Talhaiarn Tadawen: Talhaiarn Father of Inspiration.
fl. 475-510 CE., Britain.
In the language of Talhearn,
baptism was the judgement,
whoever expounded to him the nature
and the power of poetry
To him is wisdom bestowed,
and inspiration without fail.
--Taliesin. "The Hostile Confederacy" The Book of Taliesin.
Talhaiarn Tadawen is said to have been on of the bards of fifth century Britain. Of him it was said that he was decended of Coel ("Old King Cole"), and that he was chaplain to Ambrosius Aurelianus, leader of the Britons against the Saxons in the Battle of Badon, according to St. Gildas. As such, he would have been of "royal" blood. His reputation is much lauded in Welsh annals, but none of his work survives. Only one work attributed to him survives, and that is spurious, as it comes from Barddas, a much-disputed text of the sixteenth century:
"God, impart strength;
And in that strength, reason;
And in reason, knowledge;
And in knowledge, justice;
And in justice, the love of it;
And in that love, the love of every thing;
And in the love of every thing, the love of God."
Composed by Talhaiarn, the father of Tanwyn.
Nennius, in his Historia Brittonum, names him as one of the five bards famed for poetry; the others being "Neirin" (Aneurin), Taliesin, "Bluchbard, and Cian, who is called Guenith Guaut (Kernal of Poetry?)." The final two, nothing is known of them.