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Synopses & Reviews
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The 11 stories of
The Mabinogion, first assembled on paper in the fourteenth century, reach far back into the earlier oral traditions of Welsh poetry.
Closely linked to the Arthurian legends — King Arthur himself is a character — they summon up a world of mystery and magic that is still evoked by the Welsh landscape they so vividly describe. Mingling fantasy with tales of chivalry, these stories not only prefigure the later medieval romances, but stand on their own as magnificent evocations of a golden age of Celtic civilization.
This translation of The Mabinogion has, since its first appearance in 1949, been recognized as a classic in its own right. It was last revised by Gwyn Jones and his wife, Mair, in 1993.
Preface by John Updike.
Review:
John Updike, in his preface to this Everyman's Library edition of this collection of Welsh tales, calls The Mabinogion a "caravan of marvels," which is both true and not quite true enough. First transcribed in the Middle Ages, these stories are part of an ancient oral tradition that stretches back to the dawn of the Celtic world, and while not quite myths, they are definitely legends. They describe a world of brave queens, bloody warriors, dragons, a cauldron that can restore dead men to life, a prince who made his lady love out of flowers, a mother accused of eating her own son, a king so mighty his army used him as a bridge to cross a river. Marvelous, yes, but also brutal, primal and oddly powerful because this epic, while not as familiar to us as Greek and Norse myth, turns out to feel not so strange after all, entwined as it is around the deepest roots of the language we speak and the culture it was born from. Laura Miller, Salon.com
Synopsis:
The 11 stories of The Mabinogion, first assembled on paper in the 14th century, reach far back into the earlier oral traditions of Celtic storytelling. Closely linked to the Arthurian legends — King Arthur himself is a character — they summon up a world of mystery and magic that is still evoked by the Welsh and Irish landscapes they so vividly describe. Mingling fantasy with tales of chivalry, these stories not only prefigure the later medieval romances but also stand on their own as magnificent evocations of a golden age of Celtic civilization.
This translation from the original Welsh has, since its first appearance in 1949, been recognized as a classic in its own right. It was last revised by Gwyn Jones and his wife, Mair, in 1993.
Synopsis:
Preface by John Updike
The 11 stories of The Mabinogion, first assembled on paper in the fourteenth century, reach far back into the earlier oral traditions of Welsh poetry.
Closely linked to the Arthurian legends--King Arthur himself is a character--they summon up a world of mystery and magic that is still evoked by the Welsh landscape they so vividly describe. Mingling fantasy with tales of chivalry, these stories not only prefigure the later medieval romances, but stand on their own as magnificent evocations of a golden age of Celtic civilization.
This translation of The Mabinogion has, since its first appearance in 1949, been recognized as a classic in its own right. It was last revised by Gwyn Jones and his wife, Mair, in 1993.
About the Author
Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones were, respectively, Professor of English at Aberystwyth and Cardiff and Professor of Welsh at Aberystwyth. They are the authors of numerous works of scholarship in Welsh and in English.
John Updike, novelist, poet, and critic, is perhaps best known for his four Rabbit novels, published in Everyman's Library as Rabbit Angstrom.
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