History Literature / Mabinogion

* NamesTheSame: Bran the Blessed = BrianBlessed.

* ArtificialHuman: Blodeuedd, see the page quote.
* {{Badass}}: A number of Arthur's knights, most notably Owain and Gwalchmai. Bedwyr earns special mention; he is one of the greatest warriors in Britain despite the obvious disadvantage of ''only having one hand''. Within the four branches, Gwydion the magician, Bendigeidfran the warrior king, and Efnisien the psychopath are perhaps the best examples.
* BadassCrew: Culhwch and his companions in ''Culhwch and Olwen''
* BagOfHolding: Rhiannon gives a small bag to Pwyll in order to trick her unwanted suitor, Gwawl. It holds an entire feast's worth of food and, when he puts both feet into it, a grown man, with enough space to tie the bag closed over his head.
** It actually mentions that even if all the food and drink of seven cantrefs [[note]]roughly translated, ''cantref'' means province or district[[/note]] were put into the bag, it would still not be full. One feast, no matter how grand, could not even come ''close'' to filling it.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: See KarmicTransformation below.
* CunningLinguist: Gwrhyr in ''Culhwch and Olwen''.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rhiannon.
* DemotedToExtra: Pryderi, in the Second and Fourth Branches.

* {{Jerkass}}: Cai is the epitome of this trope. By the end of ''Geraint and Enid'', Geraint has also slid into this category.
* FullBoarAction: Twrch Trwyth is definitely one of the more badass pigs in world literature.
* GenderBender: Gwydion and Gilfaethwy.
* GoodIsDumb: Poor Pwyll. Honest, spiritual, decent, and kind--and people remember him more for all the {{Idiot Ball}}s he's caught.

* HeroicSacrifice: Efnisien.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Cai and Bedwyr could qualify.

* KarmaHoudini: King Caswallawn. Gwydion in the long run.

** Bendigeidfran is another obvious example.
* LongList: In ''How Culhwch Won Olwen.''
* MagicKnight: Gwydion from the ''Fourth Branch'' is one of the most martial wizards in myth. Also Menw from ''Culhwch ac Olwen''.

* NighInvulnerability: Lleu.

* OurGiantsAreBigger: Bran.
* ParentalSubstitute: Gwydion to Lleu, in the fourth branch.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Efnisien, the catalyst for the ''entire'' war sacrifices himself to clinch victory for the British.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: All over the place.

* SmartGuy: Manawydan.
* SociopathicHero: Efnisien is psychotic, warped, and cruel, but he does ultimately save the Welsh.

* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Ysbaddaden, the brutal giant chief is, to be honest, not much of a looker. His daughter, Olwen, on the other hand...

* DemotedToExtra: Pryderi, in the Second and Fourth Branches. Math in his own titular branch for somehow.

** Still up to mischief Gwydion then suggests Goewin be replaced by his sister [[ReallyGetsAround Arianrhod]]. Math being GenreSavvy puts her through a magical virginity test of stepping over a rod causing her to promptly give birth. The child is largely shoved off screen but Arianrhod also leaves a scrap of flesh that Gwydion keeps in a box [[ArtisticLicenseBiology and somehow becomes another boy.]]

* ''Math, Son of Mathonwy'', is about the magician-king of Gwynedd. His nephew [[MagicKnight Gwydion]] engineers a phony war - the war in which Pryderi is slain - to lure Math away from his castle so that Gilfaethwy, Gwydion's brother, can sneak into Math's stronghold and rape his foot-holder maiden, Goewin. In punishment, Math [[BalefulPolymorph transforms]] the brothers into a different animal every year, [[KarmicTransformation one male and one female]], until they bear three offspring together.

* DemotedToExtra: Pryderi, in the Second and Fourth Branches.

* IdiotBall / TooDumbToLive: Lleu can only be killed in a highly specific set of circumstances involving multiple elements, including a goat and a washtub. When his [[YourCheatingHeart unfaithful wife]] just happens to arrange the necessary effects and asks him to stand in the very specific pose, he does so without question - and, unsurprisingly, gets stabbed.

* KarmaHoudini: King Caswallawn.

* MagicKnight: Gwydion from the ''Fourth Branch'' and Menw from ''Culhwch ac Olwen''.

* NoManOfWomanBorn: Lleu Llaw Gyffes from the fourth branch's entire life, more or less. His mother, Arianrhod, curses him so that he can't be named or receive arms, until she does it, and that he can't have a wife of any race that walks the earth. At this point, his uncle Gwydion tricks her into naming and arming him, and creates a wife out of flowers for him. His death can only occur while he is neither inside nor outside a house, neither on foot nor on a horse, neither clothed nor naked, neither by day nor by night and with no weapon lawfully made. He ends up being impaled in a failed attempt on his life by his wife's lover Gronw Pebl while standing clothed in a net, with one foot in a bath and another on a goat, in a thatched, wall-less bathhouse at dusk. The spear used was forged every Sunday for a year. He eventually gets his revenge on Gronw. This seems such an extreme, exagerated version of the trope that you wander if this is a very early version of parody.

* ParentalSubstitute: Gwydion to Lleu, in the fourth branch

* ''Math, Son of Mathonwy'', is about the magician-king of Gwynedd. His EvilNephew [[MagicKnight Gwydion]] engineers a phony war - the war in which Pryderi is slain - to lure Math away from his castle so that Gilfaethwy, Gwydion's brother, can sneak into Math's stronghold and rape his foot-holder maiden, Goewin. In punishment, Math [[BalefulPolymorph transforms]] the brothers into a different animal every year, [[KarmicTransformation one male and one female]], until they bear three offspring together.

->''And thus ends here this Branch of the Mabinogion.''[[note]]''Which will in subsequent branches be called the Mabinogi''[[/note]]

* ''Math, Son of Mathonwy'', is about the magician-king of Gwynedd. His nephew [[MagicKnight Gwydion]] engineers a phony war - the war in which Pryderi is slain - to lure Math away from his castle so that Gilfaethwy, Gwydion's brother, can sneak into Math's stronghold and rape his foot-holder maiden, Goewin. In punishment, Math [[BalefulPolymorph transforms]] the brothers into a different animal every year, [[KarmicTransformation one male and one female]], until they bear three offspring together.

This page is about WelshMythology. If you're looking for the {{MMORPG}} see ''{{VideoGame/Mabinogi}}''.

The Welsh collection of stories called '''The Mabinogion''' is one of the major surviving bodies of [[CelticMythology Welsh myths]]. The stories in their modern forms are derived from two OlderThanPrint medieval Welsh manuscripts, the [[http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=whitebookofrhydderchpeniart White Book of Rhydderch]] and the [[http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=jesus&manuscript=ms111 Red Book of Hergest]], along with a collection of smaller texts, but those are simply the oldest ''written'' versions of stories that are based on older oral legends; some motifs and plots can be traced back to the early Iron Age (1st millenium BCE). They are the product of a highly developed narrative tradition, both written and oral.

The name is the plural of ''Mabinogi'' somewhat archaic Welsh, but interestingly enough, the work should be called the "Mabinogi," since it consists of four branches of a ''single'' Mabinogi, rather than multiple ones. The scribe made a mistake in the first branch, ''Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed'', when he referred to it as the Mabinogion, which he later rectified in the other branches, but the name stuck. The best translation of "Mabinogi" appears to be "''tales of childhood''". ''Mab'' is the Welsh word for "son", and the consonant-mutation "''Vabinogi''" occurs in "''Llyma Vabinogi Iesu Grist''", a medieval manuscript (Peniarth MS 14) describing the childhood of {{Jesus}}.

* {{Expy}}: Children's author LloydAlexander trawled ''The Mabinogion'' to create the characters, setting, and history of ''[[PrydainChronicles The Chronicles of Prydain]]''.

* ColourMotif: White, like the ''Cŵn Annwn'' ("hounds of Annwn") in the First Branch, had supernatural associations in early Celtic culture. The name of Arawn's enemy, Hafgan, means "summer white."

* VillainProtagonist: The first act of the fourth branch, arguably. [[MagicKnight Gwydion]], the story's hero, is a monster. He starts a horrific war with the south (which leads to the deaths of hundreds of warriors, including King Pryderi of Dyfed) as a way of distracting his uncle so he doesn't notice him ''raping'' a young woman. [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment He is punished epically]] for his crimes.

* ''Math, Son of Mathonwy'', is about the magician-king of Gwynedd. While he is away fighting a phony war engineered by his nephews Gilfaethwy and [[MagicKnight Gwydion]] - the war in which Pryderi is slain - Gwydion himself sneaks into Math's stronghold and rapes his foot-holder maiden, Goewin. In punishment, Math [[BalefulPolymorph transforms]] the brothers into a different animal every year, [[KarmicTransformation one male and one female]], until they bear three offspring together.

-->-- ''Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi'' [[hottip:*: And they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden anyone had ever seen. And they baptized her in the way that they did at that time, and named her Blodeuedd.]]

** It actually mentions that even if all the food and drink of seven cantrefs [[hottip:*:roughly translated, ''cantref'' means province or district]] were put into the bag, it would still not be full. One feast, no matter how grand, could not even come ''close'' to filling it.

->''And thus ends here this Branch of the Mabinogion.''[[hottip:*:''Which will in subsequent branches be called the Mabinogi'']]

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: White, like the ''Cŵn Annwn'' ("hounds of Annwn") in the First Branch, had supernatural associations in early Celtic culture. The name of Arawn's enemy, Hafgan, means "summer white."

* DifferentAsNightAndDay: Branwen's half brothers Nysien and Efnisien. Nysien is a gentle, peaceful man. Efnysien is a [[SociopathicHero sorta heroic sociopath]] who dies destroying the artifact that was letting the Irish win the war he started in the first place.

* SociopathicHero: Efnisien is psychotic, warped, and cruel, but he does ultimately save the Welsh.
** One adaptation does this so that Efnisien has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment right after Nissyen dies, and claims “that was the first time... [he] accepted responsibility for anything that went amiss.” Apparently Nissyen was the embodiment of his conscience and compassion.

* DifferentAsNightAndDay: Branwen's half brothers Nysien and Efnisien. Nysien is a gentle, peaceful man. Efnysien is a [[HeroicSociopath sorta heroic sociopath]] who dies destroying the artifact that was letting the Irish win the war he started in the first place.

* HeroicSociopath: Efnisien is psychotic, warped, and cruel, but he does ultimately save the Welsh.

** One adaptation does this so that Efnisien has a MyGodWhat HaveIDone moment right after Nissyen dies, and claims “that was the first time... [he] accepted responsibility for anything that went amiss.” Apparently Nissyen was the embodiment of his conscience and compassion.

The Welsh collection of stories called '''The Mabinogion''' is one of the major surviving bodies of [[CelticMythology Welsh myths]]. The stories in their modern forms are derived primarily from two medieval Welsh manuscripts, the [[http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=whitebookofrhydderchpeniart White Book of Rhydderch]] and the [[http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=jesus&manuscript=ms111 Red Book of Hergest]], along with a collection of smaller texts, but those are simply the oldest ''written'' versions of stories that are, themselves, much older; some motifs and tales can be traced back to the early Iron Age (1st millenium BCE). They are the product of a highly developed narrative tradition, both written and oral.

This page is about Welsh mythology. If you're looking for the {{MMORPG}} see ''{{VideoGame/Mabinogi}}''.

The Welsh collection of stories called '''The Mabinogion''' is one of the major surviving bodies of [[CelticMythology Celtic myths]]. The stories in their modern forms are derived primarily from two medieval Welsh manuscripts, the [[http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=whitebookofrhydderchpeniart White Book of Rhydderch]] and the [[http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=jesus&manuscript=ms111 Red Book of Hergest]], along with a collection of smaller texts, but those are simply the oldest ''written'' versions of stories that are, themselves, much older; some motifs and tales can be traced back to the early Iron Age (1st millenium BCE). They are the product of a highly developed narrative tradition, both written and oral.

* BagOfHolding: OlderThanPrint. Rhiannon gives a small bag to Pwyll in order to trick her unwanted suitor, Gwawl. It holds an entire feast's worth of food and, when he puts both feet into it, a grown man, with enough space to tie the bag closed over his head.

* OlderThanPrint: The text itself and of course every trope in it.

The work is divided into four ''Branches'', five ''Native tales'', and three ''Romances''.

->''And thus ends here this Branch of the Mabinogion.''

The name is the plural of ''mabinogi'' somewhat archaic Welsh. The best translation appears to be "''tales of childhood''". ''Mab'' is the Welsh word for "son", and the consonant-mutation "''Vabinogi''" occurs in "''Llyma Vabinogi Iesu Grist''", a medieval manuscript (Peniarth MS 14) describing the childhood of {{Jesus}}.

** One adaptation does this so that Efnisien has a [[Oh God, What Have I Done]] right after Nissyen dies, and claims “that was the first time... [he] accepted responsibility for anything that went amiss.” Apparently Nissyen was the embodiment of his conscience and compassion.

The Welsh collection of stories called '''The Mabinogion''' is one of the major surviving bodies of [[CelticMythology Celtic myths]]. The stories in their modern forms are derived primarily from two medieval Welsh manuscripts, the [[http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=whitebookofrhydderchpeniart White Book of Rhydderch]] and the [[http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=jesus&manuscript=ms111 Red Book of Hergest]], along with a collection of smaller texts, but those are simply the oldest ''written'' versions of stories that are, themselves, much older; some motifs and tales can be traced back to the early Iron Age (1st millenium BC). They are the product of a highly developed narrative tradition, both written and oral.

* OlderThanDirt:The text itself and of course every trope in it.