šŸ“š Starting a thread to track my reading journey — I’ll keep updating it as long as I’m here on Mastodon.

Right now I’m about to finish Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death (having already read Fear and Trembling, which I’ll reflect on alongside it). I’m also working through Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Barthes’ Mythologies, and an intro to medieval philosophy (Basic Concepts).

I’ll be dropping thoughts, quotes, and reflections here as I go — philosophy, literature, history, whatever’s on my shelf.

#Reading #Philosophy #Literature #AmReading

It’s wild how similar narrative patterns echo across totally different myth systems.

In Greek myth, we get Aphrodite / Hephaestus / Ares — a love triangle where the goddess of beauty is pulled between the cold logic of craftsmanship and the raw pull of war. She’s watched, judged, possessed, but still shapes the divine world through her choices.

Rhiannon’s whole arc in The Mabinogion is wild.
She rejects the marriage she’s ā€œsupposedā€ to accept, sets up a trick, and ends up with the man she chose.
That’s not just romance—that’s sovereignty myth dressed as chaos.

Part of the fun of reading The Mabinogion is confidently pretending I know how to pronounce names like Manawydan, Llwyd, and Pryderi—when in reality, I’m just mumbling fantasy syllables like I’m casting spells.

If it sounds mythic, that’s good enough.

#Mabinogion #WelshMyth #ReadingLife #FakeItTilYouSoundCeltic

Reading The Mabinogion:
ā€œThe hero travels to a strange land to retrieve a cauldron… or a woman.ā€
Me, immediately:
Ian McKellen in The Da Vinci Code whispering:
ā€œLook at the negative space between them. What do we see?
A cup.ā€

It’s not my fault. That’s just how my brain mythologizes.

#Mabinogion #HolyGrail #Rhiannon #MythThroughPopCulture

Reading about Peredur in the introduction and just now realizing:
This is where the Fisher King myth comes from.

A wounded king. A cursed land. A missing question.
Brân the Blessed: hurt through the thighs, bound to the land, keeper of a sacred cauldron.

I can see what George R.R. Martin was reaching for with Bran Stark.
The mythic echoes are there.
But when the time came, the arc didn’t land — no redemption, no Grail.

#Mabinogion #Peredur #FisherKing #GameOfThrones #Mythology

Just realized that the First Branch of the Mabinogi starts with Pwyll and Arawn doing some ancient version of Freaky Friday.

Arawn says: ā€œYou’ll rule my kingdom, sleep beside my wife, and wear my face for a year.ā€
Pwyll: ā€œSeems legit.ā€

Mythic body-swapping, divine trust exercises, and magical honor codes — glad to know Lindsay Lohan has a clear mythological ancestor.

#WelshMyth #Mabinogion #Literature #Mythology

While thinking about Branwen ferch LlÅ·r, I couldn’t help but get Baldur & Hodr vibes — even a bit of Loki in Efnisien’s chaos.

But the moment Bran lays his literal giant body across the Irish Sea so his army can march across him? That’s where the myth goes full-on Bran the Builder meets Fever Dream.

This is peak mythic absurdity and poetic grief rolled into one.

šŸ”— https://youtu.be/Y_uLg3oW9Vc?si=PQ4StyTVzEv6a0CU

Check out David Lightbringer’s video where he dives into Bran lore and its deep connections to Game of Thrones, Bran the Broken, and the Nightfort.

David’s always worth highlighting — his myth analysis is šŸ”„

#WelshMythology #Mabinogion #Branwen #GameOfThrones #MythicConnections #DavidLightbringer

Nightfort Magic & Mysteries Explained - A Song of Ice and Fire - Game of Thrones

YouTube

Been thinking about Manawydan fab LlÅ·r — how a Welsh king becomes a shoemaker, saddle-maker, and shield-maker in exile. What strikes me is how each craft reflects a fragment of lost sovereignty: shoes for movement, saddles for control, shields for protection.

The horse, always just out of reach, becomes this quiet symbol of power. In myth, to ride is to rule.

Makes you wonder how early we equated wealth with power — or more precisely, how tools of wealth (horses, land, mobility) became stand-ins for authority itself.

Maybe the myth is reminding us: kingship isn't innate. It's just someone who used to ride.

#Mythology #WelshMyth #CelticStudies #Mabinogion #Folklore #PowerAndWealth #PoliticalPhilosophy #IndoEuropeanMyth #HorsesInMyth #MythicSymbolism #OralTradition #DeepHistory #SlowThought

Well, considering I spent the last 6 days in a crisis center, I got the opportunity to catch up on my Mabinogion readings.

While trapped in my own Winterfell crypt, I read The Dream of Macsen — and I swear GRRM has read it front to back.

Roman emperor dreams a woman into power
Marries her
Her brothers get roads and kingdoms
Seven years pass like a spell

It’s Lannister-coded as hell.
Tywin would’ve built those roads himself.

#Mabinogion #Mythology #Arthurian #GameOfThrones #CelticLore

Lludd and Llefelys is only 6 pages, but it goes deep:

Castor & Pollux meets Moses & Aaron

Red vs white dragons = spiritual warfare

A scream that causes miscarriages

A sleep-spell thief who steals feasts

Maybe even mythic surveillance

These old myths carry bloodlines of meaning. Wealth, power, fear — all wrapped in story.

#Mabinogion #Mythology #Arthurian #Dragons #Folklore #SpiritualWarfare #BrotherKings

How Culhwch Won Olwen is like if Perseus, Achilles, and Hercules merged into one guy — and then outsourced all their quests to King Arthur.

Culhwch does nothing. Arthur assembles the mythic Avengers.

Tasks include:

Fighting a giant boar with scissors in its ears

Rescuing a demigod from time itself

Borrowing a barber

Peak mythic sidequest energy.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #CelticLore #Mythology #HimboEnergy #ArthurianMultiverse #WelshMyths

Okay, I mixed up The Dream of Maxen and The Dream of Rhonabwy — easy mistake.
One’s a mythic honeymoon.
The other’s a beautiful, empty nightmare.

Rhonabwy dreams of Arthur… who’s just playing chess while messengers beg him to act.

It’s Tywin Lannister energy.
Cold. Regal. Absolutely useless.

And screw it — you try pronouncing Gwalchmei.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #MythicDecay #Power #Gwyddbwyll #WelshMyth #LannisterVibes

Peredur Son of Efrawg might be my favorite of the Mabinogion.
It’s Macbeth meets Parzival meets blood magic noir.

Peredur moves through madness, prophecy, severed heads, and witches — and never asks if he might be wrong.

Arthur says: ā€œBecause you never stopped to ask — look what you’ve done.ā€

That hit.

#Mabinogion #Arthurian #Peredur #MythicTrauma #Macbeth #GrailButMakeItViolent

Finished the final tale in The Mabinogion—Geraint and Enid.
The most straightforward of the bunch: less magic, more chivalry. Arthur shows up strong, and it’s long, but never dull.
Definitely felt some Orpheus & Eurydice vibes, a little Samson too.

Not my favorite, not my least. Just solid, noble storytelling. A fine end to this wild Welsh ride.
šŸŒæšŸ‰šŸ›”ļø

#Mabinogion #WelshMythology #ReadingLife #Arthurian #AfternoonArtCritic #MythosAndMeaning