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A review by rosekk
The Mabinogion by
3.0
The stories were interesting in terms of studying folklore, but they weren't particularly entertaining to read. Seeing ideas that are now staples of modern fantasy in the forms that may have inspired them was probably me favourite part - I enjoyed spotting magical items & similar tropes and trying to remember which modern stories I first saw them in.
Also I find Welsh names so hard to get my head around. No matter how many times I re-read the rules on how 'ff's and 'w's and 'll's are meant to be pronounced in Welsh names, I can never make a say-able word out of the letters collected on the page. My partners part Welsh, I have been to Wales plenty of times (in fact I bought this book in Wales), I have heard the Welsh language spoken, I've even watched videos, but the language remains impenetrable to me. So my experience of reading this was somewhat disturbed by trying and failing to make sense of the character names, and ending up with a kind of mental scribble in my mind whenever I came across one.
Also (again), I refuse to believe that any story-teller ever would have opted to have the great long list (2+ pages) of names which appeared in one of the stories towards the end of the collection. If the oral story tellers did that, they did it as a game to prove how great their memories were. Either than, or whoever wrote the story down was having their leg pulled.
Also I find Welsh names so hard to get my head around. No matter how many times I re-read the rules on how 'ff's and 'w's and 'll's are meant to be pronounced in Welsh names, I can never make a say-able word out of the letters collected on the page. My partners part Welsh, I have been to Wales plenty of times (in fact I bought this book in Wales), I have heard the Welsh language spoken, I've even watched videos, but the language remains impenetrable to me. So my experience of reading this was somewhat disturbed by trying and failing to make sense of the character names, and ending up with a kind of mental scribble in my mind whenever I came across one.
Also (again), I refuse to believe that any story-teller ever would have opted to have the great long list (2+ pages) of names which appeared in one of the stories towards the end of the collection. If the oral story tellers did that, they did it as a game to prove how great their memories were. Either than, or whoever wrote the story down was having their leg pulled.