The Book of Taliesin

Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain

By: Taliesin, Gwyneth Lewis - translator, Rowan Williams - translator

Narrated by: David Sibley

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by David Sibley, best known for Henry V, War & Peace and Silent Witness. This definitive recording is translated by, and includes an introduction by Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan William.

Taliesin's is one of the most important names in all Welsh literature - and one of its greatest mysteries. He has fascinated and inspired some of our greatest poets, including Tennyson and Robert Graves. He is a poet; a shapeshifter; a seer; a chronicler of battles fought, by sword and with magic, between the ancient kingdoms of the fifth- and sixth-century British Isles; a bridge between old Welsh mythologies and the new Christian theology; and a figure whose literary legend culminated with the compilation in thirteenth-century North Wales of The Book of Taliesin, an anthology gathering the work of some 700 years of anonymous hands.

In the first volume since 1915 to gather the The Book of Taliesin in its entirety, Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams's artfully accessible translation makes these outrageous, swaggering and joyful poems available to a new generation of readers.

© Gwyneth Lewis, Rowan Williams 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Like Icelandic Sagas

The poetry is beautiful , reminding me of the primitive majesty of Icelandic Sagas and Greek epics. The religious poems are perhaps tiresome but on the whole this volume is terrific. The reader is perfect.

A scholarly translation

A beautifully narrated translation of the medieval poems attributed to the 6th-century Welsh poet Taliesin. I will be listening to this fine recording again and again to gain my own inspiration! The translators’ notes at the end, which detail the history and powerful beauty of these poems, are particularly useful in understanding the complex evolution of these tales, whose beginnings lie in early medieval Wales and the Old North.

Great book and explanation

great companion for Beowulf or if you want to study poetry before Shakespeare. There is also a great explanation of the ancient language was used and translated.