Travelling on My Own Errands: Voices of Women from The Mabinogi.

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Lloyd succeeds in reimagining and reanimating the old tales in a startlingly original and intimate way. A scholar’s meticulousness is visible here, enhanced by an almost uncanny and creative empathy which the poet has for these characters.

 

   — Katie Gramich, Professor of English Literature, Cardiff University

 

The voices here have an elemental quality, grounding the poems in the permanent features of Welsh landscape and its creatures - sea and sky, the seasons, beasts and birds and flowers. With these poems we see clearly the depths of women’s experience within a lovingly rendered Wales.

 

   — Jeremy Hooker, poet and critic; Emeritus Professor, University of South Wales

 

The voices in Travelling on My Own Errands are, as it were, ‘Janus-faced’, coming from a remote past, yet speaking to us in terms that the modern mind can readily understand.

 

   — John Barnie, poet and critic; former editor of Planet

 

These poems go way beyond their sources and stand alone as a compelling expression of elemental human experience.

 

   — Dafydd Johnston, Director, Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth

 

Y mae’r casgliad hwn o safon uchel. Mae Margaret Lloyd yn feistr ar ei chyfrwng, yn gynnil ac yn gall wrth ein tywys drwy guddfeddyliau ac emosiynau’r gwahanol gymeriadau. Ni ellid gwell man cychwyn na’r Pedair Cainc ar gyfer project fel hwn, na gwell hebryngydd ar y daith.

 

   — Marged Haycock, Emeritus Professor of Welsh, Aberystwyth University

 

Translation from Welsh:

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(This collection is of a high standard. Margaret Lloyd is a master of her medium, skillful and

dexterous at leading us through the hidden thoughts and emotions of the different characters.

There can be no better starting point than the Four Branches for a project like this, nor a better

guide on the journey.)