ABSTRACT
Gruffydd supported his reconstruction of Pwyll by reference to Irish tales which he saw as analogues of the original story, and the method he thereby introduced into Mabinogi scholarship has been a very fruitful one. It is the method of Proinsias Mac Carta’s excellent study of the Second Branch and essentially the method of Kenneth Jackson’s criticism of Gruffydd’s work as well. Sean O Coileain’s recent analysis of Pwyll supports Jackson’s view by demonstrating, very persuasively, that the structure of the tale might very well reflect development in the oral tradition. Mac Cana’s reading of the Four Branches is supported by a close study of the First Branch, which shows the tale to be concerned with Pwyll’s growth to effective sovereignty through the development and exercise of his wisdom and good sense. Socially, of course, the original audience of the Four Branches may be taken to have been an aristocratic one.
