ABSTRACT
Readers generally agree that the Four Branches of the Mabinogi prose tales, preserved in medieval Welsh manuscripts from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, are masterpieces of swift and graceful style, enchanting equally in their vivid detail and succinct understatement. Yet the structure of the narratives as a whole remains a puzzle. Each of the three segments of the story replicates the wasteland motif, thereby revealing an architectonic rather than organic structure. The medieval trappings—hunting-scenes, courtly feasts, romantic dialogue—disguise the ancient myth, but provide it with contemporaneity. Each segment contains relatively little action of the sort typically found in medieval romances: quests and battles are virtually absent; the love element is but briefly entertained and then quickly submerged in the war of wits between Gwawl and Rhiannon. The birds of Rhiannon, souls in the land of the dead, sing sweetly to the warriors.
