mabinogi

plural mabinogis · plural mabinogion

1. singularA Welsh mythological tale; sometimes extended to include similar tales of medieval European traditions.

   Indeed at one time it may have been an independent mabinogi rather than part of a 'branch' of a mabinogi.

   2007, Sioned Davies, transl., The Mabinogion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 239

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   I recollect a Mabinogi, or mythological tale, respecting this piece of water, which runs thus: - In ancient times a door in a rock near tins lake was found open upon a certain day every year.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 197

   So greatly do these Mabinogion differ in character, that they may be considered as forming two distinct classes; one of which generally celebrates heroes of the Arthurian cycle, while the other refers to persons and events of an earlier period, and it not difficult to assign each tale to one or other of these two classes[.]

   1868, William Forbes Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales: Containing the Cymric Poems attributed to the Bards of the Sixth Century, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, page 27

   Since the publication of Lady Guest's handsome volumes, an idea prevails that any Welsh tale of respectable antiquity may be called a mabinogi, but there is no warrant for extending the use of the term to any but the 'four branches of the Mabinogi,' namely, Pwyll, Prince of Dyved; Branwen, daughter of Llyr; Manawyđan, son of Llyr; and Math, son of Mathonwy. For, strictly speaking, the word mabinog is a technical term belonging to the bardic system; and it means a literary apprentice. In other words, a mabinog was a young man who had not yet acquired the art of making verse, but one who received instruction from a qualified bard.

   1887, John Rhŷs, J. Gwenogvryn Evans, The Text of the Mabinogion and Other Welsh Tales from the Red Book of Hergest, Oxford: J.G. Evans, page viii

   The Welsh Mabinogis of 'Pereduh," which relates the same incidents as these two poems, and in which the hero is certainly identical, knows no Grail, only a Dish with a Bleeding Head, and the Bleeding Lance, probably the original talisman of the story.

   1896 July 29, Chelsea China, “The China Cupboard”, in The Monthly Packet, New York, page 653, column 2

2. pluralSuch tales considered collectively, especially the main sequence of four tales written in Middle Welsh, more commonly known as the Mabinogion or the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.

   The mabinogi and other tales are rich sources of Celtic mythological tradition[.]

   1977, Patrick K. Ford, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales, University of Wales Press, page ix

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   Here the confusion is between the raid on Annwyn by Pryderi which, as I hope on a later occasion to show, is the basic myth of Branwen, and the deliverance of Gweir from Caer Siddi, but under all the confusion is the definite connexion of Gweir with the ‘tale of Pwyll and Pryderi’ which I take to represent a stage in the cyvarwyddyd on which the first and third Branches were founded; in short, Gweir is one of the protagonists of the mabinogi tradition, the saga of Pryderi.

   1953, William John Gruffydd, Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the Origin of the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, page 91

   The Mabinogi are the product of an evolution extending back over many centuries, and it is important to remember that the teeming profusion of this oral literature is only very inadequately reflected in the written texts[.]

   1992, Proinsias Mac Cana, The Mabinogi, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, page 125