The Mabinogion

By Gwyn Jones

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781446546253

Reviews for The Mabinogion

[infjsarah · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Sadly I found the language style and way of storytelling dull. I read the first 4 mabagoni but then gave up - too much like hard work.

[avarisclari · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The stories themselves are fascinating, but between the Old English translation and the near impossible to pronounce names, this translation is a pass.

[woolgathering · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This translation was pretty painful to get through. There were several instances of tense shifting within the same sentence, all throughout the book. The entire thing seemed kind of sloppy.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a set of tales translated from the original Welsh. They were collected together in the 1350s, although some of them probably have much older origins. They are from an oral tradition that was dying out, cultural changes meant that the old Welsh mode of living was being diminished. And you can see that within these stories, there are mounted knights and jousts - surely not a part of ancient Celtic life. There are some startling images, the sheep that change colour from black to white and back again as the cross the stream, the tree that is half burning flame and half in leaf, the colourful knights and messengers. It is captivating. It doesn't always, strictly, make sense. But there is something about them that captures the imagination. In the same vein as Beowulf, and again reflecting that transition from oral to written history, you could view this as being part of the touchstone of being Welsh.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fairly confusing Welsh mythology introducing ferries and other sprites among historical figures.

[brendan.h · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first four stories are really excellent, weird old stuff from pre-christian Wales that move quickly and are consistently entertaining and surprising. I found the Arthurian stories a little less interesting, though not terrible by any stretch. The Welsh taxonomy is just fantastic, and puzzling out the correct pronunciation of character and place names (with the help of the pronunciation guide) is a great game. Wales seems to get short shrift among Celt-crazy Americans, and it seems a bit unfair after reading this.

Also recommended if you enjoyed Lloyd Alexander in your youth, as he clearly drew heavily from this and similar sources.

[petreaburchard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm giving the Mabinogion five stars because it is so much itself. These old tales are not for everyone and the language comes down to us a bit stilted, but I love the repetition and pageantry. It's dreamlike: evil giants, strange beasts, knights so powerful they kill a thousand men in a day. I love phrases like "the loudest thing anyone ever heard" and "the hoary-haired man."

It's old-fashioned. It's put-downable. And there's nothing else like it.

Petrea Burchard
Camelot & Vine

[baswood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"And they took counsel and cut out the tongues of the women lest they should corrupt their speech. And because of the silence of the women from their own speech, the men of Amorica are called Britons. From that time their came frequently, and still comes, that language from the island of Briton""And he (Lludd) dwelt therein most part of the year, and therefore was it called Caer Lludd, and at last Caer London. And after the stranger-race came there it was called London or Lwndrys"The above must be true as I read them in Lady Guest's 1849 translation of the Mabinogion. These tales were collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts and draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology. The first four stories in the collection are the oldest and are known as the four branches of the Mabinogi. Pryderi fab Pwyll from Welsh mythology occurs in all of them and they have a very medieval feel to them and are not always easy to follow. Magic features prominently in all of them and there is much going "to meat" and "taking counsel", however these feel more like crude devices to keep the story moving or to depict time passing. There is no character development: merely a relating of events, but these get a bit bogged down by the need to list the names of characters that might be relevant to the narrative.The five following tales are more recognisable because they are based around the figure of king Arthur and his knights. There are still difficulties however as in Kilhwch and Olwen there is a four page list of Arthur's knights, which are largely unrecognisable in their Welsh spellings. However all the tales have some interest especially the dream vision of Rhonabwy, which features Arthur, Gawain and flocks of ravens.The next three tales are all recognisable from Chretien de Troyes Arthurian Romances. The Lady of the Fountain has the same source material as "The knight with the lion (Yvain)" and "Peredur the son of Evrawc" and "Geraint the son of Erbin use material from "The story of the Grail". They do not however have the same Christian message as Chretien's tales for example we find this in Peredur:"Then said Peredur, to heaven I render thanks that I have not broken my vow to the Lady that best I love, which was that I would not speak one word unto any Christian"As these three tales in particular have not been dated, it is still not known whether they came from an original source or are adapted from Chretien de Troyes Arthurian Romances. The final story in the collection is Taliesin; the story of the Welsh bard and features some of the poems accredited to him. Apparently this is from a later manuscript and there is a direct reference to Christianity in the first poem that Taliesin wrote which ends like so:There lies a virtue in my tongue.While I continue thy protectorThou hast not much to fear;Remembering the name of the Trinity,None shall be able to harm thee.The Mabinogion is certainly of interest for those who wish to delve into the history of the Arthurian legends and to medievalists in general. The Lady Charlotte E Guest's translation has been criticised for a bowdlerisation of the original text and at times it feels a bit clunky. There are more recent translations available but these may not include the Taliesin poems

[tonidew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An accessible and eminently readable new translation with copious notes which are almost as interesting as the original stories themselves.

[tlachtga_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm splitting the difference between my love of the medieval collection (i.e. Y Mabinogi and the 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 wanta.) a literal translation: in that case, go with the Jones and Jones translation of the 1950s (IIRC), offered by Everymanb.) a readable translation that also tries to give the flavor of the medieval original: in that case, go with Sioned Davies' translation from 2006.c.) a translation that focuses on the pre-Christian mythology of the non-Romance tales: in that case, go with the Patrick Ford translation from the 1970s. The advantage of Ford's translation is its inclusion of the earliest version of "The Story of Taliesin"; the disadvantage is it doesn't include the Three Romances ("Peredur", "Owain", and "Gereint").d.) a translation that focuses on the environment of Wales: the Bollard translation is great for this.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eleven Welsh stories dating from the 14th century shares much content with Morte d' Arthur. Arthur and Gwenhwyfar are principle characters. The tales shares parallels with Arthur, and Homer, and yet are much simpler and rustic. Comparatively, it's as if these tales were neither written by a single genius nor had time to be refined through successive iterations of storytelling.

[yuuago · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This collection of Welsh tales is a must-read for any lover of Arthurian literature. It contains "Culhwch and Olwen", the first full-length tale (that we know of) starring Arthur and his men in its entirety. Other tales contained in this collection bear resemblance to works by Chretien de Troyes, and serve as interesting comparisons to the French variations, which people are more likely to be familiar with.

[jontseng · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Full of Welsh people with silly names, but an interesting glimpse into folk memeries from the edges of History.

[morgannakerrie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gorgeous collection of Welsh tales.

[the_literary_jedi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Probably my single most favorite collection of mythology ever, The Mabinogion is a collection of Welsh legendary tales. They are gathered and written down from the bardic tradition of song so they prose may seem a bit off in places.

Read in college (06-07)

[pmtracy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Used mainly as a reference in a course. Would have liked footnotes instead of end notes but the information was helpful. I've found more modern translations to be more easily understood as some of the arcane word patterns here made reading comprehension challenging in some parts.

[bernadette877 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jones & Jones highlight the distinctly differing styles of the anonymous manuscript writers, ranging from gritty tales where heroes die often and horribly, to courtly romances where to be a hero is to be invulnerable. I mostly enjoyed this book: there’s some really terrific tale telling. Just skip the pages where one anonymous was having all too much fun with this writing things down idea, naming every single person in Arthur's court... There are so many borrowings and adaptations of this Welsh cultural masterpiece in contemporary writing that it was all eerily half familiar. But definitely worth going back to the source.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Sixth book/seventh text in the readathon.)

It's been a long time since I read this in its entirety, if I ever did. I picked it up since I seemed to be on a role with Arthurian stuff, and was surprised to find how many of the stories do have some Arthurian aspect. I was under the impression it was only one or two.

I like the Joneses translation, although the 'thou'ing gets a little irritating and hard to read at times -- perhaps mostly once it's 8am and you haven't slept that night.

Interesting that the three prose romances at the end are pretty much copies of Chrétien de Troyes' romances. Obviously, they're rather later than 'Culhwch and Olwen'.

I was always fond of 'The Dream of Macsen Wledig', for some reason, but now I am probably most fond of 'Culhwch and Olwen'.

[mdrmoore-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The 4 Branches stories are better than the other 2 parts. The native tales and the romances seemed to be tainted with Chrétien's touch. Favorite tale: Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr(Efnisien's complexity). Least Favorite: Culhwch and Olwen( way to many lists).