The Mabinogi
Translated by Patrick K. Ford
This book is an odd collection of old Welsh tales that deal with everything from the origins and early history of everyone's favorite game (Badger-in-the-Bag) to the great mystery bull of haircutting tools. Though they may be slightly off-key, the tales do serve to entertain the reader and can paint a picture of the importance of certain customs in early Welsh society.
Speech, for example, plays a huge role in every story in the collection. The worst fate a man of noble birth can suffer is to be satirized, the mere threat of which holds many strong men at bay throughout the tales. Also, the stories can be read as a kind of cautionary tale, urging readers to choose their words wisely. Pwyll, eponymous leading man of the first tale, is a moron and relies on his woman to get him out of trouble when he promises an admirer anything the latter wishes. Later, a man is saved from a fate by ensuring that every possible contingency is dealt with in his verbal agreement with a bishop regarding the release of a wife. The bishop congratulates him on taking every possibility into account.
We also have at hand an appearance of the famed King Arthur and, in a seperate tale, we learn of the early exploits of his mentor Merlin. King Arthur manages to secure an active role quite different from his deferent manuevers in later tales of his round table; here he's simply a kindly uncle bailing out his kin (and delivering quite the haircut). I think that these last tales were most interesting for me, given my demonstrated interest in the Arthurian legends, but all of the stories captivate the reader and, with the exception of Llud and Lleuelys, all manage to dive into their characters with strange depth for their short length and focus on events. I was surprised by the gusto with which Rhiannon was introduced, whipping her boy into shape and all, but she (of course) is later subdued into typical feminine gentility. Her brief foray, however, is shocking and delightful.
Sadly, these tales aren't exemplary examples of high literary art. The translation is good and very readable, but the stories themselves have major structural issues. People come and go without any real explanation, and plots just kind of...end somehow. The story of Math is particularly strange, with most of the story concentrating on his posterity rather than him, confusing this poor reader greatly. A few passages require double reading and going back over the text to figure things out, but the stories within the framework are always entertaining of their own right, even if their relation with the whole is a little sketchy.
The medieval Welsh mythology presented in this book is a nice distraction, an nice foray into the world of old. It presents enough surprises and deviations from standards we apply to this kind of literature to be constantly entertaining. And really, who can resist a work that references Badger-in-the-Bag in two tales?
Grade: B+
Translated by Patrick K. Ford
This book is an odd collection of old Welsh tales that deal with everything from the origins and early history of everyone's favorite game (Badger-in-the-Bag) to the great mystery bull of haircutting tools. Though they may be slightly off-key, the tales do serve to entertain the reader and can paint a picture of the importance of certain customs in early Welsh society.
Speech, for example, plays a huge role in every story in the collection. The worst fate a man of noble birth can suffer is to be satirized, the mere threat of which holds many strong men at bay throughout the tales. Also, the stories can be read as a kind of cautionary tale, urging readers to choose their words wisely. Pwyll, eponymous leading man of the first tale, is a moron and relies on his woman to get him out of trouble when he promises an admirer anything the latter wishes. Later, a man is saved from a fate by ensuring that every possible contingency is dealt with in his verbal agreement with a bishop regarding the release of a wife. The bishop congratulates him on taking every possibility into account.
We also have at hand an appearance of the famed King Arthur and, in a seperate tale, we learn of the early exploits of his mentor Merlin. King Arthur manages to secure an active role quite different from his deferent manuevers in later tales of his round table; here he's simply a kindly uncle bailing out his kin (and delivering quite the haircut). I think that these last tales were most interesting for me, given my demonstrated interest in the Arthurian legends, but all of the stories captivate the reader and, with the exception of Llud and Lleuelys, all manage to dive into their characters with strange depth for their short length and focus on events. I was surprised by the gusto with which Rhiannon was introduced, whipping her boy into shape and all, but she (of course) is later subdued into typical feminine gentility. Her brief foray, however, is shocking and delightful.
Sadly, these tales aren't exemplary examples of high literary art. The translation is good and very readable, but the stories themselves have major structural issues. People come and go without any real explanation, and plots just kind of...end somehow. The story of Math is particularly strange, with most of the story concentrating on his posterity rather than him, confusing this poor reader greatly. A few passages require double reading and going back over the text to figure things out, but the stories within the framework are always entertaining of their own right, even if their relation with the whole is a little sketchy.
The medieval Welsh mythology presented in this book is a nice distraction, an nice foray into the world of old. It presents enough surprises and deviations from standards we apply to this kind of literature to be constantly entertaining. And really, who can resist a work that references Badger-in-the-Bag in two tales?
Grade: B+
No comments:
Post a Comment