As Literary Atlas opted not to include first language Welsh, or translation-based source material, we looked to these modern re-workings in order to acknowledge the importance of the original mythologies, and include a novel that has sustained appeal to a range of audiences. From then on, they have proved to be fertile terrain for a range of re-workings and re-tellings. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Mabinogion were translated and compiled into English. Yet due to their history, the origins of the stories are difficult to pin down the stories were first told (rather than written) in the oral tradition, and later transcribed into the Middle Welsh language in the 12th and 13th centuries. Due to the important cultural heritage and value of the combined stories of the Mabinogion – these myths are as important to Welsh culture as Homer is to early Greek, or Chaucer to English storytelling - it seemed an omission too far to not include these myths in some shape or form. Photo by Stephen Mckay under Creative Commons Including The Owl Service in a Literary AtlasĬareful consideration went into selecting The Owl Service for Literary Atlas. The Stone of Gronw prop used in the 1970s TV adaptation.

Blodeuwedd's destiny was to be part of a destructive love triangle, and be eventually transformed into an owl. This Fourth Branch has many elements (a synopsis of this Branch can be found here) and The Owl Service retells a section of this complex story centred on Blodeuwedd – a girl made from meadowsweet flowers. Alan Garner's The Owl Service is a novel which re-interprets the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion, a set of ancient and multi-layered Welsh myths. As a consequence, ancient myths from a range of story-telling cultures, including Greek and Roman civilisations, remain integral to many contemporary cultures they are re-told, re-worked, and re-booted in an array of media, including the novel. As Gwyneth Lewis suggests, myths were – and are - 'a way of describing our place in the world, of putting people and their search for meaning in a bigger picture' 2010: 9. The Owl Service retells an ancient Welsh myth. There's no one right version Lewis, 2010: 9.

Stir the pot, retell the tale and you draw out something new, a new flavour, a new meaning maybe. Them old tales is all we got Garner, The Owl Service, 2002 edition: 63Įvery culture has its myths many share ingredients with each other. Don't knock our National Heritage, girlie.

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