Talhaearn Tad Awen

Talhaearn Tad Awen (fl mid-6th century), was, according to medieval Welsh sources, a celebrated British poet of the sub-Roman period. He ranks as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, named poets to have composed and performed in Welsh. The better known poets Aneirin and Taliesin, who may have been slightly younger contemporaries, also belong to this early generation, the first of those known to modern scholars as the Cynfeirdd ("first poets"). and his first name, which has in common with Taliesin the first element tal ("brow, forehead"), translates as "Shining-brow". The context of the passage seems to link these five poets to the middle of the 6th century, when an otherwise unknown chieftain called Eudeyrn (MS. utigirn) fought against the English, notably Ida, king of Bernicia, and when Maelgwn ruled the kingdom of Gwynedd. responsible for a fatal hatchet-blow on Aneirin's head. In the version of this triad found in the White Book of Rhydderch, Heiden is identified as "the man who used to give a hundred kine every Saturday in a bath-tub to Talhaearn". The precise nature of these rewards remains unclear; can muv may, for instance, be a scribal error for can mu, a unit of value described elsewhere. In any event, the probability is that Heiden was Talhaearn's patron and it is possible therefore that the passage alludes a lost story about rivalry between the two great poets. Listing the "Three Unfortunate Hatchet-Blows" of Britain, Triad 34 also alludes to the anecdote (though using the variant name Eidyn), but only one late manuscript version of the triad mentions Talhaearn.

Further mention of Talhaearn is made in a difficult Middle Welsh poem entitled Angar Kyfyndawt, which is singly preserved in the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin is staged here as the first- and third-person speaker of the poem, who presents himself as a skilled and inspired poet. In passing, he is made to refer, once to Cian and twice to Talhaearn. Talhaearn is praised as the "greatest of the wise men" (mwyhaf y sywedyd),