floor of a barn, and dropping upon it, he became one of the wheat-grains.
Changing herself into a high-crested black hen, Cardiwen scratched him up
and swallowed him, when he changed at last into a boy again and was so
beautiful that she could not kill him outright, but wrapped him in a
leathern bag and cast him into the sea, committing him to the mercy of
God. This was on the twenty-ninth of April.

Now Gwyddno had a weir for catching fish on the sea-strand near his
castle, and every day in May he was wont to take a hundred pounds' worth
of fish. He had a son named Elphin, who was always poor and unsuccessful,
but that year the father had given the son leave to draw all the fish from
the weir, to see if good luck would ever befall him and give him something
with which to begin the world.

When Elphin went next to draw the weir, the man who had charge of it said
in pity, "Thou art always unlucky; there is nothing in the weir but a
leathern bag, which is caught on one of the poles." "How do we know," said
Elphin, "that it may not contain the value of a hundred pounds?" Taking up
the bag and opening it, the man saw the forehead of the boy and said to
Elphin, "Behold, what a radiant brow" (Taliessin). "Let him be called
Taliessin," said Elphin. Then he lifted the boy and placed him sorrowfully
behind him; and made his horse amble gently, that before had been
trotting, and carried him as softly as if he had been sitting in the
easiest chair in the world, and the boy of the radiant brow made a song to
Elphin as they went along.

"Never in Gwyddno's weir
Was there such good luck as this night.
Fair Elphin, dry thy cheeks!
Being too sad will not avail,