The Mabinogion

by Lady Charlotte Guest Narrated by James Cameron Stewart

Overview

Then they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen.

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history—these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as The Mabinogion. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar. Dragons, witches, and giants live alongside kings and heroes, and quests of honor, revenge, and love are set against the backdrop of a country struggling to retain its independence.

Sioned Davies's lively translation re-creates the storytelling world of medieval Wales and reinvests the tales with the power of performance.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Matt Addis brings care, talent, and skill to these stories from twelfth- and thirteenth-century Wales, but he could have exercised more restraint. He takes his cue from the stories themselves—fantastic, fanciful, somewhere between myth, legend, and fairy tale—and from the archaic tone of the mid-nineteenth-century translation by Charlotte Guest. Addis’s phrases, imbued with a “once upon a time” feel, have a singsong lilt. While generally appropriate, this manner quickly cloys. There are ample opportunities to use a plainer tone, providing more variety, but Addis doesn’t take them. Still, he is expressive and sensitive to the text while providing a thoughtful diversity of voices. Listeners with patience and sympathy for this type of literature should find this, perhaps in short segments, a satisfying performance. W.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

JULY 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Matt Addis brings care, talent, and skill to these stories from twelfth- and thirteenth-century Wales, but he could have exercised more restraint. He takes his cue from the stories themselves—fantastic, fanciful, somewhere between myth, legend, and fairy tale—and from the archaic tone of the mid-nineteenth-century translation by Charlotte Guest. Addis’s phrases, imbued with a “once upon a time” feel, have a singsong lilt. While generally appropriate, this manner quickly cloys. There are ample opportunities to use a plainer tone, providing more variety, but Addis doesn’t take them. Still, he is expressive and sensitive to the text while providing a thoughtful diversity of voices. Listeners with patience and sympathy for this type of literature should find this, perhaps in short segments, a satisfying performance. W.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170634637
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/31/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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