Taliesin
Taliesin | |
---|---|
Briton | |
Other names | Gwion Bach ap Gwreang |
Years active | 6th century CE |
Notable work | Llyfr Taliesin |
Taliesin (
In 1960,
In legend and medieval Welsh poetry, he is often referred to as Taliesin Ben Beirdd ("Taliesin, Chief of Bards" or chief of poets). He is mentioned as one of the five
According to legend Taliesin was adopted as a child by
Biography
Details of Taliesin's life are sparse. The first mention of him occurs in the Saxon genealogies appended to four manuscripts of the Historia Brittonum from 828AD. The writer names five poets, among them Taliesin, who lived in the time of Ida of Bernicia (fl. mid-6th century) and a British chieftain, (O)utigirn (Modern Welsh Eudeyrn).[4] This information is considered fairly credible,[5] since he is also mentioned by Aneirin, another of the five mentioned poets, who is famed as the author of Y Gododdin, a series of elegies to the men of the kingdom of Gododdin (now Lothian) who died fighting the Angles at the Battle of Catraeth around 600.
Taliesin's authorship of several odes to King
According to legends that first appear in the Book of Taliesin, Taliesin's early patron was Elffin ap Gwyddno, son of Gwyddno Garanhir, who was a lord of a lost land in Cardigan Bay called Cantre'r Gwaelod. Taliesin defended Elffin and satirised his enemy, the powerful Maelgwn Gwynedd, shortly before the latter died (probably in 547 CE).[12] The Latin-Breton Life of Iudic-hael refers to Taliesin visiting the monastery of Gildas at Rhuys in Brittany.[13]
According to the Welsh Triads, Taliesin had a son, Afaon, who was accounted a great warrior, and who suffered a violent death, probably in Lothian.[14] Taliesin's grave is held in folklore to be near the village of Tre Taliesin near Llangynfelyn[15] called Bedd Taliesin, but this is a Bronze Age burial chamber, and the village of Tre-Taliesin, at the foot of the hill, was actually named after the burial chamber in the 19th century[16] though legend was traced by Edward Lhuyd to the 17th century.
Legendary accounts of his life
More detailed traditions of Taliesin's biography arose from about the 11th century, and in Historia Taliesin ("The Tale of Taliesin", surviving from the 16th century).
According to the
According to these texts Taliesin was the foster-son of Elffin ap Gwyddno, who gave him the name Taliesin, meaning "radiant brow", and who later became a king in Ceredigion, Wales. The legend states that he was then raised at his court in Aberdyfi and that at the age of 13, he visited King Maelgwn Gwynedd, Elffin's uncle, and correctly prophesied the manner and imminence of Maelgwn's death. A number of medieval poems attributed to Taliesin allude to the legend but these postdate the historical poet's floruit considerably.
The introduction to
The idea that he was a
A manuscript in the hand of 18th-century literary forger
Influence
Modern Welsh poet John Davies of Denbighshire (1841–1894) took the bardic name of Taliesin Hiraethog.[19] The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose mother, Anna Lloyd Jones, was born in Wales, named his Wisconsin home and studio Taliesin and his home and studio near Scottsdale, Arizona Taliesin West.
Literature
As early as the 12th century bards of the Welsh princes adopted the persona of Taliesin to make prophetic and legendary claims for the source of their inspiration or awen as well as those poems which can be attributed directly to them.[24] So some of the poems in the Book of Taliesin have been attributed to bards who saw themselves as working within the tradition of a legendary bard whose poems could be re-worked or re-imagined, giving rise to the prose tale in which some of these poems are embedded.[25] Much of the academic work done on these poems focuses on attempting to separate poems by the original bard and later poets imaginatively taking on his mantle.[26]
His name was used, spelled as Taliessin, in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. He is a character in Thomas Love Peacock's satirical romantic 1829 novel The Misfortunes of Elphin where he is discovered as a baby floating in a coracle by Elphin (Elfin) who is fishing. In the 1951 novel Porius, by John Cowper Powys, he is depicted as a politically astute court bard who is accomplished in both cookery and poetry.
He also makes an appearance in a number of works of modern commercial fiction that blend history and Arthurian legend, including quite a lengthy appearance in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles and Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry. In Stephen R. Lawhead's The Pendragon Cycle, he is most notable in the first book, eponymously named Taliesin, in which he is depicted as Merlin's father. In M. K. Hume's King Arthur trilogy, he's depicted as Merlin's firstborn son. Gillian Bradshaw uses him as a stand-in for Merlin in her Arthurian trilogy. He is also a central character in Moonheart, an urban fantasy novel by Charles de Lint, and appears as the chief bard of the Kingdom of Prydain in the children's novels of Lloyd Alexander which are based on the Welsh Mabinogion. The historical novel Radiant Brow – The Epic of Taliesin by H. Catherine Watling is based on "The Tale of Taliesin" and the poetry contained in The Book of Taliesin. In the young adult fiction series The Dark Is Rising Sequence by British author Susan Cooper, he guides young protagonists Will Stanton and Bran Davies through the Lost Land in the final book, Silver on the Tree. Taliesin's harp-tuning key makes an appearance in "A String in the Harp" by Nancy Bond, a time-travel story set in Wales. The key gives Peter Morgan, the main protagonist, the ability to see visions of Taliesin's life.
In Charles Williams' unfinished series of Arthurian poems, found in Taliessin Through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, he is the central character, Arthur's bard and Captain of Horse, and the head of a companionship dedicated to Christian Charity in Camelot.
He is character in Traci Harding's Chosen series starting with The Ancient Future Trilogy where he is an immortal time traveler trying to help the human soul mind evolution advance.
Music
The Norwegian classical composer Martin Romberg wrote a concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra in eight parts after the tale named "The Tale of Taliesin". The concerto was premiered in 2009 by Akademische Orchestervereinigung Göttingen, with the Norwegian saxophonist Ola Asdahl Rokkones as a soloist.[27] The work has since been published at Éditions Billaudot, Paris[28] and played by Mittelsächsische Philharmonie, The Saint-Petersburg Northern Synfonia Orchestra and Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic Orchestra, the two latter being conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo.[29][30][31]
In modern music,
References
- ^ The Poems of Taliesin, ed. by Ifor Williams, trans. by J. E. Caerwyn Williams, Mediaeval and Modern Welsh Series, 3 (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1987 [repr. from 1968; first publ. Canu Taliesin 1960]).
- ISBN 9780951257388
- ^ a b Griffin (1887)[page needed]
- ^ ("At that time Talhaearn the Father of the Muse was famous in poetry, and Neirin, Taliesin, Blwchfardd and Cian who is called Gweinthgwawd, at one and the same time were renowned in British poetry." —Gildas et Nennius, ed. Mommsen, p. 205; Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 75), quoted in John Edward Lloyd, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 55
- ^ Phillimore in Cymmrodor, xi. 134–8; Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, p. 78, quoted in John Edward Lloyd, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 55
- ^ National Library of Wales, article Taliesin
- ^ J. Koch, Celtic Culture: Aberdeen breviary-celticism
- ^ "BBC Wales – Arts – Early Welsh literature – Taliesin". Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ "The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany". Archibald Constable & Company. 1 January 1808. Retrieved 21 June 2016 – via Google Books.
- ^ Charles Oman, England Before the Norman Conquest -
- ^ Ifor Williams, Canu Taliesin (University of Wales Press, 1960), poem I.
- ^ Based on Phillimore's (1888) reconstruction of the dating of the Annales Cambriae (A Text) – see Phillimore, Egerton (1888), The Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies, from Harleian MS. 3859, in Phillimore, Egerton, Y Cymmrodor IX, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, pp. 141–183
- ISBN 9781851828494
- ^ "The Welsh Triads". Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ "Llangynfelyn – Bedd Taliesin – Taliesin's grave". Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ Owen & Morgan (2007) "Dictionary of the Place Names of Wales" p.475
- ^ *Ford, Patrick K. 1992. Ystoria Taliesin University of Wales Press: Cardiff.
- ^ "The life of Taliesin the bard". BBC.com. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
- ^ "Gathering the Jewels". Archived from the original on 5 September 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ Rasmussen, Eric (n.d.). "Apple Macintosh before System 7". Early Macintosh. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
System 2.0 Finder 4.1 was released in April 1985. ... The Update disk also included the Font/DA Mover application, a Fonts suitcase with one font in it [Taliesin, a pictorial font], and a "What's New" document.
- ^ Hackett, Stephen (n.d.). "The History of Clarus the Dogcow". 512 Pixels. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
- ^ Kare, Susan (August 1983). "World Class Cities". Folklore. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
- ^ Espinosa, Chris (21 May 2018). "I can't find any replica of Taliesin/Mobile but I believe it was bitmapped architecture and furniture pictures. Legal was concerned about the rights of the estate of Frank Lloyd Wright re the Taliesin name. I think 'Mobile' was a pun on the French 'meubles.'". Twitter. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
- ^ Haycock, Marged Prophecies from the Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth 2013) and Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth 2007)
- ^ Ford, Patrick Ystoria Taliesin (Cardiff, 1992)
- ^ Williams, Sir Ifor, The poems of Taliesin (Dublin 1968)
- ^ "Göttingen, concert article from the world premiere of The Tale of Talisein". Goettinger Tageblatt.
- ^ "The Tale of Taliesin, Éditions Billaudot distributed by Boosey and Hawkes". boosey.com.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Live Recording from concert in Freiberg". Youtube.com.
- ^ "Presentation of the Nizhny Novgorod programe 2018". music-nn.ru.
- ^ "Presentation of The Saint-Petersburg Northern Synfonia Orchestra programe 2016". musichallspb.ru.
Sources
- Ford, Patrick K. 1977. The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Ford, Patrick K. 1992. Ystoria Taliesin University of Wales Press: Cardiff.
- Ford, Patrick K. 1999. The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from Early Ireland and Wales Ford and Bailie: Belmont, Mass.
- Haycock, Marged 2007. Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin (CMCS, Aberystwyth)
- Haycock, Marged. 1997. "Taliesin's Questions" Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 33 (Summer): 19–79.
- Haycock, Marged. 1987. "'Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules': three early medieval poems from the 'Book of Taliesin." Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 13 (1987): 7–38.
- Haycock, Marged. 1987–88. "Llyfr Taliesin," National Library of Wales Journal 25: 357–86.
- Haycock, Marged. 1983–84. "Preiddeu Annwn and the Figure of Taliesin" Studia Celtica18/19: 52–78.
- Koch, John T. and John Carey. 2003.The Celtic Heroic Age 3rd ed. Celtic Studies Publishing: Malden, Mass.
- Koch, John T. "De sancto Iudicaelo rege Historia and Its Implications for the Welsh Taliesin" in Nagy, Joseph Falaky and Jones, Leslie Ellen (eds.) 2005. Heroic Poets and Poetic Heroes in Celtic Tradition: A Festschrift for Patrick K. Ford, Dublin, 247 - 262
- Koch, John T. "Waiting for Gododdin: Thoughts on Taliesin and Iudic-Hael, Catreath, and unripe time in Celtic studies" in Woolf, Alex (ed.) 2013, Beyond the Gododdin: Dark Age Scotland in Medieval Wales, St. Andrews, 177 - 204
- Williams, Ifor. 1960. Canu Taliesin. Translated into English by J. E. Caerwyn Williams as The Poems of Taliesin Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies: Dublin. (first edition 1967, reprinted 1975, 1987)
- Williams, Ifor. 1944. Lectures on Early Welsh poetry. Dublin: DIAS
- English Writers: An Attempt Towards a History of English Literature, Henry Morley, William Hall Griffin, Published by Cassell & Company, limited, 1887
External links
- Taliesin at The Camelot Project
- Taliesin: The Bards and Druids of Britain by David William Nash, 1858
- The Book of Taliesin at the National Library of Wales (gives access to colour images of Peniarth MS 2)
- Complete text of Patrick Ford's 1977 translation of "The Tale of Taliesin" and "The Tale of Gwion Bach"
- The Book of Taliesin, in Welsh, with English translations by W.F. Skene (1858) (note: Skene's text and translation are not reliable by the standards of modern scholarship)
- Facsimile version of the Ystoria Taliesin with modern English Translation taken from Elis Gruffudd's Cronicl y Chwe Oesoedd (Chronicle of the Six Ages)
- Morris-Jones, John (1918), "Taliesin", in Evans, E. Vincent (ed.), Y Cymmrodor, vol. XXVIII, London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion — the entire volume is dedicated to attacking the late dating of Taliesin by John Gwenogvryn Evans. Evans made a similar book-length reply to his 1918 critic, in Y Cymmrodor 1924, Vol. XXXIV.