20th century illustration  'The Magic Cauldron, 1985', sign...

Hammer

£10

20th century illustration 
'The Magic Cauldron, 1985', signed indistinctly lower right, 32.5cm x 27cm 
Printed description verso reads 

"The magic cauldron, 1985

The goddess Ceridwen had a son who was the ugliest boy in the world. To compensate for his ugliness, she mixed in her magic cauldron a potion of inspiration and knowledge. It had to be stirred for a year and a day, and she set the servant boy Gwion to this task. At the end of the year tasted the mixture out of curiosity, and received all the wisdom that was to have gone to Ceridwen’s son.

In a rage Ceridwen pursued him. Gwion with his new found knowledge changed himself into a hare. Ceridwen at once turned into a greyhound. Gwion turned into a fish, Ceridwen into an otter. Gwion turned into a bird, Ceridwen into a hawk. Then Gwion became a grain of wheat and hid himself on the threshing floor of a barn. Ceridwen turned into a black hen, and pecked among the wheat until she found Gwion and swallowed him.

Ceridwen then became pregnant of Gwion, and when she gave birth to him he was so beautiful she had not the heart to kill him, but cast him out to sea instead. The child was rescued and became the legendary bard, Taliesin.

The story is depicted here as a myth of the changing seasons, as the spirit of the wheat, the sunchild, dies every year and is swallowed by the Earth, to be reborn in spring with the return of the sun."