The Origins of the 'Four Branches of the Mabinogi' by Andrew Breeze

Abstract

830 Reviews Looking Westward is thus perhaps not for junior students,who may be confused bymodish postcolonial remarks in it,picked up fromwriters less able and honest thanHill. Yet itdoes merit attention fromprofessional scholars. Reinterpretation of itsclues and arguments will let them see theworld of theGawain-Poet more closely: his familiaritywith luxury; his expertise inhunting; his curiosity aboutWales; and his first-hand knowledge of France, especially the Toulouse region. By working on this and other evidence, theymay determine whether or not the Gawain-Poet was (as this reviewer proposes) Sir John Stanley (d. 1414), north-western magnate, courtier, huntsman, campaigner in the French wars, Garter Knight, and valued servant ofRichard II and Henry IV. University of Navarre, Pamplona Andrew Breeze The Origins of the 'FourBranches of the MabinogV. By Andrew Breeze. Leomin ster:Gracewing. 2009. viii+155 pp. ?9-99- ISBN 978-0-85244-533-2. After publishing his hypothesis on the authorship of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi in the third chapter of his book Medieval Welsh Literature (Dublin: Four Courts, 1997), Andrew Breeze has devoted an entire book to the controversial viewpoint that awoman, namely princess Gwenllian ofDyfed, wrote one of Wales's most significant contributions tomedieval literature. First, the author cites textual evidence from the Four Branches for a female writer by evoking several striking features of the narratives. Breeze points out the dialogues where the female characters are often presented as being stronger than theirmale counterparts. Another argument in favour of a woman author consists in the lengthypassages dedicated to female interests such asmotherhood, wet-nursing, fostering, or childlessness, in contrast to the shortmentions of battles and war. In addition the author of the Four Branches shows compassion for the defeated army and is aware of the human tragedy.Having presented all arguments that hint at a female author in general, Breeze goes on to narrow down possible female candidates for a prose narrative in early twelfth-century Wales. First of all, the style of the narrative hints at an author familiarwith etiquette, who isprobably amember of a royal court. In the following section Breeze listsnineteen arguments forGwenllian's authorship and the probable time of composition. He makes use of internal textual evidence as well as references to other manuscripts of the time in bothWelsh and Irish literature, and makes a semantic comparison between poems ofHywel ab Owain Gwynedd, Gwenllian's nephew, and theFour Branches. Reaching beyond literary argumentation, Breeze backs up his theory by exploit ing archaeological and topographical evidence, e.g. the frequency of toponyms in the text.He claims that the detailed knowledge of the local geography ofGwynedd, a somewhat limited acquaintance with Dyfed, and even lesswith Ireland coincide very strongly with Gwenllian's biography as a Gwynedd princess married to a Dyfed ruler with whom she spent some time in exile in Ireland. Several of the points he makes are taken up later in the book for a detailed line of arguments. MLR, 105.3, 2010 831 The chapter entitled 'Politics and the Four Branches' argues that the evident knowledge of the system of government?including diplomacy and warfare, the function of native law, the political constellation at the time in southWales, in particular interest in the fate of Dyfed and the threat of the rise of the kingdom of England?strongly points to amember of the court ofDyfed, corroborating the previous arguments. The chapters entitled 'The Four Branches inOur Time' and 'Some Recent Views of theFour Branches' deserve special mention. In the firstBreeze reviews themajor works on the origin of these tales over the last century, among others the public ations of Sir JohnLloyd,W. J. Gruffydd, and Rachel Bromwich. The other chapter contains very detailed replies to dissenting opinions on the authorship of theFour Branches in recent papers by Fiona Winward, William Parker, and others. The book in its entirety reads like an academic detective story,approaching the case to be solved from different angles. This is apparently the author's intention when, in the introduction, he challenges his readers to sharpen theirwits, develop their opinion on the hypothesis, and, ifpossible, find evidence against it.Breeze also compares his methodology tomodern criminology and theuse of circumstan tial evidence such...