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The Figure of Taliesin in Charles Williams' Arthuriad Volume 10 Number 1 Article 4 4-15-1983 The Figure of Taliesin in Charles Williams' Arthuriad Richard Woods Stritch School of Medicine, IL Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Woods, Richard (1983) "The Figure of Taliesin in Charles Williams' Arthuriad," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 10 : No. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol10/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Discusses Taliesin as a historical personage and as a legendary and mythological figure, and specifically the sources for Williams’s portrayal of Taliesin in his Arthurian poetry. Speculates on why Williams chose Taliesin as the “romantic focus” of his poems, how he conceived his role, and why he departed from traditional sources. Additional Keywords Taliesin; Williams, Charles—Characters—Taliessin; Williams, Charles. Arthuriad—Sources; Christine Lowentrout; Sarah Beach This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol10/iss1/4 MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 page 11 The Figure of Taliesin in Charles Williams' Arthuriad Richard Woods It is generally held by those who have studied the critical editions of the poems of the early bards were . Arthurian poems of Charles Williams that his principal written and published not only in Wales, but in Welsh.2 sources were Malory and the French Romances. C.S. lewis knew that he had adapted some materials from the Since Charles Williams' death in 1945, moreover, Mabinogi, but appears to regard their influence as it can safely be said, I think, that the amount of slight.1 Willians himself, in a prefatory note not critical material on the Cynfeirdd, the early bards, published in the unfinished Figure of Arthur but available in English has at least doubled. This gives appended by Lewis, stated that "this book is a us at once an enormous advantage over Charles Williams consideration of the tale of King Arthur in English himself, but also the means whereby his treatment of literature. It does not pretend to investigate, or Taliesin can be evaluated. indeed to record, the original sources, the Celtic tales or the French romances, except insofar as some The scope of the present inquiry will be limited mention of them is necessary to the main theme." (AT, to the work Williams sometimes called his "Arthuriad" p. 277) and at others "the Taliessin poems," for it is here that the question of Celtic influence arises and should Nevertheless, as I hope to show, Williams did in be resolved. There can be no doubt that these poems fact know a great deal more about the Celtic sources were the chief work of his life, unfortunately left than such comments suggest. Further, the Celtic unfinished at his death in 1945.3 The theme of the influence of the bardic tradition was particularly Arthurian cycle, as observed by Williams in the preface effective, especially with respect to the figure of to The Region of the Summer Stars, is "the Reign of Taliesin himself. Oddly enough, Williams does appear King Arthur in Logres and the Achievement of the to have been generally unaware of the great advances Grail.” (AT, p. 117) But the focal character, if not being made at the time in critica l Welsh scholarship, the chief actor, is neither Arthur nor Galahad, but the mainly by Sir Ifor Williams. This is undoubtedly due British bard, Taliesin. to the fact that much of Sir Ifor's research and his page 12 MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 Williams began deliberating the composition of a thirteenth century Book of Taliesin now believed to cycle of Arthurian poems when he was comparatively have been composed by the bard him self, the f ir s t and young, as early, according to Anne Ridler, as 1912, e a r lie st is that in praise of Cynan, which supports the when he was 26.4 In a personal communication, Mrs. belief that Taliesin was a native of Powys who migrated Ridler told me that at that time, Taliesin seemed to north during the latter part of his career. According play no role in the envisioned poems. One of the to trad ition , he was also buried in Powys, where a slab questions we should consider then, is why and how grave, Bedd T a liesin , T aliesin 's Grave, can s t i l l be Williams came to employ T aliesin not only as a major seen today near the road from Aberystwyth to character, but in many respects as the pivotal figure Machynlleth. A small town just north of the site is of the cycle. called Tre Taliesin, Taliesin's Village. Taliesin in Myth, Legend and History We may presume then that Taliesin, the first and perhaps greatest of the early bards, the Cynfeirdd, was Hie problem of evaluating the place of T aliesin is bom sometime around 520 and died at a ripe age compounded by the fact th at, as with Arthur him self, sometime in the la st decade o f the sixth century. This there are three "Taliesins"—the historical individual, would make him about twenty at the time of the Battle the legendary character, and the mythological figure. of Camlan, and might wall have given rise to later conjectures of h is having been at Arthur's Court as a The Taliesin of history is both the most obscure boy. But his reputation as pencerdd (chief poet) and of the three Taliesins and also the most concretely penbeird (chief bard), depends on his poetry, vdiich tangible, owing mainly to the scholarly detective work even today is hailed as vibrant, evocative and of Sir Ifor Williams, John Morris-Jones, Rachel powerful. (See Jarman, p. 30.) Bromwich and A.O.H. Jarman.5 Behind the myth and the legends they have found a true bard, very likely the Within two centuries, as reflected in the Welsh f ir s t poet to write in Welsh and a la te contemporary of Annals and the Historia of Nennius, the name of Arthur. (The only connections with Arthurian material Taliesin had become synonymous with eloquence and are found, however, in legendary sources.) As Jarman indeed with the office of court poet or bard, along observes, "It must be admitted that we have no with those of Aneirin and Talhaiarn. Eventually, contemporary evidence for the existence of... Myrddin or Merlin came to join Taliesin and Aneirin as Taliesin...." (Jarman, op. cit., p. 5.) However after the three principal bards of the Island of Britain. a century-long process of textual analysis and Taliesin's association with Merlin, for instance in the redaction, i t now seems evident that T aliesin not only Welsh Triads and Geoffrey's Vita M erlini, is also based existed but flourished as the premier bard of Britain at least in part on his later reputation as a magician, from the middle to the end of the sixth century. perhaps a reference to the various prophecies attached According to the ninth century monk Nennius, Taliesin to h is name.7 was one of five northern bards who wrote during the years in which Ida was King of Northumbria, that is The Legend Grows (according to St. Bede) from 547 to 559.6 It is also clear that Talie s in lived at the Court of Urien of Here we are already well into the legendary Rheged and his son Owain, who fought against Theodoric Taliesin, who is believed in folk tradition to have and Hussa during the period 572-579 and 585-592. He is created Lake Geirionydd in north Wales to ornament his also associated, though mainly in legend, with Maelgwn house, among other feats. He was held to have had a Gwynedd, against whom he prophesied. (According to son, Afaon, who is mentioned in three of the Triads, Nennius, Maelgwn died of the plague in 547.) Finally, his death being considered one of the three unfortunate T aliesin is associated with two Welsh Kings of the assassinations of the Isle of Britain, as was that of sixth century, Gwallawg and Cynan Garwyn of Powys in Aneirin. Another legendary adventure, one perhaps Mid-Wales. based on fact, is mentioned in the Chirk Codex of the Laws of Hwyel Dda, circa 1200, which testifies that Of the twelve poems among some f if t y in the T aliesin accompanied Rhun, Maelgwn's son and successor, MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 page 13 on a punitive raid into the north. (See Bromwich, earlier than that, much of which is reflected in the Triads, p. 510.) poems attributed to Taliesin in the thirteenth century compilations. (See Bromwich, Triads, p.
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