Tree of Leaf and Flame

The origins of the Mabinogi, the mysterious tales of ancient Wales, as Daniel Morden explains in an afterword, are lost in the mists of its mountains and valleys. It’s appropriate that this re-telling, which compresses all four branches into a single short volume, is the work of a storyteller, for it is probable that these tales were told in some form or another orally before they were written down over six centuries ago. Morden’s version can be read by someone as young as nine or ten and, while eschewing frills or pretension, has a sure grasp of the tales’ drama and mystery. They have a fascinating strangeness, compounded perhaps of Celtic myth and legend and medieval romance: a mixture of unpredictable magic, high adventure, and human nobility and fallibility, located in a Welsh landscape that is the gateway to another world of magic power and danger. I am not too keen on those of Brett Breckon’s scraperboard illustrations which offer portrayals of characters or critical moments. They are too comic book for me. And I feel that, with stories that have accrued elements from different historical periods, any attempt to pin portrayals to a particular time risks losing some of the fascination of the tales. I prefer the smaller enigmatic portraits of animals that appear at the head of each chapter and the full page illustrations that are more symbolic or stylised, like the tree of the title, which is one half leaves, and the other flame. Children, of course, may not agree. There is a useful pronunciation guide for English readers to the Welsh personal and place names in the stories at the back of the book.