Page:The Mabinogion Volume I.pdf/11

The Mabinogion or Mabinogi (both forms are used in the original texts) are the supreme romantic productions of the Welsh people in the field of medieval prose literature.

Eleven romances, out of a probably much greater number, having been reduced to writing, have survived, namely, the Four Branches of the Mabinogion proper, five tales of the Arthurian cycle, and two disconnected stories, the Dream of Macsen Wledig, and Lludd and Llevelys.

Originally, the romances were recitative and, as such, gathered to themselves elements from various sources and various ages. They expanded, developed, changed, as each bard or reciter handled the themes. Eventually they were reduced to writing, probably in each case by monks of the Medieval Church.

Only one attempt has been made hitherto to render into English the whole of these romances, namely, that by Lady Charlotte Guest, with the assistance of Tegid, in 1838–49. The intention of Lady Charlotte Guest appears to have been to produce a version which could be used for the instruction and amusement of her own children, with the result that parts of her translation are either inaccurate or bowdlerized. She was also acquainted with only one manuscript version of the romances, that of the Red Book of Hergest, which at times differs from the earlier versions of the White Book. It is only through her rendering that English