The ancient Celts loved a good story, and the Welsh were no exception. The Celtic bard, or traveling storyteller, was a most revered figure in Wales, enchanting his audiences with myth, legend, and history, retelling the bare bones of a tale from a combination of his own memory and the enlightenment of his astute imagination. In this way, Welsh folklore evolved over the centuries.
The surviving myths of the Mabinogi are a collection of several stories. The tales, which are outwardly concerned with the lives of various Welsh royal families – figures who represent the gods of an older, pre-Christian mythological order – are themselves much older in origin. The tales themselves are concerned with the themes of fall and redemption, loyalty, marriage, love, fidelity, the wronged wife, and incest. They’re set in a bizarre and magical landscape which corresponds geographically to the western coast of south and north Wales, and are full of white horses, enchantresses, fair folk, giants, beautiful, intelligent women and heroic men.
Though due to the traveling bard and his poetic genius, the stories were told and retold, altered and embellished quite a number of times. After finally put to paper, errors were produced when copied by hand. The first translator of the stories, Lady Charlotte Guest, mistakenly thought the plural of Mabinogi (there were four stories, or “branches” to the Mabinogi proper) would be Mabinogion, and the title has stuck. Scholars only guess that the title may refer to “a tale of youth” or “a tale of decendants”.
Unfortunately, not a lot of scholarly attention has been paid to the Mabinogion, though one may find several good translations into modern English. I myself have read only the Penguin translation (Jeffrey Gantz), though other editions I am sure are more faithful to the original Welsh. The oral tradition which gave birth to these stories also gave them flaws- sometimes the events seem unconnected, or the reasoning behind an action is unclear. Yet despite these flaws, the world they paint is vivid and magical, and gives insight into the values and character of the Welsh people.
