Book Review: Enchanted Wales by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
Genre: Non-Fiction – History/Mythology
Age: Adult
Format: Hardback
Enchanted Wales is an exploration of Welsh mythology, focusing on the Mabinogion. Looking at other reviews, I can understand the frustration with the narrow scope, but I think having attended a talk by the author about this book, I was prepared going in with an understanding of the book’s focus. A wider scope would have been interesting, but I think that’s more a marketing/title problem than an issue with the book or author.
I’ll also admit that when I recently read the Mabinogion, I feel like I tackled it on ‘hard mode’. It was not the first time I’ve attempted to read it, but rather than going for a more modern translation, I listened to the audio version of a translation by Lady Charlotte Guest. Where I found Enchanted Wales to be particularly useful was the way it works almost as a companion to the branches of the Mabinogion. You don’t have to have read it to get into Enchanted Wales, but it does a great job of putting these stories into context.
Enchanted Wales explores these stories and draws out the similar themes and links between them. In the first part, Aldhouse-Green explains the narratives the rest of the book focuses on, drawing particular attention to the elements that were likely part of the oral storytelling tradition. She then breaks down the stories by theme, examining what they can tell us about the mythical world of the Celts, and how the stories relate to the way people lived at the time. It’s intriguing, if, at times, a bit dry.
It does get repetitive, which is partly why it took me so long to read, and I think there’s a risk in Aldhouse-Green’s particular approach of reading a bit more into certain elements than there might be, and even contributing a touch to this kind of ‘fantasy’ view of Wales that has become unfortunately prevalent over the last few years. There’s mentions of ‘shamans’, especially towards the end of the book, and it felt like a word that didn’t quite fit.
However, these were really minor things I picked up while reading, and take it all with a grain of salt, as the author is much more of an expert in these things than I am. What I think is worth stressing is the way Aldhouse-Green made me feel more connected to the branches of the Mabinogion than I had after reading them. Like I said, it works almost like a companion, and it simplifies these stories while adding layers to them through the way Aldhouse-Green highlights themes and motifs within these tales to explore what it may say about the people who originally told them, or those who wrote them down. She also draws the links between Welsh and Irish mythology, while explaining the differences, and drawing attention to the why.
I think this book nicely does what it sets out to do, and unless you’re overly familiar with the Mabinogion to the point you can recite it off-heart, there’s plenty to be gained by diving into it a little deeper through Enchanted Wales.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I purchased this book.
