The Tale of Ceridwen
Ceridwen is a white witch and enchantress from Welsh medieval legend. Regarded by many as the goddess of inspiration, rebirth and transformation. Medieval Welsh poetry refers to her as possessing the cauldron of poetic inspiration.
According to the Tale of Taliesin, included in some modern editions of the Mabinogion, Ceridwen had a beautiful daughter named Creirwy and an ugly son named Morfran. Pitying her son, Ceridwen sought to make him wise in compensation. She brewed a potion in her magical cauldron that would grant the gift of wisdom and poetic inspiration. The first three drops of liquid from this potion would impart the intended gifts; the rest was a fatal poison.
The mixture had to be boiled for a year and a day. She tasked a young boy called Gwion Bach with stirring the potion. Three hot drops spilled onto Gwion's thumb as he stirred, burning him. He instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, gaining the wisdom and knowledge Ceridwen had intended for her son. Realising that Ceridwen would be angry, Gwion fled. Ceridwen chased him. Using the powers of the potion he turned himself into a hare. She became a greyhound. He became a fish and jumped into a river. She transformed into an otter. He turned into a bird; she became a hawk. Finally, he turned into a single grain of corn. She then became a hen and ate him.
When Ceridwen became pregnant, she knew it was Gwion and resolved to kill the child when he was born. However, when he was born, he was so beautiful that she could not do it. She threw him in the ocean instead, sewing him inside a leather-skin bag. The child did not die, but was rescued on a Welsh shore – near Aberdyfi by prince Elffin ap Gwyddno; the reborn infant grew to become the legendary Welsh bard Taliesin.