The Mabinogion
1300
Here are the oldest Arthurian stories in existence, and they feel it. The Mabinogion pulses with a wild, pre-Christian Celtic energy that later English romances would tame into polite chivalry. These are tales where knights encounter talking heads, swans transform into women, and the边界 between the mortal world and the Otherworld wears thin as gossamer. The Four Branches follow the tragicomedy of Welsh gods become mortal men, their dynasties tangled in magic, murder, and destiny. The Arthurian insertions including Culhwch and Olwen and The Lady of the Fountain show a king more warlord than legend, hunting boars that take human form, waging war for mysterious reasons. Lady Charlotte Guest's 19th-century translation gave these tales their modern name, but the stories themselves emerged from a Wales that predates English conquest, when bards sang tales that would eventually travel across medieval Europe and become the Arthurian canon we know today. For readers who want mythology raw, before it was sanitized into fairy tale.
Editions
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“Since thou wilt not remain here, chieftain, thou shalt receive the boon whatsoever thy tongue may name, as far as the wind dries, and the rain moistens, and the sun revolves, and the sea encircles, and the earth extends; save only my ship; and my mantle; and Caledvwlch, my sword; and Rhongomyant, my lance; and Wynebgwrthucher, my shield; and Carnwenhau, my dagger; and Gwenhwyvar, my wife””
— Unknown
“So they took the blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest and most graceful that man ever saw. And they baptized her, and gave her the name of Blodeuwedd.””
— Unknown
“often dost thou utter that with thy tongue which thou wouldst not make good with thy deeds.””
— Unknown
“And then Gwalchmai said, ‘No one should distract an ordained knight from his thoughts in a discourteous way, for perhaps he has either suffered a loss or he is thinking about the woman he loves best.””
— Unknown
“At that time Math son of Mathonwy could not live unless his feet were in the lap of a virgin, except when the turmoil of war prevented him.””
— Unknown
“So they declared a new emperor. And he sent a threatening letter to Maxen. However, it was not so much a letter as ‘If you come and if you ever come to Rome!’ That letter and the news came to Maxen in Caerllion. And from there he sent a letter to the man who claimed to be emperor of Rome. There was in that letter, too, nothing but ‘If I go to Rome, and if I go!””
— Unknown
