One of the first poets from these islands to raise a lasting elegy for companions killed in a battle he himself survived was Aneirin, sixth-century author of a sequence of elegies known as Y [The] Gododdin.

This brings to mind another text, one perhaps known to Aneirin:

Whether Aneirin intended it or not, the double coincidence of the three hundred – elsewhere in The Gododdin defined as three bands – and the one survivor, adds a tragic resonance to his poem. Not that it is a narrative, although a narrative emerges from the elegies with which the poet celebrates the exploits of those who fell at Catraeth – or some of those who fell at Catraeth.