Customer Reviews

Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain: Hero Myths in the Mabinogion

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This book is a re-release of "Mabon and the Mysteries of Britain", first published in 1987, which is now out of print. The author has revised and updated this new version.

We are mostly familiar with the stories and heroes of the Mabinogian. The stories are of Welsh origin. They are the stories of knights and ladies which have entertained us for many generations.

Ms. Matthews is a researcher into the Arthurian legends, Celtic traditions and has published many books in this vein. This is the first of her books that I have read, and I found it interesting as I am familiar with the Mabinogian.

The start of the book delves into Welsh pronunciation, in order to help the reader sound out some of the names from the book. There is also a section on Welsh story telling, helping the reader understand where and how these stories came about. Ms. Matthews then disassembles the stories of the Mabinogian for the reader, discussing the imagery, the language and the suggested meanings of the different parts of the story. She does a splendid job of making this easy for the reader to understand, and based on her research gives interesting insights into some possibilities of the inner meanings of the material that may have eluded the reader.

She also includes family trees, story progressions and various translations in order to help the reader come to a fuller understanding of what these stories represent. There is also a very complete bibliography in the back of the book as well as the book being indexed.

All in all, this is a fine book to explore the Mabinogian with, and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to better understand some these wonderful stories. This would benefit the beginner as well as provide good discussion material for those who are familiar with the material presented here.

The book is nicely written and expertly researched, but without reading as a companion to the Mabinogion it gets a little hard to read. The author warns you of this in the beginning, so the responsibility is with the reader. It is wonderfully done, with excellent insights.

Celtic scholars and neopagans will find this a useful book - but those dedicated to reclaiming the ways of our ancient Celtic ancestors will find it an invaluable key to The Matter of Britain as it was known in the time before Arthur. Profound, revelatory, impeccably researched, "Mabon" and "Reclaiming the Gods" by Nicholas Mann are perhaps the two most important books on the ANCIENT Celtic masculine mysteries ever to be published.

When I found this book in a Denver metaphysical shop, I about fainted. First, any book on Mabon and
his mother, Modron, is difficult to find. Second, it was written by Caitlin Matthews, who better?
Unlike so many books, who merely mine the same tired quarries or simply repeat the material from other people's diggings, Caitlin delved into a vein of rich ore I'd never considered, the linguistic
clues left behind in the language. For me, it was a revelation, not merely for what she found, but
that there was so much to discover or recover is a far better word.

Mabon appears in "How Cullwch won Olwen," a story in the the Mabinogion, but his story is enigmatic and contradictory because the original story has been overlaid with Arthurian and Christian themes until it is a jumble. Caitlin sorts it all out in very elegant ways, revealing a myth with potent psychological themes very relevant to the issues we face right now.

People interested in mythology in general, celtic mythology, or followers of Wicca will find this book a treasure trove. Buy it and buy it now.