Celtic Myths

by Flame Tree Studio

  “Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,

  And my original country is the region of the summer stars;

  Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,

  At length every king will call me Taliesin.

  I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,

  On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hell

  I have borne a banner before Alexander;

  I know the names of the stars from north to south;

  I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributor;

  I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;

  I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;

  I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.

  I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;

  I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;

  I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;

  I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;

  I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;

  I have been the chief director of the work of the tower of Nimrod;

  I am a wonder whose origin is not known.

  I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,

  I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;

  I have been in India when Roma was built,

  I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.

  I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:

  I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;

  I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;

  I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;

  I have been bard of the harp to Lleon of Lochlin.

  I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,

  For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,

  I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,

  I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,

  I have been teacher to all intelligences,

  I am able to instruct the whole universe.

  I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earth;

  And it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.

  Then I was for nine months

  In the womb of the hag Caridwen;

  I was originally little Gwion,

  And at length I am Taliesin.”

  And when the king and his nobles had heard the song, they wondered much, for they had never heard the like from a boy so young as he. And when the king knew that he was the bard of Elphin, he bade Heinin, his first and wisest bard, to answer Taliesin and to strive with him. But when he came, he could do no other but play ‘blerwm’ on his lips; and when he sent for the others of the four-and-twenty bards they all did likewise, and could do no other. And Maelgwn asked the boy Taliesin what was his errand, and he answered him in song.

  “Puny bards, I am trying

  To secure the prize, if I can;

  By a gentle prophetic strain

  I am endeavouring to retrieve

  The loss I may have suffered;

  Complete the attempt I hope,

  Since Elphin endures trouble

  In the fortress of Teganwy,

  On him may there not be laid

  Too many chains and fetters;

  The Chair of the fortress of Teganwy

  Will I again seek;

  Strengthened by my muse I am powerful;

  Mighty on my part is what I seek,

  For three hundred songs and more

  Are combined in the spell I sing.

  There ought not to stand where I am

  Neither stone, neither ring;

  And there ought not to be about me

  Any bard who may not know

  That Elphin the son of Gwyddno

  Is in the land of Artro,

  Secured by thirteen locks,

  For praising his instructor;

  And then I Taliesin,

  Chief of the bards of the west,

  Shall loosen Elphin

  Out of a golden fetter.”

  * * *

  “If you be primary bards

  To the master of sciences,

  Declare ye mysteries

  That relate to the inhabitants of the world;

  There is a noxious creature,

  From the rampart of Satanas,

  Which has overcome all

  Between the deep and the shallow;

  Equally wide are his jaws

  As the mountains of the Alps;

  Him death will not subdue,

  Nor hand or blades;

  There is the load of nine hundred wagons

  In the hair of his two paws;

  There is in his head an eye

  Green as the limpid sheet of icicle;

  Three springs arise

  In the nape of his neck;

  Sea-roughs thereon

  Swim through it;

  There was the dissolution of the oxen

  Of Deivrdonwy the water-gifted.

  The names of the three springs

  From the midst of the ocean;

  One generated brine

  Which is from the Corina,

  To replenish the flood

  Over seas disappearing;

  The second, without injury

  It will fall on us,

  When there is rain abroad,

  Through the whelming sky;

  The third will appear

  Through the mountain veins,

  Like a flinty banquet,

  The work of the King of kings,

  You are blundering bards,

  In too much solicitude;

  You cannot celebrate

  The kingdom of the Britons;

  And I am Taliesin,

  Chief of the bards of the west,

  Who will loosen Elphin

  Out of the golden fetter.”

  * * *

  “Be silent, then, ye unlucky rhyming bards,

  For you cannot judge between truth and falsehood.

  If you be primary bards formed by heaven,

  Tell your king what his fate will be.

  It is I who am a diviner and a leading bard,

  And know every passage in the country of your king;

  I shall liberate Elphin from the belly of the stony tower;

  And will tell your king what will befall him.

  A most strange creature will come from the sea marsh of Rhianedd

  As a punishment of iniquity on Maelgwn Gwynedd;

  His hair, his teeth, and his eyes being as gold,

  And this will bring destruction upon Maelgwn Gwynedd.”

  * * *

  “Discover thou what is

  The strong creature from before the flood,

  Without flesh, without bone,

  Without vein, without blood,

  Without head, without feet,

  It will neither be older nor younger

  Than at the beginning;

  For fear of a denial,

  There are no rude wants

  With creatures.

  Great God! how the sea whitens

  When first it comes!

  Great are its gusts

  When it comes from the south;

  Great are its evaporations

  When it strikes on coasts.

  It is in the field, it is in the wood,

  Without hand, and without foot,

  Without signs of old age,

  Though it be co-æval

  With the five ages or periods

  And older still,

  Though the
y be numberless years.

  It is also so wide

  As the surface of the earth;

  And it was not born,

  Nor was it seen.

  It will cause consternation

  Wherever God willeth.

  On sea, and on land,

  It neither sees, nor is seen.

  Its course is devious,

  And will not come when desired;

  On land and on sea,

  It is indispensable.

  It is without an equal,

  It is four-sided;

  It is not confined,

  It is incomparable;

  It comes from four quarters;

  It will not be advised,

  It will not be without advice.

  It commences its journey

  Above the marble rock,

  It is sonorous, it is dumb,

  It is mild,

  It is strong, it is bold,

  When it glances over the land,

  It is silent, it is vocal,

  It is clamorous,

  It is the most noisy

  On the face of the earth.

  It is good, it is bad,

  It is extremely injurious.

  It is concealed,

  Because sight cannot perceive it.

  It is noxious, it is beneficial;

  It is yonder, it is here;

  It will discompose,

  But will not repair the injury;

  It will not suffer for its doings,

  Seeing it is blameless.

  It is wet, it is dry,

  It frequently comes,

  Proceeding from the heat of the sun,

  And the coldness of the moon.

  The moon is less beneficial,

  Inasmuch as her heat is less.

  One Being has prepared it,

  Out of all creatures,

  By a tremendous blast,

  To wreak vengeance

  On Maelgwn Gwynedd.”

  And while he was thus singing his verse near the door, there arose a mighty storm of wind, so that the king and all his nobles thought that the castle would fall on their heads. And the king caused them to fetch Elphin in haste from his dungeon, and placed him before Taliesin. And it is said, that immediately he sang a verse, so that the chains opened from about his feet.

  “I adore the Supreme, Lord of all animation, –

  Him that supports the heavens, Ruler of every extreme,

  Him that made the water good for all,

  Him who has bestowed each gift, and blesses it; –

  May abundance of mead be given Maelgwn of Anglesey, who supplies us,

  From his foaming meadhorns, with the choicest pure liquor.

  Since bees collect, and do not enjoy,

  We have sparkling distilled mead, which is universally praised.

  The multitude of creatures which the earth nourishes

  God made for man, with a view to enrich him; –

  Some are violent, some are mute, he enjoys them,

  Some are wild, some are tame; the Lord makes them; –

  Part of their produce becomes clothing;

  For food and beverage till doom will they continue.

  I entreat the Supreme, Sovereign of the region of peace,

  To liberate Elphin from banishment,

  The man who gave me wine, and ale, and mead,

  With large princely steeds, of beautiful appearance;

  May he yet give me; and at the end,

  May God of his good will grant me, in honour,

  A succession of numberless ages, in the retreat of tranquillity.

  Elphin, knight of mead, late be thy dissolution!”

  And afterwards he sang the ode which is called ‘The Excellence of the Bards.’

  “What was the first man

  Made by the God of heaven;

  What the fairest flattering speech

  That was prepared by leuav;

  What meat, what drink,

  What roof his shelter;

  What the first impression

  Of his primary thinking;

  What became his clothing;

  Who carried on a disguise,

  Owing to the wilds of the country,

  In the beginning?

  Wherefore should a stone be hard;

  Why should a thorn be sharp-pointed?

  Who is hard like a flint;

  Who is salt like brine;

  Who sweet like honey;

  Who rides on the gale;

  Why ridged should be the nose;

  Why should a wheel be round;

  Why should the tongue be gifted with speech

  Rather than another member?

  If thy bards, Heinin, be competent,

  Let them reply to me, Taliesin.”

  And after that he sang the address which is called ‘The Reproof of the Bards.’

  “If thou art a bard completely imbued

  With genius not to be controlled,

  Be thou not untractable

  Within the court of thy king;

  Until thy rigmarole shall be known,

  Be thou silent, Heinin,

  As to the name of thy verse,

  And the name of thy vaunting;

  And as to the name of thy grandsire

  Prior to his being baptized.

  And the name of the sphere,

  And the name of the element,

  And the name of thy language,

  And the name of thy region.

  Avaunt, ye bards above,

  Avaunt, ye bards below!

  My beloved is below,

  In the fetter of Ariansod

  It is certain you know not

  How to understand the song I utter,

  Nor clearly how to discriminate

  Between the truth and what is false;

  Puny bards, crows of the district,

  Why do you not take to flight?

  A bard that will not silence me,

  Silence may he not obtain,

  Till he goes to be covered

  Under gravel and pebbles;

  Such as shall listen to me,

  May God listen to him.”

  Then sang he the piece called ‘The Spite of the Bards.’

  “Minstrels persevere in their false custom,

  Immoral ditties are their delight;

  Vain and tasteless praise they recite;

  Falsehood at all times do they utter;

  The innocent persons they ridicule;

  Married women they destroy,

  Innocent virgins of Mary they corrupt;

  As they pass their lives away in vanity,

  Poor innocent persons they ridicule;

  At night they get drunk, they sleep the day;

  In idleness without work they feed themselves;

  The Church they hate, and the tavern they frequent;

  With thieves and perjured fellows they associate;

  At courts they inquire after feasts;

  Every senseless word they bring forward;

  Every deadly sin they praise;

  Every vile course of life they lead;

  Through every village, town, and country they stroll;

  Concerning the gripe of death they think not;

  Neither lodging nor charity do they give;

  Indulging in victuals to excess.

  Psalms or prayers they do not use,

  Tithes or offerings to God they do not pay,

  On holidays or Sundays they do not worship;

  Vigils or festivals they do not heed.

  The
birds do fly, the fish do swim,

  The bees collect honey, worms do crawl,

  Every thing travails to obtain its food,

  Except minstrels and lazy useless thieves.

  I deride neither song nor minstrelsy,

  For they are given by God to lighten thought;

  But him who abuses them,

  For blaspheming Jesus and his service.”

  Taliesin having set his master free from prison, and having protected the innocence of his wife, and silenced the Bards, so that not one of them dared to say a word, now brought Elphin’s wife before them, and showed that she had not one finger wanting. Right glad was Elphin, right glad was Taliesin.

  Then he bade Elphin wager the king, that he had a horse both better and swifter than the king’s horses. And this Elphin did, and the day, and the time, and the place were fixed, and the place was that which at this day is called Morva Rhiannedd: and thither the king went with all his people, and four-and-twenty of the swiftest horses he possessed. And after a long process the course was marked, and the horses were placed for running. Then came Taliesin with four-and-twenty twigs of holly, which he had burnt black, and he caused the youth who was to ride his master’s horse to place them in his belt, and he gave him orders to let all the king’s horses get before him, and as he should overtake one horse after the other, to take one of the twigs and strike the horse with it over the crupper, and then let that twig fall; and after that to take another twig, and do in like manner to every one of the horses, as he should overtake them, enjoining the horseman strictly to watch when his own horse should stumble, and to throw down his cap on the spot. All these things did the youth fulfil, giving a blow to every one of the king’s horses, and throwing down his cap on the spot where his horse stumbled. And to this spot Taliesin brought his master after his horse had won the race. And he caused Elphin to put workmen to dig a hole there; and when they had dug the ground deep enough, they found a large cauldron full of gold. And then said Taliesin, “Elphin, behold a payment and reward unto thee, for having taken me out of the weir, and for having reared me from that time until now.” And on this spot stands a pool of water, which is to this time called Pwllbair.