[2] Ifor Williams offers some support for their identification as Picts, pointing out that the adversaries are envisaged as horsemen, to judge by the allusion to rawn eu kaffon "manes of their horses" (line 22).
Koch breaks with the long-held view that the disaster at Catraeth was a battle against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia and points to the participation of warriors from Rheged.
He equates the two battles of the poems, suggesting that they both refer to a conflict between the dynasty of Urien, i.e. the Coeling or descendants of Coel Hen, and the Gododdin, who in Gweith Gwen Ystrat, as in Y Gododdin, are shown assisted by the Pictish troops (see above) but are not otherwise named.
[6] However, on re-editing the poem, Graham Isaac argues against Koch's methods and conclusions and suggests instead that Gweith Gwen Ystrat may have been composed in the 11th century or later.
[7] Moreover, the Gododdin are not mentioned in the poem and the presumed presence of Picts hinges on an unnecessary emendation for a word which makes sense on its own right.