ilisation and culture were supposed to have
come from the gods. The things of their land were coveted by men, and
often stolen thence by them. In Welsh and Irish tales, often with
reference to the Other-world, a magical cauldron has a prominent place.
Dagda possessed such a cauldron and it was inexhaustible, and a vat of
inexhaustible mead is described in the story of _Cuchulain's Sickness_.
Whatever was put into such cauldrons satisfied all, no matter how
numerous they might be.[1281] Cuchulainn obtained one from the daughter
of the king of Scath, and also carried off the king's three cows.[1282]
In an analogous story, he stole from Curoi, by the connivance of his
wife Blathnat, her father Mider's cauldron, three cows, and the woman
herself. But in another version Cuchulainn and Curoi go to Mider's
stronghold in the Isle of Falga (Elysium), and steal cauldron, cows, and
Blathnat. These were taken from Cuchulainn by Curoi; hence his revenge
as in the previous tale.[1283] Thus the theft was from Elysium. In the
Welsh poem "The Spoils of Annwfn," Arthur stole a cauldron from Annwfn.
Its rim was encrusted with pearls, voices issued from it, it was kept
boiling by the breath of nine maidens, and it would not boil a coward's
food.[1284]

As has been seen from the story of Gwion, he was set to watch a cauldron
which must boil until it yielded "three drops of the grace of
inspiration." It belonged to Tegid Voel and Cerridwen, divine rulers of
a Land under the Waters.[1285] In the _Mabinogi_ of Branwen, her brother
Bran received a cauldron from two beings, a man and a huge woman, who
came from a lake. This cauldron was given by him to the king of Erin,
and it had the property of restoring to life the slain who were placed
in it.[1286]

The three properties of the cauldron--inexhaustibility, inspiration, and
regeneration--may be summed up in one word, fertility; and it is
significant that the god with whom such a cauldron was associated,
Dagda, was a god of fertility. But we have just seen it associated,
directly or indirectly, with goddesses--Cerridwen, Branwen, the woman
from the lake--and perhaps this may point to an earlier cult of
goddesses of fertility, later transferred to gods. In this light the
cauldron's power of restoring to life is significant, since in early
belief life is associated with what is feminine. Woman as the fruitful
mother suggested that the Earth, which produced and nourished, was also
female. Hence a