Celtic Myth 3: Taliesin and Elphin

The nobleman who was said to have rescued the infant Taliesin was Prince Elphin, the nephew of Maelgwyn, king of Dyfed. Later, when Taliesin had become the prince’s court bard, he was able to repay his patron’s kindness.

The Taliesin of Welsh myth is often identified with the real-life poet Taliesin Ben Beird, who lived in the sixth century in the service of the historical king Urien of Rheged. By the time the story of his life, the Book of Taliesin, was written 800 years later, many legends had gathered around his name.

It was said that he became bard to Prince Elphin, one of the local rulers who competed for favor at the court of King Arthur. The book also told how he came to his patron’s rescue when the prince was imprisoned for rashly boasting that he had a more faithful wife and a more gifted bard than any other knight at Arthur’s court.

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As Elfin lay in a dungeon, a suitor was sent to his palace to disprove the first claimed by seducing his wife. But Taliesin’s powers of clairvoyance were such that he foresaw what was planned. He persuaded a kitchen maid to stand in for the real princess, dressing her in royal robes. So when the ravisher cruelly sought to prove his conquest by cutting off one of the girl’s fingers to take back to court, Elphin had little difficulty in showing that it was not his wife’s. It was too fat and the nail was untrimmed. Moreover, it bore traces of dough, which a princess would never have had cause to knead.

Thwarted in his first attempt to discredit his prisoner, Arthur next insisted on organizing a contest of bards. But Taliesin’s powers were such that he magically reduced all his opponents to mumbling incoherence. Then, when his own turn came, he sang so sweetly that he burst the very chains that held his master captive. The king had no choice but to agree that Elphin had been right in both his boasts, and thereafter he treated both Elphin and Taliesin with the very greatest respect.