo-pagan authors John and Caitlin Matthews.

Reviews

[Howard Wiseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark vision of the dark ages, brilliantly imagined

This is an historical novel (NOT fantasy), which intersects with the story of Arthur (NOT King) of the Britons, but which tells a different tale. It it the tale of the battle of Cattraeth (probably Catterick in Yorkshire), generally dated to the late 6th century. However, like so much else in this period, this dating is debatable, and James chooses to set it much earlier (around 491 seems to be indicated on p.8), when Arthur is still a toddler. Apart from this, the story follows a conventional interpretation of the poem of Aneirin, which is the only account of the battle: [SPOILERS FOLLOW] 300 or so British horsemen, feasted for a year by Mynydog of Eiddin (Edinburgh), rode to war against the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria, and ultimately to their death at Catterick.

The novel is the first-person recollection of Aneirin, one of the few Britons who survived the battle, and is very dark in tone. War and the clash of cultures are its themes, but Aneirin reveals snippets of the bigger story, from the coming of the Saxons in the time of Vortigern to the triumph of Arthur.

James' descriptions of war and genocide are horrifying to modern sensibilities. It was obvious to me (if not all the reviewers here) that James shares our horror, and sympathizes with the Saxons, even while he skillfully maintains Aneirin's Dark-Age sensibility and anti-Saxon polemics throughout. As in Parke Godwin's Arthurian novels, James makes much of the difference between British and Saxon societies, but in even more extreme ways. The aristocratic Britons are a free-spritited warrior society, but also poetic: "The true aim of a kingdom is to nurture poets" says their war-leader. Aneirin and his comrades despise the "Savages" for having a so-called King who does manual work alongside his subjects, and for the way they kill and clear the forests to grow wheat ("the evil plant"), to support a dense population of bread-eaters. When Aneirin makes it back to British territory, he celebrates how he can hunt for his dinner again, eating "as a free man ... food gained not by sweat and labour of hands but by guile and skill."

There is a tragic irony in the novel greater than the optimism of the doomed expedition to Catterick: Anerin and the Britons steadfastly conceive of themselves as Romans, and their ways as civilized ways, whereas the reader recognizes that the Saxons are in many ways more civilized than the Britons. Aneirin says the Savages "have wizards to conjure [their] ships together, making the sides firm with planks of oak, because they have not the wisdom to sew leather as civilized people do". Even the Britons' Christianity is suspect, as they worship the Virgin rather than God or the Christ. Despite these dramatic ironies, the heroes of Cattraeth do not die in vain, even by their own terms: the last of them die knowing they will be immortalized by Aneirin: "If we have died only that a poem is made, then we have died for a better thing than ever we lived for."

While the differences between Saxon and Briton are exaggerated for dramatic purposes, in general the description of life and battle seem authentic, and there are very few obvious errors of fact or slips. My only major criticism is that Mynydog's motivation for sending the 300 to their doom, revealed in the last chapter, is not plausible. Although it ties the story more closely to Arthur's rise to power, it weakened the whole book I thought. Still a must-read for dark-age history fans though.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a fascinating, if highly fanciful, interpretation of the enigmatic Dark Age poem, "The Gododdin" by Aneirin,a celebrated British bard. The fragments of the poem which have survived are written in an archaic Welsh which was the common language of Wales, North England and the Scottish lowlands in this period (late 6th century ?). Aneirin was probably a bard at the royal court in Dun Eidinn, present day Edinburgh.

The theme of the poem (& novel) is how 300 picked warriors of the Gododdin, the Men of the North, rode to Cattraeth to do battle with the Anglo-Saxon English and were destoyed almost to a man. Their defeat was traditionally attributed to over indulgence in strong drink beforehand. Given that these are proto-Scots we're talking about, this is a not unreasonable supposition but we must not ignore the fact they were also seriously outnumbered. Nothing is now known of when and where the battle took place but Cattraeth is usually associated with Catterick in North Yorkshre, now, ironically, a large Army camp.

The author takes these few tantalising scraps and weaves a compelling tale of heroic sacrifice, treachery, and violent death from them. Most interesting is his contrast and compare approach to the Celtic and Saxon mind sets. The Celts are portrayed as nature loving & poetic, if given to extreme violence at the drop of a hat, the Saxons as dull little farmers whose chief aim in life is to destroy the natural woodland cover of Britain in order to plant wheat and rear more dull little farmers. There is a certain melancholy if you are a descendant of the defeated in knowing how the story inevitably ends i.e. with lots and lots of the descendants of the dull little farmers esconced in lands that are lost now. Cattraeth is one of the great "might have beens" of British history. If the Gododdin had been just a tad more temperate we might have been spared cricket and Maggie Thatcher.

This is an old book now (published in 1969 originally) but it's worthwhile looking out for a copy as it's a highly entertaining read, especially if you're from the Celtic fringe and can gleefully reflect on the fact that,despite the best efforts of those dull little farmers, we are still here and as intemperate as ever.

[Meredith McGhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is told in the first person, by Aneirin, the bard of ancient Britain who is said to be the author of Y Gododdin. Some scholars claim this is the oldest poem of Britain, written in the fifth or sixth century in the language that evolved into Welsh, Cornish and Breton. There is considerable robust debate among academics about just who the men of the ancient Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin were fighting at Cattraeth. In this book, they are fighting the savage Saxon invaders, and the book does contain depictions of violence and unabashed hatred of the Brittonic tribe for the Saxons, to the point where entire villages are slain. Even so, Aneirin is a sympathetic narrator and I was intrigued by how the author tied Y Gododdin to the myth of "king" Arthur. At the end I was left with a melancholic feeling, but a greater understanding of the Early Historic period's warrior culture and their rather heathen brand of Christianity, which the author envisioned as worship of the Holy Virgin more than of Jesus or God. I thought it was a nice touch that the Gododdin thought of themselves as more Roman than the Romans. It's quite plausible that this was the case in the decades after the legionaries pulled out of Britain. And this is one of the few books that shows the Picts as the Britons they were, rather than "barbarians" speaking a non-Indo-European language. One thing that remains a mystery is why this book was marketed as fantasy. Refreshingly, it's a straight-up historical novel with no dragons or spells. I will definitely look for other works by John James.

[Michelle Brass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for this kind of book. The author has built a novel from the epic of the Gododdin. The setting in dark age Britain is well done and Aneirin's voice and perspective feel right. I read the Kindle version and while I'm grateful to the publisher for making this out of print book available at a good price, there were some errors and missing words.

[Francis Hagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this more than once in my early twenties and being struck by how beautifully it captured the elegiac tone of the period.

Re-reading it now for the first time in over 30 years only reinforces how well-written and powerful this work is. There is a sadness and poignancy in the writing which both manages to capture the heroism of the northern British while also starkly revealing their flaws and ignorance. 'Men Went To Cattraeth' stands as a testimony to the times in Britain when the early English were arriving and the old remnants of the sub-Roman states and federate tribes were reeling back in despair - but more, it takes you into the subtle mind of a poet imbued with the ethos of the time and the horror which awaits him far south in the lost lands about Catterick.

Few novels, I think, survive re-reading in your later years to still capture the thrill you felt when you first read them. This is one of those few.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one by John James. We are introduced to a new narrator, the Roman Bard Aneirin. Aneirin is convinced to join a legion of Roman soldiers, that have lived in the British colonies for some time, on an expedition to take out the "Savages" that are attempting to usurp the land back for themselves.

In typical James style, we follow Aneirin through a number of adventures and are introduced to many characters, some new and others from tales we are all familiar with (read the Legend of Arthur).

Of the three novels I have read by this author, this one has the saddest ending, however the most realistic. It is a long journey to see our heroes fail, but well worth it.

Choke full of legend and hints of real history, this was definitely an enjoyable read.

[Steve Switzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the nearest evocation of what it may have been like to have been in a celtic warband during the Saxon takeover of lowland Britain
Better even than Cornwalls 'Warlord' chronicles this has the missing heartbeat of the mournful celtic bard woven into it far more convincingly
Considering when it was written it is somehow just as convincing now as then rather like alfred duggans ability to remain relevant throughout the ensuing years

[A.M. Steiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In MEN WENT TO CATTRETH James finally gets fully serious, and the result is astonishing. In a story that would be sold today as "extreme grimdark", James refashions an ancient Welsh poem as a meditation on conflicts between alien cultures, ethnic cleansing, immigration, power politics, love, art and above all war. It is ridiculously brilliant, absolutely up there on my best of the best list.

[Brendan Howlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Arthurian romance

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Jingoism and pointless cruelty, powerfully written from the perspective of the complicit and sectarian.