A legal reading of the Second Branch of the Mabinogi: the indivisibility of literature and law in medieval Wales

Abstract

This thesis is a research into the indivisibility of law and literature in medieval Wales. It will attempt to shed new light on how the law-texts of the era influenced the literature and vice versa. The Second Branch of the Mabinogi has been analysed in order to provide the reader with concrete examples of how law-texts are visibly present in literature. Using the legal texts to interpret the Second Branch has proved its worth, as episodes that on a first glance may come across as incoherent or uncivilised, can be understood much better from a legal perspective.