Y Mabinogion sydd dan sylw yn y bennod hon, ond rhaid egluro’n gyntaf nad dyna’r gair gorau i ddisgrifio’r straeon Cymraeg canoloesol hyn! Mae’n debyg mai William Owen Pughe (1759-1835) a fathodd y label, ond oherwydd cyfieithiadau Saesneg yr Arglwyddes Charlotte Guest (1812-1895) y daeth yn arferol i bobl led-led y byd gyfeirio at y chwedlau hyn fel The Mabinogion. Mae felly’n arfer Saesneg ddiweddar sydd wedi dylanwadu ar sut mae Cymry Cymraeg yn trafod y corff pwysig hwn o lenyddiaeth eu iaith!

Mae 11 o’r chwedlau hyn, a dim ond mewn pedair ohonynt y mae’r gair mabinogi yn ymddangos (a dim ond unwaith fel mabinogion, a’r gair hwnnw’n gamgymeriad, mae’n debyg). Mae’n well gennym eu disgrifio fel ‘Y Chwedlau Brodorol’; er bod llawer iawn o ryddiaith Gymraeg ganoloesol sydd wedi goroesi, mae’r rhan fwyaf ohoni wedi’i chyfieithu o ieithoedd eraill. Yr hyn sy’n arbennig am y grŵp hwn o straeon canoloesol yw’r ffaith eu bod wedi’u hysgrifennu’n wreiddiol yn yr iaith Gymraeg. Dyma felly ffrwyth dychmyg storïwyr Cymraeg yr Oesau Canol. Ond a yw’n iawn ein bod ni’n eu gosod ar wahân yn y modd hwn? Cedwir y chwedlau hyn mewn dwy lawysgrif – Llyfr Gwyn Rhyddech (c.1350) a Llyfr Coch Hergest (c.1400), ac mae’r casgliadau pwysig hyn yn cynnwys mathau eraill o lenyddiaeth Gymraeg ganoloesol hefyd.

This episode considers The Mabinogion, but we have to explain first that this is not the best way of describing these medieval Welsh tales! It’s likely that William Owen Pughe (1759-1835) created the label, but it is because of the English translations published by Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1895) that people all over the world came to refer to these tales as The Mabinogion. It’s thus a recent English tendency which has effected how Welsh speakers discuss this important body of their language’s literature!

There are 11 of these tales, but the word mabinogi only appears in four of them (and only once as mabinogion, and that word is a mistake, most likely). We prefer to describe them as ‘The Native Prose Tales’; although there is a great amount of medieval Welsh prose which has survived, most of it was translated from other languages. What makes this group of medieval stories special is the fact that they were written originally in the Welsh language. In them we have the products of the imagination of medieval Welsh storytellers. But is it right that we set them apart in this way? These tales are preserved in two manuscripts – The White Book of Rhyddech (c.1350) and The Red Book of Hergest (c.1400), and these important collections contain other types of medieval Welsh literature as well.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones

Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin

Cerddoriaeth: Might Have Done gan The Molenes

Dilynwch ni ar Trydar: http://www.twitter.com/YrHenIaith

Tanysgrifwch yn eich hoff ap podlediadau i derbyn y pennod nesaf ar cyhoeddiad.

Darllen pellach:

- Dafydd Ifans a Rhiannon Ifans, Y Mabinogion[:] Diweddariad (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1980)

- Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh Manuscripts (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 2002)

Further reading:

- Sioned Davies (translator), The Mabinogion (Oxford: OUP, 2008)

- Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh Manuscripts (Cardiff: UWP, 2002)