From the book The Celtic Year by Shirley Toulson:
"Probably the best known bard today is the sixth-century Welsh Taliesin, a contemporary of King Arthur [...]Well, this sure ties in well with both the cover of the album, as well as the lyrics to the opening track Listen, Learn, Read On."According to his legeng the witch Ceridwen prepared a potion in her cauldron which had to simmer for a year, at the end of which time it would have boiled down to 3 drops which would convey the power of discerning the past, the present and the future on anyone who tasted them. To the witches dismay, these powerful drops bubbled out of her cauldron and landed on the finger of the lad whose job it was to tend the fire. Instinctively he put his finger into is mouth to ease his pain.
"Realising what he had done and perceiving Ceridwens fury, the boy ran away, changing himself first into a hare, then into a fish, then into a bird and finally into a grain of wheat in an endeavour to put her off the track. In turn, she chased him in the forms of a greyhound, an otter and a hawk. Foiled in these guises, she became a hen and in that form she swallowed the grain of wheat. Thus she became pregnant with the spirit of the lad who had swallowed the 3 prophetic drops, and in time gave birth to him in the form of the poet, Taliesin.
"His poems, collected in the medieval 'Book Of Taliesin' affirm him as a timeless being who has existed from the beginning and will live until Domesday."
Info dug forth by Colin Irwin
Another frequently asked question regarding this album while we're at it: