TALIESIN. The ninth-century Historia Brittonum, usually attributed to "Nennius," names Taliesin as one of a famed group of Welsh poets of the latter half of the sixth century. The thirteenth-century Book of Taliesin contains a body of poetry of diverse origins and different dates that the scribe presumably associated with Taliesin, but modern research has isolated some twelve poems that are regarded as his authentic work. These are heroic court poems sung to royal patrons and to Urien, Owain, and Gwallawg, kings of the sixth-century northern British kingdoms of Rheged and Elmet.

The early medieval Welsh poet was a complex persona, and Taliesin acquired the status of a vaticinatory poet (perhaps conflated with the figure of Myrddin/Merlin) and purveyor of esoteric and learned lore, both bardic and Christian. Many of the poems in the Book of Taliesin reflect this role, which is given a specific context in...