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 from Aunwfn, and basing his verses on the mythic transformations and rebirths of the gods, recounts in highly inflated language his own numerous forms and rebirths.[427] His claims resemble those of the Shaman who has the entree of the spirit-world and can transform himself at will.  Taliesin’s rebirth is connected with his acquiring of inspiration.  These incidents appear separately in the story of Fionn, who acquired his inspiration by an accident, and was also said to have been reborn as Mongan.  They are myths common to various branches of the Celtic people, and applied in different combinations to outstanding gods or heroes.[428] The Taliesin poems show that there may have been two gods or two mythic aspects of one god, later