The general tone of the Mabinogion is rather romantic than epic.  Life is treated naively and not too emphatically.  The hero’s individuality is limitless.  We have free and noble natures acting in all their spontaneity.  Each man appears as a kind of demi-god characterised by a supernatural gift.  This gift is nearly always connected with some miraculous object, which in some measure is the personal seal of him who possesses it.  The inferior classes, which this people of heroes necessarily supposes beneath it, scarcely show themselves, except in the exercise of some trade, for practising which they are held in high esteem.  The somewhat complicated products of human industry are regarded as living beings, and in their manner endowed with magical properties.  A multiplicity of celebrated objects have proper names, such as the drinking-cup, the lance, the sword, and the shield of Arthur; the chess-board of Gwendolen, on which the black pieces played of their own accord against the white; the horn of Bran Galed, where one found whatever liquor one desired; the chariot of Morgan, which directed itself to the place to which one wished to go; the pot of Tyrnog, which would not cook when meat for a coward was put into it; the grindstone of Tudwal, which would only sharpen brave men’s swords; the coat of Padarn, which none save a noble could don; and the mantle of Tegan, which no woman could put upon herself were she not above reproach. [Footnote:  Here may be recognised the origin of trial by court mantle, one of the most interesting episodes in Lancelot of the Lake.] The animal is conceived in a still more individual way; it has a proper name, personal qualities, and a role which it develops at its own will and with full consciousness.  The same hero appears as at once man and animal, without it being possible to trace the line of demarcation between the two natures.

The tale of Kilhwch and Olwen, the most extraordinary of the Mabinogion, deals with Arthur’s struggle against the wild-boar king Twrch Trwyth, who with his seven cubs holds in check all the heroes of the Round Table.  The adventures of the three hundred ravens of Kerverhenn similarly form the subject of the Dream of Rhonabwy.  The idea of moral merit and demerit is almost wholly absent from all these compositions.  There are wicked beings who insult ladies, who tyrannise over their neighbours, who only find pleasure in evil because such is their nature; but it does not appear that they incur wrath on that account.  Arthur’s knights pursue them, not as criminals but as mischievous fellows.  All other beings are perfectly good and just, but more or less richly gifted.  This is the dream of an amiable and gentle race which looks upon evil as being the work of destiny, and not a product of the human conscience.  All nature is enchanted, and fruitful as imagination itself in indefinitely varied creations.  Christianity rarely discloses itself; although at times its proximity can be felt, it alters in no respect