Llyn Tegid, or Lake Bala in North Wales is the setting for the story of Cerridwen. If this isn't familiar, I urge you to seek out a few versions (the internet will provide) because this is very much a key tale for bards. For the purposes of this post I'm going to assume you've read it.
I had the blessing of being able to visit Llyn Tegid recently, and was struck by some thoughts. I make no claim whatsoever for having stumbled upon a truth,
While I was at the lake, I was thinking about the shape of the landscape, and the way in which the surrounding hills are suggestive of a cauldron. Now, if the landscape itself was the cauldron, then the lake would be the potion in the cauldron. This brought up two further lines of thought. The potion is made for Cerridwen's son - Morfran. The name means cormorant. A potion that is a lake made for a son who is a cormorant is a very different sort of story. It also struck me that with this interpretation, the breaking of the cauldron and the poisoning of the horses works in a somewhat different way, although drowning seems a more likely outcome if a landscape breaks open and releases water.
What makes this even more interesting is that Llyn Tegid is itself a glacial lake. The Welsh name of Llyn Tegid is associated with Cerriden's giant husband Tegid Foel whose court site is now under the lake. Given how often giants are associated in folklore with landscape features and in mythology with landscape creation stories, it is tempting to make some connections. It suggests to me powers in the landscape, gods or other primordial creator figures whose beings, bodies and lives create the land.
I came away from the lake with strong feelings about the possibility that Cerridwen's story might be far more to do with the landscape of the lake than I had previously considered.
I wondered what it might mean for the lake to be the potion and the source of inspiration. I wondered about whether this might be a story of how something made for the wild things, for the cormorant son, and the daughter who I associate with flowers (although I have no idea where I got this association) became something for humans.
It is all speculation, all dreaming and wondering and responding to an experience of a landscape.
As I was leaving the lake, I was fairly sure I saw a cormorant flying low over the water. It seemed significant.
No comments:
Post a Comment