The Mabinogion is a compilation of Welsh legend that we know from two medieval manuscripts, the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (White Book of Rhydderch) and the Llyfr Coch Hergest (Red Book of Hergest). J. R. R. Tolkien was expert in these sources, and it’s not surprising that there are echoes of the Mabinogion in the Lord of the Rings. Evangeline Walton worked more directly with the Welsh material. Prince of Annwn is pretty much a retelling of the first tale, “Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed”. She attempts to strike a balance between the original mythic style of story-telling and modern novelistic techniques. The result is very satisfying. It doesn’t feel “modern”, but it satisfies the modern taste for narrative surprise and drama. Her vocabulary and phrasing are well chosen: she uses an “elevated”, poetic prose without sounding silly, a very difficult trick indeed.
I’ve read two different translations of the Mabinogion (the Ganz and the Jones & Jones versions), so I’m not sure how it comes across to someone who has never known the mythology. Walton stays reasonably close to the original, though she throws in a few unrelated bits from the Irish epics for dramatic purposes. Welsh mythology is as misty and disconcerting as the Welsh landscape: you can never tell what is supposed to be real or dream, natural or supernatural. I spent a week walking through the Welsh mountains, and I’m still not sure what actually happened to me and what I halucinated. Walton’s fantasy captures that feeling.
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