Performance features such as episodic structure, repetition, verbal formulae,and dialogue are an integral part of their fabric, partly because the ‘authors’ inherited pre-literary modes of narrating, and partly because in a culture where very few could read and write, tales and poems would be performed before a listening audience even when a text was committed to parchment, one can assume that the parchment would become ‘interactive’ as a general lack of literacy demanded public readings. Their roots lie in oral tradition, and as such they reflect a collaboration between the oral and literary cultures, giving us an intriguing insight into the world of the medieval storyteller, the cyfarwydd. Moreover, unlike the poetry of the period, the ‘authors’ of our tales are anonymous, suggesting that there was no sense of ‘ownership’ and that the texts were viewed as part of the collective memory. Despite many common themes, the tales were never conceived as an organic group, and are certainly not the work of a single author. The title was popularised in the nineteenth century when Lady Charlotte Guest translated the tales into English, so placing them on an European stage. The term is probably a scribal error for mabinogi, derived from the Welsh word mab meaning ‘son, boy’ the general consensus is that its original meaning was ‘youth’ or ‘story of youth’, and that finally it meant no more than ‘tale’ or ‘story’. 1350), and the Red Book of Hergest (dated sometime between 1382 and c.1410). So what exactly is The Mabinogion? It’s a collective name given to eleven medieval Welsh tales found mainly in two manuscripts – the White Book of Rhydderch (dated c. It was only later, in University, that I learned to appreciate these stories in their original medieval Welsh guise, and began to understand why they were pieces to be performed. And then, on ‘snow-days’, when very few teachers could make the icy journey to school, my headmaster father would keep 350 young children spellbound in the school hall, telling them tales of Bendigeidfran, Efnysien, Pwyll, Culhwch – tales of The Mabinogion. Even now I can’t pass these places without recalling the tales connected with them. The journey would be punctuated by local tales as certain features in the landscape came into view – the hill of Moel Bentyrch whose dragon was tricked into falling on scythes, a red rag tied around each one the mountains of Mawddwy, home of the Gwylliaid Cochion, the red-haired bandits who terrorised the local people and who murdered Baron Lewis ap Owen, the Sheriff of Meirionnydd. I have always loved listening to stories, ever since the monthly family trips to West Wales to visit elderly aunts in my father’s beloved home village of Pennal. Here she has written an article for us to introduce The Mabinogion. Her publications include Crefft y Cyfarwydd, a study of narrative techniques in the Mabinogion, The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, and a co-edited volume, The Horse in Celtic Culture: Medieval Welsh Perspectives. Her special interest is the interplay between literacy and the oral tradition, together with the performance aspects of medieval Welsh narrative. Sioned Davies is Chair of Welsh at Cardiff University. Home » Shows » Dreaming the Night Field » Introducing The Mabinogion by Sioned Davies
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