Pumed Gainc re-read

About a year ago, I announced I was about halfway rereading the Pumed Gainc y Mabinogi. And then nothing happened for a while! But when I took the train to the Netherlands and back, which altogether was 26 hours in the train, I had plenty of time to continue. So I finished re-reading it. And I took notes all the way.

After I got home I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil and try to sketch out what I thought it was going on. But I must admit I am still confused! There is the world recognised as the normal one, and there is the other world called Annwfn, and occasionally there seems to be exchange between the two. And in this book, that is never good news for the humans who either do that or witness it. One tends to encounter Lovecraftian horrors, quite often initially disguised as rather acceptable, human-adjacent creatures.

As I said, I am still a bit confused. It looks like the Lovecraftian horrors want to make their way back to Earth. But there also seems to be sign that some eldritch creatures want to travel the other way. And one after the other, protagonists either find a portal they go through, or a portal that scary creatures come out of. So if it is that easy, why doesn't everyone just travel to where they want to be? 

The Magic Cauldron, without which Welsh mythology would not be complete, seems to be put to slightly different use than it traditionally has been. There is also a recurrent spear ( of course) of which I haven't quite figured out what it does there. 

Some big traditional characters of mythology seem to be slightly recast here, like Gwydion, Rhiannon, et cetera. But you also have to have a firm grasp of less famous characters like Gilfaethwy, Gweir, Pryderi (these two might be the same person), Llyr, Gwegros and Efnisien. Are they what they are in the Mabinogi? Or something sinister? Especially if you have only read the Mabinogi once this becomes a bit of a kaleidoscope! Even if you take notes and check Wikipedia.

I have not yet given up. Maybe I will make sense of it still! But I'm not quite sure how much time I am willing to spend on this. I suppose reading it for a third time would help, but I have a big pile of other books I also want to read. It has to stop somewhere! I’ll have to admit to Peredur how limited my understanding is. I hope he’s as forgiving as the Welsh are of him for introducing Lovecraft in their mythology!