Robin Williamson – All rights reserved – 1983Discover the history of an ancient collection of Welsh stories shared by word of mouth and could well have been the precursors to modern day fantasies such as Game of Thrones… The work is sometimes called The Mabinogion, particularly in Victorian writings, and its title derives from the Welsh word “mab” (lad, son, youth, perhaps hero) meaning basically something like “the lad’s tale”. The four stories (or branches) of the Mabinogi are not necessarily sequential, though same characters are featured in more than one tale. The characters in the stories are deities thinly clad in mortal coils and in the Celtic tradition they are portrayed as neither infallible nor immortal necessarily, at once grand, comic, sad, joyful, beautiful and cruel. Elements in the tales hark back to the most remote antiquity, told and retold perhaps even befare the Celts first invaded Britain a thousand years or more before Christ by unknown bards of forgotten kings. The stories, moreover, have certain parallels both in character and theme m the Gaelic mythologies of Ireland and the Highlands. Thus while at the backbone of Welsh culture, the Mabinogi relates profoundly to the soul of the entire island of Britain. Though first transcribed by clerics in the early Norman period, the tales portray a society many centuries older, when old Welsh was spoken throughout much of what is now England and South Scotland as well as in Wales. “The Mabinogi is one of the great classics of World mythology. Regarding the “Mabinogi” tales itself…let us read now what Robin Williamson wrote for the insert sleeve insert of the album Moving Being’s large scale outdoor production staged in 1983 at Caernarfon and Cardiff Castles and featuring Robin’s music has been filmed for a 1984 Channel Four TV release. It can justly be described as a milestone. Robin’s instrumentation, blending harp, border pipes, and whistle, with keyboards, synthesizers, horns, strings, and percussion of all kinds, approaches this ancestral material in a highly contemporary and individualistic manner which nonetheless capture the wild spirit of the original stories. Printed lyrics and translations to songs and spoken words whether in Welsh or English are enclosed with the album. This outstanding album consists of pieces composed and performed by Robin Williamson in connection with Moving Being’s production of Mabinogi or Mabinogion (The Mabinogion (pronounced /mabɪ’nɔɡjɔn/) is a collection of eleven prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts).Though mainly instrumental, the record includes incidental songs performed by members of the cast. ”Pwyll” Out of the deep Welsh water and the saintly dark.
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