Tim Powers has the protagonist of his book The Drawing of the Dark, Brian Duffy, utter a few verses of the Cad Goddeu to evoke ancient beings to fight with him. [8] These include the earliest surviving Welsh poetry written down, two series of englynion. It’s worth noting that versions of the englyn strict-metre form are still used widely by Welsh-language poets in the 21st century; this is an old and enduring literary tradition! It appears that some "marks" presumably awarded for poems – measuring their "value" – are extant in the margin of the Book of Taliesin. Tennyson portrayed him, and wrote at least one poem under his name. Robert Graves was fascinated by what he saw as his work's connection to a lost world of deeply buried folkloric memory. He is a shapeshifter; a seer; a chronicler of battles fought, by sword and with magic, between the ancient kingdoms of the British Isles; a bridge between old Welsh mythologies and the new Christian theology; a 6th-century Brythonic bard; and a legendary collective project spanning the centuries up to The Book of Taliesin's compilation in 14th-century North Wales. He is, above all, no single 'he'. The historic Taliesin lived sometime in the latter half of the 6th century, as evidenced by sources such as Historia Brittonum and Y Gododdin. Many famous poems and ballads have been attributed to him. By the time Llyfr Taliesin (the Book of Taliesin) was written in the 14th century, Taliesin was already a legendary figure who had appeared in Arthurian legends (by the 11th century) and other stories.

This book is an excellent and informative translation of the medieval poems that are attributed to the Taliesin persona. This translation was performed by two eminent Welsh poets, the first being Gwyneth Lewis, known in part for her words which are inscribed above the Wales Millennium Center in Cardiff.The Book of Taliesin, in Welsh, with English translations by W.F. Skene (1858) (note: Skene's text and translation are not reliable by the standards of modern scholarship) metalworkers: the word given is fferyll; some see this as the word Fferyllt, who is the classical poet Vergil, whose book Cerridwen reads from when making her potion for awen. The prophetic poems are also semi-legendary, and many make references to the Welsh myths of the Mabinogion, alluding to its characters and its stories, and events that the poets were intimately familiar with. they've added their own punctuation in places. the afterword also talks here of how they've dealt with place names that were mixed in the original, the silent capitalisation of place names etc., the placing of contemporary place names in footnotes having kept older Welsh names (with k amended to c in places,...). and the keeping of some key words awen, annwfn, in Welsh.

According to the Welsh Triads, Taliesin had a son, Afaon, who was accounted a great warrior, and who suffered a violent death, probably in Lothian. [14] Taliesin's grave is held in folklore to be near the village of Tre Taliesin near Llangynfelyn [15] called Bedd Taliesin, but this is a Bronze Age burial chamber, and the village of Tre-Taliesin, at the foot of the hill, was actually named after the burial chamber in the 19th century [16] though legend was traced by Edward Lhuyd to the 17th century. Ceridwen gave birth to Taliesin through magical means, and as such was considered to be the bard’s mother. His first patron, Elfin, lord of Ceredigion, served as his foster-father thereafter. Jenkins, David (2002). A Refuge in Peace and War: The National Library of Wales to 1952. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales. pp.99–111, 152–53. ISBN 1-86225-034-0.In addition to Elfin, Taliesin began to act as an advisor to different kings. He appeared in the tale Culhwch and Olwen as a bard in the court of King Arthur. In later Arthurian legends, Taliesin would appear as an advisor, magician, poet, or companion (one story featured his son joining the court as well). Taliesin took on a similar role in the tales of Bran the Blessed, traveling alongside the king and dispensing valuable advice. Historic Sources

Modern Welsh poet John Davies of Denbighshire (1841–1894) took the bardic name of Taliesin Hiraethog. [19] The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose mother, Anna Lloyd Jones, was born in Wales, named his Wisconsin home and studio Taliesin and his home and studio near Scottsdale, Arizona Taliesin West.

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Robert Graves took up a speculation that had been considered and rejected by Nash; that the trees that fought in the battle correspond to the Ogham alphabet, in which each character is associated with a particular tree. Each tree had a meaning and significance of its own, and Gwydion guessed Bran's name by the alder branch Bran carried, the alder being one of Bran's prime symbols. Graves argued that the original poet had concealed druidic secrets about an older matriarchal Celtic religion for fear of censure from Christian authorities. He suggested that Arawn and Bran were names for the same underworld god and that the battle was probably not physical but rather a struggle of wits and scholarship: Gwydion's forces could only be defeated if the name of his companion, Lady Achren ("Trees"), was guessed and Arawn's host only if Bran's name was guessed. Taliesin was often compared to Merlin, the famous magician of King Arthur’s court. Both men were wise and far-seeing, serving Arthur as advisor and magician, respectively. Though some legends depicted the two as practically interchangeable, they were ultimately separate characters with unique personal histories. Whereas Merlin was a druid and sometimes half-demon, Taliesin was merely a twice-born bard. Whereas Merlin was famous for his fantastical nature—appearing in French romances and other tales of popular legend—Taliesin was more grounded in historical reality. There are contemporary passing allusions to the Battle of Trees elsewhere in the medieval Welsh collections: The Welsh Triads record it as a "frivolous" battle, while in another poem of the Book of Taliesin the poet claims to have been present at the battle. Deep Purple (1968). The Book of Taliesyn (LP sleeve). Los Angeles, California: Tetragrammaton Records. T107.