Category: Brythonic Hymns
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Awenau hear me
aid my song
As I write of the one
who is ever young:Maponos, the son
of Matrona – Mabon
Who from Modron was taken
out of the light of the WorldInto the darkness of unWorld
he was Maponos and not-Maponos
When the darkness held him
and he held the darkness about him.Matrona – who is Being – searched
but he was in not-Being;
She was in every place in the World
but he was in not-World,So she went there, and Being
was not, and light faded from World.. .
.Who was it held the key
to release them? Many storiesTell of heroes in the spring of World:
Manawydan breaking the spell
That lies on the land
for Rhiannon and Pryderi to return,Cei and Bedwyr riding the salmon
to find Mabon and bring Arthur
To release him from Caerloyw
out of the darkness into the light..
. .O Awenau, he is the one
who holds the harp, the lute, the lyre,
He is the one who contains your song,
He is the muse of Fire!.
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The Greek poet Hesiod (c. 8th century b.c.e) prefaced his Theogony (Stories of the Gods) with an appeal to the Muses “Let us begin our singing”, and tells first of them. There were nine born to Memory: “Nine nights Zeus lay with her …. and she bore nine daughters”. They went then to Olympus “glorying in their beautiful voices and singing divinely”. Hesiod then tells how they inspire divine utterance in those they favour: Such is the Muse’s holy gift “and they told me to sing of the blessed ones who are forever, and first and last always to sing of themselves”. So Hesiod begins the work of writing his Theogony. Addresses to the Muse or muses also begin the Homeric Hymns to each of the gods from the same period, and Homer himself begins both his Iliad and his Odyssey with a similar appeal.
For the early Welsh bards the Muse was Ceridwen with her cauldron the source of Awen. So the nine maidens whose breath kindled the Cauldron of the Head of Annwn, as described in the Taliesinic poem Preiddeu Annwn, embody the sense of nine muses, daughters of a god, their breath inspiring awen in the bards they favour.
So their praises also should be sung.
O Muses / O Awenau
You whose breath kindled the cauldron
of awen in Ceridwen’s keeping,
breathe sweet music into my songsfor the gods, for the good life
they shape for us, to celebrate
their presence and their powerto move us and make for us
a world of meaning awakening
the kindled flame of the cauldronburning beneath the brew
of inspired speech in hearts
and minds with devotion that bindsour words in worship, our wish
to bring to all the gods a song
that will please, a gift of praise.