The next episode focusses on the tale ‘Branwen daughter of Llŷr’ (or ‘The Second Branch of the Mabinogi’). We prepare for that discussion in this episode by looking at the earliest manuscript which contains a complete copy of the tale, namely the White Book of Rhydderch. This manuscript was created about the year 1350 by a number of monks working together in the monastery of Strata Florida in Ceredigion, most likely for a man named Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd. We stress the fact that creating a manuscript was a very laborious process which took a lot of time and resources and that a manuscript was and is an extremely valuable thing because of that. The makers of medieval manuscripts thus chose the contents of their ‘books’ very carefully. We note that ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogi’ are among the ‘native tales’ found in the White Book of Rhydderch, while also considering the fact that a wide selection of different texts is also included in the manuscript.
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