Bran and the British Mysteries

Robert Graves argues that Taliesin was a spiritual son of Bran, because Taliesin's father's name can be read as alder, which is Bran's sacred tree.

Graves' argument is that Taliesin’s original name, "Gwion, son of Gwreang" can be read as "Fionn, son of Freann". This makes a correspondence between Gwion and Fionn (or Finn), who in Irish myth had a similar enlightenment to Taliesin’s - Fionn was enlightened when he licked his burnt thumb whilst cooking a salmon of wisdom for a druid.

The correspondence of Gwion’s father Gwreang is to "…Freann, an established variant of Fearn, the alder. Gwion is thus claiming oracular powers as a spiritual son of the Alder-god Bran… Bran was a most suitable father for Gwion, for by this time he was known as the Giant Ogyr Vran, Guinevere’s father - his name, which means ‘Bran the Malign’ (occur vran) has apparently given English the word ‘ogre’ through Perrault’s Fairy Tales - and was credited by the bards with the invention of their art and with the ownership of the Cauldron of Cerridwen from which they said that the Triple Muse had been born. And Gwion’s mother was Cerridwen herself.