A review by monsterful_alex
The Mabinogion by Anonymous

3.0

The collection of stories is entertaining and comforting in its classic fairytale format. The little details, such as the descriptions of how everyone sits at the table, add so much flavour to the narratives. The notes also give an additional insight into Welsh language, culture and habits. While to original 'mabinogi' are only the first 4 branches, the other stories following the knightly endeavours of the Arthurian legends, the collection create an all encompassing national spirit, giving legitimacy to Welsh rule and power through geographical symbolic naming (how London was named, the dream of Emperor Maxen explaining Roman conquer etc.). That being said, the later Arthurian stories were much more sexist and reductive of their women characters, and the knights were undoubtedly a bunch of obnoxious arrogant jerks (the jocks of the middle ages, no doubt). 'How Culhwch won Olwen' is a pretty boring tale which has a very strenuous narrative, costisting of lists of Welsh names and ridiculous quests, such as obtaining a comb out of a magic boar's head so that Culhwch can marry a stranger whom he never met because his step mother told him to. The four branches of the Mabinogi were by far my favourite, especially the second branch when Bendigeiedfran crosses the Irish sea like he's out on a stroll and the Irish are wondering why that mountain keeps coming closer, while his sister Branwen is smugly waiting for him, knowing that the only reason he came to save her is because she taught a bird to speak Welsh and deliver a message to him - like a BOSS.