its like as the cauldron of the Dagda, which was one of the treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danaan: it was called the Undry,[1] as it was never empty, and it was so discreet that each one had out of it what was in proportion to his merit. No company ever rose from it unsatisfied, and the legend concerning it is that the Tuatha Dé Danaan had brought it from a mythical place called Murias,[2] in which we have a reference doubtless to some locality beneath the sea (in Irish muir), like Caer Sidi in Taliessin's poems: it was probably one of the objects of their seven years' sojourn in the country called Dobar and Iardobar,[3] or 'Water' and 'Behind Water.'
The Welsh poem already cited is not the only one in the Book of Taliessin which refers to the harrying of Hades by Gwydion: I would now refer to another, in which Gwydion is mentioned by that name. The poem is entitled Kat Godeu, or the Battle of Goᵭeu, which, interpreted, appears to mean the Battle of Trees; and accordingly various trees and shrubs are described as taking part in the fighting; and the whole idea challenges comparison with that of the Battle of the Birds in the popular tales of the West Highlands.[4] Taliessin pretends, after his wont, to have been present in the fray, and to
- ↑ Irish Caire Ainsic, 'the Undry Cauldron:' see the Stokes-O'Donovan ed. of Cormac, p. 45; also O'Donovan's Battle of Magh Rath (Dublin, 1842), pp. 50-3, where, besides the Dagda's, other cauldrons are mentioned of similar virtues.
- ↑ Keating's History of Ireland (Dublin, 1880), p. 117.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 112; O'Flaherty's Ogygia, i. 12.
- ↑ Campbell, i. 25, et seq.
