Culhwch and Olwen is a retelling of a story from the Mabinogion set in Arthurian times. It comes from Cadno – a new imprint Graffeg that aims to publish books in English with a strong Welsh content.
This story begins with Culhwch’s birth and his dying mothers attempts to save him from any spite a stepmother might bring upon him. When his father remarries a curse is placed upon Culhwch by his new stepmother. Culhwch may marry nobody but the giant princess Olwen. Unfortunately, her father eats men by the dozen. Undeterred, Culhwch sets out to the court of King Arther to seek help, and so begins their bid to win a wife for the the young man who may marry no other.
As with all the best myths and legends, this story features a quest to retrieve impossible to find items and achieve impossible feats in order for the heroes to achieve their desired outcome. I love how, in Celtic mythology, the everyday and the magical realms blend together so seamlessly that strange objects and pathways to other worlds are taken for granted by the heroes. I think this is something that young readers will recognise from modern children’s fiction, that the best stories about magic have a subtlety to them that makes magic a natural part of the world. The motifs of flowers and brambles in Fisher’s texts, and Efa Lois’s line illustrations, add to this relationship between the worlds.
Readers who are familiar with the story already will be interested to see which parts Fisher has cut to make the story flow in a way that is friendly to a modern young readership.
The balances immersing the reader in the traditions of 14th Century storytelling, (narratives from this era may seem sprawling and strange to readers used to modern prose) with readability. It would have been useful to have a name pronunciation guide simply to avoid interrupting the narrative to find pronunciations online.
- Culhwch And Olwen by Catherine Fisher is published by Graffeg. RRP £8.99 (I received a copy of the book as part of a promotional blog tour)
