The Mabinogion

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A fascinating mixture of high drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy, humor, and unique vision of ancient British history, the tales preserved in The Mabinogion represent a treasure of ancient Celtic myth as set down in the medieval age by unknown Welsh authors with groundbreaking literary skills. Rhiannon is included in various Celtic neopaganism traditions since the 1970s, with varying degrees of accuracy in respect to the original literary sources.

Parker, Will. "Mabinogi Translations." Mabinogi Translations, 2003. Reliable online text extremely useful for fast lookup, or copying quotes. See here David V. Barrett, "James, John" in St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers, edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996, ISBN 9781558622050 (pp. 308-9) . The stories drew on folklore, myths, and some history from Wales and other parts of Britain of the time just after the Romans left. Add in magic, dreams, and other worldliness and you have a heady mix of romance, violence, and manners. I'm splitting the difference between my love of the medieval collection (i.e. Y Mabinogi and other Welsh tales) and Lady Charlotte Guest's sometimes-bowdlerized, romanticized, nineteenth-century (and I mean that in the worst possible way) translation (which would garner at best two stars, because I'm feeling generous). The real advantage of this book is if you're interested in the history of how the Mabinogion has been treated in the English language; otherwise, you should decide if you want Before Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain or the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes, there was The Mabinogion, the extraordinary collection of ancient Welsh mythology and legend regarded by many as Britain's earliest known prose literary work.A wonderfully curious collection of old Welsh tales. Not exactly literature, not exactly folktales, not exactly mythology. Like folk tales and mythology it’s the expression of a collective mindset, yet it’s also the product of individual (now anonymous) authors elaborating upon or distilling long existent oral tales, more than likely preserved across centuries by highly skilled bards. The introduction refers to them as Wondertales, actually an official subset of Folktales. Sounds wonderful to me. This new edition contains the definitive translation of the work by Lady Charlotte Guest, undoubtably the most accessible of those published. It also contains over 50 colour paintings by Alan Lee, many appearing here for the first time. Best known for his work on the illustrated editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, it was always Alan Lee’s ambition to illustrate THE MABINOGION, as it combines his main interests of folklore, legend and the supernatural. His style lends itself perfectly to the work and his interpretation will give enormous pleasure as the stories enter their third millennium. As Peredur pauses in meditation, he is approached by knight after knight from Arthur’s court, each hoping to speak with him. Wishing to instead remain in his meditation, he defeats these men in combat, until Gwalchmei rouses him from his trance with friendly words, and a welcoming demeanor. Strange and otherworldly, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi are unquestionably the jewels of this collection of medieval Welsh mythology and folklore. In volume they make up only a little over a third of the book, but trust me — this is what you are here for.

a b c d e "Amazing Artworks By Alan Lee". Art. KlingPost. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010.

Here are the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, four separate but intricately interconnected stories portraying a legendary Britain united under one king, and seven so-called 'independent' tales, among them the earliest known stories of King Arthur – legends that appear nowhere else -- as well as Welsh versions of tales that also appear in the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes and others. bw): Hans Dreier, John Meehan, Samuel M. Comer, Ray Moyer / (c): Hans Dreier, Walter Tyler, Samuel M. Comer, Ray Moyer

The last chapter reflects upon castles from fantasy literature - the Castle of Earthly Paradise, Oberon's Castle of Gold, Dracula's Castle, Poe's Castle of the Red Death, Barad-Dur, the Dark Tower of Mordor and Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, and even Gormenghast from Mervyn Peake's the Gormenghast Trilogy. In it people are transformed into eagles, owls, maidens are created from flowers, but my favorite one must be when Math punished brothers Gwydion son of Dôn and Gilfaethwy son of Dôn for raping the virgin Goewin by transforming them first into hind and stag for the year, then into wild boar and a wild sow, and finally into a wolf and she-wolf and making them procreate with each other. To be fair, Math fostered all resulting children.

Alan Lee

The people in these stories come from all over Celtic history and folklore, and some are pure products of the imagination of those sharing these tales. Others are more ambiguous, being possibly based on real people or the fusion of multiple legendary people into a single character. In the epic “Owein, or the Countess of the Fountain”, one of the members of Arthur’s court is Kynan, a man also mentioned in Y Gododdin, said to be at the Battle of Catraeth. In this same tale, Owein is said to be the son of Urien, historical king of Reghed, who appears as the subject of many old Welsh poems.