Efnisien's self-sacrifice, unknown artist 1906

"Then the Irish kindled a fire under the cauldron of renovation, and they cast the dead bodies into the cauldron until it was full, and the next day they came forth fighting-men as good as before, except that they were not able to speak. Then when Evnissyen saw the dead bodies of the men of the Island of the Mighty nowhere resuscitated, he said in his heart, "Alas! woe is me, that I should have been the cause of bringing the men of the Island of the Mighty into so great a strait. Evil betide me if I find not a deliverance therefrom." And he cast himself among the dead bodies of the Irish, and two unshod Irishmen came to him, and, taking him to be one of the Irish, flung him into the cauldron. And he stretched himself out in the cauldron, so that he rent the cauldron into four pieces, and burst his own heart also."

-The Mabinogion: Branwen the Daughter of Llyr

Efnisien sacrifices himself to destroy the cauldron of rebirth.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Efnysien.jpeg

 

Quote:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Mabinogion/Branwen_the_Daughter_of_Llyr