MABINOGION, (Welsh, singu lar mabinogi, probably derived from mitbin.,y, pupil of a band), THE. The title of a series of Welsh prose tales from the Red Book of Hergest, published by Lady Charlotte Guest in 183S. The Welsh text was accompanied by an English trans lation and explanatory notes, and the collection soon became the best-known monument of n-di:e Welsh literature. Its contents, however, are far from being homogeneous. The tales differ greatly in age and subject-matter, part of them standing beside the old Irish sagas as represen tatives of very early Celtic tradition, while others seem to come from French' sources and belong to a highly developed stage of Arthurian ro mance. Only a small part of the collection is strictly entitled to be called •Mabinogion' at all. But as a result of Lady Guest's choice of title the term has come to be loosely and inaccurately applied to almost any prose tale of the Middle Welsh period. In the interpretation of the name, as well as in its application, Lady Guest was in error. She took the word mabinogi to mean a 'nursery-tale,' and consequently adapted her trans lation somewhat to the uses of children ; hut prob abl• the word comes rather from niabinog (or mebinog), 'a literary apprentice,' or a young man who receives instruction from a qualified hard. The mabinogi was apparently the collection of tales which he was expected to know and which constituted his stock in trade. In one case, how ever, it should be said. the term is applied to a tale where it seems to have reference to the age of the hero; the apocryphal "Gospel of the In fancy" is called Mabinogi des?' Grist.
The four genuine mabinogion, perhaps more accurately to be called the 'four branches of the mahinogi,' are the following: Iieyll, Prince of Dyfed : Braniren, Daughter of Myr ; .1Iana dun, Son of Llyr: and Math, Son of Mathontry.
These tales go back, so far as their substance is concerned. to the very earliest period of Welsh
tradition. They are even held by some to con tain a body of material common to the Gaels and Britons, the two great branches of the Celtic world. Arthur and his court are unknown to these ancient tales.
Among the remaining tales (not .strictly mabinogion) published by Lady Guest, several contain primitive elements and have been only half adjusted to the conditions of the Arthurian world. An example of this class is the story of Kullu•eh and Oliren. The tales of Owen and Lloyd, Prredur ab Efraire. and Oeraint and Enid, on the other hand. are the product of medieval chivalry and are generally held to go back to French originals.
Thy Red Book of Merges/, from which Lady Guest derived her Welsh text of all these tales. is a manuscript of the fourteenth century. But some of the tales are preserved, in whole or in part. in manuscripts of the thirteenth century; and the present opinion is that the collection as a whole was put into its present shape as early as the end of the twelfth century. Certain minor interpolations may he assigned to the fourteenth century. The dialect is that of South 11ales.
IltumocatAPHY. Lady Guest's edition has been superseded in large measure by the more accurate text of Rhys and Evans, 7 ly T'.rt of the Ilabino gion and Wits!) Tabs from tit% Rid of llergesi (Oxford, 18s7). and by the translation of .1. Loth. Les .1/uhinogion • Paris. lsst (in the history of the tales, see the introductions the works already cited ; and compare St1)114•/1,, Litirature of the Kymry (Loudon. 1573) ; Ithys, Studies in the .1 rib u rig n Lr g, nd r ixford, 1891) ; and a series of article's by E. Anwyl, in the 7:eitschrift fur celtische Philology, col-. i. and ii.