Gwion drinks from the witch Cardiwen's magic cauldron of knowledge and is reborn as Taliesin: magician, poet, prophet, weathermonger and trickster. Adopted as a baby by Elphin, the unluckiest man in Wales, over the next twelve years Taliesin transforms Elphin's fortunes. The story as told in the Welsh Mabinogion is a succession of mediaeval folk tales which have collected around the figure of Taliesin, who was once as well-known as Merlin.