as translated by Patrick Ford

In 1849 Lady Charlotte Guest translated into English a group of 11 Welsh tales and dubbed the ensemble The Mabinogion, a convenient, if inaccurate, title that has come to designate the 11 as a whole. The term is the plural of mabinogi, a label applied to four of the stories. The relation among these stories, called the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi,” remains a subject of considerable debate. Known as Pedair Cainc in Welsh, the “Four Branches” may refer to genealogical connections among the characters featured in the four separate stories, or perhaps even to different phases in the life of the figure of Pryderi, king of the south of Wales, who appears in each of the four tales. He is conceived, born, kidnapped, and named in the first; appears as a minor character who goes on an expedition in the second; regains some...