Just Like Magic
The Island of the Mighty (Mabinogion, volume 4)
By Evangeline Walton
29 Nov, 2020
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
1970’s The Island of the Mighty is either the first (by publication order) or the fourth (by internal chronology) of Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogion Tetralogy.
Gilfaethwy is obsessed with Goewin, who to Gilfaethwy’s astonishment has no interest in surrendering her position as Math’s (King of Gwynedd in north Wales) virginal foot holder1 for a dalliance with a man who has had and who expects to have as many lovers as a field has blades of grass. Tiring of Gilfaethwy’s gloom, Gilfaethwy’s brother Gwydion comes up with a plan both extremely cunning and extremely foolish.
Key to his plan: Pryderi’s pigs.