Introduction
The Four Branches of Mabinogion have been discussed and evaluated extensively across different fields of study. The Four Branches, as contextualized in The Mabinogion, encompass a multifaceted concurrent approach that arises from their explored literary merits. In this way, religious or faith rituals are the real result of a more significant connection felt, a connection referred to as the divine. In contrast, they are also a way to ward off the vices, or animalistic side of humans. The preservation of a people’s language and cultural representation is founded on several aspects, and across The Mabinogion, the weaving of the stories aims at the facilitation of this intent. Each branch is a separate story, with its own set of characters. Still, in all the branches, the preservation is immediately at hand, and some – if not all – of the characters have certain aspects of magical abilities or other underworldly attributes. The presence of divinity contrasted by the presence of chaos and destruction in our earthly world is the essence of the human experience. It is portrayed through the meshing of celestial, terrestrial, and chthonic elements in the first four branches of The Mabinogion. This preservation of culture and language is shown in the film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog. Therefore, in this paper, an evaluation of the Four Branches as they relate to the preservation of a people by the transmission of traditional myths.
Among the eleven ‘Mabinogi’ tales, the word ‘Mabinogi’ refers to its first four, regarded as ‘branches,’ all starting with a variation of an identical colophon. Some societies hold a perception of the ‘underworld’ according to their beliefs and values. The Four Branches are imbued with the mystical ideals underlying in Celtic mythology, as reported by Gerald of Wales. However, Jackson states that these aspects are part of the traditionally fused story-telling custom, represented by the allusion of archetypal motifs and symbols with the oral corpus of famous tales and collective conceptions (Jackson, 1961). While addressing the aspects of cultural preservation, the Four Branches of Mabinogion present a theme contextualized across the stories, its power, and magic as well as, as part of the everyday lives of the characters. The people can travel in and out of the underworld with ease, due to common practices such as shapeshifting and magic; subsequently, death is a rare permanent occurrence. In Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the film focuses on Chauvet Caves containing images from some of the oldest paintings in the middle-aged period (Herzog, 2010). The film provides a vivid understanding of the context of cultural preservation.
Across the stories, the divine presence is experienced through the character’s liminal spaces that seem to illuminate the presence of a divinity. Divinity is initially shown in the text at the introduction of the first chapter. While on a hunt, Pwyll encounters Arawn, king of the otherworld, and his hunting dogs. Not only does the audience recognize the dog’s origins by their red and white color, but the narrator then describes that “the redness of their ears glittered as brightly as the whiteness of their bodies.” (Davies, 3) he portrays an image of powerful, majestic animals and entails a divine appearance. Pwyll and Arawn then exchange appearances and spend a year in the other’s realm without anyone – including Arawn’s wife – noticing the exchange. When Pwyll arrives in Annwfn – the otherworld – it is portrayed at “a country of elegant perfection” (Davies, 4) where the building and the people are all the most beautiful, he has seen. The knights and chamberlains were friendly and helpful, and the queen was the “most noblewoman and the most gracious of disposition and discourse he had ever seen” (Davies, 4). This imagery sets the tone for what the audience is to expect in relation to the otherworld throughout the Mabinogi.
Further, the narrator illuminates on the presence of divinity, through Pwyll’s first encounter with Rhiannon, as she appears to him as “a woman mounted on a great, majestic pale-white horse, dressed in brilliant gold silk brocade” (Davies, 4) while he is sitting on the magical mound of Arberth. As he sits on a mound before Rhiannon, often regarded as a combination of Rigantona, a “great queen,” and Epona, a horse goddess, first appears as a horse to him (Davis, 4). Through the elevation of Pwyll, on a mound, before this enchanted presence appears, places him in environments that uphold a religious characteristic, much like that of a church. This creates a sacred place where not only the character but also those listening to or reading the myth can also enter, allowing the terrestrial access to the divine. However, as Pwyll soon learns, the otherworld is not always as benevolently idealistic as this first encounter. Therefore, thus this presentation of the otherworld, in a divine and celestial perception, shows preservation of cultural aspects that relate to religion.
The second branch has diverse cultural elements stemming from otherworldly adventures as the men of the Isle of the Mighty go to war in Ireland against an enemy. In the third branch, Pryderi and Rhiannon return as two of the main, along with Manawydan, and all their magical powers and mystical adventures. In the myths, the terrestrial realm is weaved in through the telling of a story that mirrors actual historical events. For example, in the Second Branch, Nysien and Efnysien are twin brothers, used as a paralleling device, depicting the strife between the Irish and the Welsh. Worldly events are meshed with magical factors and reshaped into a myth, narrating a story and telling it through the fundamental worldviews of a people. In the second branch, Bendigeidfran, a giant gives a magic cauldron of rebirth to Matholwch, only to have it used against him three years later when he invades them (Davies, 34). In Ireland, Mystical objects such as Cauldrons associated with sacrificial rituals and the abundance that resulted from this act of giving. The Magic Cauldron and its powers are evidence preserved in Celtic literature, of rituals designated to tap into the divine. Bendigeidfran himself is a character who displays magical or otherworldly features, for he is so large that as he approaches Ireland, he is mistaken for a mountain-moving through the sea. While touring the house, the Irish built as a peace offering to Bendigeidfran, Efnysien effortlessly slaughters two hundred Irish soldiers, using his hands, “until he could feel his fingers sinking into the brain through the bone” (Davies, 31). The Celts were also involved in rituals that incorporated psychedelic substances as a means of transcending the physical plane and gaining access to the divine. These substances were often viewed as portals into the celestial realms, as they helped bring particular messages from ancestors or spirit guides who often appeared under the shape of animals. In Herzog’s film, the paintings provide a terrestrial perception of the middle-aged period, and a representation of the growth of a culture, through art, in France (Herzog, 2010).
The mystical meshing of human and animal appearance in the stories, such as when Rhiannon appears to Pwyll on the mound, under the shape of a horse, could be regarded as a reflection of those minds and reality-altering experiences. In the second branch, after the men were placed in a paradise guided by a specific prohibition and living there for eighty years, one of the men breaks this prohibition and opens the door facing Cornwall, all the men were immediately disenchanted. This sudden disenchantment following such a violation of a prohibition is another common theme in regards to the Celtic cultural preservation. The otherworld will no longer protect their memories or emotions, and the men are compelled to leave their sanctuary and continue their journey with heavy hearts. Upon finally arriving in London, the men bury Bendigeidfran’s head as he had wished. After eighty-seven years, not only had the condition of his head not deteriorated, but its mere presence in its hiding place in London has the power to prevent any oppression from coming across the sea. Once again, this is accomplished through spectral characteristics displayed by Efnysien. Once he has allowed himself to be thrown into this cauldron that can hold numerous Irish soldiers at a time, he stretches himself to such an extent that he breaks the cauldron into four pieces.
Further, the terrestrial is presented in Branch Three, where space and time crunch, leading to the displacement of the kingdom. This time compression in the story creates a non-linear feel to the myth and speaks to the nostalgia that comes from a culture and a people being displaced and suppressed. While, it tells of this nostalgia because what was is no longer, on the other hand, the non-linearity of the myth also brings hope.
As the Fourth Branch approaches current times, the knot of the story begins to feel complete, as the magic begins to be eroded. The fourth branch introduces the family of Don, of which almost everybody is capable of magic; random material is conjured to create animals and people, people turn into animals and animals into people, babies are born through magic, and the dead are reborn. The otherworld is continuously among them, and from the first branch to the fourth, its presence creates majestic images rand sends powerful messages of love, loyalty, betrayal, and, most importantly, morality.
Works Cited
Davies, Sioned, The Mabinogion (trans.) New York: Oxford University Press (2007).
Herzog, Werner. Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Showbox Movies. Narrated by Werner Herzog. https://www.showboxmovies.net/watch-movie/cave-of-forgotten-dreams-6947.1039717