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Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
Hi :) What does Awen mean? Thanks.
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Awens to Miss Hepburn.
BTW: I Loved her Performance in African Queen with Bogart
Basically, I have always understood it as being a Celtic Spiritual Greetings Word similar to 'Namaste'.
It does have a Wikipedia Listing and in that it says:
"The first recorded attestation of the word occurs in Nennius' Historia Brittonum, a Latin text of c. 796, based in part on earlier writings by the Welsh monk, Gildas. It occurs in the phrase 'Tunc talhaern tat aguen in poemate claret' (Talhaern the father of the muse was then renowned in poetry) where the Old Welsh word aguen (awen) occurs in the Latin text describing poets from the sixth century.
It is also recorded in its current form in Canu Llywarch Hen (9th or 10th century?) where Llywarch says 'I know by my awen' indicating it as a source of instinctive knowledge.[3]
On connections between awen as poetic inspiration and as an infusion from the divine, The Book of Taliesin often implies this. A particularly striking example is contained in the lines:
ban pan doeth peir
ogyrwen awen teir
-literally “the three elements of inspiration that came, splendid, out of the cauldron” but implicitly “that came from God” as ‘peir’ (cauldron) can also mean ‘sovereign’ often with the meaning ‘God’. It is the “three elements” that is cleverly worked in here as awen was sometimes characterised as consisting of three sub-divisions (‘ogyrwen’) so “the ogyrwen of triune inspiration”, perhaps suggesting the Trinity.[4]"
I am a Member of the BDO and there is an Arch Druid 'Greywolf' and of the Awen, he writes:
Awen - The Holy Spirit of Druidry
by Greywolf
The quest for Awen is a quest for the spirit of Druidry itself, and, as such, it brings together many paths. We may pursue the quest as historian, linguist, poet, philosopher, priest, magician, shaman, and in many other guises. Each, in its own way, helps us to gain understanding and, as we walk the Druid path, one of the things we discover is that in understanding lies strength.
The first recorded reference to Awen occurs in Nennius' Historia Brittonum, a Latin text of circa 796 CE, based on earlier writings by the Welsh monk, Gildas. After referring to King Ida of Northumbria, who reigned from 547 to 559, Nennius says that:
"Then Talhearn Tad Awen won renown in poetry."
Tad means 'father,' so Talhearn is the Father of Awen. This doesn't tell us much about what Awen is, but, if we accept Nennius as a reliable source, it does show that Awen existed as a concept at a time when Diarmait mac Cerbaill still reigned as the last semi-pagan High King of Ireland, and only a century or so after St. Patrick's mission to convert the Irish to Christianity. The last pagan Romano-British shrines had only fallen into disuse over the previous two or three generations; St. Columba, himself the great-grandson of a pagan High King, had yet to found his monastery on Iona, from which he set out to convert the pagan Picts, and St. Augustine's mission to the pagan Angles would not start for another fifty years. Our first reference to Awen, then, dates from a period when Britain and Ireland were still in transition from paganism to Christianity. This, along with other evidence set out below, points to Awen being a concept carried over from pagan Druidry into Christian Bardic tradition.
To discover what Awen is, we should first look at what the word means. The feminine noun, Awen, has been variously translated as 'inspiration,' 'muse,' 'genius,' or even 'poetic frenzy.' The word itself is formed by combining the two words, aw, meaning 'a fluid, a flowing', and en, meaning 'a living principle, a being, a spirit, essential'. So Awen may be rendered literally as 'a fluid essence', or 'flowing spirit'. The next stage of our quest takes us to the surviving works of the Bards of medieval Britain, who were both the inheritors and the medium of transmission of remnants of pagan Druid tradition.
The so-called Four Ancient Books of Wales; the White Book of Rhydderch, the Red Book of Hergest, the Black Book of Caermarthen, and especially the 13th century Book of Taliesin, contain a number of poems which refer to Awen. These verses vary widely in date. Some may be as old as the era of the Cynfeirdd, or 'Early Bards,' which began in the 6th century, while others are much later, composed shortly before the compilation of the manuscripts in which they are found. The earliest poetry consists largely of eulogies on dead heroes, and contains few allusions to religion of any kind, but,throughout most of the period in question, Bards were avowedly Christian, and this needs to be borne in mind when we are seeking references to pagan tradition in their works. In seeking to establish what medieval Bards understood by the term Awen, we are hampered by the fact that their poetic style is often enigmatic and allusive. They had no need to explain what Awen meant to them; they already knew well enough, and were evidently happy for outsiders to the poetic craft to make of it what they could.
There are, however, clues to be found in their writings. The 12th century poet, Llywarch ap Llywelyn (c.1173-1220), also known by his splendid Bardic name, Prydydd y Moch, the 'Poet of the Pigs' says:
"The Lord God will give me the sweet Awen, as from the cauldron of Ceridwen."
Ceridwen and Taliesin: the Goddess and the Bard
Here, although the Bard identifies Awen as a gift from God, he states that it is given "as from the cauldron of Ceridwen." Who then, is Ceridwen? Elsewhere, Prydydd y Moch refers to her as "the ruler of Bards (rvyf bardoni)", a title accredited to her by several others. Our most extensive single source of information about her comes from a late prose tale entitled Chwedl [the Story of] Taliesin. A 'historical' Bard named Taliesin has been identified as having lived in the late 6th century, although, of the 77 surviving poems attributed to him, including those which comprise the Book of Taliesin, most were composed much later. The earliest surviving version of Chwedl Taliesin is found in a 16th century manuscript which evidently contains much older material since it refers to motifs found in poems dated as early as the 9th century.
In the story, Ceridwen is said to dwell in the midst of Lake Bala in Powys, with her husband, Tegid Moel ('Beautiful Bald One'). They have three children: Morfran ('Cormorant'); Creirwy ('Crystal Egg'), the most beautiful maiden in the world; and Afagddu ('Utter Darkness'), the most ill-favoured man. To compensate Afagddu for his ugliness, Ceridwen decides to make him all-wise by brewing him a magical cauldron of Inspiration (i.e. Awen) "according to the arts of the Fferyllt ('Alchemists, or Metal-workers')." The cauldron must brew for a year and a day, and Ceridwen sets two people to tend it while she goes out gathering herbs; a blind man called Morda ('Good Sea' or 'Great Good'), and a child named Gwion Bach ('Little Innocent'). On the last day, three drops of liquid fly out from the cauldron and burn Gwion's finger. He puts it to his mouth and instantly gains the three gifts of poetic inspiration, prophecy, and shape- shifting. Unfortunately, the rest of the brew is deadly poisonous andthe cauldron bursts its sides. With his gift of prophecy, Gwion knows that Ceridwen will try to kill him for having taken the draught meant for her son, so he uses his shape-shifting ability to flee in the shape of a hare. Ceridwen pursues him in the form of a greyhound *****, so he turns into a fish. She transforms into an otter *****. He becomes a bird; she a hawk. He becomes a grain of wheat and hides on a threshing floor, but Ceridwen becomes a black hen and swallows him.
'The Hostile Confederacy,' a poem from the Book of Taliesin, refers to this part of the tale as follows:
"A hen received me,
With ruddy claws, [and] parting comb.
I rested nine nights
In her womb a child,
I have been matured,
I have been an offering before the Protector,
I have been dead, I have been alive.....
Again advised me the cherisher
With ruddy claws; of what she gave me
Scarcely can be recounted;
Greatly will it be praised."
After nine months, Gwion is reborn from the womb of Ceridwen, who cannot bear to kill him "by reason of his great beauty," so she ties him in a leather bag and throws him into the sea on the eve of May Eve. On May Day morning, the bag is pulled from a weir and opened. The first person to look upon the beautiful baby in the bag says, "Behold, a radiant brow!" And so the child takes the name Taliesin, which, in Welsh, means 'Radiant Brow.' Taliesin, although a baby, is immediately able to compose perfect impromptu verse by virtue of the Awen received from Ceridwen's cauldron. He goes on to achieve fame as Primary Chief Bard of Britain.
This tale parallels many others in British and Irish Bardic literature and folklore, where individualsreceive gifts of wisdom, power, or poetic inspiration from Otherworld women. The role of Ceridwen in this story, coupled with references to her in Bardic poetry, have led most commentators to conclude that she is a pagan Goddess. Her name means 'Crooked Woman,' or 'Bent White One,' suggesting an association with the crescent moon.
HTH! And Awen: /l\
TheDruid-3X3