The Mythical Cauldron

The Cauldron on Annwn
From Wales comes an early Arthurian tale, possibly the forerunner of
the Grail Quest. Arthur goes to the Otherworld to retrieve the Cauldron of Annwn.
I draw my knowledge from the famous cauldron,
The breath of nine muses keeps it boiling.
Is not the head of Annwn's cauldron so shaped:
Ridged with enamel, rimmed with pearl?
It will not boil the cowardly traitor's portion.

The Cauldron of Bran
The story of Bran the Blessed is told in the second branch of the Mabinogi. He gives
his sister Branwen and a magic cauldron to the king of Ireland. When she is
subsequently mistreated, word reaches Bran, who then wades across the Irish Sea to
rescue her. The army of the Men of Britain sail next to him in ships.The final battle
does not go well for the Welsh since the cauldron has the power to rejuvenate the
slain warriors. The Britons prevail when one of the warriors manages to get into the
cauldron and smash it by stretching to his full length.

The Cauldron of Cerridwen
This story tells of the birth of Taliesin. Cerridwen lived during the Arthurian times. She
had an ugly son named Afagddu. Afagddu was not going to amount to anything due
to his looks, but was not exactly excelling in wit and wisdom either. She consulted her
spell books and found the spell for the cauldron of inspiration. She gathered all the
ingredients and mixed them into the cauldron. She set it to boil for a year and a day,
instructing her servant Gwion Bach to tend to it. Every day he tended the cauldron
until one day at the end of the year, three drops splashed on his fingers. All the
inspiration meant for Afagddu was in those drops. Gwion sucked his fingers to
cool them, and immediately knew past, present, and figure. As the cauldron cracked
behind him, he ran away with Cerridwen in pursuit. As Gwion shape-shifted into a
hare, Cerridwen became a hound and followed him even closer. He turned into a dove
when she became an otter. She became a hawk and folowed him still. At last, he
became a grain of wheat in a pile of wheat. She became a black hen and hunted
through the wheat until she found the grain she sought. She found the grain that
was Gwion and swallowed him. Shortly after, she gave birth to a son. He was too
beautiful to kill outright. She cast him, bound in a bag, into the sea, where he was
found by Elphin. In the words of the poet Taliesin as he emerged from the bag,
I have been a blue salmon,
a dog, a stag, a roebuck on the mountain
a stock, a spade, an axe in the hand
a buck, a bull, a stallion
upon a hill I was grown as grain
reaped and in the oven thrown
out of that roasting I fell to the ground
pecked up and swallowed by the black hen
in her crop nine nights lain
I have been dead, I have been alive, I am Taliesin.

Sources
Keesey, Joann. "The Cauldron," Obsidian Magazine

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