Ceridwen's Cauldron
Ceridwen's cauldron belongs to the medieval Ystoria Taliesin, the Tale of Taliesin, in which the enchantress Ceridwen, a figure of wisdom and magic, brews a potion of inspiration and knowledge in a great cauldron for her son Afagddu. The brew must simmer for a year and a day, and the three drops of its divine inspiration, the Awen, fall instead on the boy Gwion, who guards the pot and swallows them, gaining all its wisdom at a stroke. Ceridwen pursues Gwion through a series of transformations, each side changing shape until she swallows him as a grain of wheat, and in time bears the child who