Interpretations of the Women of the Mabinogi: A Feminist Perspective.

The Mabinogi as written by a woman

  I believe that Dr Andrew Breeze at some point in the recent past published a book arguing that the Four Branches of the Mabinogi were penned by a woman. I like the idea. It appeals to my imagination, the part of me that is a little girl who didn't have to cringe at the political side of the obviously-made-to-please-the-neoliberal-internet brand of 'feminism' the modern media seems to be pursuing. I looked, as a little girl, for a role model. I wanted to be the knight, not the lady in the dress without a personality - and I remember my tangible disappointment when I found out that female knights were referred to as 'dames'. The 'sir' in the name seemed so important to me. I always played the queen in my and my sister's princess games, and I always loved the queen figures in the Barbie cartoons we watched - I spent hours thinking about how I would run my kingdom. So the idea of a female knight, a female bard, appeals to me in that sense. But I have conflicted feelings. Because people seem to struggle to portray these characters as women - instead many seem to be trying to superimpose a technically female person onto a male stereotype, and present that as feminism, without bothering to portray them as having any sort of character. Female knights don't get pregnant, and any sort of sexual attraction they feel is inevitably to a male who exhibits all the qualities of a damsel in distress. In some stories this works, normally where the writer is conscious that they are subverting a fundamentally patriarchal trope. In many it does not. Dr Breeze's argument is based on the fact that the author of the Mabinogi appears to understand things such as breastfeeding and child-rearing (womanly pursuits). The obvious argument is, that there have always been men who were able to understand women were people even in a systemically patriarchal structure - as evidenced by Victorian authors, and there is no reason not to believe that the author of the Mabinogi was not one of them. I would love the author to have been a woman, but chances are that they weren't.

                                            A photo of a picture of a painting!

Women in the Mabinogi as real people

  I particularly enjoyed reading 'The 'Unlikely Female' Characters of the Mabinogi' by Kathy Shimpock, the other day, which points to the independent and forthright nature of the women in the Mabinogi as opposed to the normal representation in literature of women as chaste and obedient; and it is worthwhile to remember that the outstandingly 'feminist' characteristics which are noted by Shimpock are reserved for the 'main characters', so to speak - minor characters such as Teyrnon's wife or Arawn's wife do not exhibit such behaviour. The defining point of the characters, I think, is not simply their independence - they have personality. As a writer, I know how integral this is - allegory, plot and structure can, well executed, make a story worth reading and thinking about, but a real character means the audience is able to sympathise with the character. I have always assumed what Shimpock suggests in her paper (I would advise you google it, it's free to read), that the author is simply doing what I do, and what most writers of good characters do - writing real women. The real person is the life of the story (if you doubt this, consider the character of the wicked stepmother, a biting contrast to the bland hero/ine of the fairy tale - the very real, timeless problem that some parents are bad, and some children hate them). So of course we sympathise with Rhiannon ("never has a man made feebler use of his wits than thou hast", she tells her husband), Branwen (commits suicide after the death of her child), or Gwydion (he shelters a child from its mother), or even Blodeuwedd (adultery). They are a reflection of real people and real problems. And that is why the Mabinogi, if not 'feminist', treat women with a lot more respect than most text. It is a story about people, and not the idea of people. It carries echoes of the stories of families, friends, and difficulties. Societal norms at the time (even now) associate women with the home. These are stories of the home, hidden behind the folktales and legends. All the little tragedies we hide. Hence it is the story of women. 

  I have one more thing to say when writing about women in the Mabinogi, and it's a modern one - foreshadowed by my tweet last night. Readers of the blog should have realised I have a slight ongoing project/interest to do with Arianrhod. This has involved a lot of online research. And I can tell you this - information on female characters of the Mabinogi is a lot harder to find than that on the male. This is not due (as far as I can tell) to a relative disparity in academic research on the characters, but rather to the relative abundance and fascination modern paganism seems to have had with female characters. They have mythologised Arianrhod as a 'star goddess',. a 'goddess of fate', a 'goddess of the moon'. They equate her to Ariadne and thus call her a goddess of spiders. This is so widespread to the extent that there is actually a spider named after Arianrhod! The same fascination extents to Blodeuwedd, Rhiannon, and Branwen. Of course, I relate to this. I have the same fascination. The women in the Mabinogi are real people, role models who function a lot better than certain neoliberal interpretations of what women should be {I'm looking at you, Rey, female Doctor Who, that bunny in Zootropolis). They have faults. Some of them do things that hurt other people - their own family. Arianrhod and Blodeuwedd don't act like good people. Doubtless, they had their reasons, and the moral ambiguity of the story is one reason I like it so much. Rhiannon and Branwen are good people - too good. They are not rewarded for this by anything other than the respect of other characters. They are hurt, trapped. Goewin is raped, and even if Math tries to save her, and the shame of it is something she will feel the rest of her life. In a way the Mabinogi can be seen as a statement on the harm that a patriarchal society can do to women, even if the author might not have seen it that way. The largely female-orientated nature of many modern pagans helps to account for the relative attention given to women in the Mabinogi. (For those interested in the pagan community, I would recommend Ronald Hutton's 'The Triumph of the Moon' - and, indeed, anything else by Hutton!).

And why so popular

  Many women are fascinated by the female body, and other women. Anne Frank was. Many read these sections of her diary as a statement on her sexual orientation, and maybe they were. But frankly, I remember feeling exactly the same way. The fascination wasn't sexual (I am bi now, admittedly, but I am sure of this - I did not feel any comparable fascination for men). It was just that I thought women were beautiful, in a much purer way than I found men beautiful. And I think this sentiment runs deep in the psyche of the pagan community, and, indeed, among feminists and women in general. I am not a male, and I haven't studied them in detail (academically speaking!) so I can't say I know whether a similar fascination exists among men for their own body, although I think it might to some extent - but their depiction of women in painting and photograph shows a similar fascination with the female body that is not wholly sexual I think. 

Thank You

  Thank you very much for reading. I really love the attention the blog has been getting lately, and how supportive you are! Do get in touch with me via my social media - my Instagram, my Twitter, and my Tumblr! Don't forget to bookmark this blog, or follow, or subscribe to keep up with it! Any and all feedback is appreciated - hugs, kisses, and love from Alana <3.