Post by Heron on May 23, 2008 21:56:52 GMT -1
I went to a lecture in Aberystwyth this evening by John Bollard, the American Celtic scholar who has recently published translations , one of the Mabinogi , and one of 'associated tales', illustrated by photographs of the places mentioned in the texts.
He began by remarking that a sense of place is more important than a sense of time to understand history.
He introduced his sense of place theme by talking about the strong identification of American indians with particular aspects of their landscape and said that he also found this to be a feature of Y Mabinogi.
He spoke at some length about Gorsedd Arberth as well as various sites in Gwynedd mentioned in the tales and marshalled archaeological as well as literary evidence to discuss these (By the way, does anyone actually believe that the hole with a stone through it found in 'Do^l Gronw' and now displayed set in a concrete base, could actually be ......?)
He was convinced that, even though the mythological background to the tales may have been obscure to the medieval audience, that they contained a moral message linked to the particularities of places, and that these have remained avalable and survived many re-tellings.
It is an interesting thesis. But it was those analogies with apache indians for whom apparently featureless terrain contains much of significance that really rang bells for me.
He began by remarking that a sense of place is more important than a sense of time to understand history.
He introduced his sense of place theme by talking about the strong identification of American indians with particular aspects of their landscape and said that he also found this to be a feature of Y Mabinogi.
He spoke at some length about Gorsedd Arberth as well as various sites in Gwynedd mentioned in the tales and marshalled archaeological as well as literary evidence to discuss these (By the way, does anyone actually believe that the hole with a stone through it found in 'Do^l Gronw' and now displayed set in a concrete base, could actually be ......?)
He was convinced that, even though the mythological background to the tales may have been obscure to the medieval audience, that they contained a moral message linked to the particularities of places, and that these have remained avalable and survived many re-tellings.
It is an interesting thesis. But it was those analogies with apache indians for whom apparently featureless terrain contains much of significance that really rang bells for me.
