
The Great Myths #16: The Story of Taliesin (Celtic) – Human Voices Wake Us
An episode from 2/14/22: One way that storytellers have always illustrated the radical nature of creativity has been to give an unusual talent to children, and set them loose in the adult world. Everything from superhero movies to The Shining has done this, and it’s not surprising to find it in the Welsh tale of Taliesin. Tonight, we see how this child became a great poet and seer, while also upending an evening at the king’s court.
The story I read is found in the mid-sixteenth century Hanes Taliesin. The translation I use comes from Patrick K. Ford’s The Mabinogi & Other Medieval Welsh Tales.
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