ABSTRACT
The Gogynfeirdd regale us with tales of the Achillean exploits of their patrons, the king-princes of Wales, who are to be found, almost without exception, in the midst of battle leading their men by heroic example. Contemporaries were concerned only with winners, princes who fitted their ideal of the consummate warrior, and for them the eulogists would ensure a fitting and lasting memorial. The princes were war-leaders, and as such, their acknowledged generalship notwithstanding, they were expected to be ‘the foremost warriors’ leading their troops from the front rather than urging them on from the back. The native lawbooks make clear what constituted the spoils of war and what the prince and his warriors could expect by way of recompence for their efforts in the field. Hostage-taldng for political rather than purely financial purposes was very much a matter for kings and princes.
