Home History Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
150 Jahre "Mabinogion" - deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen
This chapter is in the book 150 Jahre "Mabinogion" - deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen
Patrick Sims-Williams Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi This lecture is a summary of work in progress on the topography of three medieval Welsh texts which I believed to be linked in some way with Clynnog Fawr in Arfon (on the north-west Welsh coast): Pedeir Keine у Mabinogi (The Four Branches of the Mabinogi), Englynion у Beddau (The Stanzas of the Graves), and Buchedd Beuno (The Life of St Beuno). The topographical approach to these texts is not one that readily appeals to modern audiences. Having attempted to expound this topic in lectures since 1974,1 am sure of that! It is comforting, however, to recall that attitudes were different in the Middle Ages. Robin Flower's The Irish Tradition begins with an Old Irish story. Some novice clerics challenge the chief poet of Ireland to recount the story behind six standing stones. Flower explains that a poet was obliged to recall such knowledge, "and if faced by a demand to relate the associations of some deserted rath or lonely pillar-stone he failed to render an exact and credible account, he was shamed to the very roots of his being". The chief poet ventures a bad guess, and the clerics put him right: the stones were raised by certain Ulster warriors over the graves of their enemies. So too in the Welsh Englynion у Beddau (1.42-43), a patron, Elffin, takes his would-be bard, Taliesin, to the top of a sea-battered tumulus, the grave of one Rhufawn, to test his 'bardic knowledge' (barddrin); evidently he expects his bard to identify the hero within the tumulus and tell his story. Place-lore is in fact central to Celtic heroic literature, including the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. The story of Branwen in the Second Branch, for example, ends with the Britons returning from Ireland to Anglesey: 'And they came to land at Aber Alaw in Talebolion .. And [Branwen] heaved a great sigh, and with that broke her heart. And a four-sided grave was made for her, and she was buried there on the bank of the Alaw.' Thus the storyteller explains the Bronze Age burial mound by the river Alaw known traditionally as "Bedd Bronwen" (Jones 1966). Again, the Fourth Branch ends with a story explaining the existence of a pierced stone called Llech Ronw, in the Cynfal valley in Ardudwy, near Ffestiniog, Merionethshire. (Frank Ward in 1935 and Geraint V. Jones in 1992 have both claimed to have discovered the stone; unfortunately, their

Patrick Sims-Williams Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi This lecture is a summary of work in progress on the topography of three medieval Welsh texts which I believed to be linked in some way with Clynnog Fawr in Arfon (on the north-west Welsh coast): Pedeir Keine у Mabinogi (The Four Branches of the Mabinogi), Englynion у Beddau (The Stanzas of the Graves), and Buchedd Beuno (The Life of St Beuno). The topographical approach to these texts is not one that readily appeals to modern audiences. Having attempted to expound this topic in lectures since 1974,1 am sure of that! It is comforting, however, to recall that attitudes were different in the Middle Ages. Robin Flower's The Irish Tradition begins with an Old Irish story. Some novice clerics challenge the chief poet of Ireland to recount the story behind six standing stones. Flower explains that a poet was obliged to recall such knowledge, "and if faced by a demand to relate the associations of some deserted rath or lonely pillar-stone he failed to render an exact and credible account, he was shamed to the very roots of his being". The chief poet ventures a bad guess, and the clerics put him right: the stones were raised by certain Ulster warriors over the graves of their enemies. So too in the Welsh Englynion у Beddau (1.42-43), a patron, Elffin, takes his would-be bard, Taliesin, to the top of a sea-battered tumulus, the grave of one Rhufawn, to test his 'bardic knowledge' (barddrin); evidently he expects his bard to identify the hero within the tumulus and tell his story. Place-lore is in fact central to Celtic heroic literature, including the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. The story of Branwen in the Second Branch, for example, ends with the Britons returning from Ireland to Anglesey: 'And they came to land at Aber Alaw in Talebolion .. And [Branwen] heaved a great sigh, and with that broke her heart. And a four-sided grave was made for her, and she was buried there on the bank of the Alaw.' Thus the storyteller explains the Bronze Age burial mound by the river Alaw known traditionally as "Bedd Bronwen" (Jones 1966). Again, the Fourth Branch ends with a story explaining the existence of a pierced stone called Llech Ronw, in the Cynfal valley in Ardudwy, near Ffestiniog, Merionethshire. (Frank Ward in 1935 and Geraint V. Jones in 1992 have both claimed to have discovered the stone; unfortunately, their

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Vorwort V
  3. Inhalt IX
  4. Begrüßung 1
  5. Erste Sektion: 150 Jahre Mabinogion
  6. Einleitung zur ersten Sektion: 150 Jahre Mabinogion 5
  7. Epona – Archäologisches zu einer gallorömischen Göttin 11
  8. The Textual Tradition of Medieval Welsh Prose Tales and the Problem of Dating 23
  9. Der Aufbau der mündlichen Erzählung: Zum Einfluß des Erinnerungsvermögens und der Vortragsweise 41
  10. The King’s Nephew 55
  11. Gender and Violence in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi 67
  12. Maponos und Telipinu: zu einer Theorie W.J. Gruffydds 79
  13. Folklore Studies and the Mabinogion 91
  14. Die mittelkymrischen Prosaerzählungen: Nomenklatur und Klassifikation1 101
  15. Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi 111
  16. Zweite Sektion: Deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen
  17. Einleitung zur zweiten Sektion: Deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen 131
  18. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr und Walther von der Vogelweide: ein typologischer Vergleich 141
  19. The Lives of Lady Charlotte Guest 157
  20. Kate Bosse-Griffiths (1910-1998) 167
  21. Saunders Lewis und der Deutsche Widerstand. Brad und 1938 185
  22. The Welsh Language in German Philology around 1850 203
  23. Walisisches Nationalbewußtsein im Hochmittelalter 223
  24. Ο.Μ. Edwards und sein Erstlingswerk, O’r Bala i Geneva (1889): Reisebilder eines Walisers aus Belgien, Deutschland und der Schweiz 235
  25. Julius Rodenberg und Ferdinand Walter - deutsche Annäherungen an Wales im 19. Jahrhundert 253
  26. The Dying Bard All Through the Night: Corpus, Canon, and Context for the Welsh Song-Arrangements of Haydn and Beethoven 265
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110951646-012

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Vorwort V
  3. Inhalt IX
  4. Begrüßung 1
  5. Erste Sektion: 150 Jahre Mabinogion
  6. Einleitung zur ersten Sektion: 150 Jahre Mabinogion 5
  7. Epona – Archäologisches zu einer gallorömischen Göttin 11
  8. The Textual Tradition of Medieval Welsh Prose Tales and the Problem of Dating 23
  9. Der Aufbau der mündlichen Erzählung: Zum Einfluß des Erinnerungsvermögens und der Vortragsweise 41
  10. The King’s Nephew 55
  11. Gender and Violence in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi 67
  12. Maponos und Telipinu: zu einer Theorie W.J. Gruffydds 79
  13. Folklore Studies and the Mabinogion 91
  14. Die mittelkymrischen Prosaerzählungen: Nomenklatur und Klassifikation1 101
  15. Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi 111
  16. Zweite Sektion: Deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen
  17. Einleitung zur zweiten Sektion: Deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen 131
  18. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr und Walther von der Vogelweide: ein typologischer Vergleich 141
  19. The Lives of Lady Charlotte Guest 157
  20. Kate Bosse-Griffiths (1910-1998) 167
  21. Saunders Lewis und der Deutsche Widerstand. Brad und 1938 185
  22. The Welsh Language in German Philology around 1850 203
  23. Walisisches Nationalbewußtsein im Hochmittelalter 223
  24. Ο.Μ. Edwards und sein Erstlingswerk, O’r Bala i Geneva (1889): Reisebilder eines Walisers aus Belgien, Deutschland und der Schweiz 235
  25. Julius Rodenberg und Ferdinand Walter - deutsche Annäherungen an Wales im 19. Jahrhundert 253
  26. The Dying Bard All Through the Night: Corpus, Canon, and Context for the Welsh Song-Arrangements of Haydn and Beethoven 265
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 23.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110951646-012/html?srsltid=AfmBOoqLpfsYXa1kzE0p6H2e1K4ElGqQK4Ibx-aQOoceYWRVLJWF8mE1
Scroll to top button