What is The Book of Taliesin? with Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird

The Book of Taliesin is one of the primary medieval sources for the Taliesin myth. But what does it actually contain?

00:00 What is the Book of Taliesin?
06:48 The earliest poetry
16:33 The legendary poetry
25:11 The Prophecy Poetry

[thebluesrockers]

To think I was born in 1968, and I found your channel because of the tittle of a Deep Purple album.
The Book Of Talesyn was their 2nd Album. Nearly 55 years ago that album came out and nearly 55 years ago I was born. Thanks to you I know more about it than ever before. Great information. Thank you for educating people on this. I hope that you have a great holiday season. 10 days before X-mas. I'm not someone who celebrates that, But I still wish people much happiness. Peace..Joe

[gregoryirwin]

I came here because of deep purple was always my favorite album of theirs and I always wondered what the actual book was about

[nautiluszaibatsu]

Fantastic content and channel, can’t believe I’ve only just found you. Thank you

[jackbrennan]

Thank you very much brother, that was tremendous and cant wait to watch and listen to Much appreciated

[thebluesrockers]

Celtic Source...I found it very interesting that The Wise Man & The Hero like the tale of Merlin & King Arthur is sometimes believed as fact and other times as a myth. The Bible is often referred to a fact by some and a myth by others. But most leaders or kings in the bible had a wise man & a King. Like Samuel & King Saul.
Even magic was used in that story as Saul sought out a witch to contact or bring Samuel's spirit back from the dead to receive his counseling or instruction. Very interesting to me. Even today we're taught most of the world leaders have some advisers. History has become so fascinating to me over the last few years. People who don't know how history seems to repeat itself will never see that they're being targeted to be killed until it's to late. World leaders have absolute power over the world. and as you know, absolute power at some point corrupts people absolutely. The world leaders today are talking about how the world is over populated. People are just to dumb these days to see what they're really saying. it's just crazy how dumb down we have all become over the past 100 years.

[davi_coelho]

I am beginning to read the Mabinogion and your channel is being of great help to sort some thing outs (specially in hearing how the names are pronounced). Greetings from Brazil.

[johnnycreighton]

Many thanks, Dr Gwilym. Iwan diolch.

[jessicakelley]

I understand what the poem means because I have the gift of a song that stills everything, and prior to hearing this, I thought the jews were the only others with knowledge of the song, so this is quite interesting to me. Just so you can understand better, the jews call this song a Shira, it's sung to turn judgement into favor, to dispel attacks, and to add my own understanding, it pulls the iron out of your enemies blood, gives them a headache, makes them anemic, causes them to stumble and others to attack them. The jews say that this is the kingdom of iron mixed with clay, what happens with the song, the effects it has on others tells me that that they have understanding that they haven't realized yet. They guard their books and are quick to say that it's written just for them, but I'm not them and I understand in ways they don't. My ancestors are the nobles you speak of. With the jews, salvation is passed from parent to child through their blood, maybe it is the same for us. To be clear, my ancestors were many things, I can relate to them all, but I don't identify as they did, so I wouldn't call myself a jew, or a druid, a quaker, a Mormon, or any other denomination, but I will say that I'm a product of them all, because I come from a people, not a religion. Have you ever studied with the rabbis? They can help in your understanding of yourself, the song is key, and it unites us as one.

[midnighthourpoems]

Do you know any good pdf or digital copy of the Marged Haycock translation?

[PaulBlockley-ug]

Very well presented video. Can't fail to notice the Christian influence in this though. The deep one who is described as a conqueror who brought the dead to life could also be seen as a reference to Christ. Obviously Taliesin was a conqueror in the respect that he won the bardic contest & was superior to the court bards he encountered, displaying a supernatural, or otherworldly authority. The transformations of Gwion, no doubt, have their origin in the pagan past, but it would be blind of us to discount the Christian influence in these stories. If we see Gwion as the mortal who channels Taliesin & is transfigured in the process, we might see that as an allegory for the bard who is trying to channel the Holy Spirit or Awen in order that Christ & Taliesin, might speak through him. It is not Taliesin who is pretending to be Gwion but instead Gwion in this case is the person the bard identifies himself with. He is a mortal & the fact that Gwion is described as working over the cauldron forever indicated that he is in a kind of purgatory at the time of his imprisonment by Ceredwin. It is Taliesin who is compared to Christ in that he is reborn, brings the dead to life & is a conqueror or king, or poet of poets. I think Taliesin is described a bringing the dead to life in the way that he himself survived death, inspires others & was able to revive the ancient bardic tradition, thus making the silent dead speak.

[danb]

Do any of these old books of Wales mention apparitions or ghosts?

[jackpark]

How do you rate the translation by Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams?

[sophynoyes]

Someone compared the musician Ren to Bard... I'm here to find out who he was 🎶

[tombshire]

I search up my name, AND WHAT DO I FIND

[edwardlecore]

Would a "deep one" mean an inhabitant of the Otherworld?

[johnlavers]

but written around reghed in southern scotland

[PorfaPiws]

Siom fawr mae yn fy ugeiniau wnes ddysgu am y traddodiad barddol, y tywysogion ayyb, ac nid yn gynt. Ma'ch cynnwys chi'n cyflwyno llwyth o agweddau a ffynhonnellau newydd i mi, felly diolch a daliwch ati i greu cynnwys diddorol ac addysgiadol.

[ayuh]

Soft Machine- Tale of Talesin thank me later.

[bricklebox]

Dwi'n dilyn cwrs @JacksonCrawford o'r enw "Reading Old Norse" a mi hoffwn i ffindio'r un peth ar gyfer yr Hen Gymraeg :) Diolch am y fideo!