Welsh myth
I'm reading Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion Tetralogy, which is a fictional retelling of the Welsh epic, The Mabinogion. It's fantastic - I find original epics rather hard to read - that style of "So-and-so did this. Then he killed this person. Then he wept rivers of tears, and turned into a goat." It's a little hard to connect with the characters. Walton's version is written like a novel, yet (as far as I can tell) remains close to the original material. Wonderful - I wish more people would re-write myths and legends this way. I enjoy modernised and altered re-tellings as well, but versions that stick close to the original, yet read like a modern novel, are fantastic.I am fascinated by Welsh and Irish gods and goddesses, and have been reading and enjoying Pwyll's encounter with Arawn, Lord of Annwn, and Rhiannon. Unfortunately, this version doesn't have a pronunciation guide, which is annoying. I do like to make sure I'm reading correctly, and I rarely am. "Pwyll", for example, seems not to be pronounced "pwill", as I have been doing so, but rather "pwith". Now I'm off to find a pronunciation guide for all those other words with no vowels.
(I take that back. More sources seem to go with versions like "pwill", "pooeelh", or "pool". Some guides to Welsh pronunciation are here, here, and here.)
posted by Cee at
2:53 PM
1 comment(s):
I love Evangeline Walton's version of the Mab. Its a wonderful retelling.
If you are at all interested in Greek myth, C.S. Lewis wrote an interesting retelling of Cupid & Psyche in a novel called "Til We Have Faces."
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TurtleHeart, at
4:09 PM
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