Among the modern nations of Europe few, if any, can boast of poetical remains of equal antiquity with those claimed by the Welsh. And of these the Works of Tahesin may be regarded in every point of view as the most remarkable. Their many references, both to historical events, and to the mystical doctrines of the Druid, place them in a pre-eminent rank as memorials of the early age, in which their author flourished, while the poetical excellence of most, however obscured by the lapse of time, proves the justice of his claim to the honourable appellation, given him in Triad 73 (7), of "Chief of the Bards."
There are seventy-eight poems preserved under his name in the Archaiology of Wales: and besides those, above noticed, of an historical and mystical character, they comprise others, which may be described generally as theological, encomiastic, elegiac, and lyricaL Many of these remains may be proved to be genuine by the reference, which the bard makes in them to himself as the author; and others by their allusion to occurrences, which are known from other sources to have happened in his time, as well from the concurrent suffrage of later bards as to the fact.
According to these records, and also to the testimony of some ancient MSS., the life of Taliesin occupied about fifty years, during the middle of the sixth century. The first incident, which we learn of it, is similar to that recorded of the infant Moses. For Taliesin is reported to have been found, exposed in a coracle, in a fishing wear, on the coast of Cardigan, belonging to Elffin, son of Gwyddno Garanhir, king of Gwent. He was received, from that moment, under the protection of Elffin, who must have continued his patronage for some years, as we find, that he introduced him afterwards to his father's court, upon which occasion the young bard (for he is presumed to have been then a mere boy) presented to Gwyddno his mystical poem, entitled Taliesin's History (Hanes Taliesin), and to his patron that called the Consolation of Elffin (Dyhuddiant Elffin), both of them still extant. The latter effusion, which is delicately written in the character of an exposed orphan, was designed to console Elffin on the recent failure of his fishery, a circumstance attributed, it seems, both by himself and others, to the extravagance and dissipation of his past life. Taliesin endeavours, with great ingenuity, to remove his melancholy on this occasion, and, from the beautiful moral feeling displayed in the poem, we may conclude, that his effort was not made in vain.
We find the bard's gratitude towards his patron evinced by another effusion, entitled the Mead-Song (Canu y Medd), written during Elffin's imprisonment in the castle of Deganwy, where he was confined by his uncle Maelgwn, sovereign of North Wales, with whom Taliesin was afterwards in particular favour. And we learn from his poem on the Sons of Llyr (Kerdd am Veib Uyr), as well as from some old Welsh historians, that he succeeded, by the magic of his song, in redeeming Elffin from his captivity.
How soon his connection with Elffin ceased does not appear ;
but in the maturer part of his life we find him to have been the
bard of Urien Reged, a Cumbrian chieftain, who is also celebrated in the poems of Llywarch Hen.
Urien, as we are informed by the Genealogy of the Saints (Bonedd y Saint,) came
to settle in South Wales, where for some time he distinguished
himself by his military services, but was, towards the close of his
life, numbered amongst the saints of Bangor Catwg, in Glamorgan.
Taliesin has addressed several poems to him, in one of
which he describes himself as residing at that period near the
lake Ceirionydd, in Caernarvonshire:
And I also Taliesin
Of the banks of the lake Ceirionydd.
Of the education of this " chief of bards," all, known with any certainty, is that it was completed under the celebrated Catwg, surnamed the Wise, at Llanfeithin, in Glamorgan. He inwas the first abbot of Llancarfan, and is distinguished by his excellent collection of ancient Welsh maxims. Taliesin, as a bard, was necessarily initiated in the Druidical mysteries, and to which some of his writings, as before noticed, prove him to have been strongly attached.
He had a son Afaon, who is represented as having renounced the peaceful pursuits of bardism for the turbulent occupation of a warrior, in which capacity he fought under Cadwallon, Prince of North Wales. For this reason he is described, in an ancient Triad, with two others, likewise of bardic parentage, as one of the " three chief-like bulls " of the isle of Britain. Taliesin is supposed to have died about the year 570.
The variety of the verse, as well as of the topics, embraced by Taliesin's muse, makes it difficult to ascribe to it any general character. He not only employed most of the metres then in use, but even enriched his poetry with others borrowed from the Greek and Roman writers, before that time unknown to the lan- guage, but since familiarly used by the bards as far as they could be adapted to the genius of the Welsh tongue, and the peculiar character of its poetry.
That Taliesin had profited by the able instruction of Catwg is clear from several parts of his writings, where the allusions, he makes, prove the great extent of his learning for the age in which he lived. But what he seems to have studied with superior avidity and success was, as already intimated, the mystical lore of the Druids, with which many of his productions are so deeply impregnated as to become extremely obscure, if not, for the most part, unintelligible. The doctrine of metempsychosis, in particular, appears to have been a favourite theme. Two or three of his poems are expressly devoted to it, and afford a sin- gular instance of the effect of that wild notion upon a powerful and creative imagination.
As a repository of the maxims of Druidism, however, and also as a record of historical facts, the productions of Taliesin must be admitted to possess an important value. His elegiac and lyrical poems abound in pathetic touches, as well as in sublime fancy and fine moral thought. And we can hardly accuse him of an unjustifiable degree of vanity, when we hear him designate himself as being at once a poet and a man of erudition, or even when he claims, for the property of his muse, the flowing speech of a prophet.