The Third Branch of the Mabinogi — the sequel to the tragedy. Two of Branwen's seven survivors come home to a marriage and a feast; then a mist falls on the gorsedd of Arberth and lifts on an empty world — no house, no beast, no smoke, no neighbour, only the four of them left in a wasteland. Driven to England to live by their hands, then back to a Dyfed that swallows Pryderi and Rhiannon whole, Manawydan alone keeps his head — and lifts the whole enchantment with a pregnant mouse, a tiny gallows, and a bargain held to the last word. The wasteland branch, and the only branch where wit, not war, wins.
A faithful retelling for readers 8 and up — the whole Third Branch, page by page. The comedy and the menace kept side by side, the way the branch keeps them. Illustrations to follow.
Who does what — grouped by role, linked to the movements where they appear, and to one another.
The cast as a graph — every relationship in the tale, force-laid. Hover a node to light up its ties; click to open its card.
Drag/scroll/pinch to explore. Node size marks principals; colour marks role. Built straight from the relationship edges in the character cards.
The branch laid against Propp's 31 narrative functions — each beat linking to the movement that realises it. A tale of lack and restoration: the wonder-tale spine fits this branch better than any other on the site.
Drag/scroll/pinch to explore; click a node to jump to its detail below.
The tale laid against Greimas's actantial model — the functional structure of wanting beneath the plot. Not the social web of who-knows-whom, but the single engine of desire: who wants what, who sends it, who aids and who blocks.
The branch by call-number — the Thompson Motif-Index and ATU tale-types, the folklorists' Dewey decimal for mythic memes.
One graph, all the layers. The movements run as a spine; characters, motifs, story-functions, type-scenes and the Object of desire hang from the moments they touch — and whatever cross-cuts the tale is pulled toward the centre.
Movements run as the gold spine. Hover a node to light its threads; click any node for detail. Toggle the layers above to isolate one kind of connection.