Mabinogi music math1/11/2024 The earliest surviving manuscript fragments of the stories date from the thirteenth century, but the earliest major collection – and one of the great treasures of the Library – is the White Book of Rhydderch, which contains ten of the eleven tales and was written around 1350, probably by monks at Strata Florida it was an error by a mediaeval scribe that led to the collection becoming known as the Mabinogion by the eighteenth century. The Mabinogi, then, can be thought of as an expression of the collective memory of the society that produced it. Even today, it is common in traditional societies to share stories of all kinds at social gatherings. The Welsh court poets knew many traditional stories and expected their audiences to understand references to them, and the stories themselves state that a chief poet was expected to tell a story when he received hospitality, and that other people told stories as well. The storytelling techniques employed in most of the stories – repetitive, and full of dialogue and distinct memorable episodes – suggest that they were composed to be performed and listened to, rather than read, but we know very little about who composed the stories or who would have performed them. Yet the Mabinogi tales owe much more to the Welsh oral tradition in which they originated, as well as the narrative skill of the people who committed them to writing. In some ways, the stories can be seen as a product of the post-colonial world in which they were first written down. Some of the other stories, however, were clearly influenced by Anglo-French romances, notably ‘The dream of Rhonabwy’, which appears to be an entirely literary creation. They were probably first written down between 10, neatly coinciding with attacks on Wales from England and the destruction of great native Welsh political hegemonies, but many of the stories themselves are much older, having been told, retold and adapted for centuries.Īnother of the oldest stories is ‘Culhwch and Olwen’, which presents king Arthur in a very different light from the Anglo-French romances and pseudohistories made popular by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes in the twelfth century, while ‘The dream of Macsen Wledig’ echoes Geoffrey’s work but contains many elements that are not found in it. The first four – ‘Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed’, ‘Branwen ferch Llŷr’, ‘Manawydan fab Llŷr’ and ‘Math fab Mathonwy’, known collectively as the Four Branches – are generally considered to be linked together, albeit very loosely to the modern eye. There are eleven stories in all, and they include the earliest prose stories found anywhere in Britain. These are a fascinating mix of dramatic and mysterious tales of magic, tragedy, romance, fantasy, humour, betrayal, conflict, justice, adventure, morality, human nature and the Otherworld, combining elements of folklore, mythology, pseudohistory, legend and philosophy, with occasional comments on mediaeval current affairs. Wales has a long tradition of sharing stories, one of the most famous legacies of this being the collection of medieval Welsh prose known as the Mabinogi – and what better stories can there be to share? Today we celebrate World Book Day and the launch of the campaign ‘ Share a Story’.
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