Welsh Heritage Sites | A History Of Wales

Although it’s named after a place in England – Hergest Court in Herefordshire, where it sat out the Elizabethan Age – the Red Book is the most important medieval manuscript in the Welsh language. It’s best known for containing the Mabinogion, a collection of the earliest Welsh prose. Its stories introduce a rich cast of characters, including many strong women. There's the flower maiden Blodeuwedd (eventually turned into an owl for betraying her husband, Lleu Llaw Gyffes), the expert horsewoman Rhiannon, and Branwen, the princess whose unhappy marriage destroys two nations. By the time a scribe had painstakingly written the tales out at the end of the 14th century, they would already have been centuries old; but their themes of murder, heartbreak, ambition and loss are timeless.

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