I want to read the Mabinogi in medieval Welsh

Title basically. I’m finding it difficult to find a version in medieval Welsh and I’m not sure which one to buy so suggestions are welcome. Medieval Welsh with modern Welsh or English translation/annotation/notes would be the most useful to me.

There doesn’t seem to be a full Mabinogi available in medieval Welsh, so would it be best to look for Pwyll Pendeuic Dyuet, Breudyd Macsen etc separately?

Diolch!

I read the first two branches of the Mabinogi when I was at university - we used the little (smaller than a normal paperback) red cloth-bound editions from the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. They have really copious notes & glossaries, but no parallel text in Modern Welsh or English. You could always try using Sioned Davies’ recent translation (published by OUP) as a crib.
@siaronjames mentioned having read at least some of the Mabinogi at university from a different edition, and might be able to tell you which, if it’s still available.
I also have a version of the poem the Gododdin, done by A O H Jarman (pub’d Gwasg Gomer 2005) that does exactly what you want i.e. original text but using Modern Welsh spelling, parallel English translation - so I don’t know whether it’s worth looking for Mabinogi-related stuff with the same author or publisher.

The one I have that I studied at uni is this one, but it is only the four branches, not the additional tales in some ‘Mabinogion’ books.There is no parallel text in English in it, but there are copious notes (in Welsh) about the medieval vocab.

1 Like

Thank you both! I’ll take a look