The Book: The Mabinogion
The Author: Various bards of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
This text: etext of a 1906 translation by Lady Charlotte Guest
Price: $2.48 (Dover Thrift Editions. There's also a free version at Project Gutenberg, but the stories are in a different order.)
Coming to the end of the Mabinogion. The Peredur tale is a classic Arthurian adventure where a young knight proves himself and wins renown. The Geraint tale is somewhat different: it shows a knight winning renown before falling into dissolution and dishonour. And then there's Taliesin, who's just sparkly and weird and clever.
More Mabinogion: Peredur, the son of Evrawc
Peredur is the last scion of a warlike family: his father and six brothers are dead. Given that their main sources of income are tournaments and war, this isn't all that surprising. Peredur's mother takes her young son to the fringes of civilisation and raises him without any warlike influences at all.
This doesn't take. Young Peredur plays with sticks and staves, chases deer and otherwise displays unsettling martial prowess. When two knights come travelling by, mother tries to tell Peredur that they are angels, but he defeats this cunning subterfuge by actually asking them. Gwalchmai and Owain admit to being knights, and happily demonstrate all their knightly equipment. Peredur is terribly impressed, and builds himself a knight kit out of sticks, steals his mother's forks, and rides off for Caerlleon and Arthur's court.
At Caerlleon, Peredur is greeted by Kai, Arthur's Master of the Household, and by two dwarfs. The dwarfs hail Peredur as the flower of knighthood; Kai kicks the dwarfs for being clearly stupid, and sends Peredur to prove himself by challenging a rogue knight.
Owain points out that this was pretty dumb. Either cutlery boy is killed, because he's armed with cutlery, and Kai is shamed, or he wins and gains glory, and Kai looks stupid. Owain sets out on behalf of Arthur's court. Peredur, meanwhile, has killed the knight with a fork to the eye. He tells Owain that he's happy to consider himself Arthur's vassal, but he won't come back to court until he's dealt with Kai. Not on his own behalf, you understand, but because of the defenseless dwarfs.
Fair enough, says Owain, and gives him his own horse and armour.
"Good of you, Sir Owain."There follows an errantry sequence, were Peredur fights rogue knights and slays monsters and dispenses justice and saves castles and encounters faeries. Along the way he gets sword lessons and horse training. He meets a damosel named Angharad and falls in love. And whenever he defeats a knight he sends him off to Caerlleon with a message that (a) Peredur fights for Arthur and (b) Kai's a dick.
"Yeah, but mostly I don't want people thinking that Arthur's knights are armed with sticks."
"Can I still use the forks?"
"If you must."
Arthur's response to this is to berate Kai for being a dick, and the Court goes off in pursuit of Peredur to bring him back into the fold.
When they catch up with him, he is lost in reverie, contemplating how very red his beloved's cheeks are. Kai interrupts, and Peredur responds by knocking him off his horse and breaking his shoulder.
"Was he contemplating his beloved, Kai? I bet he was contemplating his beloved."Gwalchmai approaches far more carefully and politely - "I say, sir, do you happen to be contemplating your beloved?" - and Peredur responds more levelly. He is sorry to say that he's not willing to return to Arthur's court without seeing to Kai; Gwalchmai tells him that happily, this has already been taken care of.
"How the hell would I know, Gwalchmai?"
"Did you even ask?"
"Why don't you go and ask?"
"Sire, I see Gwalchmai has valiantly triumphed by being nice. How like him."Peredur returns to Caerlleon, and finds Angharad there. He declares his undying love, but she rejects him. Peredur vows never to talk to another Christian until she recants and accepts his hand, and rides off once more into the wilderness.
"You're a bit of a dick, Kai."
There is another short errantry sequence - restoring kingdoms, fighting mythic serpents, conversing with folk who luckily turn out to be pagans - and Peredur becomes a hermit in the desert, at least until he gets bored and goes home. Once he's home his vow of silence is misunderstood, and he finds himself again battling Kai. Kai wounds him in the leg. Gwalchmai berates Kai for beating up the poor dumb kid, and sends Peredur, still anonymous, back to Caerlleon for medical treatment. Peredur distinguishes himself by fighting several rogue knights while the King is still away, dispatching the last as the King's party returns. The King accepts him into his household as the Dumb Youth. Angharad likes the strong, silent type and falls for the Dumb Youth in a big way, but of course as soon as she declares this love, Peredur's vow of silence ends and everyone recognises him again.
Peredur's tale then continues with yet more errantry, grander than before, culminating in Peredur and Gwalchmai avenging Peredur's uncle and cousin by destroying a whole castle's worth of sorceresses.
Thus ends, etc.
More Mabinogion: Geraint, the son of Erbin
The young Geraint oversleeps on the morning of his cousin Arthur's grand hunt, and finds himself riding with Gwenhwyvar. Thus, he is the youth on the spot when the queen's maiden is insulted by the dwarf of an anonymous knight. Geraint decides not to lash out at the dwarf, for honour reasons, but instead follows the knight with the intention of avenging Gwenhwyvar's insult. Geraint takes lodgings with an old man, who turns out to be the former earl, usurped by his nephew. The anonymous knight is the champion of the local tournament and favourite of the young earl. The tournament's prize is a sparrow-hawk for the winner's lady love. The earl provides his old rusted armour and his old but unbroken lance, but points out that Geraint can't enter the tournament without a lady love. No problem, says Geraint, your daughter Enid will do. Geraint wins the fight, and charges the former champion to ride to Caerlleon and apologise to the queen. The young earl is so impressed that he abdicates in favour of Geraint's host. Geraint takes his new lady love back to Caerlleon, where she's a bit of a hit.
Some time afterwards, the ageing earl Erbin petitions Arthur to send his son back home to rule his lands, because he wants to retire. Geraint finds life as a provincial lord lacking in excitement and challenge, and grows bitter and feeble. Enid laments this to him, which he misinterprets as her wanting a younger, sturdier husband. He rides out what he calls a quest, though it's aimless and vague, and makes Enid ride out ahead of him. Several times they are accosted by bandits. Each time, Enid hears the bandits plotting to capture her, and points this out to Geraint. Geraint tells her to stay where she is and risk capture. Geraint then arrives in the nick of time to kill the bandits and steals their horses.
Eventually they come to a castle. The castle's earl assumes that Enid that she is Geraint's captive rather than his wife, and offers to rescue and marry her. Then he becomes insistent: he's going to marry Enid whether she wants it or not. Enid politely refuses, and that night sneaks into Geraint's rooms and encourages him to take his stuff and leave. The earl chases them down, and Geraint fights his twelve knights and the earl himself. They ride off.
On the road, Geraint is challenged by a dwarf knight. They fight, and both are heavily wounded. With some difficulty Geraint is victorious. He grants mercy to the dwarf on the condition that he join him in his so-called quest. The knight - known as Gwiffert Petit, the Little King - agrees, and offers his castle to rest and recuperates. Geraint refuses. Gwiffert berates him for refusing the offer and treating Enid so shabbily, which Geraint ignores.
Next they come across a party of Arthur's knights. Kai doesn't recognise Geraint and, because he's Kai, insults him anyway. Geraint knocks him off his horse. Gwalchmai then proceeds to meet this rogue knight, and they fight. Gwalchmai is getting the better of the exchange when he recognises Geraint. He asks him what his stupid quest is about, and demands he presents himself to Arthur. Geraint tells him to fuck off. Gwalchmai relents, but tells a page to move Arthur's tent nearer to the road. Geraint therefore can't avoid it, and is forced to confront Arthur. Arthur demands that he stay in his pavilion until he is healed. A month later the physicians declare Geraint healed in body, but the king has doubts about his mind. Nevertheless, he allows Geraint to leave, with Enid and Gwiffert.
On the road, the party is attacked by Giants, and Geraint is heavily wounded. A passing Earl hears Enid's cries, and takes them to his castle. As Geraint lies unconscious the Earl presses his attentions upon Enid. When she refuses, he strikes her. Geraint is roused by her scream, and strikes the Earl a mortal blow. Geraint is shocked by Enid's pallor and shamed by the knowledge that he has been the cause of this. They escape the castle and are rescued by Gwiffert, who takes them back to his own castle.
The three travel back to Owain's lands, where Geraint proves his newly-regained honour by defeating a fairy knight. He returns to his own lands, and rules prosperously and honourably from thereon - with due respect and deference to his lady wife.
Thus ends the tale of Geraint, son of Erbin.
More Mabinogion: Taliesin
Taliesin is the son of the sorceress Caridwen-
Actually, it's more complicated than that. Caridwen has two children: an exceedingly beautiful daughter and an exceedingly ugly son (not Taliesin). She is worried that her son will not gain favour at court unless he can display some exceptional merit. Therefore, she spends a year brewing a magic potion of inspiration so that her son can be all-wise and all-knowing. By unfortunate happenstance, Gwion Bach, the servant she has stirring the broth, is accidentally splashed with the only three drops in the whole poisonous brew that contain the actual wisdom. Gwion's first revelation is that Caridwen is going to be very, very upset with him, so he bolts. Caridwen pursues, and they engage in the classic sorcerer's duel. Gwion becomes a hare, Caridwen becomes a greyhound. Gwion becomes a fish, Caridwen an otter. And so on, until Gwion becomes a grain of wheat and Caridwen becomes a hen and eats him.
Caridwen then imprisons Gwion for nine months before releasing him, much reduced. She's unwilling to kill her own (technical) offspring, so instead she puts him in a leather bag and throws him in a river.
"I'm not sure this is any better."The river runs to a weir that has the property that it always yields a hundred pounds every May eve. The young Elphin, feckless and luckless, is given the task of drawing the weir, because if anyone needs a hundred pounds, he does. At first, Elphin finds nothing and his father assumes that he has destroyed the virtues of the weir, but then he finds the bag. He opens it up and out comes a singing, shining child, which he names Taliesin, "shining brow".
"Shut up, kid."
"What did you find in the weir?"Elphin and his wife adopt Taliesin as their own, and the family prospers under Taliesin's guidance. When the local king, Elphin's uncle, claims that he has the most virtuous wife and the best bards, Elphin comments that his own wife is pretty virtuous, and his own bard is pretty good. When the king hears this, he locks Elphin up until he can prove it.
"I found a bard."
"A hundred pounds worth of bard?"
"More, he says."
"Still, I'd have preferred cash."
The king sends his son, Rhun, to test the virtue of Elphin's wife. Taliesin contrives to disguise a maid as her mistress. Rhun, rather caddishly, gets her drunk and chops off her finger, which has Elphin's signet ring.
The king summons Elphin and confronts him with the finger. Elphin observes that it's a lot larger than his wife's finger, with considerably longer nails. And also, it seems to have been kneading dough. Outraged, the king throws him back in prison and resolves to test the bard.
Anticipating this, Taliesin sneaks into the castle and ensorcells the king's bards, so that they can only wibble their lips and say "blerm, blerm." Then he enters the king's court and sings a long and elaborate song in praise of himself. The king orders his own bards to retort.
"Blerm, blerm." This is not considered a winning verse.
Taliesin continues singing his own praises, then moves on to praising God and insulting the king's bards. The king finally concedes Elphin's point, and releases him. Taliesin then tells Elphin to boast that his horse is faster than any of the kings. Taliesin possibly rigs the race with a magical ruse involving holly sprigs, but more importantly uses the horse race to divine the location of a hoard of buried treasure. This he presents to his foster father in gratitude for raising him, and goes on the join the king's court as his singing prophet and only functional bard.
At this point Lady Guest's manuscript gives out, and so thus ends the tale of Taliesin.
--
So in the end I found the Mab a bit of a slog, and I never quite found the rhythm of it like I did with the Kalevala or the Mort.
On the other hand, it has been pretty fun discovering a recognisable but previously unknown Arthurian tradition: instead of familiar names like Lancelot, Gawaine, Galahad, Tristram, Percival, and Kay, you’ve got folk like Owaine, Gwalchmai, Geraint, Peredur and Kai, who have different but fairly consistent roles throughout the Arthurian tales of the Mab (Owaine is valiant, Gwalchmai is thoughtful and charitable, Kai’s a dick). Arthur’s court is at Caerlleon upon Usk, and his wife is Gwenhwyvar. There’s no suggestion that she’s unfaithful. The adventures involve quests and fights and magic and dwarves and giants and castles all sorts, with only a scant few points in common with, say, Mallory.
I hesitate to recommend, but I certainly note with interest.
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