Oh wow. Totally cool.

Thanks!

'Discovered in the library of Judas College, Oxford' indeed! Did Zuleika Dobson leave it there?

There's a funny story about the time the Vikings conquered "Rome".

Holy crap.

For me it's "Nun bin ich endlich in München", the first line in the first text of my elementary German textbook, Kurtz & Politzer.

Wow, all kinds of things turn up in that library. That's where they finally found a MS of Chaucer's Boke of the Lyon, right?

What is it, the first of April in Massachusetts?

what

I suspect LH is in on the joke, and some of the above commentators certainly are, but at the risk of spoiling the fun, I thought I'd be explicit about it before LH's post misleads some readers.

"Judas College" is a famous, but entirely fictional, Oxford college - made famous by Beerbohm's comic masterpiece Zulieka Dobson. This "fifth branch" is presumably then not a medieval survival - it's an apparently very entertaining piece written in the style of the Mabinogi, probably by its "editor" Mark Williams. So lots of kudos to Williams for a fun document, but let's not rewrite our understanding of medieval Welsh prose just yet.

""Judas College" is a famous..."

Ah, Roth's Law in action yet again.

It is, indeed, a hoax. It was made as a leaving-present for my supervisor here in Oxford. (On the occasion of my leaving, not his!).

Hope you enjoy it. It's designed to imitate the Four Branches on a macro- and micro-textual level.

best wishes
Mark

That's really rotten that they made him leave. It's nothing to do with Judas College, I saw through it immediately at a micro-textual level (you set your menu to Make Text Bigger).

While this may be fake, remember that Malory's Le Morte Darthur, chaps. VII-XII, contains an account of how King Arthur defeated the Romans and was crowned emperor:

"Then he rideth into Tuscany, and winneth towns and castles, and wasted all in his way that to him will not obey, and so to Spolute and Viterbe, and from thence he rode into the Vale of Vicecount among the vines. And from thence he sent to the senators, to wit whether they would know him for their lord. But soon after on a Saturday came unto King Arthur all the senators that were left alive, and the noblest cardinals that then dwelt in Rome, and prayed him of peace, and proferred him full large, and besought him as governor to give licence for six weeks for to assemble all the Romans, and then to crown him emperor with chrism as it belongeth to so high estate. I assent, said the king, like as ye have devised, and at Christmas there to be crowned, and to hold my Round Table with my knights as me liketh. And then the senators made ready for his enthronization. And at the day appointed, as the romance telleth, he came into Rome, and was crowned emperor by the pope's hand, with all the royalty that could be made, and sojourned there a time, and established all his lands from Rome into France, and gave lands and realms unto his servants and knights, to everych after his desert, in such wise that none complained, rich nor poor."

A hoax? Piffle! Next you'll be telling us that Harry Flashman's isn't actually an eyewitness account of the First Afghan War.

If you'll excuse me, I am going to return to contemplating the insights into ancient Gaelic culture provided by Ossian.

But ... but ... Are you saying that Boudicca *didn't* sack Rome? Next you'll be claiming Brutus wasn't the first King of Britain.

Awwwwww. And there I was all excited about an extracaesarian mention of Cassivellaunus.

He (Cassivellaunus) does genuinely appear in Welsh legend, as Caswallawn. (He's in the second branch, 'Branwen', mentioned in the third, and a body of legend did exist in which he was in a love triangle with Julius Caesar over a maiden called Fflur. Unfortunately the story doesn't survive.)

How many sides to the triangle? I seem to recall Caesar being referred to as "he of the loose belt" or summat.

You mean this was all a *hoax*?! That there is no Fifth Branch?!

Capering Celticists, Batman, I wish someone had told me that before I published it!

Mark, you've got some explaining to do ...

Jane
Editor: Horizon Review

It might as well be real Jane, it is really good -- or didn't you think so? If you're worried, just move it into the fiction section. Isn't this just the sort of potential publicity that new publications would pay tons of money for, if they had tons of money? Think of it as a gift from god, or someone. Your magazine looks really interesting, and I would never have heard of it if it weren't for Mark's piece.

I had no notion when I began to read the English version (I have no Welsh) that it might be a flim-flam, but as I read on, I just found it a little *too* perfect. It cleared up too many mysteries of the Mabinogion without giving us any new ones. And I'm no student of the original, just someone who's read and enjoyed it in several translations, plus the wonderful Evangeline Walton books. It sort of reminds me of those fake Mayan codices that Richard Feynman talks about (indeed, the famous Richard Feynman).

I dont't want to venture too far into 'defending' my own work - but the reference to Gwydion's blinding in Caer Goludd was designed as precisely such an attempt to give a new mystery. There are others (Byddug, Mederei, why Arawn depends on the three animals).
M

... those fake Mayan codices that Richard Feynman talks about ...

Can you be more specific? I have never heard of these, where can I read about them?

I believe that I've spotted the perp! Activate the Batsignal!

It might as well be real Jane, it is really good -- or didn't you think so?

Se non è vero, è ben' trovato...

Lol, you really think I didn't know!? Priceless. (Erm, I thought the "Capering Celticists" exclamation might have given away my level of seriousness, but clearly not ... )

Mark and I go back years. And I always loved that story of the Dreadnought Hoax. So when he mentioned it to me I did indeed think it a gift. And ben' trovato too.

I still think he ought to publish the whole thing. There are Notes too, Glossary, Place-Names, a proper Introduction (that one on the Horizon site is only a taster). Superlative!

Duped by a dupe. Damn.

I still think he ought to publish the whole thing. There are Notes too, Glossary, Place-Names, a proper Introduction (that one on the Horizon site is only a taster).

Yes indeed!

Let's not be too quick to accept Mark's assurance that this is a hoax. Haven't you people ever read any detective fiction?

Don't forget Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havanna".

The protagonist manages to fake out the British intelligence into believing there are Russian missiles on Cuba in order to get a British visa, emigrate and get a desk job in England. The date of publication was less than a year before the real Cuban missile crisis.

Reincarnation exixts! Iolo, I salute your return and your latest work.