Just dropped two full reviews over on Fable:

📖 The Brothers Karamazov — messy, philosophical, full of gossip and grace
🐉 The Mabinogion — surreal, unyielding, dreamlike myth before myth made sense

If you're into books that punch through time, hit me up here:
👉 https://fable.co/the-bartender-948823755780?period_type=year

#BookReview #ReadingCommunity #FableReads #Mabinogion #Dostoevsky #Arthurian #MythosAndMeaning

Finished the final tale in The Mabinogion—Geraint and Enid.
The most straightforward of the bunch: less magic, more chivalry. Arthur shows up strong, and it’s long, but never dull.
Definitely felt some Orpheus & Eurydice vibes, a little Samson too.

Not my favorite, not my least. Just solid, noble storytelling. A fine end to this wild Welsh ride.
🌿🐉🛡️

#Mabinogion #WelshMythology #ReadingLife #Arthurian #AfternoonArtCritic #MythosAndMeaning

Peredur Son of Efrawg might be my favorite of the Mabinogion.
It’s Macbeth meets Parzival meets blood magic noir.

Peredur moves through madness, prophecy, severed heads, and witches — and never asks if he might be wrong.

Arthur says: “Because you never stopped to ask — look what you’ve done.”

That hit.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #Peredur #MythicTrauma #Macbeth #GrailButMakeItViolent

Owain, or the Countess of the Fountain is Tyrell-coded as hell.

A sacred fountain that summons storms

A surreal forest kingdom ruled by a powerful widow

A lion companion born of compassion

Madness in the wild as redemption

It’s Pan + Lady of the Lake + emotional damage.
The forest heals, the court forgets.

Also: The Green Knight (A24) is a 5/5 film. Fight me about it.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #Mythology #GreenMan #NatureMagic #WelshMyths #TyrellEnergy #A24

Okay, I mixed up The Dream of Maxen and The Dream of Rhonabwy — easy mistake.
One’s a mythic honeymoon.
The other’s a beautiful, empty nightmare.

Rhonabwy dreams of Arthur… who’s just playing chess while messengers beg him to act.

It’s Tywin Lannister energy.
Cold. Regal. Absolutely useless.

And screw it — you try pronouncing Gwalchmei.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #MythicDecay #Power #Gwyddbwyll #WelshMyth #LannisterVibes

How Culhwch Won Olwen is like if Perseus, Achilles, and Hercules merged into one guy — and then outsourced all their quests to King Arthur.

Culhwch does nothing. Arthur assembles the mythic Avengers.

Tasks include:

Fighting a giant boar with scissors in its ears

Rescuing a demigod from time itself

Borrowing a barber

Peak mythic sidequest energy.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #CelticLore #Mythology #HimboEnergy #ArthurianMultiverse #WelshMyths

Lludd and Llefelys is only 6 pages, but it goes deep:

Castor & Pollux meets Moses & Aaron

Red vs white dragons = spiritual warfare

A scream that causes miscarriages

A sleep-spell thief who steals feasts

Maybe even mythic surveillance

These old myths carry bloodlines of meaning. Wealth, power, fear — all wrapped in story.

#Mabinogion #Mythology #Arthurian #Dragons #Folklore #SpiritualWarfare #BrotherKings

Well, considering I spent the last 6 days in a crisis center, I got the opportunity to catch up on my Mabinogion readings.

While trapped in my own Winterfell crypt, I read The Dream of Macsen — and I swear GRRM has read it front to back.

Roman emperor dreams a woman into power
Marries her
Her brothers get roads and kingdoms
Seven years pass like a spell

It’s Lannister-coded as hell.
Tywin would’ve built those roads himself.

#Mabinogion #Mythology #Arthurian #GameOfThrones #CelticLore

In Welsh folklore, the cleverest hero is King Manawydan ap Llyr. When a curse causes all the inhabitants of his kingdom to vanish, he moves to England and tries to be various craftsmen (blacksmith, cobbler, etc.). However, each time his products are so innovative that people only buy from him, and the other craftsmen are so resentful that they drive Manawydan out of town.
🎨 Margaret Jones

#WyrdWednesday #Mythology #Folklore #Wales #Celtic #Book #Literature #Mabinogion

Just published:
“Welshed of the Earth”
Myth, wealth, and the fog that took Man(mydan).

Bartenders reading Welsh myth instead of making Zombies. Saddlemakers. Shoemakers. Talking heads. Crown molding.

Power still rides high. Some of us are still walking.

🩴🛡️🐎

https://wittgensteinsmonster.substack.com/p/welshed-of-the-earth

#Mabinogion #WelshMythology #MythAndPower #WealthInequality #ModernMyth #Essay #BartenderPhilosophy

Makes you wonder how early we equated wealth with power — or more precisely, how tools of wealth (horses, land, mobility) became stand-ins for authority itself.

Maybe the myth is reminding us: kingship isn't innate. It's just someone who used to ride.

#Mythology #WelshMyth #CelticStudies #Mabinogion #Folklore #PowerAndWealth #PoliticalPhilosophy #IndoEuropeanMyth #HorsesInMyth #MythicSymbolism #OralTradition #DeepHistory #SlowThought

🔗 https://youtu.be/Y_uLg3oW9Vc?si=PQ4StyTVzEv6a0CU

Check out David Lightbringer’s video where he dives into Bran lore and its deep connections to Game of Thrones, Bran the Broken, and the Nightfort.

David’s always worth highlighting — his myth analysis is 🔥

#WelshMythology #Mabinogion #Branwen #GameOfThrones #MythicConnections #DavidLightbringer

Just realized that the First Branch of the Mabinogi starts with Pwyll and Arawn doing some ancient version of Freaky Friday.

Arawn says: “You’ll rule my kingdom, sleep beside my wife, and wear my face for a year.”
Pwyll: “Seems legit.”

Mythic body-swapping, divine trust exercises, and magical honor codes — glad to know Lindsay Lohan has a clear mythological ancestor.

#WelshMyth #Mabinogion #Literature #Mythology

And yeah, whether George ever finishes the series or not is its own epic saga. But in the meantime, the myth still speaks—and these folks helped me hear it.

#GameOfThrones #ASOIAF #BranStark #Mythology #FisherKing #Endgame #Mabinogion #MythicReading

Reading about Peredur in the introduction and just now realizing:
This is where the Fisher King myth comes from.

A wounded king. A cursed land. A missing question.
Brân the Blessed: hurt through the thighs, bound to the land, keeper of a sacred cauldron.

I can see what George R.R. Martin was reaching for with Bran Stark.
The mythic echoes are there.
But when the time came, the arc didn’t land — no redemption, no Grail.

#Mabinogion #Peredur #FisherKing #GameOfThrones #Mythology

Reading The Mabinogion:
“The hero travels to a strange land to retrieve a cauldron… or a woman.”
Me, immediately:
Ian McKellen in The Da Vinci Code whispering:
“Look at the negative space between them. What do we see?
A cup.”

It’s not my fault. That’s just how my brain mythologizes.

#Mabinogion #HolyGrail #Rhiannon #MythThroughPopCulture

Part of the fun of reading The Mabinogion is confidently pretending I know how to pronounce names like Manawydan, Llwyd, and Pryderi—when in reality, I’m just mumbling fantasy syllables like I’m casting spells.

If it sounds mythic, that’s good enough.

#Mabinogion #WelshMyth #ReadingLife #FakeItTilYouSoundCeltic

These aren’t just love triangles.
They’re ritual dramas. Power flows through her.

And somehow, across time and language and culture, the shape of the story still survives.

#Mabinogion #Mythology #ComparativeMyth #Rhiannon #Aphrodite #StoryPatterns

From the Pages of The Mabinogion…

When mortal prince Pwyll traded places with Arawn, King of the Otherworld, a bond was forged beyond life and death.

Their tale of honor, transformation, and magic lives on.

Read the full story behind Arawn—plus symbolism, folklore, and how he's connected to the Wild Hunt.

https://tasarlaromaney.wordpress.com/celtic-mythology/

#LegendaryLore #Arawn #Pwyll #Mabinogion #MythWeaver #CelticMyths #MythicKings

In Welsh Arthurian tales, King Arthur's two best friends (Cai and Bedwyr) are utterly inseparable. They always adventure together, for Bedwyr "would never shrink from a mission which Cai was going on." In tense situations, Cai swears by Bedwyr's hand.

#MythologyMonday #Mythology #Folklore #Wales #Celtic #Mabinogion #KingArthur #Arthuriana