The Mabinogion Tetralogy [Hardcover]

Evangeline Walton (Author), Betty Ballantine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2002

The author of the classic Mabinogian, the great compendium of medieval Welsh mythology, is unknown to us, but generations have thrilled to the magical tales set at a time when men and gods mingled, and the gods had more than met their match, tales of the wizard-prince Gwydion, of Prince Pwyll and Lord Death, and of the beautiful Rhiannon and the steadfast Branwen. In the masterful hands of Evangeline Walton the twelve "branches" of the ancient text were reworked into four compelling narratives: The Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon, and The Island of the Mighty, resulting in one of the great epic fantasy works of literature. In The Prince of Annwn, the seeds of future tragedy are planted. Young Prince Pwyll meets Arawn, the God of Death, and survives the encounter with a heavy charge: to take on Arawn's guise and kill for him the one man even Death could not fell.

The Children of Llyr chronicles the great family of Bran the Blessed, and their epic struggle for the throne. In The Song of Rhiannon, the struggle continues with Manawyddan and his son Pryderi, the rightful heir to the throne, battling the force of an ancient curse. In The Island of the Mighty, the throne of the kingdom of Gwynedd is in peril when Gwydion, the headstrong heir, dares to provoke the legendary wrath of Lord Pryderi.

Evangeline Walton's Mabinogian Tetralogy is a powerful work of the imagination, to rank with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and T. H. White's The Once and Future King. The gods and goddesses, wizards and sorceresses, the mortal men and women of ancient days come brilliantly to life. Evangeline Walton's triumph is to have constructed a vital and living world on the foundations of myth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Almost as weighty is the late Evangeline Walton's The Maginogion Tetralogy, which brings together Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon and The Island of the Mighty. Based on the medieval Welsh epic The Mabinogion, this series ranks with the best of 20th-century works of fantasy.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Magnificently conceived . . . powerful."

(--August Derleth, publisher of H.P. Lovecraft

) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 980 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; First Edition edition (May 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585672416
• ISBN-13: 978-1585672417
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible treasure back in print!, August 14, 2002

By 

Peter M. Schogol (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mabinogion Tetralogy (Hardcover)

Back in the early and mid 1970s a series of 4 fantasy novels written by one Evangeline Walton and based tightly on the Welsh myths known collectively as The Mabinogion were published in this country by Ballantine Books. THE PRINCE OF ANNWN; THE CHILDREN OF LLYR; THE SONG OF RHIANNON; and THE ISLAND OF THE MIGHTY were for many of us our first introductions to Celtic mythology. Ms. Walton was an expert storyteller, and having read the 1949 Gwyn and Thomas Jones translation of THE MABINOGION, and struggled through a Welsh-language version for young people called Y MABINOGI: CYFADDASIAD NEWYDD, I can say that her paraphrase of these tales is superb, faithful, and an incredibly exciting read!

The individual novels have long been out of print and hard to find. Overlook Press has just published the four novels together in one elegantly produced hardback entitled THE MABINOGION TETRALOGY.

Although Ms. Walton, who died in 1996 at age 92, began writing her novels decades before Tolkien began his, and her style is leaner and perhaps cleaner (aided, no doubt, by the fact that she was reworking already existing material whereas Tolkien was weaving entire worlds from his own yarn), the Tetralogy should appeal to a similar readership.

I can't recommend this edition highly enough!

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Matter is an A+; manner D-, September 7, 2003

By 

J.C. Sahyan (Middle Island, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mabinogion Tetralogy (Hardcover)

This might very well be *most* poorly edited book I've ever purchased. Miss Walton's novels are wonderful, in every sense of that word; they rate 5 stars. The volume, though, merits no stars at all, thus my average of 2 stars. The book is utterly laden with distracting and misleading errors of all sorts. Words that make no sense in context substituted for what I know (having read the much better Ballantine paperback editions, years ago, and simply knowing the tales) should be there; whole passages repeated out of sequence. And I'm only some 50 pages into it! Overlook needs to fire whoever purported to edit this thing, and apologize to its customers...and to the memory of Evangeline Walton.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!, July 6, 2004

By 

Anika Leithner (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mabinogion Tetralogy (Paperback)

I was very impressed with this book. Walton does a wonderful job of reworking the original Welsh legends into four stories. Naturally, she allows herself certain artistic freedoms, such as interpreting disputed aspects of the legends in a way that seems most plausible to her. However, her skill and her imagination make me gladly accept her interpretation.

The writing is probably the most beautiful I have read since Tolkien. It is rich in detail, vibrant, and poetic. A pleasure to read. The same is true for the characters, who really do come to life in Walton's book. She (re)creates gods and men, heroes and monsters, while at the same time exploring some of the recurring themes of humankind, such as love and loyalty, strength and courage, etc. The basis for all this is the same cultural background of the original Welsh mythologies, i.e. the fundamental conflict between the belief of the Old Tribes, in which women were quite independent and powerful, and the New Tribes, in which women are inferior to men and the role of women as 'creators of life' is slowly forgotten.

At the same time, I don't think this book is for everybody. If you enjoy contemporary fantasy with a Celtic background along the lines of Katherine Kerr, then you may be disappointed by this book. Not every subplot is pursued to completion, not every character is described fully. Walton implies as much as she tells us. The language is as much poetry as it is prose. Like I said, it's beautiful, but read it for what it is!

Anika Leithner