Celtic Lore: Cauldrons – The Magical, the Mythical and the Real

Image from Gundestrup Cauldron – Public Domain

This article was first published on #FolkloreThursday on 11th February 2021, titled , “Ancient Celtic Cauldrons: The Magical, the Mythical, the Real,” by zteve t evans.

Cauldrons

In the ancient mythologies of the Welsh and Irish Celts, the cauldron played an important role in some of their most enduring stories and myths. In these, they were often attributed with magical properties but in the everyday life of the Celts, they were also very useful and versatile utensils. Here we take a brief look at the everyday usage of cauldrons followed by a look at five mythical cauldrons. To conclude we will discuss one real, very ancient and very special cauldron found in a bog in Denmark.

The Cauldron of Ceridwen

One of their most famous cauldrons was the cauldron of knowledge, inspiration, and rebirth. It belonged to a sorceress named Ceridwen. She used her cauldron to brew a potion that would imbue knowledge and wisdom to whoever drank of it, yet she intended it solely for her son. The concoction had to be boiled and stirred for a year and a day. She tasked a blind man named Morda with the job of feeding the fire, and a boy named Gwion Bach with stirring the brew. Many people see the continuous stirring of the cauldron as blending the attributes of divine wisdom and inspiration with the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth to create the perfect brew of existence.

The Gundestrup Cauldron

The Gundestrup cauldron is most spectacular of real ancient Celtic cauldrons so far recovered, dated to the Iron Age. It is made of silver and beautifully and intricately decorated with many fine images.  The silversmiths are unknown, but in those days few craftsmen could produce such craftsmanship in silver. They may not even have been Celts, but the best available craftsmen at the time. However, because of the Celtic iconography, it displays it was thought to have been commissioned by an unknown, high-ranking Celt, probably for purely ceremonial purposes. The imagery was believed to express one or more Celtic myths, and possibly display several deities mixed with other images of a different style.

The Importance of Cauldrons

Many scholars think in Celtic times people came together around a cauldron to engage in the enjoyable, sociable activity of eating. The Gundestrup cauldron, being made of silver, was probably not used for cooking on a fire, but may have held pre-cooked food or drink or was purely ceremonial.

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The Welsh legend of the birth of Taliesin

Taliesin was one of the most famous and celebrated bards in Wales and holds an important place in Welsh history, mythology and culture to this day. Although evidence is patchy he was thought to have been born around 534 AD and died around 599 AD and was believed to have performed at the courts of three Brythonic kings. Many legends and myths grew up around him and some of his poems are still available today. The legend of Taliesin’s birth begins before he was born. This seems a strange thing to say but this is how the story went.

Ceridwen, Gwion Bach and Morda brewing a potion – Public Domain

Ceridwen’s gift

By Llyn Tegid, (Lake Bala) in Penllyn, lived Tegid Foel who had a wife named Ceridwen. The couple had three children named Ceirwy, Morfran and Afagddu. Now Afagddu was unnaturally ugly and unbelievably stupid. Nevertheless, Ceridwen his mother, who was also a sorceress, loved him greatly and decided that to compensate for these disadvantages she would give to him the gift of knowledge.  Read more