Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

360 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race“I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.I have been in India when Roma was built.I am now come here to the remnant of Troia. 253“I have been with my Lord in the ass's manger,I strengthened Moses through the waters of Jordan;I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;I have obtained the Muse from the cauldron of Ceridwen.[417]“I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earth;And it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.“Then was I for nine monthsIn the womb of the witch Ceridwen;I was originally little Gwion,And at length I am Taliesin.” 254While Taliesin sang a great storm of wind arose, and the castleshook with the force of it. Then the King bade Elphin be broughtin before him, and when he came, at the music of Taliesin's voiceand harp the chains fell open of themselves and he was free. Andmany other poems concerning secret things of the past and futuredid Taliesin sing before the King and his lords, and he foretoldthe coming of the Saxon into the land, and his oppression of theCymry, and foretold also his passing away when the day of hisdestiny should come.ConclusionHere we end this long survey of the legendary literature ofthe Celt. The material is very abundant, and it is, of course, notpracticable in a volume of this size to do more than trace the253 Alluding to the imaginary Trojan ancestry of the Britons.254 I have somewhat abridged this curious poem. The connexion with ideasof transmigration, as in the legend of Tuan mac Carell (see pp. 97-101), isobvious. Tuan's last stage, it may be recalled, was a fish, and Taliesin wastaken in a salmon-weir.