Cerridwen

Cerridwen (also spelled Cyrridven or Caridwen in medieval Welsh manuscript traditions) is the formidable sovereign goddess of witchcraft, prophetic lore, and divine poetic inspiration (the Awen) in Welsh mythology. Living upon the shores of Lake Llyn Tegid in northern Wales with her noble husband Tegid Foel, Cerridwen possessed the mythological Cauldron of Inspiration and Science (Pair Awen). Distressed by the grotesque physical deformity of her son Morfran—mockingly known as Afagddu ('Utter Darkness')—which barred him from noble recognition among Britain's warrior society, Cerridwen resolved to compensate for his appearance by endowing him with universal wisdom and peerless prophetic poetry. Consulting celestial grimoires, she brewed rare herbs in her cauldron over sacred fires for a full year and a day, charging the young orphan Gwion Bach with stirring the vessel and the blind elder Morda with tending the wood. On the final day of the cycle, three boiling droplets burst from the vessel onto Gwion's thumb, which he instinctively thrust into his mouth to soothe the burn, instantly absorbing all knowledge of the past, present, and future. Fleeing in fear of the goddess's wrath, Gwion was pursued in an epic shape-shifting chase across the four elements, ending when Cerridwen, disguised as a black-crested hen, swallowed him as a grain of wheat. Impregnated by the seed, Cerridwen carried him for nine months and gave birth to a child of radiant countenance, whom she set adrift in a hide-bound coracle at sea on May Eve; rescued in the fishing weirs of Prince Elffin, the infant was named Taliesin, growing to become Britain's greatest mythic bard.

8 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

The cauldron, the white sow, the moon and the magic herbs

Primary sources

• Lady Charlotte Guest (trans.), The Mabinogion (The Story of Taliesin and the Cauldron of Caridwen). translation: Bernard Quaritch, London, 1877. read
• William Forbes Skene (ed.), The Four Ancient Books of Wales (Volume I: Poems from the Book of Taliesin on Caridwen). translation: Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, 1868. read
• Rachel Bromwich (organization of the bardic triads and commentary), Trioedd Ynys Prydein (Catalogue of Heroes and Ancient British Traditions). translation: University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1961.
• Patrick K. Ford (critical translation from Gruffydd's Welsh codex), The Mabinogi: Hanes Taliesin and the Ancient Poetic Traditions. translation: University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977. read

Studies

• John Arnott MacCulloch (comparative mythological study), The Religion of the Ancient Celts (Section on the Wisdom of Cerridwen and the Cauldron). T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1911. open
• Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins and Mothers (Feminine Wisdom and the Cauldron). British Museum Press, London, 1995. open
• Proinsias Mac Cana, Celtic Mythology (Welsh Traditions of Awen and the Cauldron). Hamlyn, London, 1970. open
• Charles Squire, Celtic Myth and Legend: Poetry and Romance (The Legend of Taliesin and Cerridwen). Gresham Publishing, London, 1905. open