Tagged: mabinogion

AmeriCymru: Hi Eloise and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. How did you become the first Children's Laureate Wales? What is the selection process?

Eloise: You are very welcome. Thanks for inviting me! It's so good to be here. 

Literature Wales, the national company for the development of literature in Wales, put out a call for expressions of interest. I'd worked with young people a lot over the years - taught Drama and English, developed plays with community and youth theatres, toured with theatre-in-education projects - and since starting to write for young people I'd run hundreds of creative writing workshops to develop writing skills, creativity and imagination. I thought I'd express my interest so that I would be considered for the role at some point in the future, without any expectation of being considered for the position. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have been selected. It's an honour and a privilege.  

AmeriCymru: You are involved in a project to create a new updated version of the Mabinogion. Can you tell us more about this exciting project?

Eloise: Absolutely! The Mabinogion are the oldest British stories to be written down and are a really important part of our heritage. When the author Matt Brown came to me with the idea to get these stories written specifically for young readers, I thought it was genius. I also couldn't believe it hadn't been done already! 

In all honesty, I was hesitant to become involved at first. I have a pretty full timetable with laureate work and work as an author, but in the end, I decided that it was a really important and meaningful project and one I would definitely need to get behind. 

It came as a shock to me how little I knew about the stories. Casting my mind back, I know we didn't learn about them at school and though most of them have crept into my consciousness somewhere along the line, it just seemed dreadful that I didn't have a better knowledge of them. We hope this collection will mean that young people everywhere will have the opportunity to fall in love with these stories and that they can be celebrated and known by everyone! 

We have a fantastic line-up of great Welsh writers, authors and poets bringing the stories to life - Claire Fayers, Sophie Anderson, PG Bell, Alex Wharton, Hanan Issa, Darren Chetty, Zillah Bethell, Catherine Johnson, Nicola Davies, Matt Brown and me - and the stories will be told in diverse and creative ways. All eleven tales will be translated into Welsh by Bethan Gwanas in the same volume so that they can be read alongside the English versions, and the collection will be beautifully illustrated by the brilliant artist Max Low. It's a really exciting project and we are doing everything we can to shout about it!  

( Click the image above to go to the 'Mab' support page )

AmeriCymru: When will the new Mabinogion be available and where will readers be able to purchase it online? 

Eloise: This is where readers can help us to make this a reality! We are crowdfunding the project through a company called Unbound . There are all sorts of rewards you can get your hands on - a copy signed by all of the authors, a tote bag, original art work, virtual author visits - you get your name printed in the back of the book and you'll be part of something really important. We would love it if you would support this project if you are able and if you could help us to spread the word that would be absolutely wonderful too. 

AmeriCymru: What does the Children's Laureate do and what are you hoping to achieve in this role?

Eloise: The Children's Laureate role has been created to highlight the importance of, and to promote, creative writing by and for young people in Wales. It gives me an opportunity to work with lots of children who may not already see themselves as storytellers. I believe everyone is made of stories and all voices and words are important. I encourage creativity and imagination over spelling and grammar. I think lots of young people – and older people too - are put off telling stories because they worry about their academic ability.

It’s only my opinion, but I believe that punctuation is something that can be sorted at a later date. Without imagination there is nothing to edit in the first place.

I want all young people to see themselves as part of the literature landscape of Wales. We need vibrant new voices from all sectors of the community, and I see it as part of my job to convince young people of how essential a part they play in making this happen.

The platform also gives me a chance to put a spotlight on children’s writers from Wales which is just a lovely thing to do. We have so many talented writers creating children’s stories with such expertise. It’s a joy to be able to celebrate their words.

AmeriCymru: You are also the patron of reading for a school. What is a patron of reading?

Eloise: I've been a patron of reading for three different schools over the last five years. It's a role to promote the value of reading for pleasure and to break down the barriers between the author and the reader. It's been a fantastic opportunity to have a close relationship with schools and for the young people to have an author at their disposal! 

We launched the Children’s Laureate Wales initiative at one of the schools. I’ve run creative writing competitions with them, co-written stories with pupils, answered questions about the writing process, discussed how to become an author and what it is like when you are published. They’ve let me know what they are reading, and we chat about why they like certain stories more than others. It’s up to the author how much time and connection they want with each school and it’s beneficial on both sides. I’ve run new pieces of writing past young people to get their feedback and they’ve given their feedback very honestly!

AmeriCymru: You currently live in Pembrokeshire but you have lived elsewhere in Wales in the past. Care to tell our readers a little about your history?

Eloise: I was born in St. David’s Hospital in Canton opposite where Ivor Novello was born. I was the first baby on Easter morning which meant my mother was given a celebratory cake by the nursing staff. She was thrilled until they shared it out with everyone on the ward. I have inherited this selfishness when it comes to cake.

For the first few years of my life I lived close to Victoria Park in Canton and then Caerphilly, I remember very little of this time though I romantically recall it as a time I played next to one of the most magnificent castles in the world.

From there we went to live in the historical town of Llantrisant with another castle – smaller and much more ruined – practically in our back garden. Llantrisant was a place of festivals and beating the bounds, historically the home of Dr. William Price a famous Victorian vegetarian nudist and a pioneer of legal cremation, it has a forest to one side of it complete with Bronze Age burial mounds and is laced in legend. We had stories under our feet wherever we walked.

AmeriCymru: When did you first decide to write? How would you describe your creative process?

Eloise: I decided to take the MA in Creative and Media Writing at Swansea University and graduated in 2011 with Distinction which was a definite surprise to me. I’ve always been creative but not particularly successful academically.

I'd been on the road for a long time, touring around different theatres across the UK and had been having a glorious and very tiring time. A decade as an actor was a wonderful experience. I got to act in some of the most superb plays ever written and learned about character and story and most importantly, I think, the sound and spell of words. One fateful day, I was on a stage at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and I decided that I had words of my own to say instead of other people’s scripts, and I wanted to write them down. I've always been impetuous and knew to trust this instinct to write but I didn't have the confidence to go ahead without trying some skills out first. University workshops were humbling and scary, but I stuck with it, whilst holding down lots of different jobs, and despite being sent a letter to tell me I was at risk of being dismissed from the course for non-attendance (work often clashed with workshops) I eventually graduated. 

My creative process seems to be different for every project. I tend to start VERY enthusiastically with an INCREDIBLE idea, then reach what I have now named the grumble stage. This is where I make low murmuring and disparaging remarks about my ability to create anything at all ever again. Once these two stages are out of the way, I get to work. Research first (and during). I plot a bit now - I used to just forge straight ahead. I use record cards to jot down thoughts and have a drawer where I stash all the glittering ideas for other books which appear bright and shiny and tap dancing through my head when I don’t need them. I work hard, make sure I turn up at my laptop, get frustrated most days. Some days are beautiful and filled with a sense of achievement but lots of days are graft. I guess I have a strong inbuilt work ethic from my parents which has seen me through the more difficult drafts. I also love to question and create almost as much as I love to procrastinate. I turn my WiFi off.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your new novel Wilde ?

Eloise: Wilde is a story which is essentially about celebrating individuality and also about being kind to yourself.

The blurb goes :

Can she break the curse of the witch called Winter?

Being different can be dangerous. Wilde is afraid when strange things happen around her. Are the birds following her? Moving to live with her aunt seems to make it worse. Wilde is desperate to fit in at her new school. But in a fierce heatwave, in rehearsals for a school play telling the local legend of a witch called Winter, ‘The Witch’ starts leaving pupils frightening curse letters. Can Wilde find out who’s doing it before everyone blames her? Or will she always be the outsider?

Wilde has witches and waterfalls and history and legends. It also has a donkey named Duran Duran which gives my age away, I fear! 

AmeriCymru: What's next for Eloise Williams? Any new titles in the offing?

Eloise: This is where my superstitions jump in and tell me that if I give away any information at all I will jinx everything I have coming up. I think I developed this strange and wonderful superstitious nature while working as an actor. There's a lot of ritual and belief in luck in that career. Not mentioning the Scottish Play by name, no whistling backstage, turning in a circle three times and spitting, or some such thing?!

In other words - I do have some things in the pipeline but I can't tell you anything specific about them! I'll be following my love of folklore and fable, history and landscape, all that is other and strange and a little bit odd, down various pathways. I know that's pretty vague but it’s all I can give away at the moment. 

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Eloise: As I said earlier, we are all made of stories – that includes you! Tell your stories to other people. Tell them in any way you want to. Get them out there and celebrate them. Who knows, your stories could be part of a Mab collection in the future!

AmeriCymru: Hi Dafydd, care to tell us a little about your Welsh background and the reasons for your move to Seattle?

Dafydd: Hello, and thank you very much for letting me write a little bit about my time here in Seattle, and hello to everyone reading.

I was brought up in Wales in an idyllic fashion just outside Aberystwyth, there must have been something about the place as I stayed there to study theatre at the University of Wales. Since graduating I’ve worked in the fields of theatre, TV, and mostly publishing and content creation.

The reason for moving to Seattle must be ingrained in my work, somewhere in the cracks where those creative industries meet, loose like brethyn, clanking around in my head. I guess it starts with storytelling, as all good stories do! Stories are tremendous and good storytellers are among my absolute favourite people, but I’ve also been inspired by that void in the centre between story and person where descriptions, narrative and dialogue become manifest in the minds’ eye. Which is a long way to write that I’ve come to develop interactive products, or more specifically video games, that seek to celebrate, promote and bolster Wales’ vast mythology and history. I am going to create a video game that places our folk tales, history, culture and mythology centre stage. Which is, if you ask me, about time we present our own stories to the world rather than having other cultures wrap them up and show them back to us, busted up and malformed.

How many of us have had to grit our teeth through yet another Hollywood extravaganza that shred the sails of our mythology? The Hollywood Reporter posted an article detailing that Disney are considering revamping their animated ‘classic’, The Sword in the Stone , in the same manner as the recent Beauty in the Beast i.e. as a live action flick, and genuinely, a little piece of my heart floated away like one of Terry Gilliam’s animated suicidal leaves. But it’s not just Disney, it’s other film companies, the BBC , and renowned authors that are knowingly using the mythologies to their own ends, usually uncoupling them from their cultural history. But specifically The Sword in the Stone is an absolute travesty to the legacy of the Mabinogi and seriously questions how mythologies should be treated by those that do not sympathise with that culture.

AmeriCymru: Was it that bad?

Dafydd: For anyone that doesn’t know, the film follows the story of the young ‘king’ Arthur but portrays him in the manner that English Revisionists and French Romanticists portrayed him: Camelot, the sword in the stone and being king of England and all that guff. In itself, that’s not too troublesome, Arthur was a cool dude, many have borrowed him. The problem is within the film they entwined whole sections of the expanded Mabinogi, for example the shapeshifting chase of Taliesin, or Gwion Bach. None of this would be a problem if general audiences were aware of the Mabinogi and where they came from and what they represent but they don’t. And all of a sudden there it is, right in front of you, Arthur is king of England and parts of the Mabinogi are English, or worse, British in the modern political sense. A massive part of our culture and mythology are wiped out, our stories, they’re gone, assimilated by cinema, a drive-by culturing. If you have no stories, you have no past; where do you come from, what do you dramatise for your children? The words and sounds that vibrated your geography thousands of years ago, none of that is connected to you anymore, you are voiceless.

AmeriCymru: Do you have a plan to ensure that those voices are heard?

Dafydd: The third rule of thermo dynamics will tell you that everything that exists will one day perish: I’m fine with the end of existence, I just draw the line at theft. That’s what myself and some very talented friends are going to do (I call them friends , they are decades-old veterans of the video game industry, amazing musicians and extremely talented artists), we’re going to stop the (mostly unknowing) leaching of our heritage, we’re going to reclaim it, stamp it with the red dragon, celebrate it, share it and we are going to make people curious. We’re going to make new games and new friends.

You might be able to tell I’m somewhat passionate about this stuff...

AmeriCymru: How do you think that the medium of video games can be used to promote an awareness of, and interest in, Wales and Welsh Mythology?

Dafydd: Video game enthusiasts are extremely comfortable when devouring content that ascribes to fantastical elements or narratives that allow flights of fancy, or in other words, to walk in another person’s shoes. They are also however an extremely sophisticated bunch, when they want to be, as people generally are, and are very open to new histories and mindsets. Add to that a voracious audience who can never seem to have enough of fantastical elements (just look at the bestseller lists and TV such as Game of Thrones ) and you have a ready-made bed of support for our mythology. So you’re already looking at a sizeable number of people that would be interested, crumbs, if Disney are looking at reinventing their fantasy genre you KNOW you have the numbers for it.

My intention is to fully bake our culture and our history into this experience, not just the characters of our legendary past but the people of our present. I want people to hear the real voices behind these characters, I want them to see the little corner of the planet that Wales rests and the men and women on top of that, and I want it to play a full part in reclaiming our own heritage. When you own a history then your future can be as bright as you want it to be. Now I’m not claiming for one second that Bendigeidfran , for example, is historical, but he represents a history of a people, and of storytelling, like an arrow through time straight into your head or my heart. With Easter coming up I fully sympathise with Christians when they imagine the body and blood of Christ in the Communion, it’s a direct line, in a way, through time to something that is precious to them. That’s how I view the Mabinogi and all the glorious characters within, it doesn’t just call out through history, it lives today in the way that I think about things and view the world. If it doesn’t exist then we are different people, which is no bad thing in and of itself, but as I have a view of it from personal development, as many Cymry do, then it is imperative.

When people are knowledgeable on any given subject they make better decisions around that subject. If more people know about Wales, that’s good for Wales. We’ve got to increase visibility and tap into this enormous market, especially considering our tourism industry is pushing the Year of the Legend .

Also, speaking plainly, there would be no Western video game RPG experiences (such as Dragon Age , Skyrim , The Witcher ) without the Mabinogi. In all but name those things are The Mabinogi, that is a cast iron fact and it’s about time we started getting some credit.

Add onto that that Wales literally looks like most fantasy tropes: mountains, frozen lakes, caves, rolling upland, staggering beaches, some trolls in the pubs. We should rebrand Gwynedd as Mabinogiland! So I’m certain the tourism people will be (very) happy with me. I will be baking in real world locations into the experience.

I expect a bronze leek, signed by Carwyn, on my mantelpiece.

AmeriCymru: Do you have any initial ideas/concepts that you would be willing to share with us?

Dafydd: I can certainly tell you that our finest storytellers will be utilised as vocal artists and really exciting musicians from Wales will be involved, parts will be live action, with documentary-like elements. We have some solid ideas, but the problem is – and it’s a really great problem to have – where do you start?

The Mabinogi is awesome, right? One minute there’s a space/time conundrum with Pwyll unable to catch Rhiannon on a horse, she consistently stays the exact same distance away (the answer: just ask her to stop, a none too insignificant vision of gender relations) the next she’s forced to carry guests into their home on their back because she’s been framed for the murder of their son (spoiler alert).

We will be isolating the elements appropriate for a sophisticated interactive experience, otherwise it would be a MASSIVE undertaking. But foremost it absolutely has to be fun, it cannot be slow and sluggish and it can’t be too difficult to navigate. Then you look to reduce the components: does the narrative drive the experience or does the interaction unpeel the story? Will the visuals call out to recognisable elements that users are comfortable with or comb against the grain and arrest those expectations. These are among the many major questions we are looking at as interactive artists.

Thankfully I am currently under the wing of some amazing people who have such drive, enthusiasm and grace and they are helping me navigate these early few years in a new industry. They have worked on similar projects in the past and know what they’re doing. I will owe them a great debt. Literally. They’re very expensive. (If they are reading this is a joke of course.)

The easy answer to that was ‘no’.

AmeriCymru: Of course there is an online game ( Mabinogi ) which at least nods its head in the direction of Welsh Mythology. What do you think of this game? Will your project be in any way similar?

Dafydd: While it’s called Mabinogi it has nothing whatsoever to do with Welsh mythology. You’ll have to ask Nexon (the publishers) why they decided to use that name. They dip into Irish mythology somewhat, but that’s as close as it gets. And this is one of the problems that I’ve recognised, developing video games is a very narrow field, you have to have a range of skills, training and experience to even consider it. It’s highly unlikely that anyone in that field will have sufficient knowledge to be able to treat subject matter such as under-represented cultures’ mythology with the sophistication that matter deserves. Hopefully that’s where people like me come in. I may have to have a conversation with Nexon regarding that branding.

AmeriCymru: Over what time scale do you hope to bring this project to fruition?

Dafydd: I am aiming for the winter of 2019 or spring 2020 but really it’ll be done when it is done.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Dafydd: Yes we are looking for investors, I have some detailed financial profiles for anyone looking to invest in our project. If you want to be a part of reclaiming, celebrating and making visible Wales’s heritage and culture in the minds of millions then please do give me a call. Video games cost money but are lucrative in the long-term. I am not ashamed of the fact that along with our lofty goals, profits will follow based on competitive benchmarks for similar products.

Also, Cymru am byth.

CONTACT DAFYDD PRYS: @dafprys on twitter

AmeriCymru spoke to Shan Morgain about her passion for the Mabinogi and about her excellent website: Mabinogi Study. Shan has lived in Wales for 25 years, studying the Mabinogi and Middle Welsh. She is a storyteller and writer. She fell in love with Welsh myth, then a Welshman, then the Mabinogi. She is currently starting a PhD at Swansea and creating a collection of resources for fellow Mabinogi lovers (aka the Mabinogion). www.mabinogistudy.co.uk has lots of helpful articles from history, literature, translation to storytelling and arts. Discussion forum. Massive bibliography. Weekly seminar chats.

AmeriCymru: Hi Shan and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. How would you describe the Mabinogi to someone approaching it for the first time?

Shan: This is a collection of stories, the oldest literature of Britain, including the earliest stories of King Arthur. They were originally in an older form of Welsh, but now widely known in translation.

Yet though so old, these stories are so well written they are read, told and performed across Wales, and wherever people connect to Wales and its traditions.

One of the things I love about the Mabinogi stories in Wales is you can go into any pub or supermarket and Welsh people know these stories just like the latest fashionable TV drama. If you know the stories a bit too you are welcomed with open arms.

I saw the Mabinogi performed as a stage play directed by Manon Eames for the Youth Theatre of Wales. If that had been Shakespeare performed in England the audience would have been stuffy intelligentsia, literary types only. But for the “Magnificent Mabinogi” it was all the local families – and their children.

AmeriCymru: How did you first become interested in the Mabinogi?

Shan: As a young farm girl who went up to London in her teens I was always mad for mythology. I remember Tolkien first coming out was a huge event. (There was not a lot of fantasy in those days.)

I read Greek, Egyptian, Sumerian, Viking, Japanese … you name it I read its mythos. Voraciously. But it was the Celtic legends that most spoke to me, and of them all, the Welsh.

I wouldn’t have known the name Mabinogi then. I just knew there was something different, something much more … mature, intricate, sexy, philosophical and magical about these particular stories.

One part of me did a BA Philosophy at London University, which trained in strict line thinking, the codes of logic. Sadly it seemed my two passions for mythos and logic, could not meet as one. In yet another part of my life radical feminism burned my synapses, challenging the roots of my society. But back then, Celtic dreaming, logic, and being a woman, all had to stay in separate pots.

I was given a Welsh name which was wonderfully prophetic. Eventually at 40 I found my wild and tender sexy Welshman who climbed the magical Glastonbury Tor to find me sleeping in the sun.

Like Rhiannon I chose him later for my own, by pouncing on him; which he says he is always devoutly thankful I did, dear heart.

He showed me his wet green land, and I was doubly, deeply in love. Would I have loved him so very much if he’d come from Birmingham? To speak truth, I doubt it.

Pillow talk is, just as they say it is, the best teacher. By now in the 90s I had become quite a well known Craft priestess and my John helped me run a Celtic study circle. My first big discoveries about the Mabinogi came out of that circle. I also became a storyteller for both adults and children.

AmeriCymru: What is your current involvement with the Mabingi?

Shan: Ah well, by now I have learned so much more. The Tales are inscribed on my cells I think. Being old is so delicious because of knowing more about how things fit together.

Philosophy has changed now too. Western thinking is no longer obsessed with straight line logic. Post-modernism, theoretical physics, and loads of other -isms have opened up thinking in interesting patterns – much more like the ancient Celts.

So now my Philosophy brain is no longer split in two. Annwfn, the deep world of Welsh spirituality, and this world, weave into one another. Logic is servant not master. Worlds are not separate; they are a web of threads going over and under each other. Holding them in the world is my woman life, and there too the Mabinogi speak to me in intricate ways.

Which all brings me to a PhD in the Mabinogi at Swansea university. In particular I am exploring my beloved Rhiannon. She’s a lady, a horse, a politician, a goddess, and the pivot of a multivalent matrix.

I have the honour to be supervised by Christine James, the Archdruid of Wales. You’ll have seen her on the news leading the national Gorsedd ceremony.

AmeriCymru: What is the history of the work? How did these tales come to be collected together?

Shan: The Tales were developed in oral tradition, that is, in storytelling by living voices. There were the great bards who made power poems in praise of kings and heroes, who were like the big bands of today with names up in lights. Then there were the cyfarwythdydd – terrible mouthful that! the storytellers. So there seems to have been a fairly clear split between the high world of the noble poets,and the people’s world of storytellers, a mediaeval pop culture.

It is also a very distinctive thing that the British (now called the Welsh) told their first great stories in prose. Most of the other old European cultures told their sagas in poems.

The storytellers were an odd lot. They didn’t leave their names attached to the stories but quietly passed the stories around to each other anonymously.

The original King Arthur is in there but he’s very different to the Arthur of romance. The older Welsh Arthur is a rough edged warlord, who has to be dragged off by his mates from doing some pretty cruel things. Not a shining ideal!

The Mabinogi stories are about politics, especially dirty politics, and history. They tell of past events and the lessons we can learn from them. They are about love, sex, war, magic, children, questing, and heroes with swishing swords and huge horses. About people making the agonising choices of destiny. Oh and monsters, giants, magic cauldrons.

The big change came when those rough, tough Normans conquered Britain in 1066 which meant Wales too was invaded. The fighting, storytelling, princes of Wales gradually became Englishified. A few of them decided to preserve their old stories by having them written down, because everyone was dumping the bards and storytellers in favour of the fashionable new French troubadours.

This written record in mediaeval manuscripts was a jolly good thing because otherwise these oldest British stories would have been lost forever. You can still see the precious papers in Aberystwyth and Oxford, in museums.

But the stories then slept quietly in old Welsh books for centuries until an impossibly aristocratic Victorian English lady married a Welsh ironmaster. That was a major scandal, as he was far beneath her socially you see! She fell in love not only with him, but with his heritage. These Welshmen have a magical effect you know!

Anyway Charlotte Guest was a genius scholar who already knew seven languages including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Persian. So Welsh, even mediaeval Welsh, which is a hell of a language to learn, was no problem for her! In between having ten babies and running the biggest iron foundry beside her husband, dear Charlotte translated the Mabinogi Tales into English and published them (in both Welsh and English) in a series of three books, 1838-1849.

Interest from the public exploded and edition after edition has been published right up to today.

AmeriCymru: Which of the various translations would you recommend?

Shan: Charlotte Guest is still very good and easily available online, but a bit Victorian for modern taste.

My all time personal favourite is John Bollard “Legend and Landscape of Wales: The Mabinogi.” (2006) It’s not only a lovely easy read, it’s a beautiful book full of photos of the places around Wales where the stories happened.

https://sites.google.com/site/themabinogi/home

Bollard also gives a thoughtful introduction which reflects his position as the modern pioneer of new thought about the Mabinogi as living literature, not just leftover fragments of the past.

Sioned Davies recent “The Mabinogion” (2007) is also very popular, and she has skilfully explored the practical storytelling aspect of the tales, which is very important.

For anyone on a very tight budget you can read a major part of the Tales completely free on Will Parker’s generous site here: http://www.mabinogi.net/translations.htm It gives you’re the Four Branches. This friendly and reputable translation is so useful online to quickly look up what was actually said in a story, and to copy/ paste a quick quote. Saves boring copy typing, so thanks Will -he’s a darling too.

(Parker has also published a substantial book about the Mabinogi for serious interest later; “The Four Branches of the Mabinogion” 2005.)

Now some prefer to listen and watch than to read. After all this is what the Mabinogi were intended for, a living voice by a person, not print.

Cyb the chuckling monk offers you some free video tales:-

www.valleystream.co.uk/products.htm

or you can buy them all. Note the complete set has not been recorded but most are there.)

Colin Jones has the First Branch as a recording with haunting music, on his site, free.

http://themabinogion.com/album/mabinogion-the-four-branches

Or buy all four Branches as a download.

For those who want to get more serious here’s a mini guide.

1) Read the introduction sections to the above translations.
2) Get Patrick Ford “The Mabinogi and Other Welsh Tales” (1977) and read his intro.
3) Splash about on my website, contact me;
4) Order this book from the library: Charles Sullivan, The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays. (1997). Sadly otherwise unobtainable.
5) See my weekly online seminars, which are live chat based, and free.
http://mabinogistudy.com/

AmeriCymru: How important is the Mabinogi in Welsh literature and history?

Shan: It’s rather like the Welsh Shakespeare as people and situations from the stories appear all over the place. But it’s not just literature, it’s part of Welsh identity as an independent nation.

Wales has had to rebuild itself from a conquered people who were not even allowed to speak their native language. Children were bullied and shamed in school, if they forgot and used their native Welsh words. In my dear John’s lifetime he was sent far from home as a child to be trained to speak with a perfect Oxford English accent. It was the only way he would get a good job.

The Welsh know all about racism; colonial domination was practiced early on in Wales and exported to Africa and India. Oh my dee-ah not a Welsh maid, they’re so dirty they don’t even know how to use a tap to wash. (No taps on mountain sheep farms you see.)

The Welsh diaspora is no new subject to americymru folk of course but know with pride that the Welsh did it especially well. With stories, and poetry, music and beliefs in helping each other, Wales’ children have quietly spread across the world. Pushed to survive, their myths and dreams have sustained them into successful lives.

Nowadays there is S4C, the BBC TV station in Welsh. But in 1980 it took a hunger strike threatened to last to death by Gwynfor Evans, a Welsh MP, to get it.

The Mabinogi has played its vital part in the building of the vigorous society of Wales today, and wider Wales. A people must have its myths, its own sacred stories of origins, in order to believe in itself, or there is no sense of being a people. Knowing we have the oldest British literature in our keeping is a backbone, a fiery pride. That it is a sophisticated literature, with powerful philosophy and human understanding – plus a lot of fun! adds to its proud gifts.

That is why the Mabinogi are told, sung, performed, everywhere the Welsh gather, across the world.

AmeriCymru: In your opinion which of the Mabinogi Tales is the most significant or important? Do you have a favourite?

Shan: I would be presumptuous to judge which Tale is the most significant. We are not a people who go for the One Truth. We can hold with contradictions before breakfast. We are also politically aware and I am not going to open myself to furious condemnation from opposing camps!

I can however say that the Four Branches are the most popular which is a form of significance. These Four Branches are a quartet of stories in four chapters, which can also stand each by themselves. Or you can fit them together in puzzle patterns, an interlaced logic like the ancient Celtic knotwork. (See John Bollard’s modern innovative theories.)

The Branches have strong women, interesting thoughtful men, extraordinary villains, and a tenderness for children. It is easy to relate to these people as women and men, even if they turn into animals in places, or cook up zombie soldiers. One minute they are like you and I, next moment they are not.

The other stories are either the older Culhwch, a rollicking adventure story with much more limited depth; or later romances and tales much more influenced by French troubadours. So I think the Branches do hold a special place.

My favourite? Ah that is Rhiannon, in the First Branch. Like her I came to Dyfed, West Wales, as a powerful stranger woman, and found my love there. Like her I have one precious son with him. Like her I am proud, strategic, realistic, sensual, clever and devoted.

Like her I am quick to rebuke and generous in giving. My own darling Pwyll, like the one in the old story, is not at all what he appears to be. Like many Welsh he will allow himself to be unnoticed, or underestimated, while deftly getting exactly what he wants. It’s a conquered people’s skill he says, and its skill amuses him.

I cannot share my lady’s horse nature though – big teeth and hooves terrify me!

John comments: Shapeshifting is why Welsh identity is very hard to define satisfactorily. It is elusive. That is not an accident. In Wales we have learned that if we define ourselves openly and explicitly, what we define as Welshness is in danger of being devalued or even officially abolished. So we are deliberately vague in key places, leaving our enemies in England fighting the fog. There is often lots of fog in Wales! We are very comfortable with it.

AmeriCymru: You run an excellent website called ''Mabinogi Study''. Care to introduce it for our readers?

Shan: Thank you kindly sir. I started Mabinogi Study because I detest how students have to constantly reinvent the wheel. You have to find out what to read, and then get hold of it, both very difficult to do once you go beyond the first step or two. You copy type and make notes endlessly, which duplicates what a thousand others have done.

So all my notes and lists are going online. Who has translated the Mabinogi and which one is a good starter? What is Middle Welsh like? What’s this interlacing malarkey? Is Rhiannon really a goddess and if so what does that mean? What are her politics? What about shapeshifting? Why did Arianrhod get found out? Where did things happen? What do the names mean?

Plus a comprehensive bibliography of 1,000 listings, searchable. Biographies. A baby course on Middle Welsh, or a for those who just want to dip, a one page dictionary of the essential words. A weekly live seminar online.

Here’s some useful links to get started:

First Steps with Mabinogi: recommended starter reading, video, recordings.

http://www.mabinogistudy.com/xz-articles/first-steps-with-y-mabinogi.1/

Four Branches, brief summary: Overview of these well loved stories.

www.mabinogistudy.com/xz-articles/the-four-branches-a-brief-summary.171/

The Mabinogi Bibliography: This is on a separate site where I have collected about 1,000 books, articles, recordings etc. Not much fiction, interpretations, that will come later. Here you can search on a type or topic, even make your own booklist from mine.
www.zotero.org/groups/mabinogistudy/items/

Index of All Articles: www.mabinogistudy.com/xz-articles/articles-index.24/

The Mabinogi Meetings: www.mabinogistudy.com/xz-articles/mabinogi-meetings-weekly-welsh-myth.110/

AmeriCymru: That’s a lot! Anything else planned?

Shan: I’m waiting for a software script to be ready so I can post up a small encyclopaedia, a Mabinogi A-Z.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of Americymru?

Shan: Yes please. I’d like to say how very touched and pleased I was at how Ceri welcomed me on americymru. He didn’t just say the standard Croeso.

When I wrote and criticised his little 2010 Mabinogi quiz as inaccurate in a few places, even though I did it with courtly gentlesness, I expected the usual dickwaving defensiveness. I knew I risked a faceful of rudeness. Not a bit of it. Ceri actually welcomed the chance to consult me, and immediately proceeded to put me to work.

This is very rare. Most people don’t handle expert elders at all well. They are far too touchy and insecure, and as a result don’t learn, and don’t become expert in their turn. Nor do they get gifts of help on the way, and struggle more than is needed.

I’m well aware that in fostering and exploiting my talents Ceri is gaining much for americymru while helping me too. It works both ways. But again so few people know this skill of mutual support and flourishing called collaboration.

I’m well aware that in fostering and exploiting my talents Ceri is gaining much for americymru while helping me too. It works both ways. But again so few people know that skill of mutual support and flourishing.

I’m still exploring americymru full of admiration for what this skilled couple have built. I’ve already met some fascinating people here, and that is treasure to me.

To end I will just say that a warm welcome awaits you here in the homeland. Let me know you’re coming, then the cawl pot will simmer and the kettle boil as John collects you from the station, or as you park your car outside our rambling Welsh manor. We’ll gladly help you visit the beautiful places here. Just bow down to the mighty Cat clan and you are our honoured guests, my gentle readers.

Shan Morgain © March 2014

AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author Cynan Jones about his contribution to the Seren New Tales From The Mabinogion Series - ''Bird,Blood,Snow''. In re-imagining this myth for a contemporary audience Cynan Jones has adopted for his hero the juvenile terror and scourge of a modern council estate. Read our review here

Cynan Jones

Author of Bird,Blood,Snow

Read our previous interview with Cynan Jones

Other Titles by Cynan Jones

Everything I Found on the Beach

The Long Dry

...

AmeriCymru: Hi Cynan and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Care to tell us a little about your latest book ''Bird,Blood,Snow''?

Cynan: Bird, Blood Snow is different. Bird, Blood, Snow is a bicycle kick. By that I mean the process of writing it was instinctive and spontaneous.

It''s a re-telling of an ancient Welsh myth. More accurately, an Arthurian myth. It''s part of the New Stories from the Mabinogion series.

Seren formally approached me with the commission in November last year (''11), then we had to wait for the funding process to run through before they confirmed in March.

The book was scheduled for October 2013, which would give me plenty of time. Then at the end of March, Seren asked whether I could hit the slot for this year. I said yes. Which effectively left me three months to deliver the book. That certainly fed into the eclectic approach I took.

AmeriCymru: The book is based on the Mabinogion Peredur tale. How would you describe ''Peredur'' for anyone who is not acquainted with it?

Cynan: I was the last author to be approached for the series and Peredur was the only tale left. There were good reasons why. It''s narratively disjointed, the imagery that thunders through most of the other tales is scant, and its allegories are uncertain of themselves.

It tells the tale of a youth bent on recognition in King Arthur''s court. He leaves the isolated home his mother has removed him to in the hope he won''t follow his father and brother''s into a violent life; then he tries to draw attention to himself through a series of violent acts in Arthur''s name. That''s it in its simplest terms.

AmeriCymru: How difficult was it to re-imagine for a modern audience?

Cynan: As I''ve said, it was a bicycle kick. That''s evidently a very difficult skill, but it''s something you do without thinking in some ways. You don''t think of the difficulty, or the physics of it. You just go for it. It''s in retrospect you think... wow. Ok...

If the time scale for delivery had not changed it''s likely I would have done something much more in line with my other writing. It was good I didn''t.

AmeriCymru: Peredur, as cast in ''Bird,Blood,Snow'', is not a sympathetic character and his ''biographer'' is dismissed for having attempted to romanticize him. Do you think he has any redeeming qualities?

Cynan: He is immune to mildness. That might be regarded a redeeming quality. And he is self aware. He is violent with great target, rather than disruptive. But he doesn''t want to be redeemed. He openly admits to living in his own little world. He''s not bothered about integrating himself into society.

It''s interesting to write a character who is essentially vicious but meanwhile make him compelling. You don''t have a sympathy for him but his honesty is magnetic.

AmeriCymru: You say in your Afterword that the Peredur story is an early unfinished version of the medieval ''questing'' tale. Care to elaborate?

Cynan: This is purely my reaction to it. The Mabinogion tales were originally oral stories. Given that, there would have been great opportunity to alter the tales, to introduce contemporary factors and influences.

I wonder to what degree the Peredur tale came about because of an emerging fashion for Arthurian myth. Storytellers would have been requested to relate certain types of story, so would need to react to new trends much in the way film makers nowadays do.

My feeling is the Peredur myth had not actually formalised into a set story at the time the tales came to be written down in around the 1300s / 1400s.

But once you write something down you essentially fossilise it. If that process happens wrongly, the fossil is imperfect, scattered. It has to be pieced back together by the reader. The fact there are several disparate versions of the Peredur tale supports the guess.

AmeriCymru: What is the ultimate goal of Peredur''s quest in ''Bird,Blood,Snow''?

Cynan: Acknowledgement.

AmeriCymru: What''s next for Cynan Jones? Any new books planned or in the works?

Cynan: There''s a new book in the mix. It''s ready to go to publishers.

Meanwhile, I''m looking forward to getting on to the next story. It''s gestating a the moment. Hopefully I''ll begin early next year. It won''t be as lunatic as this one.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Cynan: Thanks for the continued enthusiasm. Also, there''s a quest within the book. I''d like to invite readers to dig about in the story a bit, do some archaeology. I''ve buried several artefacts from other texts. Some more easy to uncover than others. But do get in touch if you think you''ve found something!

Interview by Ceri Shaw Ceri Shaw on Google+

Bird,Blood,Snow was published in paperback on 1st November 2012, priced 8.99 ( GBP )

Award winning Welsh writer Cynan Jones pens the latest addition to Seren''s critically acclaimed series:- New Stories From The Mabinogion

Read our interview with Cynan Jones

Other Titles by Cynan Jones

The Long Dry Everything I Found At The Beach

...

As befits any retelling of the Mabinogion ''Peredur'' story this is a grim and sanguinary tale. The original revolves around the hero''s attempts to win favour and esteem at the medieval court of King Arthur.

In re-imagining this myth for a contemporary audience Cynan Jones has adopted for his hero the juvenile terror and scourge of a modern council estate. No mere ASBO, we follow with horror as Peredur graduates from juvenile delinquency to the status of full blown adult psychopath. In the Afterword Cynan speculates that ''Peredur'' is an early, fragmentary and unfinished example of the medieval questing tale. Consequently the story is related by means of a series of testimonies, police and psychiatric reports and occasional press clippings. There is also a sprinkling of handwritten notes left by the protagonist and excerpts from an unnamed ''biographer'' who has ".....hijacked Peredur, tried to mythologise him".

These different perspectives are woven together skilfully to ensure a seemless narrative flow which is never jarring or disconsonant.

At age eight Peredur is the topic du jour at a local police planning conference:-

"All growed up. Oh well. At least he''s livened things up a bit. We were in need of some entertainment....what do you do with a f****** eight year old who sticks a f****** stick in someone''s eye?"

Later in his career of infamy he is interviewed by his biographer and reveals that:-

"...You can get a person all slopey with a collar bone, easy with something heavy. Not highly technical. Good, satisfying crunch when they go. Ribs are tricky. Sometimes they go, sometimes they dont. You kind of know when you''ve popped a lung though; easily confused mind with a cracked sternum: either way f****** cant breath."

The attempt to mythologize and romanticize Peredur referred to in the opening letter to the editor consists of a series of psuedo Nietzschean ramblings which, whilst they may throw some light on the internal workings of a diseased mind, do very little to make the character any more sympathetic:-

"Usually people make peace with the world and work out compromises so that the two will not hurt each other badly.

Well, some few do not make peace. And some of these are locked away as hopelessly insane and full of fantasy.

I know full well I choose now, one way or another, whether to climb aboard, let myself be spun up in my delusion: in the speed and whirl of it. Let the world of my merry go round turn into a blur. It''s all choice. That''s what the sane sometimes don''t recognize....."

All in all this is a ghastly tale superbly well told. Not for the squeamish it is a must read for anyone with a taste for Welsh noir.It might also serve as a reminder to some that the tales of the Mabinogion have little to do with unicorns, fairy tale castles and damsels in distress.They are often accounts of ghastly and murderous events justified by a barbaric pre Roman, dark age and medieval warrior ideology. And of course.....none the worse for that.

Review by Ceri Shaw

Book Details

John Good is well known throughout the West, South, Midwest and in his native Wales as a multi-instrumentalist, Welsh piper, singer/songwriter, storyteller, composer and poet. John Good and Liz Warren''s performance of ''Pwyll Prince of Dyfed'' is available as a digital download on this page or below.

To coincide with the launch of the digital download on AmeriCymu, we interviewed John about the importance of the Mabinogion in his life and work.

AmeriCymru: What is the Mabinogion? Does it have a theme or purpose? Why were these particular stories gathered in one volume?

John: In the first place, the word Mabinogion is probably a scribal error institutionalized by Lady Guest, the work’s first major translator. The common Welsh plural suffix …ion seems to be an understandable mistake on the part of the probably monastic scribe who, although not the author, collected and wrote down these tales in Dyfed(?) and they should probably be called Mabinogi. With either spelling, the word is not fully understood. Mab means son and the most commonly agreed upon meaning is something like the life/instruction/biography/rites of passage (?) of the Prince (Pryderi). This name, whatever it might have conveyed to medieval taffies, is rightly only applied to the first four stories (branches), in which, in varying degrees of focus, we are told about Pryderi’s birth, upbringing, recovered birthright, manhood and death. In Branwen, for example he is barely mentioned; in Manawydan he is a major character, leading many commentators to believe we only have preserved incomplete tangled threads of this and a vast web of native tales that went the way of much material of the ancient oral tradition. The other tales in the collection are mainly of later collection/writing (Culwch ac Olwen might be earlier) and some show the influence of continental literature. But throughout the collection, fully integrated almost casual magic and the infrequent light Christian overlay, suggest a distant and probably pagan age as the genesis point of at least some of the material.

To try to answer the second and third parts of your question, I’d say that Lady Guest was just translating earlier Welsh language collections, excluding some of the material and including a number of these old Welsh stories that attracted and motivated her to seek out literary/linguistic knowledge and help, and God bless her for doing it! The four branches have a common theme: The subtle instruction by a scribal monk (?) of a warlike elite that discretion is often better than rash valour which, with the ever present and increasing threat across Offa’s Dike was pertinent; at the same time that leaders should be wisely decisive and also, that dabbling in deception and magic leads to bad ends. This is my opinion and far from universally accepted. I’ll get back to that at a later date. The other tales, like all good stories outline various moral strengths/weaknesses along with the results of wisdom and rashness. But we must never forget that these stories were meant as after-repast entertainment for the ruling classes, drawing on real/perceived and mythic history/genealogy; medieval interests, customs, law and etiquette; magic and wonders; humor, dark-age in-jokes and commonly known allusions; romance and chastity; mystery and revelation and not to forget heroism and armed conflict. In other words, the so called ‘Mabinogion’ is a pre-Norman-dominance, native Welsh Netflix.

AmeriCymru: H ow important is the Mabinogion in Welsh literature? How would you advise new readers or students to approach the work?

John: The tales are amongst the earliest recorded Welsh prose tales in the Welsh language (11th or 12th centuries). They provide a fairly detailed picture of early Welsh life, albeit mainly the ruling and semi-divine classes and thereby a context for other Welsh literature, particularly poetry. King Arthur makes a very early literary appearance which has importance for a world-wide literary character-obsession that continues to this day and hour. Once the 20th century vitriolic and historically short-sighted literati were superseded by equally brilliant yet compassionate modern commentators, the scribe of the four-branch Mabinogi is being recognized as a master of his craft rather than a confused monk who didn’t understand his material. In a word, dare I say they show strong elements of masterpiece, if we can ever forget the nearly thousand intervening years and embrace the different yet fully developed and sophisticated native minds of a society that was capable of much more than internecine blood baths and probably, after 1066, found the invading William the Bastard as a very dangerous churl.

So to answer the second part of the question (How would you advise new readers or students to approach the work?), open your mind/intellect/imagination; slip back a millennium, imagining yourself in the hall, at table, warmed by the fire and a glass or two of mead, beer or wine; loosening a couple of bodice buttons when the ‘storyteller’ steps up and the general conversation ebbs.

AmeriCymru: What is your personal relationship with the work? What does the Mabinogion mean to you?

John: I am a proud Welshman and Welsh speaker. When I read the tales, especially in the original Welsh – with aid from Ifor Williams’ notes, a historical vocabulary and modern dictionary – I feel connected to past greatness and an otherwise often allusive magical experience of belonging. These days when I visit my home town and see the Golden Arches peddling chemically altered trash to increasingly overweight local kids, I sometimes despair. When I sit by the gentle and wise giant Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed) as he skillfully avoids Celtic mayhem breaking out with Ireland, I am recharged and ready to do what I can to preserve and even strengthen the remnants of a once and future culture!

AmeriCymru: There have been several translations of the text. Which one would you recommend?

John: I have always liked Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones’ version. Sioned Davies, Gantz and Ford are all good but Lady Guest’s version is still a quaint classic. If you’re a Welsh learner, there are any number of children’s versions in accessible Welsh. For more advanced speakers/readers, the version by Dafydd a Rhiannon Ifans is hard to find but lovely and, to read the original, go to the classic Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi gan Ifor Williams.

AmeriCymru: What in your opinion is the most interesting or significant of these tales and why?

John: I don’t really have a favorite, but like all aging children I delight in the magical parts, especially the dragons which leads me to Ludd a Llefelys. As for interesting and significant, Manawydan fab Llyr ties up loose ends from Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, encapsulates what I take to be the overall message (discretion trumping valour) of the four branches and is very cleverly put together. You also see our scribe clearly using the techniques of oral storytelling … repetition of stock phrases and scenarios; mystery and marvels; use and integration of separate tales and an almost parable-like underlying fabric. Culwch ac Olwen is the wildest, may be the oldest, not to mention that a pre-Chretien De Troyes - and tantalizingly different - King Arthur graces the pages.

AmeriCymru: Why did you choose Pwyll for your first recording with Mythic Crew?

John: It’s the first. You know, on page one. [Sorry Ceri!] We also worked on, performed and recorded Branwen (to be available later) and would like to do the lot. The interesting thing about this project is that we present the stories as contemporary oral storytelling with musical accompaniment. We are not reading from a script, and the music is structured improvisation, making for sometimes considerable variations and fresh audience interaction each time, which may well be the way they were given before they were written down. So, we are recreating traditional yet contemporary oral performances based on a textual interpretation of an even earlier oral repertoire; the wheel having taken a leisurely multi-millennial and complete revolution. But, pretention aside, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and a great thrill to do the research, discuss and agree on the slant/pitch of the tale - trying to respect the original - then rehearse, add the music and step out into that circle of light and bring these ancient Welsh classics back to life for a new century of listeners.. so there!

Storyteller: Liz Warren, Musician: John Good, 50 mins playing time, price $9.99

The Story of Pwyll and Rhiannon

The stories that comprise the Mabinogion were written down sometime between 1160 and 1220 A.D. in Wales. They seem to have been written for a sophisticated, courtly audience. It is unknown whether their author created them in this form or if they were already current in the repertoires of medieval Welsh storytellers. Scholars agree, however, that the elements, characters, and ideas from which the stories are built reflect much older and more widely spread Celtic beliefs. The story of Pwyll and Rhiannon in particular introduces us to ancient concepts of the otherworld and sovereignty while showing us how a proper medieval Welsh prince should behave.

All the stories in the Mabinogion explore the themes of friendship, marriage, and feuds. The First Branch, the story of Pwyll and Rhiannon, begins with a feud which Pwyll resolves and in so doing makes an important friendship and alliance with the otherworld. This connection enables him to meet and ultimately marry Rhiannon, who represents sovereignty. Throughout their relationship Rhiannon must first endure Pwyll’s impulsiveness and lack of experience and later must bear an unjust punishment during which she is distanced from her husband and her royal role. This separation and her ultimate redemption is an element of most Celtic sovereignty myths.

Through the story, Pwyll grows in maturity and wisdom, reflected in his efforts to balance the demands of the nobles of his court with his love for Rhiannon. By the end of the story when he and Rhiannon are reunited with their child, Pwyll has proven himself a just and wise leader and she has shown her eternal nature by surviving and rising above injustice. Together they have proven their fertility, thereby assuring the fertility and productivity of the land, while providing an heir to continue their good works. Listen to a sample from the album in the pop up player below.

Characters and Pronunciation Guide

Pwyll (Pweeth): Prince of Dyfed, Head of Annwfn. His name means caution or wisdom.

Arawn (Ah-roon): King of the Otherworld

Hafgan (Hav-gan): Defeated King of Annwfn. His name means ‘summer song’.

Rhiannon (Hree-an-on): Pwyll’s otherworldly bride, horse goddess, and bestower of sovereignty. Her name comes from a Celtic term meaning high queen.

Hefaidd Hen (Hev-ay -ith Hen): Rhiannon’s father.

Gwawl (Goo-awl): Rhiannon’s rejected suitor.

Teyrnon (Tir-non): The best man in all the world.

Pryderi (Prud-er-ee): Pwyll and Rhiannon’s son. His name means anxiety.

Cigfa (Keeg-vah): Pryderi’s bride.

Other Terms

Mabinogion (mab-i-no-gee-on): Collective name for eleven medieval Welsh mythic stories.

Dyfed (Duv-ed): Pwyll’s realm in south-west Wales.

Gorsedd Arberth (Gor-seth Ar-burth): The magical mound of Arberth.

Cantref (kan-trev): Medieval Welsh administrative district of 100 villages.