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Scholars question whether Taliesin was a historical person or more of an archetypal figure of Welsh lore. Traditionally Taliesin is said to have been a poet-seer who lived sometime around the 6th century in post-Roman occupied Wales, though the poetry attributed to him was prabably gathered in the 13th century.
His name, Taliesin, means "shining brow" or, alternately, "great value" (tal, meaning both forehead and worth).
One legend is told of Taliesin in which he stole the "liquid mead of poetry" from a powerful shamaness. The shamaness chased him through a contest of transformations, Taliesin changing form, to be matched by the shamaness. Taliesin finally assumes the form of a grain of wheat and the shamaness, becoming a hen, swallows him, only to give birth to him as a baby in resurrected form. She takes the baby, sews him in a sack, and drops him into the ocean. A prince rescues him and names the baby Taliesin because of his "lovely forehead."
Because of his legendary role as a bard and man of secret wisdom, Taliesin has sometimes even been equated with the Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian tales.
The poems that come down to us in such works as the Llyfer Taliesin (Book of Taliesin) express a shamanic perception of the world. The poems are evocations and praises, often taking the reader along with the speaker through a series of transformations that lead to an awareness of unity.
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