A new scholarly study, Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media, edited by Audrey L. Becker and Kristin Noone, (McFarland & Co, 2011) opens with three articles about Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogion tetralogy. The three articles are:
“‘The Rough, Savage Strength of Earth’: Evangeline Walton’s Human Heroes and Mythic Spaces”, by Kristin Noone
“Branwen’s Shame: Voicing the Silent Feminine in Evangeline Walton’s The Children of Llyr“, by Nicole A. Thomas
“Disavowing Maternity in Evangeline Walton’s The Virgin and the Swine: Fantasy Meets the Social Protest Fiction of the 1930s”, by Deborah Hooker
Very glad to see more of Walton’s work see the light of day, and that her novels are starting to receive some of the critical attention they deserve. Such assessments as Michael Moorcock’s brief dismissal in WIZARDS & WILD ROMANCE will not be the last word on her work any more than similar assessments will affect the long-term appreciation of Tolkien, Eddison, and others whose focus has been upon bringing myth to life in a manner that transcends the age in which it was created.