[kaphc]

Gwion Bach

... from Wales

Gwion Bach ap Gwreang was from Llanfair in Caereinion in Powys, and was forced by Cerridwen to stir the Cauldron of Inspiration for a year and a day while she brewed a magic potion of inspiration. At the end of the year, the three drops of inspiration lept out of the potion, burning Gwion's thumb, which he promptly stuck in his mouth. This caused him to become enlightened with all knowledge. Cerridwen chased him through various animal transformations until swallowing him as a grain, and then giving birth to him, at which point he was renamed Taliesin--the Shining Brow.