Celtic Myth 2: the Birth of Taliesin, or Gwion Defeats Ceredwen and Afaggdu

Taliesin was to become the greatest of all Welsh bards. In his famous work The Boast of Taliesin, the poet laid claim to omniscience. This Legend, which has echoes of the Irish tale of Finn and the Salmon of Knowledge, describes how he came by his great wisdom.

To judge from the story, which Taliesin supposedly wrote when he was only 13 years old, the poet’s career began in the most promising manner. Afaggdu, translated as “Utter Darkness”, was indisputably the ugliest man in the world and all the magic powers of his mother, the witch Ceredwen, could not change that fact. However, Ceredwen decided that if Afaggdu was going to be ugly, he could at least be clever, and so she prepared a potion for him that would reveal all the mysteries of the universe.

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It was not a simple process. The brew had to simmer for a year and a day, with herbs added at certain specified times. Toward the end of the year, as Ceredwen was gathering the last of the ingredients, a small boy called Gwion came and watched the boiling pot. As he did so, the mixture bubbled up and spat three drops onto his finger. He licked them off and immediately received the wisdom intended for Afaggdu.

When Ceredwyn returned she was furious. Gwion had drunk the three most important drops in the cauldron and the rest was useless. The boy fled, but try as he might he could not escape. He turned himself into a hare, she turned into a hound. He turned into a fish, she into an otter. When he became a bird, she became a hawk. Finally, he turned into a grain of wheat but Ceredwyn changed into a hen and ate him.

After resuming her human form, Ceredwyn found that she was pregnant, and in due course she gave birth to Gwion. But the reborn boy was so handsome that she could not bring herself to kill him, so she trussed him up in a litter bag and hurled him into the sea.

Two days later, however, the bag was retrieved from the sea by a man of high birth, who gave the child a new name. Taliesin “Shining Brow”, and fostered him as his own son.