The Gododdin. A Version by Desmond O’Grady. Ink Paintings by Louis Le Brocquy. Dublin: Dolmen press, 1977. Pp, 78. Black cloth lettered in white, image blocked to upper cover. In pictorial dust jaclet. A fine bright copy.

From the Welsh of the sixth century poet Aneirin, 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.