The story tells that on and on for a year and a month Cerridwen brew her magical potion, on and on her cauldron bubbled with fresh water, herbs and roots. For she was brewing the most potent potion this world has ever seen - the Awen, the divine inspiration, able to give wisdom and enlightenment to whoever tasted its 3 drops of magical elixir. Oh, what a wise poet and advisor of kings her son Affagdu was going to be after receiving this potion! The poor terrible Affagdu, as ugly as darkness, so frightening that his own father could not even look at him, will finally have a divine gift to put him at peace with the world!
But oh fatality, as Cerridwen was out harvesting her herbs under the moonlight, 3 drops of the hot liquid flew out of the cauldron straight on the thumb of Gwion, the boy who tended the fire. And what do you think happened next? That’s right, boys and girls, the small boy Gwion received all the divine wisdom that Cerridwen was brewing for her own son, Affagdu. In that very instant, Gwion knew everything. And one of the main things he knew (blessed self-preservation) was that the furious goddess of the cauldron, Cerridwen the dark witch, will not easily forgive his unintentional betrayal.
So after a cinematic chase that would make James Bond shudder, Gwion turns into a seed of wheat and tries to hide from Cerridwen's eyes under a soft pile of grain. But Cerridwen is anything but easy to trick; she turns herself into a black hen and eats all the grain, swallowing tiny Gwion whole. And that was the end of him and his newly gained absolute wisdom.
...
Or was it? As Cerridwen noticed in the months to come, the wheat seed grew into a baby inside the womb of the goddess who has tried to destroy Gwion. And exactly 9 months later, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, more luminous than the sun. Here was Gwion born again! So beautiful was he, that Cerridwen couldn’t find in her heart to kill it (again), so she covered him in furs and cast him into the sea. And during an unexpected fishing spree, he was fished out of the waters by Elffin, the one who would be his foster father. Elffin looked this bizarre lucky catch and said: “Behold what a Radiant Brow”. And so Gwion's name stayed throughout the centuries. Taliesin - the “radiant brow”, the first bard, the greatest and wisest poet and seer in Ireland, advisor of kings.
And now I ask you, boys and girls: what has become of Cerridwen? Is she to be considered the enemy of Taliesin’s lineage of wise bards and prophets, or their protector mother and source of divine inspiration?