The Many Faces of Merlin by CAM

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Merlin is one of the most fascinating figures in the Welsh literature and the Arthurian legend. Merlin is a man of mystery and magic; contradiction and controversy surrounded his life.

Name
Merlin.
Myrddin (Welsh).
Merlinus (Latin).

Emrys (Welsh), Ambrosius (Latin);

Merlin Ambrosius.
Merlin Calidonius.

Sources
Historia regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1137) and
the Vita Merlini ("Life of Merlin", c. 1152) were written by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Roman de Brut ("Story of Brutus") was written by Wace, c. 1155.

Brut was written by Layamon, c. 1200.

Merlin was written by Robert de Boron, c. 1200.

Vulgate Merlin or Prose Merlin was adaptation of Boron's Merlin, c. 1210.

Suite de Merlin was part of Post Vulgate Cycle, c. 1240.

Le Morte d'Arthur was written by Thomas Malory, 1469.

Historia Brittonum was written by Nennius (9th century).
Related Articles Vortigern, Arthur.
Genealogy: Merlin.

 

 

Merlin
Julek Heller
Illustration, 1990

 

 

Merlin wore many hats: he was a Wizard or Sorcerer, a Prophet, a Bard, an Adviser and a Tutor. He appeared as a young boy with no father. He appeared as an old, wise man, freely giving his wisdom to four successive British kings. He was dotting old fool, who couldn't control his lust over beautiful women, who hold him in fear and contempt. He had even appeared as a madman after bloody battle, and had fled into the forest and learned how to talk to the animals, where he became known as the Wild Man of the Woods. Merlin was the last of the druid, the Celtic shaman, priest of nature, and keeper of knowledge, particularly of the arcane secrets.

 

Merlin Sleeping in the Woods
Eleanor Fortescue Bricksdale
Illustration

 

 

According to the Welsh historian, Nennius, Merlin appeared as a young boy, but under the name of Emrys or as Ambrosius in Latin, with the British king, Vortigern. In a similar account with Vortigern, it was Geoffrey of Monmouth, who had named this boy – Merlinus Ambrosius (Merlin Emrys in Welsh).

In the work, titled Historia regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1137), Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that he was a son of a nun and grandson of the King of Demetia in southern Wales. As to his father, he was either a devil or an incubus. Merlin is a paradox, he was the son of the devil, yet he was the servant of God.

Merlin had being identified to the Welsh fictional bard named Myrddin of the late 6th century, in the Welsh poem called Afallenau and several other poems, preserved in the manuscript known as the Black Book of Carmarthen, c. 1250. These rather old Welsh poems appeared rather obscure and gibberish.

 

 

 

Merlin and the Fairy Queen
John Duncan
Tempera
Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, Renfrew District Council

 

Geoffrey of Monmouth composed a similar tale of Merlin's madness, written in Latin, known as Vita Merlin or the "Life of Merlin", in 1150. In this version, he was known as Merlin Calidonius. Here, he has a sister and a wife, but there's no mention of his parents. It is the only text that mentioned Merlin having a wife.

Nimue (Niniane) and Merlin
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Gouache, 1861
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 

 

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's work called Historia regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", 1137), Merlin was rumored to have been the son of a demon or an incubus and a mortal woman who was a nun. Merlin was probably born in the town of Carmarthen. Because of his link with a demon and God, Merlin had great wisdom and powers from the two opposing forces.

Later Legend has expanded the amazing birth of Merlin, such as the prose adaptation of Robert de Boron's Merlin; the adaptation was known as the Prose Merlin or the Vulgate Merlin, because it was part of the Vulgate Cycle. See Son of the Devil? for a brief tale of Merlin's birth and how he had gained his powers of foresight and magic.

According to Geoffrey, his mother was the daughter of the King of Demetia (Dyved, kingdom in southern Wales). Though, a princess, she became a nun.

After King Vortigern lost his battle and much of his territory lost to the Saxons, he fled into Wales, where he decided to build a fortress. Everyday he had part of the wall built, but it would collapse the next day. The elders led by Magan, advised the king to find a boy without a father, kill the boy, and use the boy's blood mixed with mortar, so the building would not crumbled again. These elders, who advised King Vortigern, conspired to have the boy Merlin killed, because they knew that he would cause their death.

When they found the boy without a father, he was brought before the king. When Merlin found out what the king's advisers had told Vortigern, the boy told him it was the most ridiculous advice, and rebuked them for wanting his death.

Merlin told the king the reason why his fortress always collapsed. Merlin told Vortigern was not building the wall on solid foundation, because there was pool of water underneath. And underneath the pool was two sleeping dragons – one red dragon, the other was white. Another reason why the walls always collapse was that the dragons fought one another since they were trapped underground.

Everything Merlin had told to the king was true. The dragons wakened and rose out of the hole and fought one another.

After this, Merlin proclaimed that his name was also Ambrosius. Merlin then foretold a series of prophecies about Britain. The significant of the two dragons fighting one another, was that the future kings of Britain would drive the Saxons out of their country, but inevitably, the Saxons would overcome the Britons and ruled over Britain. The red dragon represents the Britons, while the white dragon was seen as the Saxons. Merlin also foretold that the Boar of Cornwall shall drive out the Saxons giving relief to the Britons. The Boar of Cornwall was the banner of Arthur, son of Uther. Merlin also foretold that 6 descendants of Arthur shall rule after the great king before Saxons would return and conquer Britain.

With the dragons gone, and the foundation stabled, Vortigern completed the construction of his fortess, and the king named it Dinas Emrys, which is "Ambrosius' Fort".

This episode in Geoffrey's work was largely derived from the historian Nennius, who wrote the Historia Brittonum (c. 9th century). In Nennius' work, the boy-prophet was named Ambrosius (or Emrys in Welsh), not Merlin. Where as Geoffrey claimed that Merlin's father was an incubus, Nennius wrote that Ambrosius (Merlin) claimed his father was a Roman consul.

In Nennius' text, Vortigern's adviser told the king that "You must find a child born without a father....". This doesn't mean his father wasn't mortal. It most likely mean that his father died, before Ambrosius (Merlin) was born. Geoffrey made this statement, that Merlin's father was the devil.

Also that the king found young Ambrosius (Merlin) was found in the field of Aelecti, in the district of Glevesing, not in the town of Carmarthen. It was Ambrosius who became adviser to King Vortigern after he reveal the mystery of the falling walls.

The significance of Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin) was not only the place of Geoffrey rested on how this town was translated to "Caer Merddin" or "Merddin's Fort".



After Vortigern's death, Merlin advised Aurelius Ambrosius of bringing the large bluestones from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, and erecting a circle of stones known as the Giant's Ring (Stonehenge) in Salisbury, England. Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother Uther had to fight a series of battles against the Saxons.

One night, Uther and Merlin saw a comet in the sky, where the tail caused the sky to lit up in the shape of a dragon. Merlin informed Uther, that his brother (Aurelius Ambrosius) had died from poisoning, and Uther was now king of the Britons. This dragon became the symbol of Uther's kingship, and Merlin gave the new king the surname "Pendragon" (Uther Pendragon).

It was here, for the first time, Merlin was seen as sorcerer or wizard. He had used his magic to move the stone. It was his magic that allow Uther to disguise to look like the husband of Igraine.

Merlin became involved in the conception of Arthur, when Uther fell in love with Duke Gorlois' wife, Igraine. Gorlois (Hoel) was duke of Cornwall, and he was one of Uther's allies in the war against the Saxons. Gorlois was offended when he saw that Uther could not control his feeling for his wife. Gorlois withdrew his support to Uther. Gorlois thought to protect Igraine in his strongest castle in Tintagel, while he fought Uther in another castle.

Uther could not control his lust and obsession for Igraine and asked Merlin to aid him in seducing Igraine. Merlin use his magic to make Uther into Gorlois' double, so that no one including Igraine could recognise Uther. The bogus duke (Uther) had sex with Igraine, on the same night Gorlois was killed. Tintagel and Cornwall immediately surrendered to Uther, and the king married the newly widowed Igraine. Igraine gave birth to Arthur.

Apart from the conception of Arthur, Merlin was never involved in Arthur's life in Geoffrey's account. According to later authors (Robert de Boron, writer of the Vulgate texts, and Thomas Malory), Merlin was active in Arthur's reign, as the chief adviser. Merlin was also responsible for Arthur's secret fosterage. See Merlin and Arthur.

See Life of King Arthur, House of Constantine for all of the above events.

Many scholars were puzzled over his birth, his magical power, his prophetic gifts and his mysterious yet often conflicting fate.

First of all, Geoffrey of Monmouth wasn't the first writer who recorded event about Merlin in his Historia regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1137). In fact, how Merlin had gain his power in the Historia regum Britanniae was different to Geoffrey's later work called Vita Merlini ("Life of Merlin", c. 1152). These two contradictory works had led many scholars to believe that there are two different people with the same name, Merlin.

 

It should be understood that the early known work on Merlin has nothing to do with King Arthur or his knights. So before you read about Merlin, the friend and adviser of Arthur, we need to look where he had come from.

http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/merlin.html#Merlin

 

 

 

 

Vortigern and Merlin
Alan Lee
Illustration, 1984

 

 

There has been centuries-old debate on whether there was ever a real Arthur. Archaeological evidence proved fruitless. Historical literary sources have been scant and totally unreliable. Distinguishing history from legend is like trying to find a needle in a hay-sack.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's so-called history of the British kings (titled Historia regum Britanniae) was nothing more than an inventive history.

Geoffrey of Monmouth (Galfridus Monemutensis) claimed thar he got his sources from an old book from Archdeacon, was also pure fabrication.

 

 

((( Geoffrey's Historia was based on three central figures )))

Brutus, the first British king and the great-grandson of Aeneas,

 a Trojan hero in Greek mythology. Brutus fled to the isle that was named after him.

Then, there's Belinus, the so-called British king, who sacked Rome about 390 BC.
Though, Rome was sacked in 390 BC. It definitely wasn't from Celtic Britons. The Celtic tribes who defeated the Romans were from the Gauls, who migrated into Italy from France about fifth or fourth century BC. Therefore, Geoffrey was mixing history with his own invention.

And of course, King Arthur, himself. Geoffrey portrayed Arthur as a world conqueror, who established an empire that comprised of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and France.

With these sorts of people in his Historia, it really can't be taken seriously to be history. It was Geoffrey who made the legend of King Arthur, popular in Britain and the Continent. Its influences were tremendous; its inspirations would cause later medieval authors to further enrich the legend.

Those who take the Geoffrey's Historia or another part of the legend as history Geoffrey had used some elements of history in his compositions but in general his works were purely fictional...

 

 

http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/housemerlin.html#Wizard