Four Branches Of The Mabinogion Summary

In the Four Branches of the Mabinogion, the plot of the tales places a lot of pressure on the idea of chivalry and the honorable relationships between men and their lords, as well as men of equal standing, and men and their wives. In many of the tales the men make mistakes, and establish themselves as rightful by correcting their error and learning from it or by being punished by an outward force. For example in Pwyll son of Dyved, Pwyll makes his first mistake when he goes hunting and seeing a stag chased by another man’s dogs, and takes the kill for himself. He betrays the man and acts dishonorably because the other lord’s dogs were the ones who chased down the stag in the first place. They paved the way for Pwyll’s victory so he did earn his success in a knightly manner. To pay for his wrongdoing, Arawn asks Pwyll to switch spots with him as king of his land and kill his enemy, a lord who has been ravaging his lands for years. Pwyll assumes Arawn’s position, kills Hafgan and settles the …show more content…
He punishes her very harshly for a sin she did not commit only to find out later on that their son was being raised by a poor couple, when they returned the boy to his rightful parents. Although Rhiannon gets the peace of mind of her son being alive and well at the end of the tale, Pwyll is never reprimanded for putting his wife through very harsh and wrongful punishment. When Pryderi, their son, returns to his parents the author ends the story by glossing over the rest of the events and skipping straight to a very vague “and they lived happily ever after,” ending. Pwyll’s wrongdoing by his wife is never vindicated, shedding some light on the culture of only settling the score if a knight wrongs another knight and not if the knight wrongs a woman, in the society portrayed by this branch of the