I’ve been looking forward to reading this for years. It exceeded my expectations, and is a treasure house of strange, marvelous, alluring, surreal and fantastic medieval Welsh myth and legend. Its people and its stories are so distant from the familiar and rational world that they take on a superb, dreamlike quality. Is this dreamlike sense intentional? Considering that two of the tales are directly about events occurring within dreams — “The Dream of Maxen” and “The Dream of Rhonabwy” — I am inclined to say yes. But no one can be certain. For the 60th anniversary edition of The Hobbit, Tolkien's 1937 classic, Lee won his second Chesley Award for Interior Illustration (he is a finalist eight times through 2011). [16] The last chapter reflects upon castles from fantasy literature - the Castle of Earthly Paradise, Oberon's Castle of Gold, Dracula's Castle, Poe's Castle of the Red Death, Barad-Dur, the Dark Tower of Mordor and Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, and even Gormenghast from Mervyn Peake's the Gormenghast Trilogy.

World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees". World Fantasy Convention. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Rhiannon characteristically rebukes him for not considering this course before, then explains she has sought him out to marry him, in preference to her current betrothed, Gwawl ap Clud. Pwyll gladly agrees, but at their wedding feast at her father's court, an unknown man requests Pwyll grant a request; which he does without asking what it is. The man is Gwawl, and he requests Rhiannon. That said, it’s a very uneven book. The first four “branches” are really where the sauce is. The tales that follow, mostly chivalric Arthurian adventures, can be dry (though interesting for predating any round tables or swanky grails). I’ll make an exception for the tale of Cuhlwch whose mad crush on Olwen leads uncle Arthur into an epically misguided hunt for a divine boar, which, for some reason, has a comb and a razor and a pair of sheers all caught in the tuft of hair between its ears. The hunt is such an ordeal it kills off nearly every last Briton (which is a shame since the author went to such great lengths to name all of them [phew!]). But Cuhlwch gets the girl in the end, so . . . alls well that ends well? My favorite stories were The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, especially the fourth one, maybe because of my love for Ovid's The Metamorphoses.

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Alan has illustrated dozens of fantasy books, including some nonfiction, and many more covers. Several works by J.R.R. Tolkien are among his most notable interiors: the Tolkien centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings (1992), a 1999 edition of The Hobbit that has been boxed with it, and Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Children of Húrin (2007). The latter, a first edition, is his work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries. This translation is the most comprehensive that I've read so far. But , translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones was first edition that was quite understandable for me, for at first I read translation by Lady Charlotte Guest which was very confusing and unsorted, and those translators organized stories into three parts, when all pieces of understanding came together. A major illustrated edition of the classic fantasy with over 50 full-colour paintings by the celebrated artist of The Lord of the Rings

Rhiannon is connected to three mystical birds. The Birds of Rhiannon ( Adar Rhiannon) appear in the Second Branch, in the Triads of Britain, and in Culhwch ac Olwen. In the latter, the giant Ysbaddaden demands them as part of the bride price of his daughter. They are described as "they that wake the dead and lull the living to sleep." This possibly suggests Rhiannon is based on an earlier goddess of Celtic polytheism. Full of magical creatures, legendary heroes, and tales of love, revenge, and political struggle, The Mabinogion is one of the essential masterpieces of world literature. For almost a millennium its stories have inspired and fascinated writers and artists – among them the great contemporary master of fantastic art, Alan Lee.Ac yuelly y teruyna y geinc hon yma o’r Mabynogyon” – And so ends this branch of the Mabinogion Story summaries Four of these mythical stories end with a vague allusion to being one of four branches of “the Mabinogi”, giving the collection its name, and the others are hero quests, Arthurian romances, spectacular and chemerical pseudo-historical sagas, which might or might not be related to the first four. The four “branch” tales do not seem to relate to one another except for “Manawyden, The Son of Llyr” being a sequel to, and sharing characters with “Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr”. Otherwise, some common names or places are all that link these branches. Pryderi Son of Pwyll is the common figure, appearing in each of these tales, but usually with a minor part. For the most part, each enchanting tale seems to be independent from the rest, riddled with mysteries deepened through the ages and brought to life by towering imaginations. I used this collection of Welsh tales to gain key insight into connections with the English language by comparing the names of characters and locations to their English counterparts. Among the numerous works by J. R. R. Tolkien that he has illustrated are the 1992 centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, a 1999 edition of The Hobbit, the 2007 The Children of Húrin, the 2017 Beren and Lúthien, the 2018 The Fall of Gondolin, and the 2022 The Fall of Númenor. [2] [3] Many concepts not only in fantasy literature but in the broader realm of fiction that were popularized over the later centuries seem to have been introduced in these stories. One that first springs to mind is the mysterious wall of fog that Gereint meets toward the end of his saga. He knows something challenging awaits him on the other side, but is unsure what. Outside the fog wall poles are lined up with the heads of slain men who have come before. He enters the fog and is soon met with an enormous warrior he must defeat. Only after he is victorious does the fog disappear so that he may leave.