The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics)
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Madog son of Maredudd ruler of Powys 214, 275–6 n.
Madog son of Twrgadarn Madog son of ‘Strong Tower’, Arthur’s forester in the Forest of Dean 140
Manawydan son of Llŷr brother of Bendigeidfran and Branwen, half-brother of Efnysien; he is the second husband of Rhiannon daughter of Hyfaidd Hen 22, 23, 25, 31, 32, 33, 35–46, 185, 212, 232–3 n.
March son of Meirchawn Arthur’s cousin 219, 225, 278 n.
Math son of Mathonwy lord of Gwynedd, uncle to Gwydion and Gilfaethwy 47–8, 50–4, 58–9, 61, 63, 239–40 n.
Matholwch king of Ireland, husband of Branwen 23–30, 34
Maxen Wledig (G)wledig means ‘lord’; Maxen (Magnus Maximus) is emperor of Rome, who marries Elen after falling in love with her through a dream 103–10, 249 n.
Medrawd Arthur’s nephew, his adversary at the battle of Camlan 216
Menw son of Teirgwaedd Menw son of Three Cries, one of Arthr’s men 184, 185, 190, 194, 208, 212, 225
Morddwyd Tyllion or Bendigeidfran; the meaning is ‘pierced’ or ‘large thigh’ 32
Morgan Tud Arthur’s chief physician 152, 171–2, 258 n.
Nysien son of Euroswydd, brother to Efnysien, and half–brother to Bendigeidfran, Branwen, and Manawydan 22, 31
Odiar the Frank Odiar ‘the Frenchman’ or ‘the Norman’, court steward to Arthur 139, 155
Olwen daughter of Ysbaddaden Bencawr, who eventually marries Culhwch 180, 184, 189, 191, 192–3, 213, 260 n.
Ondiaw son of the duke of Burgundy; he accompanies Geraint to Cornwall 155, 157
Osla Gyllellfawr Osla Big Knife, one of Arthur’s men, but his adversary in ‘Rhonabwy’s Dream’ 186, 212, 218, 225–6
Owain son of Nudd brother to Edern and Gwyn; he acts as guarantor for Edern son of Nudd 152
Owain son of Urien one of Arthur’s men, hero of ‘The Lady of the Well’ 65–6, 69–70, 74, 86, 94, 116, 121–38, 220–4, 245 n., 255 n.
Penarddun daughter of Beli son of Mynogan, mother of Nysien and Efnysien 22
Pendaran Dyfed a character in the First Branch who fosters the boy Pryderi; in the Second Branch he is left behind to defend Britain while Bendigeidfran wages war on Ireland 20–1, 28, 33, 234 n.
Penpingion a gatekeeper at Arthur’s court 139, 181, 210.
Peredur son of Efrog one of Arthur’s men, hero of the tale ‘Peredur son of Efrog’; he is sometimes given the epithet Paladr Hir (‘Long Spear’) 65–102, 155, 225, 245 n.
Pryderi the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon; he disappears on the night of his birth and is discovered by Teyrnon Twrf Liant and his wife, who name him Gwri Wallt Euryn (Gwri Golden Hair); Pryderi eventually marries Cigfa; his name means ‘anxiety’ or ‘care’ 20–1, 32, 35–40, 41, 45–6, 47, 48–51, 232 n., 241 n.
Pwyll prince of Dyfed, husband of Rhiannon, and father of Pryderi; after his stay in Annwfn (the Otherworld) he becomes known as Pwyll Pen Annwfn (Pwyll Head of the Otherworld); his name means ‘wisdom’ or ‘caution’ 3–17, 19–21, 45, 47, 48, 188
Rhiannon daughter of Hyfaidd Hen, wife of Pwyll, and mother of Pryderi; after Pwyll’s death she is given in marriage to Manawydan 11–17, 19–21, 32, 34, 35–6, 40, 41, 45–6, 196, 230 n.
Rhiogonedd son of the king of Ireland; he accompanies Geraint to Cornwall 155
Rhonabwy one of the men sent by Madog son of Maredudd in search of his brother Iorwerth 214–20, 224–6
Rhuawn Bebyr son of Deorthach Wledig Rhuawn the Radiant 184, 217, 225
Rhyferys Arthur’s chief huntsman 140
Taliesin one of the seven who escape from Ireland in the Second Branch; he was court poet to Urien Rheged and his son Owain in the sixth century 32, 185, 218, 225
Teyrnon Twrf Liant lord over Gwent Is Coed; he and his wife adopt Gwri Wallt Euryn (i.e. Pryderi) as their own son 17–21, 186, 231 n.
Unig Glew Ysgwydd Unig Strong-Shoulder, one of Bendigeidfran’s messengers, who is left behind to defend Britain while Bendigeidfran wages war on Ireland 25, 28
Wlch Minasgwrn one of Bendigeidfran’s men who is left behind to defend Britain while Bendigeidfran wages war on Ireland 28
Wrnach Gawr Wrnach the Giant, whose sword must be obtained as one of Ysbaddaden’s tasks 200, 201–2
Y Brenin Bychan (‘The Little King’) known as Gwiffred Petit by the French and the English 167–8, 175–8
Ynog one of the seven who escape from Ireland in the Second Branch 32
Ynywl father to Enid, wife of Geraint 148–9, 154, 156, 257 n.
Ysbaddaden Bencawr Ysbaddaden Chief Giant, father of Olwen 180, 184, 190, 191, 192, 193–200, 206, 208, 213, 260 n.
INDEX OF PLACE-NAMES
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. For place-names associated with the Court List in ‘How Culhwch Won Olwen’, and also the Hunt of Twrch Trwyth, see pp. 184–9 and 209–12.
Common place-name elements include caer (‘fort’), din (‘fort’), rhyd (‘ford’), aber (‘estuary’ or ‘confluence’).
Medieval Wales was divided into large territorial divisions known as gwledydd or gwladoedd (sing. gwlad): these were Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth. The gwlad was divided into several cantrefi, and each cantref consisted of two or more cymydau (‘commots’). The situation was, of course, fluid, and boundaries would often change. For detailed maps, see William Rees, An Historical Atlas of Wales (Cardiff, 1972; 1st edn. 1951).
Aber Alaw the estuary of the river Alaw, which flows into the sea to the east of Holyhead in Anglesey 33
Aber Ceiriog the river Ceiriog flows into the Dee at Aber Ceiriog, not far from Chirk 214
Aber Daugleddyf the confluence of the two Cleddau rivers, near Milford Haven in south-west Wales 205
Aber Henfelen the Bristol Channel 32, 34
Aber Menai the western end of the Menai Straits, near Caernarfon 55
Aber Saint the estuary of the river Saint (sometimes known as Seiont), which flows into the Menai Straits at Caernarfon 107, 250–1 n.
Aberffraw one of the chief courts of Gwynedd in north Wales, located near the mouth of the river Ffraw on Anglesey 23
Annwfn the Otherworld, meaning ‘the in-world’ 4, 6, 7, 8, 48, 199, 228–9 n.
Arberth probably Arberth in Pembrokeshire (English: Narberth) 3, 8, 15, 16, 17, 19, 36, 39, 41, 43, 230 n.
Ardudwy a commot in North Wales stretching from the Ffestiniog valley to the Mawddach estuary 22, 59, 61, 63, 64
Arfon a commot of Gwynedd, consisting of the mainland opposite Anglesey 28, 47, 50, 62, 107, 108
Arwystli a cantref in south Montgomeryshire 50, 214
Caer Aranrhod a rock-formation visible at low tide, less than a mile from Dinas Dinlleu on the Caernarfonshire coast 55, 57
Caer Dathyl clearly a fort somewhere on the coast between Dinas Dinlleu and Caernarfon 47, 50, 52, 55, 59, 63, 184
Caer Ludd the fort of Lludd, i.e. London 111
Caer Saint on the outskirts of today’s Caernarfon, the site of the Roman fort Segontium 28, 250–1 n.
Caerdydd Cardiff in south-east Wales 151
Caerfyrddin Carmarthen in south-west Wales 108, 251 n.
Caerllion ar Wysg Caerleon on Usk, in Gwent, south-east Wales 82, 86, 94, 108, 116, 131, 139, 143, 154
Caerloyw Gloucester 78, 102, 204, 205, 272 n.
Cefn Digoll Long Mountain, south of Welshpool in Montgomeryshire 219
Celli Wig perhaps Penwith, in Cornwall, the site of Arthur’s court in ‘How Culhwch Won Olwen’; Celli means ‘grove’ and Wig means ‘forest’ 186, 188, 206, 208, 212, 265 n.
Ceredigion Cardiganshire in the south-west of Wales, adjacent to Cardigan Bay 21, 47, 48, 50, 211
Ceri a commot in Montgomeryshire 50
Creuwrion Cororion, situated between Bangor and Bethesda 50
Deheubarth the area adjacent to Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales, to the north of Pembroke 48
Didlystwn Dudleston, to the south-east of Aber Ceiriog, not far from Chirk 214
Dinas Dinlleu now Dinas Dinlle, a hill-fort on the coast, a mile w
est of Llandwrog in Gwynedd, and about 5 miles south-west of Caernarfon 57, 243 n.
Dinas Emrys a hill-fort in Nant Gwynant, near Beddgelert in Arfon 114, 253 n.
Dinoding a cantref in Gwynedd, made up of the commots of Ardudwy and Eifionydd 59
Dinsol probably Denzell, in the parish of Padstow in Cornwall 181
Dol Pebin probably somewhere in the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd 47
Dyfed the south-west of Wales, consisting of today’s county of Pembrokeshire and part of Carmarthenshire (for the seven cantrefs of Dyfed, see note to p. 3) 3, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21, 28, 33, 35, 36, 39, 41, 45, 46, 47, 184, 199, 209, 210, 225
Edeirnion a commot in the cantref of Penllyn in the north-east of Wales 28
Elenid in southern Powys, the mountainous land known as Pumlumon (Plynlimon) today 50
Eryri Snowdonia in North Wales 106, 114
Esgair Oerfel the ‘Ridge of Coldness’ seems to have been a place on the east coast of Ireland 181, 188, 208, 209
Glyn Cuch the Cuch valley runs along the border of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire 3, 6
Gorsedd Arberth the Mound at Arberth, a focus for supernatural incidents 8, 36, 43
Gwales the Island of Grassholm off the coast of Pembrokeshire 32, 33 236 n.
Gwent Is Coed the low-lying land along the Bristol Channel in the south-east of Wales 17, 231 n.
Gwynedd a large area of north-west Wales, including the island of Anglesey 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 61, 63, 64, 225
Gwynfryn the White Mound in London, where Bendigeidfran’s head is buried 32, 34
Hafren the river Severn 211, 212, 215, 217, 219
Halictwn Halton, not far from Chirk in north-east Wales 214
Harlech meaning ‘high rock’, a town in Ardudwy in north-west Wales 22, 23, 32, 33, 34, 232 n.
Island of Britain 74, 107–10, 111–13, 115, 117, 118, 121, 130–1, 154, 202, 216, 217, 224, 250 n.
London 22, 32, 33, 34, 35, 111, 252 n.
Lwndrys London 111
Maes Argyngroeg near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, retained in the name Gungrog today 215
Mochdref 50, 241 n.
Mochnant the commot of Mochnant is partly in Denbighshire and partly in Montgomeryshire 50, 241 n.
Môn the island of Anglesey in the north-west of Wales 106
Morgannwg Glamorgan, an area in south-east Wales 47, 57
Mur Castell known today as Castell Tomen y Mur, the site of a Roman hill-fort overlooking Trawsfynydd lake 59, 63
North very often this refers not to North Wales but to the ‘Old North’, i.e. the old Brittonic kingdoms of Gododdin, Strathclyde, and Rheged located in the area covering the north of England and southern Scotland; the earliest surviving poetry in the Welsh language, associated with the sixth-century poets Aneirin and Taliesin, was probably composed here 65, 78, 181, 186, 207, 212
Pen Pengwaedd Penwith Point, near Land’s End 181, 260 n.
Penllyn a cantref to the east of Ardudwy, in northern Powys 59, 61, 63
Pennardd in the commot of Arfon in Gwynedd, not far from Clynnog 50
Porffordd Pulford in Flintshire, 5 miles south of Chester 214
Porth Cerddin perhaps Pwll Crochan (‘Cove of the Cauldron’), west of Fishguard, in Pembrokeshire 209
Powys a large area in the east of Wales, adjacent to the English border; in the twelfth century it consisted of Montgomeryshire and parts of the counties of Merioneth, Denbigh, and Flint 48, 50, 61, 214, 224
Preseli in the region of the Preseli mountains in Pembrokeshire 16, 210
Prydain there is some confusion in the medieval Welsh texts between Prydyn (Pictland), i.e. the north of Scotland, and Prydain (Britain); the two are often synonymous 187, 188, 216
Prydyn Pictland 197, 208, 213
Pumlumon (Plynlimon), a mountain range in central Wales 206
Rhos a cantref in north-east Wales 50
Rhuddlan Teifi today’s Rhuddlan, on the northern banks of the Teifi valley in south Ceredigion 48
Rhyd Wilfre a ford (rhyd) on the river Vyrnwy in Montgomeryshire, between Llanymynech and Melverley 214
Rhyd-y-groes the Ford of the Cross on the Severn, probably at Buttington near Welshpool in Montgomeryshire 215, 217
Saith Marchog a reference to Bryn Saith Marchog (‘The Hill of the Seven Horsemen’) located between Ruthin and Corwen in north-east Wales 28
Talebolion a commot in Anglesey 26, 33, 234 n.
Wysg the river Usk 141, 143
Y Felenrhyd ‘The Yellow Ford’ is situated a few miles to the east of Y Traeth Mawr, on the south side of the Dwyryd river 51
Y Freni Fawr one of the highest hills of the Preseli mountains in east Pembrokeshire 108, 251 n.
Y Traeth Mawr meaning ‘The Great Stretch of Sand’, located at the estuary of the Glaslyn and Dwyryd rivers at Porthmadog 51
Ystrad Tywi in the south-west of Wales, consisting of Cantref Mawr, Cantref Bychan, and Cantref Eginog 21
1 The suffix -(i) on is a common plural ending in Welsh. Guest also included the tale of Taliesin in her translation. However, since the earliest copy of this tale is not found until the sixteenth century, subsequent translators have omitted it from the corpus.
2The scribal error in the formula at the end of the First Branch—‘And so ends this branch of the Mabinogion’—–gave rise to Lady Guest’s title.
3The Welsh word for ‘storyteller’ is cyfarwydd, which originally meant ‘the well-informed person, expert’, while the term cyfarwyddyd developed from its original sense of ‘lore, the stuff of stories’ to mean simply ‘tale’.
4For example, the beginning of the second major episode in the First Branch of the Mabinogi echoes the opening of the tale: ‘Once upon a time Pwyll was at Arberth, one of his chief courts’ (p.8).
5For an authoritative analysis of the history of the period, see R. R. Davies, Conquest, Coexistence, and Change: Wales 1063–1415 (Oxford, 1987).
6Brynley F. Roberts (ed.), Breudwyt Maxen Wledic (Dublin, 2005), p. lxxxv.
7See Edgar M. Slotkin, ‘The Fabula, Story, and Text of Breuddwyd Rhonabwy’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 18 (1989), 89–111.
8For an overall survey of Arthurian references in medieval Welsh literature, see O. J. Padel, Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff, 2000). For a more detailed analysis of individual Arthurian texts, see The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature, ed. Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts (Cardiff, 1991).
9Brynley F. Roberts, Studies on Middle Welsh Literature (Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter, 1992), 101.
10For a detailed study of her life, see Revel Guest and Angela John, Lady Charlotte: A Biography of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1989). After her husband’s death Lady Guest married Charles Schreiber, her eldest son’s tutor, and travelled extensively on the Continent with him, collecting eighteenth-century ceramics; the Schreiber Collection can be seen today in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
11However, revised editions of her translation were condensed, and the Welsh text omitted; in other words, the text became appropriated by the culture of the English target language.
12Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures (Cork, 1996), 4.
13André Lefevere, Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame (London, 1992), back cover.
14See T. P. Ellis and John Lloyd, The Mabinogion: A New Translation (Oxford, 1929), and Jeffrey Gantz, The Mabinogion (Harmondsworth, 1976). In his The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1977), Patrick K. Ford included a translation of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, ‘Lludd and Llefelys’, ‘Culhwch and Olwen’, ‘The Tale of Gwion Bach’, and ‘The Tale of Taliesin’.
15First staged in the London Opera House in 1912, this was also translated into German and performed in Vienna in 1923.
16The trilogy is in clear emulation of Wagner’s Der Ring der Nibelungen.