Taliesin

(fl. 550)

   Welsh bard, the popular rendering of whose name is "fair forehead," whose name is associated with the Book of Taliesin, a book of poems written down in the 10th century but which most scholars believe to date in large part from the 6th century. The manuscript, known as Peniarth MS 2, is kept at the National Library of Wales. He is believed to have been the chief bard in the courts of at least three British kings of that era. In legend he attained the status Chief Bard of Britain and as such would have been responsible for judging poetry competitions among all the royal bards of Britain. According to tradition, he was buried near his childhood home in Ceredigion and a village named after him in the 19th century now sits below the hillside at the site of his grave. Some of his poems: "A Song to the Wind," "Death Song for Owain ab Urien," "Elegy for Geraint," "Elegy for Owain," "Song of Taliesin," "The Battle of Argoed Llwyfain," "The Battle of Goddeu," "The Spoils of Annwfn," "Urien of Yrechwydd."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry. E.A. Sharp and J. Matthay, eds. John Grant, 1924. Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). Ralph Waldo Emerson: Collected Poems and Translations. Harold Bloom and Paul Kane, eds. The Library of America, 1994. Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea (http://www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk/index.asp?id=1). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English. Gwyn Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 1977. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).