“The Island of the Mighty” is the first volume in Evangeline Walter’s 4-book series retelling the Welsh stories found in the Mabinogion.

There have been many translations and retellings of the Welsh mythology known as the “Mabinogion.” Evangeline Walter has done the best job of retelling the stories for a modern adult reader. Lloyd Alexander brought several characters from the Mabinogion to life in his Prydain Chronicles for younger readers. Disney took two of Alexander’s books to use as the basis of their animated film, “The Black Cauldron.”

Apart from the difficulty in pronouncing the Welsh names (just remember the double LLs are pronounced like “chl”, an Eastern European rolling hocking sound in the back of your throat followed by the “L” sound and that double DDs are “th”), the stories in the Mabinogion are some of the most wonderful and fantastic in world folklore. But again, there is a lot of code: what does it mean to “hold the feet” of Math? Are his “feet” a euphemism for his sexual organs like in the Old Testament? And the sudden birth accounts that imply sex must have happened previously but is never directly referred to.

If you are looking for autumnal reading, I highly recommend the Mabinogion in one of its many forms!

Hear the BBC report about the Mabinogion here.