The Mabinogion

Product Information

David V. Barrett, "James, John" in St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers, edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996, ISBN 9781558622050 (pp. 308-9) .

Full of magical creatures, legendary heroes, and tales of love, revenge, and political struggle, The Mabinogion is one of the essential masterpieces of world literature. For almost a millennium its stories have inspired and fascinated writers and artists – among them the great contemporary master of fantastic art, Alan Lee. The Mabinogion is a collection of medieval Welsh tales that makes up a rich mythological tradition. The tales themselves are only tangentially related - only one character, Pryderi, appears in all four branches. Nevertheless the tales are fascinating, rich and varied in their interpretation. This translation, Sioned Davies, was recommended to me as a good starting point so I happily took it. I'll likely try out other translations as the year goes on. Many concepts not only in fantasy literature but in the broader realm of fiction that were popularized over the later centuries seem to have been introduced in these stories. One that first springs to mind is the mysterious wall of fog that Gereint meets toward the end of his saga. He knows something challenging awaits him on the other side, but is unsure what. Outside the fog wall poles are lined up with the heads of slain men who have come before. He enters the fog and is soon met with an enormous warrior he must defeat. Only after he is victorious does the fog disappear so that he may leave.I’ve been looking forward to reading this for years. It exceeded my expectations, and is a treasure house of strange, marvelous, alluring, surreal and fantastic medieval Welsh myth and legend. Its people and its stories are so distant from the familiar and rational world that they take on a superb, dreamlike quality. Is this dreamlike sense intentional? Considering that two of the tales are directly about events occurring within dreams — “The Dream of Maxen” and “The Dream of Rhonabwy” — I am inclined to say yes. But no one can be certain. It's important to note that the following list is not a comprehensive bibliography of Alan Lee's work. I haven't been able to find an accurate one, which is surprising considering what a talented artist he is. There should be a complete catalog of his work available. Lee made cover paintings for the 1983 Penguin edition of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. [2] [3] He also did the artwork for Alive!, a 2007 CD by the Dutch band Omnia, released during the Castlefest festival. [3]

Manawydan now becomes the lead character in the Third Branch, and it is commonly named after him. With Rhiannon, Pryderi and Cigfa, he sits on the Gorsedd Arberth as Pwyll had once done. But this time disaster ensues. Thunder and magical mist descend on the land leaving it empty of all domesticated animals and all humans apart from the four protagonists.The ancient Welsh collection of Celtic myth and Arthurian Legend, illustrated by the great Alan Lee. Here are the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, four separate but intricately interconnected stories portraying a legendary Britain united under one king, and seven so-called 'independent' tales, among them the earliest known stories of King Arthur – legends that appear nowhere else -- as well as Welsh versions of tales that also appear in the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes and others. Films (conseptual designer and lead concept artist): The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Legend, Erik the Viking, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; You’re hunting alone in the forest and encounter a stag being chased by brilliant white hounds with blood-red ears. Seeing no one around, you chase the hounds off and let your own dogs feed on the kill. But out of the forest appears the king of the Otherworld who says the stag was his and claims offense. The only way make amends, he says, will be to trade places with him for a year—he will become you and you will become him. As Peredur pauses in meditation, he is approached by knight after knight from Arthur’s court, each hoping to speak with him. Wishing to instead remain in his meditation, he defeats these men in combat, until Gwalchmei rouses him from his trance with friendly words, and a welcoming demeanor.

In the Arthurian tales, we see recurring characters even, like Arthur, Peredur, Gwalchmei son of Gwyar, Glewlwyd Strong Grip, Kei, Peredur, Gwrhyr Interpreter of Languages, and mighty heroes whose capabilities and exploits are a match for those of the Irish heroes across the sea, like Cu Chulainn and Finn Mac Cumhal. World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees". World Fantasy Convention. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Reunited with Rhiannon the child is formally named in the traditional way via his mother's first direct words to him Pryderi a wordplay on "delivered" and "worry", "care", or "loss". In due course Pwyll dies, and Pryderi rules Dyfed, marrying Cigfa of Gloucester, and amalgamating the seven cantrefs of Morgannwg to his kingdom. Gruffydd, W. J. Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the Origins of the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi How does a person even presume to review a book that has survived 700 years, containing stories that survived close to their current form without anyone writing them down for a further 300 years?Froud, Brian; Lee, Alan (1979). David Larkin (ed.). Faeries. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. ISBN 9780553346343. And so images of stories from the Mabinogion are relatively scarce online, with most illustrations coming from various republications of Charlotte Guest’s translation that use the same drawings by S. Williams (I don’t have more detail!). So I went for a little bit of a hunt for some more obscure public domain images. ones. I didn’t turn up a lot for this story but below are a few I uncovered, illustrated variously by John D. Batten in More Celtic Fairy Tales and by T.H Robinson in Y llyfr cyntaf Pryderi fab Pwyll. Despite many of the surface similarities between Welsh and some Irish tales, they are just that: surface. The Welsh tales go in vastly different directions, have singular and unique progressions and ideas that set them apart from stories that might have shared similar origins long ago. A major illustrated edition of the classic fantasy with over 50 full-colour paintings by the celebrated artist of The Lord of the Rings Alan Lee (born 20 August 1947) is an English book illustrator and movie conceptual designer. He was born in Middlesex, England, and studied at the Ealing School of Art.

bw): Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Samuel M. Comer, Arthur Krams / (c): William Flannery, Jo Mielziner, Robert PriestleyIn the Robin of Sherwood story "The King's Fool" (1984), Rhiannon's Wheel is the name of a stone circle where Herne the Hunter appears to the characters. [15] In it people are transformed into eagles, owls, maidens are created from flowers, but my favorite one must be when Math punished brothers Gwydion son of Dôn and Gilfaethwy son of Dôn for raping the virgin Goewin by transforming them first into hind and stag for the year, then into wild boar and a wild sow, and finally into a wolf and she-wolf and making them procreate with each other. To be fair, Math fostered all resulting children. That said, it’s a very uneven book. The first four “branches” are really where the sauce is. The tales that follow, mostly chivalric Arthurian adventures, can be dry (though interesting for predating any round tables or swanky grails). I’ll make an exception for the tale of Cuhlwch whose mad crush on Olwen leads uncle Arthur into an epically misguided hunt for a divine boar, which, for some reason, has a comb and a razor and a pair of sheers all caught in the tuft of hair between its ears. The hunt is such an ordeal it kills off nearly every last Briton (which is a shame since the author went to such great lengths to name all of them [phew!]). But Cuhlwch gets the girl in the end, so . . . alls well that ends well? Alan has illustrated dozens of fantasy books, including some nonfiction, and many more covers. Several works by J.R.R. Tolkien are among his most notable interiors: the Tolkien centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings (1992), a 1999 edition of The Hobbit that has been boxed with it, and Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Children of Húrin (2007). The latter, a first edition, is his work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries. THE MABINOGION embraces much of ancient and early British culture, combining the numinous world of Celtic mythology, Arthurian legend and feudal Europe’s Age of Chivalry. Indeed scholars have identified that it was out of THE MABINOGION that the Arthurian legends were born.