The Four Branches of the Mabinogi or are four medieval Welsh stories contained in the collection Mabinogion. They are rooted in Welsh mythology and legend; as literature, they may also be described as romances or magical fantasies and contain political themes. The tales have been translated from the original Middle Welsh into other languages, including English. The Four Branches of the Mabinogi are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Britain. They are popular today in book format, as storytelling or theatre performances; they appear in recordings and on film, and continue to inspire reinterpretations in artwork and modern fiction, such as the New Stories of the Mabinogion series and The Assembly of the Severed Head by Hugh Lupton.
Overview The are known as the Four Branches of the , or in Welsh. The tales were compiled from oral tradition in the 11th century. They survived in private family libraries via medieval manuscripts, of which two main versions and some fragments continue to survive today. Early modern scholarship of the saw the tales as a garbled Welsh mythology which prompted attempts to salvage or reconstruct them. Since the 1970s the tales have become recognised as a complex secular literature, though rooted in and containing elements of Welsh mythology, with powerfully explored characters, political, ethical and gendered themes, as well as imaginative fantasies. The style of writing is admired for its deceptive simplicity and controlled wordpower, as well as intricate doublets where mirrorings have been compared to Celtic knotwork.Bollard, John Kenneth. 1974. The Structure of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Trans. of the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 250–76. The world displayed within the extends across Wales, to Ireland, and into England. It presents a legendary Britain as a united land under a king, yet with powerful separate princedoms, where native Welsh law, (magic), and romance, combine in a unique synergy. Possible authors who have been proposed for the Four Branches include and .S Davies trans, Mabinogion (Oxford 2007) p. 239
Each Branch contains several tale episodes in a sequence, and each Branch is titled with the name of a leading protagonist. These titles are and , but this is a modern custom; the Branches are not titled in the mediaeval manuscripts. Only one character appears in all four Branches, , though he is never dominant or central to any of the Branches.
Prince of tells of the heroic and magical sojourn of in , his shapeshifting, chastity and a duel, which all establish a mighty alliance. The formidable courts him, and he helps her win her freedom to marry him. The strange abduction at birth of their baby son follows, with his rescue, fostering and restoration by the good lord of the Kingdom of Gwent. The child is named . Daughter of follows 's marriage to the King of Ireland, who abuses her due to insult by her half brother, . A tragically genocidal war develops fomented by , in which a Cauldron which resurrects the dead figures, and the giant king Bran's head survives his death in an enchanted idyll. is merely named as a war survivor, and dies, heartbroken. Son of brother of , heir to the throne of Britain, becomes 's good friend during the war. arranges his friend's marriage to . The land of is devastated. Journeys in England setting up craft businesses follow. An enchanted trap removes and becomes a farmer. He cannily negotiates their release, as well as the restoration of the land, by confronting the villain behind it all. Son of is a dark sequence of deception and treachery: war with , the death of , the double rape of a virgin girl, and the rejection of an unwanted hero son by proud her magician brother is the architect of all these destinies. He adds an artificially incubated pregnancy, and a synthetic woman. She, , creates a treacherous love triangle, murder in a peculiar manner. makes a shamanic journey of redemption.
The Branches
First branch: , Prince of
, " Prince of ", hunting on his own land, meets the shining or "Hounds of ", and takes another man's kill, a stag, for himself. , the king of , is greatly offended. As recompense, switches bodies with and dwells in to vanquish 's adversary. chastely shares the queen's bed for a year. defeats 's enemy , and is then rewarded with an alliance between his land of , and then returns home to where he finds it has been well ruled by in the past year.
Next, encounters , a beautiful and powerful maiden on a shining magical horse. They are strangely unreachable by anyone, for as they attempt to approach, and her horse get further away. Finally, they ask her to stop in which she complies and it is revealed that has chosen as her husband, which he welcomes. On and 's wedding day in the court of appears in disguise and tricks into giving him the entire wedding feast and then guides through a cunning strategy using her magic bag which can never be filled, to extricate her from her betrothal to the princely is trapped in the bag and beaten by 's men until he agrees to 's terms, including foregoing vengeance.
eventually bears a son and heir, but the child disappears the night he is born. 's maids, in fear of their lives, accuse her of killing and eating her own baby. negotiates a penalty where she must sit at the castle gate every day for seven years telling her terrible tale to strangers and offer them a ride on her back. Meanwhile, the child is rescued from its monstrous abductor by . He and his wife adopt the boy who grows heroically apace, and adores horses. They called him ( 'Golden Hair', ). sees the boy's resemblance to , so he restores the boy to for a happy ending. is vindicated as is 's loyalty to her. Their son is renamed "Loss", as is custom from his mother's first words to him: puns on anxiety and labour. In due course, inherits the rule of .
Second Branch: , Daughter of
In the second branch, , sister of Brân the Blessed, king of Britain, is requested by and given in marriage to , king of Ireland. 's half-brother , angered that no one consulted him, insults by mutilating all his valuable horses so horribly they become useless. the Blessed gives compensation in the form of new horses and treasure, then added a magical cauldron () which can restore the dead to life, although the revived persons will always remain unable to speak. The legend of this cauldron, when the two kings compare its lore, is that it came from Ireland.
In Ireland, and have a son, . The Irish nobles continue to be hostile because of what did. allows them to sway him, and casts away to serf in the kitchens, struck on the face every day by a low-caste butcher. trains a starling to take a message to across the Irish Sea. He musters his host and crosses the sea to war on is so huge he wades across with his ships beside him. persuades the Irish to sue for peace by building a colossal building to house , which he has never had before.
The Irish hide two hundred warriors in the house, hanging in bags on its pillars. shrewdly suspects treachery and disbelieves the Irish story these are bags of flour. He crushes the skull of each hidden warrior, singing after he does it. Later, at the feast, deliberately seeks to create discord. He throws his infant nephew on the fire and kills him. Fighting breaks out and the Irish use the Cauldron to revive their dead. hides among the corpses to get in the Cauldron, stretches and cracks it, dying as he does so.
The war had become a genocide. Five pregnant women survive to repopulate Ireland. Only Seven Survivors remained of the British host, besides . One is 's other brother, and his good friend , mortally wounded by a poisoned spear, bids the survivors to cut off his head, and take it to bury at the White Tower in London. He prophesies his head will be their good companion and advise them, while they will sojourn for many years of idyllic feasting, first at in , then on the isle of in . But on arriving back in Britain, dies of grief for the many who have died.
means 'raven'; means 'white raven'; and means 'trouble, strife'.
Third Branch: , son of
of returns from the Irish War as one of its few survivors, to reunite with his mother , and his wife . He brings with him his beloved war comrade, , the heir to the kingship of all Britain. But 's rights as heir to Britain have been usurped by , and he does not want more war. establishes him as the lord of , including marriage to , a union which both partners welcome. The four of them, and her new husband , become very good friends indeed, and travel the land of admiring how bountiful it is.
Together they sit the , as once did. A clap of thunder, a bright light, and magical mist descend. Afterwards the land is devastated of all other life except wild animals. The four live by hunting, but after two years they want more, so they travel to England. In three towns in turn they craft saddles, shields and shoes of such quality that the local craftsmen cannot compete, so their envy becomes dangerous. dislikes the lower class way of life, and stops him from fighting their enemies. Instead insists on moving away. After three attempts like this, they return to .
Once more living as hunters and follow a shining white boar to a strange castle. , against 's advice, follows his hounds inside to become trapped there by a golden bowl. waits, then reports to who rebukes his failure to rescue his friend. But when she follows her son she too becomes trapped. Alone with reassures her he will respect her virtue. After another attempt in England as shoemakers, the pair return to , and farms three fields of wheat next to . But his first field's harvest is cut down by thieves, and his second. He sits vigil at night, and sees a horde of mice eating the ripe corn. He catches a slow, fat one. Against 's protest he sets up a miniature gibbet to hang it as a thief.
A scholar, a priest and a bishop in turn offer him money if he will spare the mouse which he refuses. When asked what he wants for the mouse's life he first demands an explanation. The bishop tells him he is , friend of the wronged , the mouse is 's shapeshiften wife, and the devastation of is to avenge bargains to release of and , and the lifting of the curse on .
Fourth Branch: , son of
in North Wales is ruled by the magician king , whose feet must be held by a virgin at all times except while he is at war. 's nephew is infatuated with , the royal maiden foot-holder, so 's brother plots to aid him. He deceives of with magical sham gifts of horses and dogs, in exchange for 's valuable swine, a gift from makes war in revenge, so leaves without his protection. and rape her, and kills in single combat. marries in compensation for her rape. He punishes the two brothers by shapeshifting them into animal pairs who must mate and bear young; first deer, then boars, then wolves. The sons they bear become 's foster sons, and after three years the brothers are reconciled with .
suggests his sister as the new footholder. magically tests her virginity requiring her to step over his wand. She immediately gives birth to a son, , who takes to the sea. She also drops a scrap of life which scoops up and incubates in a chest by his bed. is deeply shamed and angered so she utterly rejects the boy. She swears a doom upon him that he cannot have a name, nor warrior arms, unless she gives them to him. tricks her into naming the boy (Bright Skillful Hand) by speaking to him, not knowing who he is as he is shapeshifted. More shapeshifting fakes a military attack so gives them arms - dressing and arming herself.