Taliesin

(late sixth century)

   Taliesin is the name of the earliest known Welsh poet, believed to have been a court poet to the late sixth-century King Urien and his son Owain of Rheged (an area around the Solway Estuary, southwest of Scotland). Like that of his nearcontemporary ANEIRIN, Taliesin’s poetry deals mainly with the northern British Celts’ struggle against the Saxon invaders. His reputation was considerable: With Aneirin, he is one of five British poets mentioned in the Historia Brittonum (ca. 800), attributed to NENNIUS, and he is, with Aneirin, one of only two of these poets whose name is attached to extant poems. The poetry attributed to Taliesin survives in a 13th-century manuscript called the Book of Taliesin. Probably copied from an earlier, 10th-century text, the Book of Taliesin includes 58 poems: Some of these are religious, some purport to be prophetic, some are riddles, some are poems praising mead and beer. These poems are likely all of 10th-century origin. But 12 historical poems in the text appear to be earlier, and are generally believed to be Taliesin’s.

   These 12 poems all are set in northern Britain and all deal with late sixth-century events: Urien is known to have died ca. 590.Most are praise poems honoring King Urien and King Owain, chiefly dealing with their military exploits against the English. Also included is an elegy on Owain’s death, indicating that Taliesin survived both of his major royal patrons. The poems are brief and simple, lacking any excessive rhetorical ornamentation or figurative language. They praise Urien and Owain for their heroism in battle, their generosity to their friends, and their defense of the Christian faith— the Celtic Britons, it should be remembered, retained their Christianity from Roman times, while the Anglo-Saxons still followed the pagan Germanic religion. Another historical poem is on the death of Uthyr Pendragon, reputed in later texts to be the father of King ARTHUR himself. Taliesin also appears as a character in a 15thcentury narrative attributed to Gruffyd Elis. Possibly based on surviving oral legends of Taliesin, the story follows a youth named Gwion Bach,who pilfers three magical drips from a witch. She chases him as both of them transform from one shape to another, until the witch, in the form of a hen, swallows the youth, who has taken the form of a seed. Eventually the witch gives birth to the boy again. This time he is Taliesin. At the age of 13 he joins the retinue of King Maelgwyn, becoming his court poet and, eventually, the most famous bard in the world. The tale, mythic as it is, demonstrates the aura surrounding the name of Taliesin in later centuries, and suggests, as well, the respect with which the bard was held in Welsh society, as a being possessed of special, even supernatural, genius.

   Bibliography

   ■ Breeze, Andrew. Medieval Welsh Literature. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997.

   ■ Evans, Stephen S. The Heroic Poetry of Dark-Age Britain: An Introduction to Its Dating, Composition, and Use as a Historical Source. Lanham,Md.: University Press of America, 1996.

   ■ Ford, Patrick K., ed. The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

   ■ Gruffyd Elis. Ystoria Taliesin. Edited by Patrick K. Ford. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992.

   ■ Matthews, John. Taliesin: The Last Celtic Shaman. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2002.

   ■ Williams, Gwyn. An Introduction to Welsh Poetry: From the Beginnings to the Sixteenth Century. 1954. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.

   ■ Williams, J. E. Caerwyn, trans. The Poems of Taliesin. Edited by Ifor Williams. Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1968.