Page:The mythology of ancient Britain and Ireland (IA mythologyofancie00squiiala).pdf/86

 'Is it not the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn?' What is its fashion?' asks the bard Taliesin, and he goes on to describe it as rimmed with pearls, and gently warmed by the breath of nine maidens. 'It will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn,' he continues, which allows us to assume that, like such vessels as the Dagda's cauldron or the basket of Gwyddneu Garanhir, it would provide generously for the brave and truthful. It was kept in a square fortress surrounded by the sea, and called by various names, such as the Revolving Castle (Cuer Sidi), the Underworld (Uffern), the Four-cornered Castle (Caer Pedryvan), the Castle of (?) Revelry (Caer Vedwyd), the (?) Kingly Castle (Caer Rigor), the Glass Castle (Caer Wydyr), and the Castle of (?) Riches (Caer Golud). This stronghold, ruled over by Pwyll and Prydéri, is represented as spinning round with such velocity that it was almost impossible to enter it, and was in pitch-darkness save for a twilight made by the lamp burning before its gate, but its inhabitants, who were exempt from old age and disease, led lives of revelry, quaffing the bright wine. Evidently, as may be ascertained from comparison with similar myths, it stood for the Other World, as conceived by the Celts.

This cauldron of pagan myth has altered