Skip to main content

Next subject: Culhwch and Olwen


Upcoming subject:  Culhwch and Olwen


Before reading Culhwch and Olwen, I thought you may want a brief overview of the Mabinogion, the book where the story is found. The Mabinogion, is an assembled book of eleven Welsh tales found in two manuscripts: The Red Book of Hergest and the White Book Of Rhydderch. Both of the manuscripts can be roughly dated to the 14th century.  However, dating the stories inside has been difficult since the stories seem to be older than the manuscripts themselves, and many from different times.  Only five of the eleven tales feature Arthur and appear to come from two traditions.  The first set are three ‘romances’: Peredur, son of Efrog, Geraint, son of Erbin, and The Lady and the Well. These three mimic the story lines of three tales by Chretien de Troyes (written 1170-1180) and feature a distinct French influence so they may be either later additions or both are based on a common source now lost.  The remaining two are older, distinctly Welsh stories: Culhwch and Olwen (possibly the oldest of the two) and Rhonabwy’s Dream.  "Culhwch" is of interest to Arthurian scholars because if it is dated to the tenth century as some believe, it could signify an older Arthurian storytelling tradition.  Unfortunately, the dates are a point of contention amongst many scholars. Culhwch and Olwen has theorized dates from anywhere between the year 900 up to 1100.

Either of the above books are fine for the story of Culhwch and Olwen but both have a different group of stories. The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales, by Patrick K. Ford, takes a purist approach and removes the later, possibly french influenced, stories. It does contain The Tale of Gwion Bach and The Tale of Taliesin, as well as a short poem Cad Goddeu, all of which are not featured in the other book. The Oxford World Classics version, does contain the three french influenced stories as well as The Dream of Emperor Maxen and Rhonabwy's Dream. If you are a completist you should probably get both books or find a version that has all of the above. The best value would be the Oxford World Classics version because it has more Arthur related stories than the other and it may come in handy later. Don't feel shy about reading ahead or reading some of the non-Arthurian stories. The Welsh have a mythology and story-telling tradition that is unlike anything you may have read before.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to writing again after Christmas. I hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Next Up: The Saints Lives.

Next Up:  The Saints Lives. The Saints Lives is not one book or or even a series of stories.  They are actually disparate tales of different saints by by different authors during the early 11th and 12th centuries.  They are interesting because they feature a version of Arthur who can sometime be seen as conniving, dishonest, vain, even as a rapist, which is quite apart from the noble, generous Leader you may be used to. I will discuss them soon in more detail.  For those of you who wish to read ahead I would advise to use Richard White's King Arthur: In Legend and History   (pp.12-21), rather than the Oxford Guide. White's version has pulled the excerpts relevant to the subject which will save you from having to read unrelated material or purchase unnecessary books.  Each saint only makes brief mention of Arthur, from about a paragraph to a page, so it will be a blessedly short read.  If you only have the Oxford guide, though it does not prov...
Post a Comment
Read more

Update: New Page Added!

Because subscribers are not updated when a new "page" is added to the blog, I have to create a blog entry to notify you.  A "page" is a resident link on the main blog Home.  This can be anything- such as a book list or a page of links...anything I want it to be.  In this case it is "how to best use this blog" whose purpose should be self explanatory.  I hope everyone finds it useful as I have given tips for every type of reader.  Here is a link if you would like to have a peek.   How To Best Use This Blog Thanks, Joe
Post a Comment
Read more

Upcoming works

Upcoming Works Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your excerpt of Wace's Roman de Brut. Chretien de Troyes   If you purchased the Everyman "The Life of King Arthur,"  I recommend you hang on to it.  The second section by Lawman covers the same story but done much later in English with even more embellishments and we will be getting to it soon enough.  In the meantime we will be taking a break from the Brut tradition and exploring the beginnings of the French romance tradition as well as a small Welsh work described below. As I frequently like to do, we will be covering a small work before tackling a much larger work.  In this case we will be covering a short but very unusual Welsh work called the Dream of Rhonabwy from around  1159 - 1200. It's only about 12 pages long, so it should not be too much to handle. If you purchased the Oxford World Classics version of The Mabinogion, then you should have it already. I will list a link to t...
Post a Comment
Read more