' It is very well to parallel with this extract
Taliesin's: 'I carried the banner before Alexander; I was in Canaan
when Absalom was slain; I was on the horse's crupper of Elias and
Enoch; I was on the high cross of the merciful son of God; I was the
chief overseer at the building of the tower of Nimrod; I was with my
King in the manger of the ass; I supported Moses through the waters
of Jordan; I have been in the buttery in the land of the Trinity; it
is not known what is the nature of its meat and its fish.' It is
very well to say that these assertions 'we may fairly ascribe to the
poetic fancy of a Christian priest of the thirteenth century.'
Certainly we may; the last of Taliesin's assertions more especially;
though one must remark at the same time that the Welshman shows much
more fire and imagination than the Anglo-Saxon. But Taliesin adds,
after his: 'I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain,' 'I WAS IN THE
HALL OF DON BEFORE GWYDION WAS BORN;' he adds, after: 'I was chief
overseer at the building of the tower of Nimrod,' 'I HAVE BEEN THREE
TIMES RESIDENT IN THE CASTLE OF ARIANROD;' he adds, after: 'I was at
the cross with Mary Magdalene,' 'I OBTAINED MY INSPIRATION FROM THE
CAULDRON OF CERIDWEN.' And finally, after the mediaeval touch of the
visit to the buttery in the land of the Trinity, he goes off at
score: 'I have been instructed in the whole system of the universe;
I shall be till the day of judgment on the face of the earth.
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