The Island of the Mighty

The Island of the Mighty
Cover of first paperback edition
AuthorEvangeline Walton
Original titleThe Virgin and the Swine
Cover artistBob Pepper
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy
PublisherBallantine Books
Publication date
1936
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback)
Preceded byThe Song of Rhiannon 

The Island of the Mighty is a fantasy novel by American writer Evangeline Walton, the earliest in a series of four based on the Welsh Mabinogion. It was first published in 1936 under the publisher's title of The Virgin and the Swine. Although it received warm praise from John Cowper Powys, the book sold poorly, and as a result none of the other novels in the series reached print at the time. Later rediscovered by Ballantine Books, it was reissued under the present title as the eighteenth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in July, 1970, with an introduction by Lin Carter and a cover by Bob Pepper. It has been reprinted a number of times since, and gathered together with Walton's other Mabinogion novels by Overlook Press as the omnibus The Mabinogion Tetralogy in 2002. The novel has also been published in translation in several European languages.

The novel is a retelling of the story of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion, Math Fab Mathonwy (Math, son of Mathonwy), and hence is chronologically last in Walton's Mabinogion novels, though published first. The three other novels in the series are The Children of Llyr (1971), The Song of Rhiannon (1972), and Prince of Annwn (1974).