Myth and history are inseparably intertwined in the tale of Taliesin. His story begins with Gwion Bach, who is a servant on the shores of Bala Lake, where the giant Tegid and his witch wife Cerridwen live. Cerridwen’s son is the ugliest, stupidest boy in the world and she brews a potion to make him handsome and wise. Gwion is given the job of stirring the potion in a cauldron over a fire for a year-and-a-day, but just as he finishes stirring it three drops of the portion splash onto his finger. He sucks his finger to stop the burning and absorbs all the magical power of the potion, which is somehow concentrated in those three drops.

He realises what has happened and, frightened of Cerridwen’s anger when she finds out her son will be neither handsome or wise, he runs away. Absolutely furious, Cerridwen follows him, changing her shape to disguise herself. But the potion has given Gwion the ability to change shape, too, and he repeatedly escapes her.

Finally, when he’s disguised as a grain of wheat, Cerridwen, disguised as a hen eats him. When she regains her old shape she finds she’s pregnant. Gwion is reborn an incredibly beautiful baby, but Cerridwen casts him off out to sea in a large leather bag, because he reminds her of her son who is still ugly and stupid.

Meanwhile, Elffin, son of Gwyddno Garanhir and the unluckiest prince in the history of Wales, is given a large estate in his father’s kingdom in mid Wales to rule over. Almost immediately, the sea breaks through the defensive dams of his new estate, and it’s lost to the sea. Feeling sorry for his son, Gwyddno presents his son with the annual salmon catch of the Dovey River in compensation for the loss of his land. But Elffin is so unlucky that when the river-keeper draws in his nets there’s not a single fish in them. The only thing in the net is a large leather bag, which the river-keeper gives to Elffin. Inside the bag is the reborn Gwion Fach and when Elffin sets eyes on him he’s so shocked by his beauty (his face seems to shine) he calls out, ‘Taliesin’, which means ‘How radiant his brow is!’

As he rides home with the boy on his horse, the child begins first to speak, then to recite poetry. The poem he recites tells Elffin that Taliesin has been sent to guide him, that he’s not only a great poet but also a prophet, and that by using his gifts all Elffin’s enemies will be defeated.

Elffin’s luck changes and he prospers in all he does, and Taliesin becomes the most famous bard in Britain. He foretells the death of the evil king Maelgwyn Gwynedd at the hands of a ‘yellow beast’ - he’s killed by a plague known as the ‘Yellow Death, which ravages Europe in the sixth century - and through his poetry he inspires the Celtic warriors of Britain in their struggle against the Saxon invaders.

Towards the end of his life Taliesin makes a famous prophecy about the fate of the British, which has tremendous significance in contemporary Wales:

Their Lord they shall praise,
Their language they shall keep,
Their land they shall lose -
Except wild Wales.

Cerridwen