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ehmannky's review
5.0
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf, partially read for 4 years now, and after reading it I am kicking myself over the knowledge I could have had 4 more years with this text. It is a beautiful, moving, vivid retelling of the Welsh legends contained in The Mabinogi that takes the Christianity out and the wild pagan-nature of the tales back in. Dealing in broad strokes with the anxiety around paternity and tradition versus progress, the texts follow three generations of heroes as the dawn of a new era in Britain's mythic past begins to pass. But besides these themes, you should read it for the beauty of the text. Walton's prose is honestly some of the most beautiful I have ever read. The whole damn thing is littered with beautifully wrought passages like this:
"The eyes and ears and the blood-dripping teeth of those strange dogs glowed red, red as fire, but their white bodies glittered more savagely, with an unnatural, deathlike brilliance of paleness. Blackness terrifies; it is sightlessness, it blinds a man and hides his enemies; yet the darkness within the earth is warm and life giving, the womb of the Mother, the source of all growth. But in snow or in white-hot flame nothing can grow. Whiteness means annihilation, that end from which can come no beginning" (The Prince of Annwn).
The power in these retellings comes from Walton seeing the humanity in these mythic figures and giving them rich, complex inner lives not found in the original text. I'm a massive fan of myth-retellings, especially those done by women. She does not impose modern sensibilities on these characters, and her men are often sexist and xenophobic and her women are not Strong Female Characters (no one rides into battle and cuts off someone's head). But I would say Walton's ability to treat her characters as fully-fledged human beings leads to wonderfully realized characters (male and especially female) and a fascinating look at gender and sexuality and the man-made constructed nature of both.
"The eyes and ears and the blood-dripping teeth of those strange dogs glowed red, red as fire, but their white bodies glittered more savagely, with an unnatural, deathlike brilliance of paleness. Blackness terrifies; it is sightlessness, it blinds a man and hides his enemies; yet the darkness within the earth is warm and life giving, the womb of the Mother, the source of all growth. But in snow or in white-hot flame nothing can grow. Whiteness means annihilation, that end from which can come no beginning" (The Prince of Annwn).
The power in these retellings comes from Walton seeing the humanity in these mythic figures and giving them rich, complex inner lives not found in the original text. I'm a massive fan of myth-retellings, especially those done by women. She does not impose modern sensibilities on these characters, and her men are often sexist and xenophobic and her women are not Strong Female Characters (no one rides into battle and cuts off someone's head). But I would say Walton's ability to treat her characters as fully-fledged human beings leads to wonderfully realized characters (male and especially female) and a fascinating look at gender and sexuality and the man-made constructed nature of both.
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