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Ceridwen Ceridwen is a Welsh crone goddess, the keeper of the Cauldron of Knowledge and Inspiration. As such she laboured for a year and a day to bring knowledge and beauty to her ugly son Afagddu. When at last the cauldron boiled over and the knowledge passed unwittingly to Gwion, she pursued him through many shape changes before devouring him. Afterwards he was reborn as Taliesin, the great bard and seer. Ceridwen is an old one, a Hag of Creation, a goddess of sovereignty able to change shape into a beautiful young girl or an animal. Her ability to metamorphose herself is indicative of supernatural, possibly divine status. Equally important is the cauldron, often described as a vessel of knowledge but also almost certainly the cauldron of rebirth that also appears in the Tale of Branwen. However it is possible that the cauldron is a metaphor for Ceridwen herself - in consuming Gwion and giving birth to Taliesin, she accreted all knowledge and conferred it on a being of beauty she had created herself. This would make her both goddess and creator |