![]() The initial experiments with narrative prose are to be found on the pages of Culhwch ac Olwen, representing both a parody and an indulgence of the naïve excesses of the oral-narrative culture out of which this literature was emerging. The transition between the two can be traced as a literary process - which we can observe unfolding on the very pages of the Mabinogion. Here, in this little-known corner of the European Middle Ages, we find the thought-worlds of oral antiquity and literate proto-modernity face-to-face in curious proximity. The two and half centuries during which the Mabinogion texts were being composed represent a threshold of critical transition in Welsh history and literature. We might read the Mabinogion as both an interpretation of a mythological past and a commentary on the medieval present. But these traditions were reworked, often to reflect contemporary concerns. They were not original compositions, drawing as they did on pre-existing traditional material, whether from oral or written sources. The Mabinogion texts are concerned with the heroic age or mythological past of the British Isles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |