The Mabinogion

10 May, 2018 890 Other literatures

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eleven stories of Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance known as The Mabinogion, most of which were told and retold for generations before being written down in C14th. Among them are stories of Pwyll and Rhiannon and their son Pryderi, of Culhwch and Olwen, of the dream of the Emperor Macsen, of Lludd and Llefelys, of magic and giants and imagined history. With common themes but no single author, they project an image of the Island of Britain before the Anglo-Saxons and Normans and before Edward I’s conquest of Wales. They came to new prominence, worldwide, from C19th with the translation into English by Lady Charlotte Guest aided by William Owen Pughe.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Sioned Davies No other episodes
    Professor in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University
  • Helen Fulton 4 episodes
    Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol
  • Juliette Wood 12 episodes
    Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University

Reading list

  • The Mabinogi: Legend and Landscape of Wales
    John K. Bollard (trans.) (Gwasg Gomer, 2006)
  • Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain
    Rachel Bromwich (ed.) (University of Wales Press, 2006) Google Books →
  • The Arthur of the Welsh: Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature
    Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman & Brynley F. Roberts (eds) (University of Wales Press, first published 1995; 2008) Google Books →
  • The Mabinogion
    Sioned Davies (trans.) (Oxford World's Classics, 2008) Google Books →
  • Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children's Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology
    Dimitra Fimi (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) Google Books →
  • Urban Culture in Medieval Wales
    Helen Fulton (ed.) (University of Wales Press, 2012)
  • Dafydd ap Gwilym and the European Context
    Helen Fulton (University of Wales Press, 1989) Google Books →
  • The Owl Service
    Alan Garner (HarperCollins, 2017) Google Books →
  • Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages
    Ralph Griffiths and Phillip Schofield (eds) (University of Wales Press, 2011) Google Books →
  • Lady Charlotte Guest: An Extraordinary Life
    Revel Guest and Angela V John (The History Press, 2005) Google Books →
  • A Guide to Welsh Literature, vol. 1
    A. O. H. Jarman and Gwilym Rees Hughes (eds) (University of Wales Press, 1992) Google Books →
  • The Literature of Wales
    Dafydd Johnston (University of Wales Press, 2017) Google Books →
  • The Meat Tree: New Stories from the Mabinogion
    Gwyneth Lewis (Seren, 2010) Google Books →
  • The Woman Made of Flowers: Blodeuwedd 1947
    Saunders Lewis (trans. Joseph P. Clancy) (Dinefwr Publishers Ltd, 2016) Google Books →
  • The Arthurian Place Names of Wales
    Scott Lloyd (University of Wales Press, 2017) Google Books →
  • The Mabinogi, Writers of Wales Series
    Proinsias Mac Cana (University of Wales Press, 1992) Google Books →
  • Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature
    O. J. Padel (University of Wales Press, 2000) Google Books →
  • The Welsh and the Medieval World: Travel, Migration and Exile
    Patricia Skinner (ed.) (University of Wales Press, 2018) Google Books →
  • The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays
    C. W. Sullivan III (ed.) (Routledge, 2015)
  • An Introduction to Welsh Literature
    Gwyn Williams (University of Wales Press, 1992) Google Books →
  • The Holy Grail: History and Legend
    Juliette Wood (University of Wales Press, 2012) Google Books →

Related episodes

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

Programme ID: b0b1p5k7

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1p5k7

Auto-category: 891.66 (Welsh literature)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello, English soldiers killed Llewelyn, the last sovereign prince of Wales, in 1282.