Taliesin is one of the most well-known and regarded early Welsh poets, one of Y Cynfeirdd (the Early Poets), dating from c. 550-1200. Only a few poems of Taliesin and Aneirin survive from the earliest part of the group’s writing.
Taliesin Ben Beirdd (Taliesin, Chief of Bards) is mentioned in Nennius’s Historia Brittonum (c.800) . Scholars believe that twelve of the sixty poems in The Book of Taliesin can be attributed to Taliesin.
Later poets wrote in Taliesin’s style between the 9th and 13th centuries partially in tribute to him.
The majority of Taliesin’s poems praise rulers of northern Britain. These include Urien of Rheged (an area of south-western Scotland today); his son Owain ab Urien; Gwallog, a ruler of a Celtic kingdom called Elmet; and Cynan Garwyn - a king of Powys.
The Battle of Argoed Llwyfain. A Song of Urien
In the morning of Saturday there was a great battle
From when the sun rose till when it set.
Fflamddwyn marched in four hosts,
To fight against Goddau and Rheged.
He came from Argoed to Arfynydd:
They did not get to remain for that one day.
Fflamddwyn of great bluster exclaimed:
Would they give hostages, are they prepared?
Owain answered him, rising to the challenge:
They would not give, they are not, they are not prepared;
And Cenau, son of Coel, would have suffered torture,
Valiantly, before he would pay anyone as hostage
Urien, Lord of Erechwydd, exlaimed:
If it must be a battle for kith and kin,
Let us raise lines above the mountain,
Let us hold our faces above the edge,
Let us raise spears above the heads of men,
Let us attack Fflamddwyn in his hosts,
And let us kill both him and his company.
And before Llwyfain Wood
There was many a corpse
Ravens were red with the blood of men
And the men who charged, the minstrel shall sing,
For many a year, the song of their victory.
~ J. Morris-Jones (1918) Taliesin
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