Tegid Voel, Cerridwen, and their children--the fair maiden
Creirwy, Morvran, and the ugly Avagddu. To give Avagddu knowledge, his
mother prepares a cauldron of inspiration from which three drops of
inspiration will be produced. These fall on the finger of Gwion, whom
she set to stir it. He put the finger in his mouth, and thus acquired
the inspiration. He fled, and Cerridwen pursued, the rest of the story
being accommodated to the Transformation Combat formula. Finally,
Cerridwen as a hen swallows Gwion as a grain of wheat, and bears him as
a child, whom she throws into the sea. Elphin, who rescues him, calls
him Taliesin, and brings him up as a bard.[421]

The water-world of Tegid is a submarine Elysium with the customary
cauldron of inspiration, regeneration, and fertility, like the cauldron
associated with a water-world in the _Mabinogion_. "Shall not my chair
be defended from the cauldron of Cerridwen," runs a line in a Taliesin
poem, while another speaks of her chair, which was probably in Elysium
like that of Taliesin himself in Caer Sidi.[422] Further references to
her connection with poetry show that she may have been worshipped by
bards, her cauldron being the source of their inspiration.[423] Her
anger at Gwion may point to some form of the Celtic myth of the theft of
the elements of culture from the gods' land. But the cauldron was first
of all associated with a fertility cult,[424] and Cerridwen must
therefore once have been a goddess of fertility, who, like Brigit, was
later worshipped by bards. She may also have been a corn-goddess, since
she is called a goddess of grain, and tradition associates the pig--a
common embodiment of the corn-spirit--with her.[425] If the tradition is
correct, this would be an instance, like that of Demeter and the pig, of
an animal embodiment of the corn-spirit being connected with a later
anthropomorphic corn-goddess.

Taliesin was probably an old god of poetic inspiration confused with the
sixth century poet of the same name, perhaps because this boastful poet
identified himself or was identified by other bards with the gods. He
speaks of his "splendid chair, inspiration of fluent and urgent song" in
Caer Sidi or Elysium, and, speaking in the god's name or identifying
himself with him, describes his presence with Llew, Bran, Gwydion, and
others, as well as his creation and his enchantment before he became
immortal.[426] He was present with Arthur when a cauldron was stolen