Contention of the Bards in Gwynedd

According to Welsh tradition, the Contention of the Bards took place at Deganwy in Gwynedd, most likely during the winter of 546-547, and was a contest in bardic skill between Taliesin and the bards of king Maelgwn Gwynedd, led by Heinin. According to the legendary history of Taliesin, the poet (not to be confused with the historical figure Taliesin) was a boy of 12 at the time, had been trained as a bard at Aberdyfi at the court of Gwyddno Garanhir and his son Elffin ap Gwyddno of Ceredigion. Maelgwn is said to have held Elffin in captivity and Taliesin challenged his bards to a bardic contest for which Elffin was the prize. Taliesin won the contest and Elffin’s freedom, and also (correctly) prophesied Maelgwn’s death from a swamp-born pestilence.

The poems Prifardd ydwyf i Elffin (Primary Chief Bard am I to Elffin) and Cân y Gwynt (Song to the Wind), which are later medieval poems attributed to Taliesin, are amongst those that, according to legend, he sang in the Contention. The same tradition says that he composed the poem Journey to Deganwy in preparation for the Contention. These and numerous other poems are extant only in mss. written up to a thousand years after they were supposedly composed, and on linguistic evidence can be dated to the medieval period.

There is a stone cross which commemorates this “Contention of the Bards” . The cross depicts the boy Taliesin and three other principal participants in the Contention . It has been dated to the eighth century .

When Gildas, writing in c. 547AD, wrote of Maelgwn “you have had for your instructor the most eloquent master of almost all Britain”, he may have been referring to Taliesin who “rose to prominence” that year, according to a note in the Anglo-Saxon Kings and Regnal Lists .

The Contention of the Bards could be interpreted as spiritually symbolic, with Heinin and the bards of Maelgwn representing the ego, its multiple desires and its love of self-praise, and Taliesin representing spiritual wisdom and discernment.