Thank you for visiting. This article is the fourth installment in a series explaining the original texts of Celtic mythology.
In the previous three articles, we looked at the Celtic mythology handed down in Ireland (the gods, Cú Chulainn, Fionn). This time, I explain in detail Celtic mythology’s other treasury, the Welsh myth collection the Mabinogion, following the original text. Exchange with the fairy world, the ever-speaking head of a giant, a woman made from flowers — and here lies a source of the Arthurian legends.
For an overview map of Celtic mythology’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.
What Kind of Original Text Is the “Mabinogion”?
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Original text | The story cycle in the medieval Welsh manuscripts the White Book and Red Book |
| Date | The stories took form around the 11th–13th centuries; the manuscripts in the 14th |
| Center | Four stories called the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi” |
| Significance | Celtic myth surviving in Wales / a source of the Arthurian legends |
What conveys the stories of the Mabinogion to today are two medieval manuscripts: the early-14th-century White Book of Rhydderch and the late-14th-century Red Book of Hergest — called the “White Book” and “Red Book” from their binding colors. Just as Ireland’s myths were handed down in manuscripts like the Book of Invasions (Article 1), Wales’s myths too were written onto parchment by the hands of monks and scribes.
The title “Mabinogion” became established through the work of Lady Charlotte Guest, who translated these stories into English and spread them in the 19th century. At its center are the four stories (branches) called the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi.”
The four branches are independent stories, yet form a loose series in which a figure named Pryderi appears in all the branches. Now let’s look at them one branch at a time.
An Illustrated Guide to Celtic MythologyView on Amazon →
European Iconography: Myths, Legends and Fairy TalesView on Amazon →
The First Branch: Pwyll — the Fairy Land and the Lady on the White Horse
The hero of the first branch is the lord of Dyfed, Pwyll. During a hunt, he takes the kill of an unfamiliar hound. The owner of that hound was Arawn, king of the fairy land (otherworld) “Annwn.”
To atone for the rudeness, Pwyll switches forms with Arawn and lives for a year as king of the otherworld. Keeping his promise, he struck down Arawn’s enemy Hafgan with a single blow (it was decreed that one blow only must be struck, since a second would revive the enemy), and laid not a finger on the queen. By this integrity, Pwyll and Arawn were bound in firm friendship, and Pwyll gained the title “Head of Annwn.” The human land and the fairy land come and go between each other — a Celtic-style view of the otherworld is vividly shown from the opening.
In the latter half, the famous Rhiannon appears. A lady in golden raiment riding a white horse, who appeared on a hill. No matter how fast a horse anyone chased her on, they somehow could not catch up with her, moving slowly. When Pwyll called out, “Please, stop,” she stopped at once and answered, “You could have said so from the start.” The two are united, and a son, Pryderi, is born. But the baby is carried off the night he is born by someone, and Rhiannon, falsely accused of killing her own child, endures the humiliating punishment of carrying guests on her back at the gate. Eventually the baby is found with the lord Teyrnon, mother and child reunite, and Rhiannon’s false name is cleared.
The Second Branch: Branwen — the Ever-Speaking Head of a Giant
The second branch is the most tragic of the four. The giant king of Britain, Brân, marries his sister Branwen to the Irish king Matholwch. But at the wedding, Brân’s half-brother, the violent Efnysien, believing himself insulted, commits the outrage of injuring the Irish side’s horses.
Brân, as amends, gives the magical “cauldron of rebirth,” which “if a dead body is put in and left a night, it revives the next day,” and the matter is settled there. But Branwen, gone to Ireland, is eventually demoted to kitchen work as a reprisal for this affair and is abused. She tames a starling and ties a letter to its leg, sending word of her plight to her brother across the sea.
Enraged, Brân leads a great army and attacks Ireland. Being a giant, he did not board a ship but walked across the sea himself. The battle was atrocious. The Irish kept reviving their dead with the cauldron of rebirth and gained the upper hand, but Efnysien, pretending to be dead, got into the cauldron and smashed it from inside, losing his own life as well — his last atonement.
After the battle, only seven survived on the British side. Brân, mortally wounded by a poisoned spear, gives his comrades an astonishing order: “Cut off my head and carry it home.” And the severed head kept speaking just as in life, entertaining the feasting comrades for decades (the “Assembly of the Noble Head”). The head was finally buried on the White Hill of London as a guardian to protect the land from enemies across the sea, it is told. Meanwhile, Branwen, returned to her homeland, grieved that she was the cause of the ruin of two islands, and died of a broken heart.
The Third Branch: Manawydan — the Land Vanished in Mist and the Mouse Trial
The hero of the third branch is Brân’s brother Manawydan (taken to be the same root figure as the Irish sea god Manannán mac Lir). He is united with the widowed Rhiannon and begins to live in Dyfed with Pryderi and his wife.
But one night, with a clap of thunder, a magical mist enveloped the land, and when it cleared, people, livestock, and houses had all vanished. In the land turned to wasteland, even Pryderi and Rhiannon are swallowed by a magic castle and disappear.
Manawydan, left behind, calm and unflustered, tries to survive by growing grain. But on the eve of harvest, the fields are devoured one after another. The culprits are a vast swarm of mice. Manawydan catches one slow-moving mouse and declares, “As a thief, I will hang it according to the law.” Then travelers appear one after another begging for the mouse’s life. In fact, this mouse was the pregnant wife of the sorcerer Llwyd, who had cursed Dyfed. In exchange for the mouse’s life, Manawydan won the full lifting of the curse and the return of the two who had vanished. Winning by wisdom and patience rather than force — a story of especially deep flavor even among the four branches.
The Fourth Branch: Math — the Flower-Made Woman Blodeuwedd
The fourth branch is a story of magicians. Centered on the king of Gwynedd, Math, and his nephew the magician Gwydion, transformations and curses chain together.
The protagonist of the latter half is the young hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes. His own mother, Arianrhod, lays on him the curse that he “can never have a human wife.” So Math and Gwydion created by magic an unprecedented being: a most beautiful woman made only from the flowers of oak, broom, and meadowsweet — named “Blodeuwedd (flower-face).”
But the wife born of flowers eventually falls in love with the hunter Gronw and plots her husband Lleu’s assassination. Lleu had a strange protection — that he could be killed only in a state “neither standing nor mounted, neither indoors nor outdoors” — but Blodeuwedd drew out those conditions, and Gronw’s spear pierced Lleu. But Lleu did not die; he transformed into an eagle and flew away. Gwydion found the weakened eagle, returned it to human form, and Lleu took revenge by striking down Gronw with a spear. And the treacherous wife Blodeuwedd was, as punishment, turned into an “owl,” a bird that shows itself only at night. Her name is said to remain even now in the Welsh word for owl.
Culhwch and Olwen — to the Oldest Story of King Arthur
The Mabinogion contains, besides the four branches, other precious stories. Most important is Culhwch and Olwen. This is taken to be one of the oldest extant stories in which King Arthur appears as a major figure.
The youth Culhwch, by his stepmother’s curse, comes to be able to love only the giant’s daughter Olwen. He seeks help at the court of his cousin, Arthur, and is set, by Olwen’s father the giant Ysbaddaden, as a condition of marriage, as many as 40 impossible tasks. Its greatest obstacle is to seize the comb and shears between the ears of the magical great boar “Twrch Trwyth.”
Arthur and his warriors chase the great boar across from Britain to Ireland and, after a fierce struggle, finally seize the treasures. Having fulfilled all the tasks, Culhwch is united with Olwen, and as promised the giant Ysbaddaden is slain. The Arthur depicted here is not the courtly king of later ages but a rough Celtic hero who fights monsters. Besides this, the manuscripts also contain dream tales set at Arthur’s court, such as The Dream of Rhonabwy.
As a Source of the Arthurian Legends
The Mabinogion holds a special place in world literary history because it is one of the sources of the Arthurian legends.
The Arthur tradition handed down in Wales passed, through works such as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain in the 12th century, to the Continent, and eventually grew into the greatest story world of medieval Europe as the cycle of the Knights of the Round Table, the Grail quest, and Lancelot. For example, the theme of a magical vessel like the second branch’s “cauldron of rebirth” is argued to be one source of the later image of the “Holy Grail.” Tracing back the lineage of sword-and-sorcery fantasy, one of its headwaters reaches, without doubt, these Welsh manuscripts.
How Strong Are the Characters Here? — The Power Ranking
King Arthur, who has the Mabinogion as one source, and his knight Lancelot, are also introduced in strength order in the “Mythology, Religion & Legend Power Ranking.” Enjoy their depiction in the original text alongside their “strength.”
To Learn More
Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.
Celtic Myth: Goddesses, Heroes and FairiesView on Amazon →
Celtic Myths and LegendsView on Amazon →
Conclusion
In this article, I explained the Welsh myth collection the Mabinogion in detail, following the original text. How was it?
The fairy land Annwn and Rhiannon; Brân, who walked across the sea and kept speaking even as a head alone; the land vanished in mist and the mouse trial; the flower-made Blodeuwedd; and the oldest Arthur chasing the great boar — I hope you could savor a Welsh Celtic mythology, full of fantasy and magic, a little different from Ireland’s.
With this, the four-article series on Celtic mythology’s original texts is complete. I also explain the original texts of other myths and religions. For the full list, see the complete index of the world’s myths and religions.
I hope you’ll read the next article too.
📚 Series: The Original Texts of Celtic Mythology (5/5)
