The presenter and various commentators on the programme all seemed to be following a pro-Welsh agenda (at the end the presenter quoted, with seeming relish, that the Anglo-Saxons were "evil men". Also irritating were the comparison's made with soldiers fighting today in Afghanistan. The list of names that prefix Prime Minister's Questions each Wednesday cannot compare with the genealogical grandeur of the Battle of Gododdin's individual commemorations.
There was no reference (not even in passing) to JNL Myres theory that after the Romans left the province of Brittania regressed into anarchy, and therefore the incoming Saxons may have been regarded as the better option for the average British family. The poem seems to disprove Francis Pryor's tendentious and highly-suspect theory that there were no Anglo-Saxons in the first place (presumably he hasn't read the Battle of Gododdin). There was too much jabbering by "experts" and not enough of the poem itself.
But these are minor points - it was a very stimulating programme.
Above: excellent retelling of the ancient legends by Kathleen Herbert - privately printed and now almost unobtainable.
Above: big picture book on the history of the Celts. We are used to thinking of them as a marginal people on the edges of the British Isles, but they have a fascinating pan-European history. I was given this book over a year ago and I still have not found the time to read it, although it is more pictures than text.
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