Knightly Legends
of Wales
OR
The Boy's Mabinogion
BEING THE EARLIEST WELSH TALES OF KING ARTHUR
IN THE FAMOUS RED BOOK OF HERGEST
EDITED FOR BOYS WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY SIDNEY LANIER
EDITOR OF "THE BOY'S FROISSART" AND "THE BOY'S KING ARTHUR"
Illustrated by Alfred Frederick
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1932
Copyright, 1881, 1884, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Copyright, 1909, 1912, BY
MARY D. LANIER
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without
the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons
Kai and His Companions at the Castle of the Giant Gwrnach
INTRODUCTION.
In the library of Jesus College, Oxford, is an ancient Welsh MS. calledLlyfr[1] Coch[2] O Hergest;[3] that is, The Red Book of Hergest.This MS. was written in the fourteenth century, though some of thecompositions which it has collected are of a much earlier date. Itcontains a number of poems, together with a body of prose romancescalled Mabinogion.[4]
In the year 1838 Lady Charlotte Guest published a translation ofthese Mabinogion, accompanied by the text of their Welsh originalsand a mass of useful and scholarly notes. Her work bore this graciousdedication:—
TO IVOR AND MERTHYR.
My dear Children,—Infants as you yet are, I feel that Icannot dedicate more fitly than to you these venerable relics ofancient lore, and I do so in the hope of inciting you to cultivatethe Literature of "Gwyllt Walia," in whose beautiful language you arebeing initiated, and amongst whose free mountains you were born.
May you become early imbued with the chivalric and exalted sense ofhonor, and the fervent patriotism for which its sons have ever beencelebrated.
May you learn to emulate the noble qualities of Ivor Hael, and thefirm attachment to your native country which distinguished that IvorBach, after whom the elder of you was named.
I am your affectionate mother,
C. E. GUEST.
Dowlais, Aug. 29, 1838.
Several considerations made me strongly desire to re-edit, upon thesame plan with The Boy's Froissart and The Boy's King Arthur,the curious old products of Welsh fancy thus rendered available toscholars. The intrinsic charm of the stories themselves in the firstplace would easily have secured them a position in this series. Thoughnot so rich as the Arabian Nights, they are more vigorous, andtheir fascination is of a more manful quality. Moreover, they are incomparison open-air tales, and do not move in that close, and, if onecould think such a thing, gas-poisoned, temperature which often rendersthe atmosphere of the Eastern tales extremely unwholesome.
But in the second place the Mabinogion all