Welsh Princes in an Anglo-Norman World: A Historicist Reading of the Third Branch of the Mabinogi

Abstract

This article examines the internal historical evidence of the Third Branch of the Mabinogi. Through a close examination of the historical detail of Manawydan's sojourn as a craftsman in the cities of England, it becomes evident that the Third Branch reflects aristocratic social and economic anxieties in the decades following the Norman invasion of Wales. In light of an as-yet-unrecognized connection between the Third Branch and the twelfth-century royal biography Vita Griffini Filii Conani, this article suggests an early twelfth-century date for the former text.<br/> The Third Branch of the Mabinogi is generally seen as the 'simplest' – and arguably the most cohesive – of the Four Branches. It revolves around a single principal character in Manawydan fab Llŷr, who is never out of the frame throughout the tale. Its plot develops in a relatively linear fashion, moving steadily towards a 'happy and harmonious end'. The plot of the Third Branch may be summarized in terms of a three-part structure, as recognized by Glyn E. Jones:<br/> i. 'Manawydan fab Llŷr marries Rhiannon, Pryderi's mother' [and becomes the ruler of the kingdom of Dyfed].<br/> ii. 'Enchantment falls on Dyfed [leaving it entirely without people apart from Manawydan, Rhiannon, Pryderi and his wife Cigfa] and Manawydan and Pryderi spend a period in England. On their return to Dyfed, Pryderi and Rhiannon become entrapped in a magic fortress which vanishes'.<br/> iii. 'Manawydan succeeds in lifting the enchantment and freeing Pryderi and Rhiannon'.<br/> So far, so simple. Of course, the joy of the Third Branch is in the details: the stark image of Dyfed completely devoid of human and animal life; the psychological dimension of four characters having to deal with the emotional and practical consequences of this magical apocalypse; and the rather comic denouement, in which Manawydan stubbornly but cunningly negotiates with the villain of the piece (the sorcerer Llwyd fab Cil Coed) while holding the villain's wife hostage in the form of a mouse. Some of the most interesting details in the Third Branch come during Manawydan's period of poverty – during this time he and Pryderi (and later Cigfa), with their workforce suddenly having been taken away, are forced to make a living for themselves, first as hunters and scavengers in what is left of their home, then as craftsmen in the cities of Lloegyr, and finally as subsistence farmers back in Dyfed. 5 With these details we are torn from the mythic, heroic, otherworldly setting of much of the Four Branches and cast into the mundane realities of daily life. The Third Branch lends itself to a historicist reading, which reads these mundanities in the context of the early twelfth century, a time when Anglo-Norman culture and society was steadily encroaching on Welsh life. 6 This is especially evident in the representation of Manawydan and Cigfa's time spent as artisans in the cities of Lloegyr, which provides the clearest evidence for an Anglo-Norman context of composition for the Third Branch. This reading has potentially significant implications for the dating of the text, particularly in light of a possible and hitherto unrecognized connection between the Third Branch and the twelfth-century royal biography Vita Griffini Filii Conani.