The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion. Translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. The Mabinogion are the earliest prose stories of the literature of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th-13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. The two main source manuscripts were created c. 1350-1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. These stories offer drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and were created by various narrators over time. The first modern publications were English translations by William Owen Pughe of several tales in journals in 1795, 1821, and 1829. However it was Lady Charlotte Guest in 1838-45 who first published the full collection, bilingually in Welsh and English.