The Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Four Branches are found at the very beginning of the Mabinogion, which is
where they belong in terms of the stratum of lore they represent. The Four Branches of the
Mabinogi consist of a poignant recollection of the births, lives and deaths of a group
of interrelated figures from the British Celtic mythological cycle, through which the
12th century author had taken the opportunity to present a very personal vision of the
historical, magical and psycho-social realities surrounding his community.
The First Branch, or The Mabinogi of Pwyll is set in Dyfed, the southwestern part of
Wales, an area which was evidently felt to have the strongest connection with the magical
underworld known as Annwn (pronounced 'Annooven'). In the First Branch, these
connections are affirmed and explored, as is the connection of that area with Rhiannon 'The Great Queen' - a goddess
connected with horses, birds and the Island Otherworld. The hero of this branch,
Pwyll Pendevic Dyfed, undergoes a series of magical trials before emerging as the
'Head of Annwfn'. After this he becomes the consort of the consort of the Great
Queen, before the latter gives birth to the hero Pryderi. Pryderi, whose disappearance
and subsequent recovery form the conclusion of this branch, represents a significant link
between this Branch and the rest of the Mabinogi.
It is the Island Otherworld which provides a point of sojourn for the mythical Sons of
Llyr - cast as the dominant dynasty among the tribes of Britain before the ascendancy
of the Sons of Beli Mawr. In the Second Branch or Mabinogi of Branwen, the great
king Bran, or Bendigeidfran ('Blessed Raven'), leads an ill-fated expedition over to
Ireland to avenge his sister, the eponymous Branwen. It is on the way back from this
campaign, bearing the living head of their leader that the group of seven survivors
undertake the mysterious odyssey alluded to above; before relinquishing power to the
Caswallan the son of Beli, who had seized control in their absence.
The Third Branch, The Mabinogi of Manawydan, the fallout from these events is
recounted - involving a quartet consisting of Manawydan son of Llyr, Pryderi son of
Pwyll, his mother Rhiannon and his wife Cigfa abiding in a land magically emptied of
human habitation. Underlying this Branch is a mingling of the traditional Wasteland
myth with a medieval popular tale known as 'The Eustace Legend' - in which the hero
faces a number of degradations which are met with humility and forbearance. The
resolution of the Enchantment of Dyfed comes when Manawydan, through a mixture
of wisdom and cunning, manages to outmanoevre the magical powers involved
with his downfall, and banish their influence from Dyfed for all time.
The Fourth Branch is preoccupied with the family of the goddess Don - representative
of a powerful and powerful matriarchal dynasty intermarried with the ascendant Sons
of Beli. In this profoundly ironic tale we witness the birth and early life of the
consummate Celtic hero-god Lleu. Lleu is a medieval British rendition of
Lugus, the pan-Celtic Mercury-figure, who can be directly related to the Irish
Lug and (more tangentially) to the Nordic trickster-god Loki. Conceived in murky
circumstances (which coincide with the death of Pryderi), Lleu is forced to overcome
the curse of his mother; whose malign will it is that he should receive neither a name,
a weapon, or a wife; in which he succeeds with the help of his magic-using uncle,
Gwydion son of Don. In order to overcome the last element of this triple curse,
Gwydion and Math the wizard-king of Gwynedd magically create a woman for Lleu,
conjuring her out of wild flowers. This tragic individual ultimately betrays the man
she was created to love, coming close to bringing about the death of Lleu at the hands
of her lover, Gronw Pebyr. But after a startlingly shamanistic transformation, Lleu is
eventually restored to life, and the last branch of the Mabinogi is concluded soon
after.
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi is essentially a medieval story and its
protagonists behave, speak and live very much like the members of its twelfth-century
audience. Their manners are (generally speaking) courtly and refined, they frequently
invoke the Christian deity and their clothing includes brocaded silks, headdresses and
other accoutrements of the central middle ages. However, while very much a product
of the Early Christian society of twelfth-century Wales, the Four Branches also relay
aspects of a deeply pagan thought-world, which ultimately draws on traditions and
beliefs from the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of prehistoric Britain, as well as
those of the Celtic Iron Age and Romano-British eras.
On one level, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi might be understood as a medieval
tradition recording a memory of the tribal situation in West Britain around the first
century BC, at the twilight of the Iron Age period. At the eve of the Roman invasion,
the incoming Belgic peoples (from Northern France and the low countries) had come
to dominate the British tribal-political scene. They were the last wave of Celtic-
speaking settlers to enter the British Isles from the Europe, Gaulish descendants of the
invading hordes which had spilled over into the classical world in 279 BC under the
great barbarian warlords Brennos and Bolgios. They were remembered in the
Medieval Welsh tradition as the Sons of Beli Mawr (Beli < Bolgios), and it is from them that
nearly every royal house in Dark Age and Medieval Wales claimed some kind of
decent. The Mabinogi obliquely tells the story of the ascendancy of this group among
the tribes of Britain, in the pre-dawn of history in the British Isles.
However, these events are but the background for the primary focus of action in the
Four Branches. No less important than the dynastic in-fighting and political power-
struggles which occurred within and among these tribes is the personal or psycho-
dramatic dimension in which such events took place. For this reason, the Four
Branches of the Mabinogi might be described in terms of a unique paleographic
phenomenon: a medieval Celtic novel, addressing a framework of concerns more
typical of the modern literary form. This is a precociously observant and humane reflection on a social world more normally associated with violence, darkness and
barbarity; and as such is highly unusual in the medieval literary record, to say the very
least. The awareness of intimate issues such as emotional and sexual relations,
childbirth, and the experience of women in a sporadically violent society have even
led some commentators to venture that the author may have been a woman herself,
which itself would have been quite remarkable (though not unheard of) within the medieval cultural context.
Whether or not this is the case, the Mabinogi had clearly been written for an urbane,
sophisticated audience: women and men for whom the nostrums and hyperbole of the
conventional 'warrior' ethos celebrated in most other cultures at that time would have
simply failed to provide sufficiently engaging, convincing or entertaining material.
We find in the Four Branches character-types and social situations which are not
unrecognisable to the modern audience today. From the sociopathic Efnisien to the
self-effacing Manawydan, from the victimized Branwen to the vengeful Aranrhod: we
are introduced to a set of vivid, distinctive personalities whose internal dynamics and
mutual interaction hold the keys to the unfolding of events on the tribal/historical
level discussed elsewhere. The reader's attention will be drawn to the
characteristically Celtic interpretation of the events involved, as well as considering
the specific yet timeless message communicated by the author. For while the
chronological and geographic coordinates are specific to a medieval tradition of pre-
historic Britain, the human nature and its perennial dilemmas are universal
phenomena, on which the author has his own unique and relevant observations to
share.
If the author is successful in demonstrating how history evolves out of the interaction
of personality and circumstance, unfolding with tragic inevitability; there is yet
another layer to his or her interpretation of past events: a dimension of understanding
which is simultaneously more profound, mysterious and fascinating than the
comparatively familiar interpretative genres outlined above. Underlying the
interaction of individual on tribe and tribe upon history, is the consciousness of a
supernatural agendum - operating both beyond and within these various
spheres of human activity. This interrelated layer of events is perhaps best described
as a magical equation found at the core of the Four Branches, out of the
narrative of which an elaborate signification is carefully evolved. Perhaps of greatest
interest is the complex yet articulate system of animal symbolism, which is used to
represent various manifestations and archetypal expressions of the basic mana or
magical power which underlines the whole. This provides both the transcendental
expression and the emblematic shorthand to the progression events related therein: in
both the historical and personal spheres.
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi are written in sparse, laconic register, which is
dependent on the reader's implicit familiarity with the social, narrative and
mythological conventions involved. With this understanding in place, it is possible to
understand and appreciate what is possibly the most in-depth and involved
articulation of the British druidic thoughtworld surviving in manuscript form to this
day.