The Red Book of Hergest

The stories of Welsh Mythology are available to us today mostly because of a group of stories known as the Mabinogion or the Mabinogi. Strictly speaking only four of the stories comprise, and should be called the Mabinogion or the Mabinogi, and they are known as the four branches of the Mabinogi. However, these stories are only known at all in English because of their early translation by Lady Charlotte Guest. In her translation of the Mabinogion Lady Charlotte Guest mentions only The Red Book of Hergest, and The Black Book of Caermarthen, but she may have also drawn on The White book Rhydderch. All three of these ancient books in the Welsh language contain many of the same stories that appear in her translation.

These three works were presumably copied from even earlier works by Welsh monks. Consequently these stories suffer from some of the same Christianization as the Irish myths, although not nearly to the same extent. In recreating these Welsh stories I drew heavily and mostly on Lady Charlotte Guest’s work. As with Irish myths I have tried to remove all Christian reference and wordage so as to give the myths a purer more ancient Celtic feel. I also tried to restore and clarify the idea that the beings in the stories are indeed gods.

I do not mean to suggest my stories are more authentic as I have simply used my imagination to elaborate the works to please myself. I certainly cannot know what was in the minds of the ancient Welsh Celts when they believed in these gods. These stories can either be viewed as alternative versions that are no longer myths or they can be viewed as myths. In so far that myths have always been stories the story teller added to or modified, they have never had one true form, thus almost any version might be considered a myth.

When the stories did not tell enough about some aspect of a story, I have, on occasion, imported bits from other mythologies to enhance the story. For instance I took a bit of the story of Nuada from Irish mythology to build out the story Nudd based on the fact that they both had silver hands or arms and both were kings of the gods. They are, I assume, versions of the same god and might have similar stories.

The four branches of the Mabinogion should be read in order because they, like the Irish stories are part of one continuing story. However, the other Welsh stories, even those from Lady Guest's work, can be read in any order.

The Mabinogion like the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann provided a good frame work to allow me to infuse all the welsh myths with a consistent and interactive group of gods and goddesses.

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