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    Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950
    Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950
    Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950
    Ebook39 pages34 minutes

    Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950

    By W. J. Gruffydd

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    About this ebook

    This early work by W. J. Gruffydd was originally published in 1950 and we are now republishing it for the modern reader. 'Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion' is a transcript of a lecture delivered at the National Museum of Wales. This is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Welsh mythology.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 9, 2016
    ISBN9781473359536
    Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950

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      Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion - A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950 - W. J. Gruffydd

      FOLKLORE AND MYTH IN THE MABINOGION

      1

      For the purpose of this lecture, ‘folklore’ does not mean folk-culture in its various manifestations as you can see it exhibited and exemplified at St. Fagans and in the famous museums of Scandinavia, but the traditional beliefs and legends of the folk as distinct from the more respectable beliefs and legends which are accepted as facts, and which are called Theology and History respectively. The basis, however, of the greater part of folklore, in the sense in which I use it, is the theology and history of the past handed down from generation to generation and losing, in the passage of time, most of the indications of their original significance. Indeed the line between theology and history on the one hand and folklore beliefs and legends on the other may sometimes be very thin. For example, the existence of a personal Devil is a respectable and orthodox theological tenet, but that has not prevented his very unorthodox entrance into the folklore of the modern nations. Did he not, for instance, build the famous bridge over the river Mynach in Cardiganshire? And King Alfred may very well have burnt the good wife’s cakes; if he did, then that story is sober history, but sober history or not, it has now become a folk-legend in England.

      You will notice that the title contains the two words, ‘Folklore’ and ‘Myth.’ I have used both words because I do not wish at the outset to prejudge the issue whether almost all folklore is ultimately derived from myth, that is, from a primitive belief about the gods, or is of a more lowly origin and to be explained in terms of mass psychology or, as I think more likely, from a mixture of both. Further I must explain that I use the term ‘primitive’ comparatively. That is to say, ‘primitive beliefs,’ as far as this lecture is concerned, are only primitive because they belong to a kind of culture which existed before our era, and not necessarily because they are derived from a rude, undeveloped, and inferior state of society. Our knowledge of social conditions in Britain before the Roman Conquest is necessarily limited in spite of the magnificent work done by archaeologists among whom the staff of this museum has a very distinguished place. In short, when I use the term ‘primitive,’ I have in mind priority in time and custom and not an assessment of human values.

      A further point. I have confined myself to one section only of folklore as I have defined it, namely the legends and beliefs about the Tylwyth Teg, the Welsh Fairies. There are other folklore details in the Mabinogion on which I cannot touch in this lecture, such as the onomastic stories (stories designed to explain a name); survivals of primitive society as seen in

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