Editing Cad Goddeu (section)

==Interpretations==
There are contemporary passing allusions to the Battle of Trees elsewhere in the medieval Welsh collections: The [[Welsh Triads]] record it as a "frivolous" battle, while in another poem of the ''Book of Taliesin'' the poet claims to have been present at the battle.

According to a summary of a similar story preserved in Peniarth MS 98B (which dates from the late sixteenth century) the poem describes a battle between Gwydion and [[Arawn]], the Lord of [[Annwn]]. The fight broke out after the divine plowman [[Amaethon]] stole a [[dog]], a [[northern lapwing|lapwing]], and a [[roe deer|roebuck]] from Arawn. Gwydion ultimately triumphed by guessing the name of one of Arawn's men, Bran (possibly [[Bran the Blessed]]).

In the Mabinogi story of the childhood of [[Lleu Llaw Gyffes]], Gwydion makes a forest appear to be an invading force.

The ''Cad Goddeu'', which is difficult to translate because of its laconic allusiveness and grammatical ambiguity, was the subject of several nineteenth-century speculative commentaries and English renderings. [[Thomas Stephens (historian)|Thomas Stephens]] held the poem to concern "a Helio-Arkite superstition, the metempsychosis of a Chief Druid, and a symbolical account of the Deluge".<ref>[[Thomas Stephens (historian)|Thomas Stephens]], ''Literature of the Cymry,'' 1848, quoted in Nash, op cit.</ref> [[Gerald Massey]]'s monumental work on African origins suggested that the poem reflected Egyptian religion.<ref>[[Gerald Massey]], ''Book of the Beginnings'' vol 1, reprinted 2002, Kessinger Publishing, {{ISBN|0-7661-2652-8}}, page 361.</ref>

[[David William Nash]] believed it was a poor-quality twelfth-century romance overlaying a romance or story of the Arthurian era and put together with other poetic fragments.<ref>[[David William Nash]], ''Taliesin, Or, The Bards and Druids of Britain: A Translation of the Remains'', J. R. Smith, 1848.</ref> [[W. F. Skene]] rejected the antiquity of the prose account and thought the poem reflected the history of the north country during the Irish incursions.<ref>[[W. F. Skene]], ''The Four Ancient Books of Wales,'' 1868, republished 2004 Kessinger Publishing, {{ISBN|0-7661-8610-5}}, page 206</ref> Watson followed Skene and [[Ifor Williams]] posed the question 'What about the [[Historia Brittonum#Arthur's battles|Battle of Celyddon Wood]]?'

[[Robert Graves]] took up a speculation that had been considered and rejected by Nash; that the trees that fought in the battle correspond to the [[Ogham]] alphabet, in which each character is associated with a particular tree. Each tree had a meaning and significance of its own, and Gwydion guessed Bran's name by the [[alder]] branch Bran carried, the alder being one of Bran's prime symbols. Graves argued that the original poet had concealed druidic secrets about an older matriarchal Celtic religion for fear of censure from Christian authorities. He suggested that Arawn and Bran were names for the same underworld god and that the battle was probably not physical but rather a struggle of wits and scholarship: Gwydion's forces could only be defeated if the name of his companion, Lady Achren ("Trees"), was guessed and Arawn's host only if Bran's name was guessed.

Graves, following Nash, accepted that the poem is a composite of several different sections, among which he named a ''Hanes [[Taliesin]]'' (''History of Taliesin'') and a ''Hanes [[Blodeuwedd]]'' (History of Blodeuwedd).

Marged Haycock and Mary Ann Constantine reject the idea that ''Cad Goddeu'' encodes ancient pagan religions as Graves believed but rather see it as a burlesque, a grand parody of bardic language. Francesco Bennozo argues that the poem represents ancient fears of the forest and its magical powers. Trudy Carmany Last suggests that ''Cad Goddeu'' is a Celtic variant of Virgil’s ''Aeneid''.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/39637092/T Trudy Carmany Last, 'The "Battle of the Trees": Arthur, the Prophecy of Virgil, and the "Aeneid"']</ref>