Abstract | Myths have been retold and rewritten for centuries, indeed the longevity of myths is often attributed to their inherent reshapeability. Not until the twentieth century, however, were myths frequently rewritten in a future setting rather than a past one. When, in the twenty-first century, the publisher Seren Books invited authors to retell the Welsh myths collected in The Mabinogion, some (Horatio Clare, Russell Celyn Jones, Gwyneth Lewis) chose to set their new versions in the future, although all three took a different approach. This essay proposes to investigate what happens to these myths in a process that goes beyond modernising or updating and that aims to examine present day concerns by imagining possible futures refracted through the prism of ancient tales.
Keywords | myth; retelling; science fiction.