Taliesin - The Radiant Brow
The legendary bard reborn from Cerridwen's cauldron who knew all things.
Taliesin was reborn from Cerridwen's cauldron of inspiration, transformed from servant boy to greatest of bards. His poetry claims to have been present at all great events, to contain all knowledge. He represents the bardic ideal of universal wisdom through inspiration.
I have been in many shapes before I attained a congenial form.
Taliesin represents the Celtic understanding of the bard as vessel of universal knowledge.
Book of Taliesin
Written about in
- What Celtic tradition says about knowing yourself
Taliesin's poems claim to have been many shapes before arriving at this one. Read plainly, that is a description of identity as a sequence rather than a fixed possession.