:''The variant spelling 'Elphin' may refer to Saint Elphin, the town of Elphin, County Roscommon, Ireland or the Diocese of Elphin,

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

Sligo Town Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

, Co. Sligo,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Elphin is also a village in

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

.'' In

Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...

, Elffin ap Gwyddno ( Welsh, also Elphin) was a son of Gwyddno Garanhir, 'Lord of

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

'. The earliest example of the name occurs in several of the mythological poems attributed to

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...

in the ''

Book of Taliesin The Book of Taliesin () is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century or before. The volume cont ...

''. The date of their composition is uncertain but probably predates the Norman conquest. Several late medieval compositions refer to Elffin and Taliesin in more detail.

Hanes Taliesin

The legend of Elffin's association with

is given at its fullest in the late medieval prose text ''Ystorya Taliesin'', the earliest redaction of the tale known as

Hanes Taliesin ''The Hanes Taliesin'' (''Historia Taliesin, The Tale of Taliesin'') is a legendary account of the life of the poet Taliesin recorded in the mid-16th century by Elis Gruffydd. The tale was also recorded in a slightly different version by John ...

. In that tale Elffin was extremely unlucky. Gwyddno sent him to a

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

and had him fish. Instead of catching salmon, Elffin found a baby boy and called it Taliesin ("radiant brow"). Along the way back to his father, Taliesin, though still a baby, spoke in beautiful

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. A few years later,

Maelgwn Gwynedd Maelgwn Gwynedd (; died c. 547)Based on Phillimore's (1888) reconstruction of the dating of the '' Annales Cambriae'' (A Text). was King of Gwynedd during the early 6th century. Surviving records suggest he held a pre-eminent position among t ...

, king of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, demanded that Elffin praise him and his court. Elffin refused, claiming Taliesin was a better bard and his wife a more virtuous woman than anyone the King had in his court. Taliesin knew what was happening, because he was a seer, and told Elffin's wife. Maelgwn's son Rhun went to Elffin's house to seduce his wife and prove Elffin's claims weren't true. Rhun got her drunk. When she passed out, Rhun tried to take her wedding ring off to prove her unfaithfulness; since the ring wouldn't come off, he cut off her finger. When King Maelgwn attempted to show the finger to Elffin, he pointed out that his wife cut her fingernails more often than the owner of the finger, had servants to knead dough and never had any under her nails, and her ring was loose on her finger, and that one was tight. Maelgwn demanded Taliesin come to his court to prove the other claim wrong. Taliesin gave twenty minutes for both himself and the King's bards to come up with an epic. The royal bards couldn't do it. When it came Taliesin's time, he caused a massive wind to rattle the castle. Frightened, Maelgwn sent for Elffin. Taliesin's next song caused Elffin's chains to detach. Then Maelgwn challenged the pair to a horse race. Taleisin arrived the next day with an old, weak horse. As each of the king's horses passed him at the very start of the race, Taliesin touched its rump with a twig of

holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

. When they had all passed, he dropped his hat to the ground. When the king's horses came back, right before the finish line, they stopped at the holly twigs Taliesin had laid there, and began to dance. Taliesin's old horse strolled back in quite a bit later and won the race.

Later literary references

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels ...

's novel of 1829 ''

The Misfortunes of Elphin ''The Misfortunes of Elphin'' is an 1829 short historical romance by Thomas Love Peacock, set in 6th century Wales, which recounts the adventures of the bard Taliesin, the princes Elphin ap Gwythno and Seithenyn ap Seithyn, and King Arthur. ...

'' relates much of Elfin's story. The novel is in part a satire of contemporary British life and in part a playful and ironic version of Welsh legend. The novel includes the discovery of Taleisin as a baby and the attempted rape of Elfin's wife by Rhun - which is considerably toned down for a comic novel.

References

*Patrick K. Ford (ed.), ''Ystorya Taliesin'' (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1992). {{Celtic mythology (Welsh) Medieval Welsh literature Taliesin