For day three of our blog takeover to celebrate the publication of The Mab we are delighted to welcome author Matt Brown back to the blog to introduce us to some of the animals that appear in The Mab and to consider their roles.

For as long as people have told stories, animals have always played an important role in storytelling. The Mab is full of animals and they are always trying to tell us something. Animals carry messages and people, they are used as portals to the Otherworld, or become mighty foes that our heroes need to overcome. They are also used to show traits about certain people or situations. They can even tell us something about the values people had in the ancient world in which the Mabinogi is set, you just have to know how to listen to what they say.

In the time when the Mabinogi was first written down, people had a deep respect for animals and the natural world, which you can see in the story, The Amazing Eight. At the beginning of their first task, the Amazing Eight seek the help of animals to find the legendary hunter Mabon ap Modron. Our heroes know that animals possess great knowledge and understanding about the world and ask the advice of a blackbird, a stag, an owl, an eagle. The order that they ask the animals in is symbolic of the hierarchy of importance that these animals once had.

In order to find Mabon ap Madron, the Amazing Eight ride on the back of a gigantic salmon. It’s no wonder that ancient storytellers used a salmon to help the Amazing Eight in their quest. Salmon travel between salt and fresh waters and so are used to navigating between two different worlds (the real world and the Otherworld). They perform a miraculous feat by travelling upstream and can even scale waterfalls so they are used to overcoming obstacles in pursuit of their goal.

If you see a stag in The Mab you can be certain that someone is about to have an adventure where they have to prove their strength or courage. Stags were, and still are, a high-status animal. In both Peredur, the Monster and the Serpent of the Cairn and Geraint, Enid and the Big Knight Fight, the stories begin with a hunt for a stag. Both hunts are used to show how fearless and bold Peredur and Geraint are. The hunt is not the focus of either story but are used as a springboard for adventure.

Horses are another high-status animal that tell us that the rider is important, either in terms of the position they hold in society or the position they hold in the story. In Rhiannon, Pwyll and the Hideous Claw, Rhiannon first appears “caught in a blade of sunlight” riding “her magnificent shining white horse”. We know from this description of her steed that Rhiannon is extraordinary, maybe even Otherwordly. This suspicion is proven true when later, “Pwyll’s horse trotted up to her and dipped its head, as if it were bowing in front of a queen.” Rhiannon is often thought to be a representation of a horse Goddess. In this story, her horse is a symbol of her divinity and power.

Birds too appear for a variety of reasons in The Mab. Sometimes characters transform into birds, or they talk to birds, or use birds to carry messages.  In The Strange and Spectacular Dream of Rhonabwy the Restless, Rhonabwy uses ravens to symbolise the bandits’ greed and low-down, rotten selfishness. He also uses the call of the raven as a way of signalling to the prince’s men to come and arrest the bandits.

When you read the stories in The Mab, perhaps the animals will speak to you. Maybe, like in the Amazing Eight, they will pass on their deep knowledge and understanding about the world.

A big thank you to Matt Brown for writing this  brilliant blog feature for us.  You can find out more about The Mab every day this week during our blog takeover and might like to think about attending the YLG Wales Zoom training day Empathy in Your Library which includes a conversation with Eloise Williams and Matt Brown who will be discussing The Mab with librarian extraordinaire Alison King.  Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover and the image of Branwen.