The collection is thought to be considerably older than its earliest manuscript, the 13th-century Black Book of Carmarthen, and provides an important early glimpse at medieval Welsh heroic tradition and topographical folklore.
[6] A further 13 stanzas deviate from this pattern and they may be regarded as additions which derive from other sources, though some are part of a series which contains one of these set formulas.
Place-names are often absent and when described, the grave-sites may assume a variety of locations - in mountainous, hilly or flat landscapes, near waterways or churches, and even in the sea.
[4] With the exception of the four women mentioned in stanza 70, the names of the dead belong to male heroes of Welsh legend (rather than history).
[3] They receive high praise for the virile strength and prowess they have shown in battle, such as Dehewaint, a "strong pillar of warriors".
[10] The work is famous for containing an early allusion to King Arthur, whose grave is said to be one of the mysteries of the world (anoeth byd).
[12] The relation between the grave of Lleu Llaw Gyffes "under cover of the sea, / where his disgrace was, / a man who spared no one" (stanza 35) and the account of his death in the Fourth Branch is uncertain and it may be that the englyn alludes to a somewhat different story.