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The Mabinogion

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The Mabinogion

By: Sioned Davies - Translator
Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
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About this listen

Then they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen.

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history - these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as The Mabinogion.

They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar. Dragons, witches, and giants live alongside kings and heroes, and quests of honor, revenge, and love are set against the backdrop of a country struggling to retain its independence.

Sioned Davies's lively translation re-creates the storytelling world of medieval Wales and reinvests the tales with the power of performance.

©2007 Sioned Davies (P)2018 Tantor Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics European Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Magic World Literature Magic Users Middle Ages Arthurian Short Story Welsh Mythology

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All stars
Most relevant
Really disappointed that a book of Welsh tales is narrated by someone who can’t pronounce the words. It really affects the enjoyment when you can’t understand what he’s said.

Narrator can’t pronounce any of the Welsh names/placenames

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I live and grew up in Wales and have felt I should read The Mabinogion. This was a free title with my membership. I have a paper copy of this by Sioned Davies but have never got around to reading it. Reading all the negative reviews I wondered if I should bother with this audio version. I'm really glad I did, as the narrator does a good job with some very difficult Welsh pronunciation! as a Welsh speaker myself the way he pronounced all the names were correct or atleast very near to it. The Mabinogion themselves are typically medieval in style with some good yarns, they can be a bit dry and repetitive in some places. Overall listening to it is a lovely dip into Welsh mythology and medieval Welsh culture.

Lovely dip into Welsh mythology and medieval Welsh culture

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The book is a good way to access the Mabinogion, and the first chapter gives a good analysis of its wider context and meaning.
However, the narration is pretty poor and sounds like bad AI. In fact I had to look up the narrator to see if it was actually a genuine person (it was), and not actually AI. To be honest, I thin AI would have done a better job. It's like he is reading a telephone book or the T&Cs for an insurance company.

It also would have made sense to have a Welsh speaker to narrate, although I found the pronunciation of the Welsh words to be pretty decent really, certainly no where near as bad as other reviews make out.

The book itself is good, but the narration sounds like bad AI.

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Such a missed opportunity. Why not use a narrator who could actually pronounce the Welsh names? Unfair to ask a non Welsh speaker to do it. Narrator also fails to bring any life to some stories, particularly the later ones. Sich a brilliant translation requires a far better production. Try again.

Terrible pronunciation

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Unfortunately I could not listen to the story as the quintessentially English delivery was too painful to listen to. The pronunciation of the Welsh words (of which there are many) was forced and the general performance was just woefully inappropriate to the content.

Painful to listen to

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