Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Mabinogion
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love myth, fairy tale and the roots of the Arthur legends, and anyone curious about Welsh culture.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Mabinogion is a set of eleven medieval Welsh tales about kings, magicians, giants, lovers and knights. They survive in two manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest. Many of the stories are much older and grew from traditions told aloud for generations. No author is known for any of them. Lady Charlotte Guest, later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, brought them to a wide English audience in the nineteenth century and gave the collection the name it carries. Strictly, that name belongs only to the first four tales.
What do you get? A world where a prince changes places with a king of the Otherworld, where a woman is shaped from flowers, where a giant wades across the sea, and where Arthur's warriors face impossible tasks. The tales are strange, funny, tender and sometimes brutal. They move between the old Welsh myths and the new fashion for knightly romance. Let us take them in order, beginning with the four branches and the first of them, the story of Pwyll.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A prince trades places with a kingFree
- 2A marriage between islands goes wrong
- 3Magic shapes lives in the last two branches
- 4Arthur's men serve a lovesick hero
- 5Dreams and knights fill the later tales
- 6Magic, honor and the voice of an oral tradition
Punkt 1 von 6
A prince trades places with a king
The first branch opens in Dyfed, in south-west Wales. Its lord, Pwyll, is hunting in a wood when he drives off a strange pack of hounds from a stag and sets his own dogs on it. The strange hounds are shining white with red ears, the mark of the Otherworld. Their owner is Arawn, king of Annwfn, and he is offended.
Arawn does not ask for blood. He asks Pwyll to make amends by taking his shape for a year and a day, ruling in Annwfn, and then fighting Arawn's rival, a king named Hafgan. Meanwhile Arawn will take Pwyll's shape and rule Dyfed. Pwyll agrees. In Annwfn he governs well and lies each night beside Arawn's queen without touching her, out of honor. That restraint wins Arawn's lasting friendship, and it is why Pwyll later bears the title Lord of Annwfn.
Back in Dyfed, Pwyll sits on a mound that is said to bring wonders to anyone who sits there. A woman in shining gold rides by on a pale horse. She is Rhiannon. However hard his riders chase her, she stays ahead, and she stops only when Pwyll himself calls to her. She tells him she would rather marry him than the man her family has chosen for her, Gwawl.
Their wedding brings trouble from Gwawl, and Pwyll wins out through a clever trick with a magic bag. Later a son is born, and on that very night the child vanishes. Rhiannon's frightened women smear her with blood and accuse her. What she must endure afterward sets up the family of Pryderi, who runs through the later branches. The tale is about promises, honor between rulers, and the cost of false blame.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Who’s who
- Pwyll
- Pwyll is lord of Dyfed, who offends an Otherworld king and agrees to exchange places with him.
- Rhiannon
- Rhiannon is an Otherworld woman who chooses Pwyll for herself rather than accepting another suitor.
- Bendigeidfran
- Bendigeidfran is the giant king of Britain, brother of Branwen and Manawydan.
- Branwen
- Branwen is Bendigeidfran's sister, whose marriage to Ireland's king links two royal households.
- Gwydion
- Gwydion is a magician and storyteller of Gwynedd, whose cleverness serves his family's interests.
- Culhwch
- Culhwch is a young prince seeking Olwen, aided in his quest by Arthur and his warriors.
- Olwen
- Olwen is the Chief Giant's daughter, whom Culhwch is bound by his stepmother's oath to seek.
- Owain
- Owain is a knight of Arthur's court who seeks adventure at a fountain guarded by another warrior.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 108,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 15 min
- Listening time12 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about Mabinogion
What is the Mabinogion about?
It is a collection of eleven medieval Welsh tales. They include myths about Pwyll, Rhiannon and Branwen, a quest story about Culhwch and Olwen, and later Arthurian romances about knights such as Owain and Peredur.
What does the word Mabinogion mean?
The name comes from a scribe's word in one manuscript and was used by Lady Charlotte Guest for the whole collection. Strictly, Mabinogi belongs only to the first four tales, known as the four branches.
Who wrote the Mabinogion and when?
No author is known. The tales were written down in Welsh in the fourteenth century manuscripts called the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest, but many stories are much older.
Is the Mabinogion hard to read?
The plots are simple, and the logic is that of myth and dream. Listening aloud helps, and the stories soon become familiar.
Is the Mabinogion connected to King Arthur?
Yes. Arthur appears in Culhwch and Olwen, The Dream of Rhonabwy and the romances Owain, Geraint and Peredur. These are among the oldest Arthurian stories in Welsh, with a style very different from French romances.