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The Mabinogion is a collection of medieval folktales. First written down in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the Red Book of Hergest is now housed in the library of Jesus College, Oxford. It was first translated into English by an English woman named Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1895) and first published in 1849. Margery Hargest Jones endeavoured to translate it into more modern English so that it would be easier to understand while retaining the medieval sense of mystery. The twelve stories deal with medieval themes of magic, enchantment and the 'Otherworld'. It takes place in Wales when Arthur was king before the days of Camelot. The Taliesin adaptation was not written until the sixteenth century, but it is included here because Lady Charlotte included it in her book of The Mabinogion.

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	29 novembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528954150
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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The Mabinogion and A Tale of Taliesin
Margery Hargest Jones
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-11-29
The Mabinogion and A Tale of Taliesin About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Pwyll Prince of Dyfed 2. The Birth of Pryderi 3. Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr (Lear) (The Story of Branwen) 4. Manawyddan, the Son of Llyr (Lear) (The Trials of Dyfed) 5. Math, the Son of Mathonwy 6. The Dream of Macsen Wledig 7. The Story of Lludd and Llefelys (or The Three Plagues of Britain) 8. Cilhwch and Olwen (or The Quest for Olwen) I. The Curse II. At Arthur’s Court III. In Search of Olwen IV. Fulfilling the Tasks (a) The Sword of Gwrnach the Giant (b) The Oldest Animals (c) The Lame Ant V. The Beard of Dillus the Bearded (d) The Tusk of Ysgithyrwyn Chief Boar (e) The Hunting of the Otherworld Boar (Twrch Trwyth) (f) The Blood of the Black Witch VI. Cilhwch Marries Olwen 9. The Dream of Rhonabwy 10. Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain 11. Peredur, the Son of Efrawc 12. Geraint, the Son of Erbin Taliesin Synopsis of A Tale of Taliesin A Tale of Taliesin End Song by Margery Hargest Jones ‘So Much We Know…’ ‘A Voice from Long Ago’ Toriad y Dydd (Taliesin’s Prophesy)
About The Author
Margery Hargest Jones is a retired school and music teacher. She is also a folksong collector and arranger who has had several folksong books published which are on the singing examination syllabus of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
Dedication
In memory of my dear friend the late Janet Yendole (née Richards).
Copyright Information ©
Margery Hargest Jones (2019)
The right of Margery Hargest Jones to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788480482 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781788480499 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528954150 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
My thanks goes to Ann Whomersley for typing the manuscript and to my sister, Pat, for research. I am thankful to Cynthia and Janet for their helpful suggestions. I am also grateful to my son, Jeremy, for all his help and support.
Introduction
The Mabinogion is a collection of Welsh Medieval folk tales first written down in the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Century in the Red Book of Hergest, now housed in the Library of Jesus College, Oxford. It was first translated into English from the Medieval Welsh by an Englishwoman, Lady Charlotte Guest (1812–1895) in 1838 and first published in 1849.
Her version is in very old fashioned language and, as my name is Hargest, by coincidence, I have endeavoured to transcribe it into more Modern English so that it will be easier for children to follow and understand, but retaining the medieval sense of mystery.
The twelve stories of the Mabinogion deal with the medieval themes of magic, enchantment and the ‘Otherworld’ (Annwfyn) and take place in Wales when Arthur was King, before the days of Camelot and the Round Table.
The first four are the original Mabinogi, i.e., ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogion’ with the next two set in Roman Britain and the last five are Arthurian tales in which Arthur appears.
The first tale, about Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, is in two parts and tells of Pwyll who is persuaded to change places with Arawn King of Annwfyn (Otherworld) but behaves there with loyalty and goodness. The second part deals with his meeting and marrying the beautiful Rhiannon who bears him a son, Pryderi. She is cruelly punished by him after being falsely accused of killing her baby son. All ends happily when, after much adventure and magic, the little boy is returned to his mother.
In the second story, Branwen the daughter of Llyr (Lear) is married to Matholwch, King of Ireland, and suffers greatly at his hands because of a crime committed against him by her wicked stepbrother. She was avenged by her brother Brân the Blest who was injured and instructed his followers, on their return to Britain, to cut off his head and bury it in London facing France. This they do after feasting, as he told them to, in Harlech for seven years. They travelled to Penfro (Pembroke), opened a door which faced Cornwall that showed them all the evil they had encountered. They took the head and buried it in White Mount in London.
In the third story, ‘Manawyddan the son of Llyr’ or (The Trials of Dyfed), Pryderi, now his father Pwyll is dead, gives his mother Rhiannon in marriage to Manawyddan, who is mourning the death of his brother Brân the Blest. When they find no people or animals left in Dyfed, after a great thunderstorm, they leave for Lloegyr (England) to find work. They try all kinds of crafts in various towns but are so good at them that they have to return to Dyfed because they are threatened. Then both Pryderi and Rhiannon disappear. They are rescued by Manawyddan after many magical happenings and the spells are removed from the Cantrefs of Dyfed.
The fourth branch of the Mabinogi concerns Math the son of Mathonwy who turns his nephews into animals in punishment for hurting his wife. Pryderi is killed but Blodeuwedd (Flower Face) comes into the story – a lady made of flowers, who is unfaithful to her husband Llew. She tricks him into being killed but he takes the form of an eagle and flies off. He is recognised as being Llew by Gwydion – one of the brothers– and turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, which has a face like a flower, as punishment, for other birds shun it. This is why it only comes out at night!
The Dream of Macsen Wledig is the story of a Roman Emperor who dreams of travelling to a beautiful country and sees a lady (Elen) with whom he falls in love. His men set out to find this beautiful country as he describes his journey in his dream. They find the beautiful country of Wales, Elen becomes his wife and they rule Rome together.
Lludd and Llefelys are two brothers who experience the Three Plagues of Britain and overcome them. The elder was Lludd who ruled the Island of Britain after Beli the Great, his father, died. He rebuilt much of London and it was called Caer Llud. Its main gate was called Lud’s Gate or Ludgate as it is now called. The youngest brother became King of France after the King of France died and left a daughter who Llefelys married. Between the two, the brothers overcome the three plagues which fell upon Britain.
In the seventh story of ‘Cilhwch and Olwen’ (or The Quest for Olwen) Cilhwch sets out to marry Olwen, the daughter of a huge, fierce giant. He is set many tasks to do this and with Arthur’s help eventually is able to marry Olwen. This is the first story in which Arthur is mentioned.
‘The Dream of Rhonabwy’ recounts a dream in which Arthur again appears and plays a strange game of chess with Owain who owns ravens which attack Arthur’s men. They are stopped when Arthur gets angry because his men are being killed and Britain is now in danger. He crushes the chess pieces and the ravens are called off. No one knows the meaning of Rhonabwy’s dream.
In ‘Owain, or The Lady of the Fountain’, while Arthur sleeps, his knight Cynon tells the other knights a story of an adventure he has which so enthrals them that Owain sets out to find the place and have the adventure that Cynon had. He does and more besides meeting the Lady of the Fountain who returns with him to Arthur’s Court. He goes away after a time with his followers (the ravens mentioned in Rhonabwy’s dream) and in all he does is victorious.
‘Peredur the son of Efrawc’ is the tenth story in which Peredur is firstly an innocent boy fiercely protected by his mother because she had lost her husband and six other sons to the perils of war. He becomes a knight, however, who does much killing in all his adventures to prove to Arthur that he is a worthy knight.
‘Geraint the son of Erbin’ is another of Arthur’s knights – in the last story – who treats his lady (Enid) very badly, mistakenly thinking that she loves another man. After many tournaments, which he wins, and adventures, all ends happily for Geraint and Enid who reign together prosperously in his own lands ever after.
‘Mabinogion’ is not really a word. The word ‘mab’ in Welsh means ‘boy’ and Lady Charlotte used it as a plural which could suggest ‘a tale of descendants’, her translation of which she dedicated to her two eldest sons.
Many of the characters which appear in the Arthurian tales, have their equivalents in the later Round Table of Camelot stories: Arthur’s queen is Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) which means ‘white phantom’; Bedwyr is Sir Bedivere; Gwalchmai – Sir Gawain; Cei – Sir Kay and Peredur – Sir Percival (or Parsifal). The English meaning of Olwen is ‘The White Track’ and Angharad Law Ewrawc is ‘Angharad Golden Hand’.
I have changed certain letters from Lady Charlotte’s translation since some letters do not occur in the Welsh alphabet: in Evrawc ‘v’ becomes ‘f’ but is sounded ‘v’; there is no ‘x’ in the Welsh language so ‘Maxen’ becomes ‘Macsen’ and there is no ‘k’ in the Welsh alphabet so ‘Kilhwch’ becomes ‘Cilhwch’, as ‘Kai’ becomes ‘Cei’.
More detailed notes are available to the reader in Lady Charlotte’s publications of 1841-50 and a later edition of 1877 has copious notes to each story. I have kept explanatory notes to a minimum hoping that my simplification of the narratives is sufficient without detailed notes, which can be found in the editions of