Ceridwen

In the Tale of Taliesin Ceridwen keeps a cauldron in which she brews a potion to confer wisdom (awen) upon her son Morfran/Afagddu; the mixture must be boiled for a year and a day. Her servant Gwion Bach stirs the brew and accidentally receives the first three drops, gaining wisdom. Ceridwen pursues him; during the chase both change shapes in sequence. Ceridwen finally swallows Gwion while in the form of a hen, becomes pregnant and gives birth to the reborn Gwion, who is later cast away by Ceridwen and rescued (traditionally by Elffin ap Gwyddno) and grows up as the poet Taliesin.

Medieval texts supply little sustained physical description of Ceridwen herself. Family contexts are given: she is wife of Tegid Foel and mother of the very ugly Morfran/Afagddu and the beautiful Creirwy. Scholarly etymological proposals (for example Sir Ifor Williams's suggestion of an original Cyrridfen from cwrr, 'bent, angled') have been offered as hypotheses about the name's sense, but such etymologies are not direct textual descriptions in the Tale of Taliesin.

Ceridwen brews a potent cauldron-potion that yields poetic wisdom (awen) when boiled for a year and a day; the first three drops confer wisdom while the remaining brew is deadly. She delegates tending: Morda tends the fire and Gwion Bach stirs. After Gwion gains the gift she pursues him and employs transformational/shapeshifting magic in a chase sequence (Gwion becomes a hare while Ceridwen becomes a greyhound; Gwion becomes a fish while Ceridwen becomes an otter; Gwion becomes a bird while Ceridwen becomes a hawk; Gwion becomes a grain while Ceridwen becomes a hen and swallows him). The swallowing results in pregnancy and the birth of the reborn Gwion (Taliesin). Medieval poets also invoke her cauldron as the source of awen, indicating cultural authority over poetic inspiration.