Transcribed from the 1902 Fisher Unwin edition ,
THE MABINOGION
TRANSLATED FROM THE RED BOOK OF HERGEST BY LADY CHARLOTTE GUEST
VOL. II. LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
11 PATERNOSTER
BUILDINGS. MXCII
p. 5INTRODUCTION.
In this second volume, as in the first, I have given Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation exactly as she wrote it. It would have been easy to make it a more faithful reproduction of the Welsh by occasionally changing a word, or by making a phrase more simple in diction. But the reader would not have forgiven me for placing before him a translation that was not Lady Charlotte Guest’s. I have again ventured, however, after a careful comparison of the translation with the original, to put in the form of footnotes a more accurate or more literal rendering of passages which Lady Charlotte Guest did not read aright, passages which she has omitted, and passages the real meaning of which she seems to me to have failed to grasp.
The first two tales in this volume make up, with “The Dream of Rhonabwy,” the second volume of the original edition. “The Dream of Rhonabwy” was placed in my first volume, with “The Lady of p. 6the Fountain” and “Peredur”—the two tales that form the first volume of the original edition. The oldest of the tales—the Mabinogion proper—will all beincluded in the third volume.
OWEN EDWARDS.
Llanuwchllyn,
June 1902.
p. 7GERAINT THE SON OF ERBIN.
Arthur was accustomed to hold his Court at Caerlleon upon Usk. And there he held it seven Easters, [7a] and five Christmases. And once upon a time he held his Court there at Whitsuntide. For Caerlleon was the place most easy of access in his dominions, both by sea and by land. And there were assembled [7b] nine crowned kings, who were his p. 8tributaries, and likewise earls and barons. For they were his invited guests at all the high festivals, unless they were prevented by any great hindrance. And when he wasat Caerlleon, holding his Court, thirteen churches were set apartfor mass. And thus were they appointed: one church for Arthur, and his kings, and his guests; and the second for Gwenhwyvar and her ladies; and the third for the Steward of the Household and the Suitors; and the fourth for the Franks, and theother officers; and the other nine churches were for the nine Masters of the Household, and chiefly for Gwalchmai; for he, fromthe eminence of his warlike fame, and from the nobleness of his birth, was the most exalted of the nine. And there was no other arrangement respecting the churches than that which we havementioned above.
Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr was the chief porter; but he did not himself perform the office, e