Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/273

 REVIEWS.

The White Book Mabinogion : Welsh Tales and Romances reproduced from the Peniarth MSS. Edited by J. GwENOGVRYN EvANS, Pwllheli (Subscribers only). 1909.

In this impeccably printed volume Dr. Evans has again provided students of Welsh philology with material of first-rate importance, and as, ultimately, many questions of literary history can only receive their answer in the court of philology the student of subject-matter is also his debtor. Further, although Dr. Evans disclaims presenting reasoned hypotheses respecting the date, process of growth, and significance of his texts, he has in his preface made a number of statements and suggestions of high interest and far-reaching import. Alike the authority of the editor and the supreme importance of these Welsh tales necessitate searching examination of what he either definitely asserts or simply suggests.

As is well known, the title Mabitiogion properly belongs only to the series of four tales, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. The current explanation of the term, due to Sir John Rhys, is that " mabinog was a technical term belonging to the bardic system and meaning a literary apprentice." Thus the Four Branches cycle revealed itself as a summary of certain mythico-romantic themes the knowledge of which was indispensable to the bard.

I accepted this explanation in my annotated edition of the Mabinogion, as did Mr. Ivor John in his booklet {Popular Studies, No. 11). I have often enough found myself compelled to question opinions expressed by Sir John Rhys for it to be un- necessary to repel the accusation of accepting an explanation solely on his authority. I did so because, as far as I could test it,