Symposium celebrates Year of Legends

Cardiff University’s School of Welsh hosted a Symposium discussing the Four Branches of the Mabinogi on Saturday 8 July 2017.

The Symposium was organised by Professor Sioned Davies, an internationally renowned Mabinogi scholar, as part of the celebrations in Wales for the Year of Legends.

A panel of notable speakers came together to debate and discuss a variety of themes and other elements of the history, ideology and context of the fairy tales (in Welsh and English).

• Dr Simon Rodway (Prifysgol Aberystwyth): The Four Branches of the Mabinogi and Celtic Mythology
• Yr Athro Brynley F Roberts: Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi – tybed?
• Dr Juliette Wood (Prifysgol Caerdydd): Rhiannon: Twenty-First Century Goddess?
• Dr John Bollard: Contextualising the Mabinogi: Then and Now
• Yr Athro Sioned Davies: Gair, Delwedd ac Ideoleg: Mabinogi Oes Fictoria
• Dr Diana Luft: The Eighteenth-Century Rehabilitation of the Mabinogi

The Symposium culminated with a reading given by Professor Margaret Lloyd (Springfield College, Massachusetts) from her latest volume Travelling on My Own Errands: Voices of Women from The Mabinogi.

Professor Davies said: “As part of the celebrations for the Year of Legends, I have contributed to a number of different activities and projects concerned with the Mabinogi stories. These diverse activities have included advising on creating tapestries, which will depict the tales, for the proposed mediaeval court in St Fagans, to helping launch a new cocktail menu in the capital inspired by characters from the Mabinogi!

“The Symposium was an excellent opportunity to welcome experts in the field to the School to discuss new ideas on the Mabinogi and the intention is to hold another Symposium, on one of the other mediaeval fairy tales, within the year.”