Examining how we interpret Welshness today, this volume brings together fourteen essays covering a full range of representations of Welsh mythology, folklore, and ritual in popular culture. Topics covered include the twentieth-century fantasy fiction of Evangeline Walton, the Welsh presence in the films of Walt Disney, Welshness in folk music, video games, and postmodern literature. Together, these interdisciplinary essays explore the ways that Welsh motifs have proliferated in this age of cultural cross-pollination, spreading worldwide the myths of one small British nation.

A fresh and revealing look at the stories at the heart of Celtic mythology, exploring their cultural impact throughout history up to the present day. The Celtic Myths That Shape the Way We Think explores a fascinating question: how do myths that were deeply embedded in the customs and beliefs of their original culture find themselves retold and reinterpreted across the world, centuries or even millennia later? Focusing on the myths that have had the greatest cultural impact, Mark Williams reveals the lasting influence of Celtic mythology, from medieval literature to the modern fantasy genre. An elegantly written retelling, Williams captures the splendor of the original myths while also delving deeper into the history of their meanings, offering readers an intelligent and engaging take on these powerful stories. Beautiful illustrations of the artworks these myths have inspired over the centuries are presented in a color plates section and in black and white within the text. Ten chapters recount the myths and explore the lasting influence of legendary figures, including King Arthur, the Celtic figure who paradoxically became the archetypal English national hero; the Irish and Scottish hero Finn MacCool, who as “Fingal” caught the imagination of Napoleon Bonaparte, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Felix Mendelssohn; and the Welsh mythical figure Blodeuwedd, magically created from flowers of the oak, who inspired W. B. Yeats. Williams’s mythological expertise and captivating writing style make this volume essential reading for anyone seeking a greater appreciation of the myths that have shaped our artistic and literary canons and continue to inspire today.

British Goblins - Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. British Goblins does a good job at its stated purpose - collecting and loosely categorizing Welsh Folklore of every category, ranging from the reasons behind certain customs and superstitions of daily life, to descriptions and associated stories of various faeries, goblins, and giants, to descriptions of apparitions and the view of the afterlife, to more fantastic things, like dragons, standing stones, and magic wells and stones. Although a somewhat anecdotal approach is taken, the author has in fact preserved a good deal of information that might have otherwise been lost.

A mythology collection of eighty Welsh Legends and Myths, gathered from across Wales. The Welsh, like other Celtic races, love a good story. From the time of the Mabinogion and the Black Book of Carmarthen welsh folk have passed dark winter nights in front of roaring fires and entertained with mythical stories. Welsh Legends and Myths is a compendium of traditional myths, Welsh fables, Welsh fairy tales and real stories. Like other Celtic Mythology many of the myths and legends told here are based on factual events. While some have mythical roots, all are entertaining.

This book is an innovative work that takes a fresh approach to the concept of race as a social factor made concrete in popular forms, such as film, television, and music. The essays push past the reaffirmation of static conceptions of identity, authenticity, or conventional interpretations of stereotypes and bridge the intertextual gap between theories of community enactment and cultural representation.

it is a multidisciplinary collection of essays, it is the first book-length engagement with the subject of queer Wales, it covers period from the 18th century to the present, it considers literature, art history, film, television, drama, crime, motherhood, education, and a range of other questions across these categories.

A New Approach to Witchcraft Based on Welsh Traditions Enter a world of sacred lakes, healing herbs, spectral hounds, and the mighty red dragon. Written by a Welsh practitioner, this inspiring book shares the magical traditions of Wales—including fairies, folklore, and charms—with dozens of hands-on activities. Mhara Starling shows you how you can incorporate Welsh and Celtic folk magic into your modern witchcraft practice with exercises for celebrating those who came before, protecting against adversity, changing the weather, and more. You'll also discover methods for honoring the land and ways to connect with Cerridwen, Rhiannon, and other deities. Welsh Witchcraft invites you to explore this country's rich heritage and use it to empower your spirituality.

This book is a comprehensive single-volume history of literature in the two major languages of Wales from post-Roman to post-devolution Britain.

How ideas and ideals of an imagined, protean, national Middle Ages have once again become a convergence point for anxieties about politics, history and cultural identity in our time - and why. After a period of abeyance, the link forged in the nineteenth century between the Middle Ages and national identity is increasingly being reclaimed, with numerous groups and individuals mining an imagined medieval past to present ideas and ideals of modern nationhood. Today's national medievalism asserts itself at the interface of culture and politics: in literature and television programming, in journalism and heritage tourism, and in the way political actors of various stripes use a deep past that supposedly proves the nation's steady exceptionalism in a hectic globalised world. This book traces these ongoing developments in Switzerland and Britain, two countries where the medieval past has recently been much invoked in negotiations of national identity, independence and Euroscepticism. Through comparative analysis, it explores examples of reemerging stories of national exceptionalism - stories that, ironically, echo those of other nations. The author analyses depictions of Robert the Bruce and Wilhelm Tell; medievalism in the discourse surrounding Brexit as well as at the Welsh Senedd; novels like Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake; community-based art such as the Great Tapestry of Scotland; and elaborate public commemorations of Swiss victories (and defeats) in battle. Basing his critical readings in current theories of cultural memory, heritage and nationalism, the author explores how the protean national Middle Ages have once again become a convergence point for anxieties about politics, history and cultural identity in our time - and why.

This collection of scholarly essays presents new work from an emerging line of inquiry: modern outlaw narratives and the textual and cultural relevance of food and feasting. Food, its preparation and its consumption, is presented in outlaw narratives as central points of human interaction, community, conflict, and fellowship. Feast scenes perform a wide variety of functions, serving as cultural repositories of manners and behaviors, catalysts for adventure, or moments of regrouping and redirecting narratives. The book argues that modern outlaw narratives illuminate a potent cross-cultural need for freedom, solidarity, and justice, and it examines ways in which food and feasting are often used to legitimate difference, create discord, and manipulate power dynamics.