Author Topic: From The Cauldron Born (Read 8528 times)

Donal2018 · « **on:** August 30, 2019, 05:24:34 pm »

So I saw a book some time ago in Barnes and Noble and meant to buy it, but never got around to it. I am wondering if anyone has read it and has an opinion on if it is worth buying. It is called "From The Cauldron Born: Exploring The Magic Of Welsh Legend & Lore" by Kristoffer Hughes. It seems to be based around the myth of Cerridwen and the birth of Taliesin. I will probably buy it at some point. A lot of my deity focus is on Welsh Mythology, especially connected to Gwydion, who is a sort of Celtic magical trickster god. So the book caught my eye.

Dynes Hysbys · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2019, 07:26:57 pm »

Quote from: Donal2018 on August 30, 2019, 05:24:34 pm

So I saw a book some time ago in Barnes and Noble and meant to buy it, but never got around to it. I am wondering if anyone has read it and has an opinion on if it is worth buying. It is called "From The Cauldron Born: Exploring The Magic Of Welsh Legend & Lore" by Kristoffer Hughes. It seems to be based around the myth of Cerridwen and the birth of Taliesin. I will probably buy it at some point. A lot of my deity focus is on Welsh Mythology, especially connected to Gwydion, who is a sort of Celtic magical trickster god. So the book caught my eye.

Kris Hughes is a very well known Welsh Druid, author and speaker and very well respected. I have a copy of From the Cauldron Born ( or I did - I lent it to someone and it's now missing).

If the Welsh mythology is your thing then yes he is worth reading. He has an interesting year long working with Ceridwen which is in the book.

And yes Gwydion is most definitely a trickster - he has led me a merry dance or two in the past. I'm not going to forget that scramble up the hillside when there was a much easier path nearby.

Donal2018 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2019, 07:36:17 pm »

Quote from: Dynes Hysbys on August 30, 2019, 07:26:57 pm

Kris Hughes is a very well known Welsh Druid, author and speaker and very well respected. I have a copy of From the Cauldron Born ( or I did - I lent it to someone and it's now missing).

If the Welsh mythology is your thing then yes he is worth reading. He has an interesting year long working with Ceridwen which is in the book.

And yes Gwydion is most definitely a trickster - he has led me a merry dance or two in the past. I'm not going to forget that scramble up the hillside when there was a much easier path nearby.

Oh, great! Thanks for the recommendation and the comment. I have had a few adventures with Gwydion myself, one involving a bog and a walking stick. Maybe we can swap stories and thoughts about Gwydion in the future.

Just as an aside- do you think that one must understand Welsh Language (Cymraeg) to do a proper study of the myths and religion? I am not a good language student, and this has been on my mind. I am very strongly drawn to the Welsh Mythologies.

Anyway, thanks again for the comment. From your recommendation I will definitely be buying the book. I will maybe post about my experience with it at a later date.

Dynes Hysbys · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2019, 05:13:10 am »

Quote from: Donal2018 on August 30, 2019, 07:36:17 pm

Oh, great! Thanks for the recommendation and the comment. I have had a few adventures with Gwydion myself, one involving a bog and a walking stick. Maybe we can swap stories and thoughts about Gwydion in the future.

Just as an aside- do you think that one must understand Welsh Language (Cymraeg) to do a proper study of the myths and religion? I am not a good language student, and this has been on my mind. I am very strongly drawn to the Welsh Mythologies.

Somehow I'm really not surprised that Gwydion got you into a bog. That ties in so well with what he did with me!

Have you seen this? The site is known as Lleu's castle but as it's where Gwydion is said to have taken Lleu as a baby to save him from the wrath of Arianrhod. https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/iron-age-building-unearthed-gwynedd-16797906

The original source material is in medieval Welsh - it's like a modern day English speaker ploughing through Chaucer or Beowulf as they were originally written so there are good academic translations into English available.

Some very basic Welsh is helpful but not essential- the lore is reflected in the landscape so it is possible to pinpoint many of the sites referred to in Y Mabinogi. With a tiny bit of basic Welsh you can pick up clues in place names that may refer to some interesting snippet of history. Llansanffraid for example generally means that there is something going on with Brighid (Ffraid is her name in Welsh). You certainly don't have to be anywhere near fluent or even able to string a sentence together.

A lot of the later Welsh material is also available in translation but frustratingly not always easily. I'm about to get some documents up from the archives at the Welsh National Library as the copies I have are in a style of Welsh that is way above my own level of competency. The WNL does have a lot of resources on line for download if you visit their site but this is a bit too obscure and they haven't been scanned (yet).

PerditaPickle · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2019, 06:53:58 am »

Quote from: Donal2018 on August 30, 2019, 05:24:34 pm

So I saw a book some time ago in Barnes and Noble and meant to buy it, but never got around to it. I am wondering if anyone has read it and has an opinion on if it is worth buying. It is called "From The Cauldron Born: Exploring The Magic Of Welsh Legend & Lore" by Kristoffer Hughes. It seems to be based around the myth of Cerridwen and the birth of Taliesin. I will probably buy it at some point. A lot of my deity focus is on Welsh Mythology, especially connected to Gwydion, who is a sort of Celtic magical trickster god. So the book caught my eye.

Sounds interesting.

Quote from: Dynes Hysbys on August 30, 2019, 07:26:57 pm

Kris Hughes is a very well known Welsh Druid, author and speaker and very well respected.

Might have to invest in a copy myself sometime.

Donal2018 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 01, 2019, 02:11:20 pm »

Quote from: Dynes Hysbys on August 31, 2019, 05:13:10 am

Somehow I'm really not surprised that Gwydion got you into a bog. That ties in so well with what he did with me!

Have you seen this? The site is known as Lleu's castle but as it's where Gwydion is said to have taken Lleu as a baby to save him from the wrath of Arianrhod. https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/iron-age-building-unearthed-gwynedd-16797906

The original source material is in medieval Welsh - it's like a modern day English speaker ploughing through Chaucer or Beowulf as they were originally written so there are good academic translations into English available.

Some very basic Welsh is helpful but not essential- the lore is reflected in the landscape so it is possible to pinpoint many of the sites referred to in Y Mabinogi. With a tiny bit of basic Welsh you can pick up clues in place names that may refer to some interesting snippet of history. Llansanffraid for example generally means that there is something going on with Brighid (Ffraid is her name in Welsh). You certainly don't have to be anywhere near fluent or even able to string a sentence together.

A lot of the later Welsh material is also available in translation but frustratingly not always easily. I'm about to get some documents up from the archives at the Welsh National Library as the copies I have are in a style of Welsh that is way above my own level of competency. The WNL does have a lot of resources on line for download if you visit their site but this is a bit too obscure and they haven't been scanned (yet).

Thanks for the post and the good information. I am on my tablet so I will be brief.

That Iron Age site is amazing. I am not a big traveller, but if I went to Britain, that would be just the sort of place that I would visit.

I do have an English translation of the Mabinogi. It is such good stuff. I am mainly Irish-American by blood, but my surname originated in Wales (Norman Welsh intermarriage, then onto Ireland).

So I have had a long fascination with Wales and Welsh Mythology. I work with the Irish Tuatha De Dannan, but my heart seems to be with Cerridwen, Arianrhod, Gwyddion, and the rest.

As far as Welsh language goes, I wish the spelling was more phonetic. I am not so sure about pronunciation. Same with Irish language. I wiĺl maybe look up some YouTube clips or other sites about language learning.

Anyway great to see people here on the Celtic SIG. This Celtic material is an ongoing project for me, so I am looking forward to reading and writing more about it and talking to Cauldron Folks about it.

Donal2018 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 01, 2019, 02:18:04 pm »

Quote from: PerditaPickle on August 31, 2019, 06:53:58 am

Sounds interesting.

Might have to invest in a copy myself sometime.

Yes, good to see you here also, Perdita. We seem to have some similar areas of interest- Celtic and Druidic material. If I get that book, I will report back here on it. If you got it also that would be cool. It seems like something to look forward to. I hope to have a good Fall, studying Celtic material.