Have they Found Merlin’s Grave?

MERLIN came late to the Arthurian story introduced by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century yet there are traces of a prophet named Mryrddin from at least the 10th century in Wales and then John of Cornwall, a contemporary of Geoffrey, produced his own Prophetia Merlini (Prophecy of Merlin).

Geoffrey had written his own Prophetiæ Merlini which is believed to have been circulated as a stand alone work, Libellus Merlini, prior to incorporating the prophecies into his later work the Historia regum Britanniae, originally titled De gestis Britonum, c.1138. Debate continues as to whether John of Cornwall copied Geoffrey’s work or vice versa, yet there are subtle difference between the works which hints at their independent knowledge of a common legend.

Geoffrey returned to Merlin around 1150 with his Vita Merlini, or 'The Life of Merlin', in which he transformed the boy prophet and magician Merlin Ambrosius, who brought Stonehenge to England in the Historia, as a wildman of the woods who had gone mad after a battle in the north. It is generally agreed that the Vita Merlini was influenced by the Welsh Myrddin poems which pre-date Geofffrey, so we can be fairly certain he did not create the Welsh prophet.

Two Merlins
Geoffrey’s later Merlin of the Vita seems to be a consolidated character. We can guess that at some point after writing the Prophetiæ Merlini and incorporating it into the Historia, Geoffrey became aware of a northern wildman tradition from which he mixed components with the Welsh Myrddin tradition.

It would appear that the idea of two Merlins was well known in the 12th century. In The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, Gerald of Wales (1146-1223), writes:

"There were two Merlins; the one called Ambrosius who prophesied in the time of king Vortigern, was begotten by a demon incubus, and found at Caermardin, from which circumstance that city derived its name of Caermardin, or the city of Merlin; the other Merlin, born in Scotland, was named Celidonius, from the Celidonian wood in which he prophesied; and Sylvester, because when engaged in martial conflict, he discovered in the air a terrible monster, and from that time grew mad, and taking shelter in a wood, passed the remainder of his days in a savage state. This Merlin lived in the time of king Arthur, and is said to have prophesied more fully and explicitly than the other." [Book II, Ch.8]

This later Merlin, also known as Myrddin Wylt or Myrddin Sylvestris, shows some striking parallels with the tales of a northern wildman said to have lived in the Caledonian forest during the 6th century who is said to have gone mad after witnessing a horrific battle, associated with the Battle of Arfderydd, and fled to the forest where he was cursed with the gift of prophecy. This theme is also apparent in the Welsh Myrddin poems.

The Northern Wildman
The Merlin legend was a late addition to Scottish literature but it is claimed to be based on the northern wildman tradition of Lailoken that developed earlier in Scotland associated with St Kentigern (Mungo) from 6th century Strathclyde and mentioned by Jocelyn of Furness in his 12th century Life of St Kentigern.

The story of Lailoken appears in two versions written in Latin that are found in the 15th century MS Cotton Titus A xix. The manuscript includes the only surviving fragment of the Herbertian Life of Kentigern, an abridged version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini, and the Vita Merlini Sylvestris (the Life of Merlin of the Forest).1 The two tales of Lailoken are contained in the Life of Merlin of the Forest and generally referred to as "Lailoken and Kentigern," (Lailoken A Text), and "Lailoken  and Meldred," (Lailoken B Text). The two texts are neatly summarised by Basil Clarke2:

A Text
“Kentigern met a wild man in a desert and prayed for him at Kentigern's church by Glasgow. The Wildman had been driven mad by an accusatory vision in the sky during a battle. Later he used to appear (apparently unrecognised) at Kentigern's church by Glasgow, where he was a nuisance with his wild prophecies. At length he demanded the last sacrament from Kentigern, who tested his sanity by asking three times about his death and received conflicting answers (that he would be stoned and clubbed, that he would be pierced by a stake, and that he would be drowned). 

Under pressure from his clerics, Kentigern gave the sacrament. Lailoken then predicted the death of a king, a bishop and a lord within the year. The same day Lailoken was killed in the triple way he had predicted, being set upon by shepherds near Dunmeller. The clerics grasped the point and the story ends with their distress.”3

Lailoken's death is described in the A Text, [as soon as he had received the sacrament he] “rushed away like a wild goat breaking out of the hunter's noose and happily seeking the undergrowth of the wilderness………… it came to pass that on the same day he was stoned and beaten to death by some shepherds of King Meldred, and in the moment of death had a fall, over a steep bank of the Tweed near the fort of Dunmeller, on to a very sharp stake which was stuck in a fish pool. He was pierced through the middle of his body with his head bent over into the shallows, and so yielded his spirit to the Lord as he had prophesied.”

B Text
“Petty-king Meldred of Dunmeller captured Lailoken to hear him prophecy: Lailoken stayed mute for three days. When the queen entered court, he laughed. The disclosure of the queen's adultery, through the leaf in her hair, followed. But before disclosing this Lailoken predicted his own death in a few days, obtained a promise that his body should be buried where Pausail Burn meets Tweed and prophesied about the re-integration of the British nation.

The queen failed to discredit Lailoken, and plotted his death. A few years later he was set upon by shepherds at the instigation of the queen while he was passing Dunmeller at sunset on the same day that he had received the last sacrament, was killed as predicted, and was buried by the king, as he had been promised. (The time discrepancy - a few days, a few years - is not cleared up).”4 

Lailoken's death in the B Text: "As he had predicted and as it is recorded above, so we have heard was his end accomplished. It is said that the king handed over his lifeless corpse for burial in just that place which he had chosen while he lived. Now that fort is some thirty miles from the city of Glasgow. In its plain Lailoken lies buried.

Pierced by a stake, suffering by a stone and by water,
Merlin is said to have met a triple death.”

The author(s) of the two tales were seemingly keen on linking the northern wildman with the prophet of Welsh poetry, Geoffrey's Merlin. The first tale, Lailoken and Kentigern, asserts the association with Merlin, “He was known as Lailoken, and some say he was Merlin” and the tale of Meldred and Lailoken is alternatively referred to as a 'Scottish Tale of Merlin'.5

The tradition of Merlin’s grave near Dunmeller appears to have been widely known in the 13th century as Thomas the Rhymer (Sir Thomas de Ercildoun) prophesied:

“When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave,
Scotland and England shall one monarch have” 

Based on this northern tradition, Lailoken was identified with Merlin, and buried near the village of Dunmeller (modern Drumelzier), near the point where the Powsail Burn joins the River Tweed. Across the Tweed from Drumelzier is a spot called Merlindale. Indeed, 'Merlin’s Grave' has been marked on maps since the 18th century, although no archaeological remains have ever been found at the site.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) record says:

"Merlin's Grave" (Site): According to legend which is at least as old as the 15th century, the wizard Merlin was buried 200 yds NNW of Drumelzier Church, on the level haugh close to the right bank of the River Tweed. No structural remains are now to be seen, or have ever been recorded, at the place in question, but it is possible that the tradition may have been originated from the discovery of a Bronze Age cist.”6

The Search for Merlin’s Grave
The legendary figure of Merlin has been associated with Drumelzier in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish borders for many years. It would appear then that the location of Merlin’s Grave is no secret either and has been known since at least its appearance in 12th century literature, with oral accounts probably circulating well before that. 

Today the ruins of the medieval Tinnis Castle stand on a prominent rocky knoll overlooking the Upper Tweed valley, less than half a mile north east of Drumelzier. Underneath the ruined castle walls lies the remains of a hillfort whose ramparts enclosed the summit, this was a ‘nucleated fort’ type of hillfort unique to Scotland between c. 600-1000 AD. 

The Scottish tale of Merlin is centred in and around Dunmeller, from which the place name Drumelzier is said to derive, where he was imprisoned by a 6th century King, suffered a triple death and was buried by the banks of the Tweed. The village of Drumelzier is today still overlooked by the ruins of Tinnis Castle, said to be the location where Lailoken was held captive by Meldred (B Text). Is this tradition based on fact or a legend that migrated to the area? 

As we have seen above, the RCAHMS record states that no structural remains have ever been known at the site of Merlin’s Grave but the tradition may have originated from a Bronze Age burial cist, a stone-lined grave covered over with another slab, in the Tweed Valley.

In 2022 the Drumelizer’s Hidden Heritage Project team led by Ronan Toolis with volunteers pulled from across Scotland set out to investigate the archaeological roots of the Merlin legend at Drumelzier. In November that year a geophysical survey by GUARD Archaeology was carried out in a field to the north of Drumelzier with the objective to see what lay beneath the surface on the spot marked as Merlin’s Grave on maps. Nothing was detected at this spot but only a short distance away to the south-east in the same field an anomaly was found where there appears to be some form of archaeological remains, a possible grave, under the surface. Only excavation will reveal the true nature of the anomaly but permission has not been given to dig at the site. Perhaps this is the Bronze Age burial cist?

Across the Tweed excavations at Thirlestane Barrows, discovered a square barrow, dated to the late 3rd and late 6th centuries AD, constructed over the graves of two individuals of exceptional elite status. It is not known if this burial is related to the anomaly on the other side of the river.

At Tinnis Fort, which overlooks Merlin’s Grave, excavations revealed that this prominent hillfort was occupied around the late 6th to early 7th centuries AD, exactly the time when the Lailoken and Meldred story is set.

Tinnis was reoccupied on the site of a Late Iron Age hillfort which had been destroyed by an immense fire that reached such extreme temperatures that the ramparts were vitrified, a process in which temperatures reach a height that is capable of fusing stones together. At least 60 other vitrified sites are known in Scotland from around this period.

The extreme temperatures required to achieve this has led to a multitude of theories such as some ancient super-weapon such as a laser, or the ramparts were purposefully set on fire to strengthen them.

Scottish hillforts of this time had roofed structures many metres high, constructed on the rampart walls. Archaeologists have proposed that the extreme heat may have been the result of the burning of this timber superstructure with the fire raining down on the stones and heating them up like an oven. At Dun Deardail in Glen Nevis tests had shown blocks of molten stone were formed in anaerobic conditions without oxygen and likely caused by a “tremendous heat from above”.7

However, the question remains as to why these structures were set alight; it has been suggested it was a deliberate act of destruction at the end of the active life of the fort, or perhaps a long forgotten attack.

Following the destruction of the Iron Age hillfort at Tinnis by fire, the hilltop was reoccupied around 200 years later when the early medieval fort was built during a period when this part of the Scottish Borders was under the rule of the kingdom of Strathclyde. It may just be an odd coincidence but the one hillfort associated with the local Lailoken/Merlin legend dates to exactly the same period as the story is set, especially when hillforts of the post-Roman period in this area are relatively rare. Perhaps there is some truth in the tale of Merlin's death in Scotland? But who was Merlin: was he a historical character or just a figure of literature?

The legend of Merlin that has come down to us is clearly a mixture of history, literature and folklore. It is suggested that the Merlin-archetype may well have been based on a real person (Lailoken?) known to St Kentigern, who was driven mad by a vision during a battle and remembered in the literature of the Strathclyde Britons. This northern lore, including tales of the battle of Arfderydd and the wildman of the Caledonian forest, migrated to the Britons of Wales and inspired the Welsh Myrddin poems and later Geoffrey of Monmouth. Thus, Lailoken is proposed as the root of the Merlin legend.8

However, the archaeological evidence unearthed in the Tweed Valley does not prove that the local story was true but does raise the possibility that the legend may have originated in Drumelzier itself.

Notes & References
1. Tim Clarkson, Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins, Birlinn, 2016 pp.40-45.
2. Basil Clarke, The Life of Merlin, Geoffrey of Monmouth: Vita Merlini UWP, 1973, pp.24-25.
3. Clarke, p.24.
4. Clarke, p.25
5. Extracts of the relevant texts can be found in the appendices to Tim Clarkson, Scotland’s Merlin, Birlinn, 2016:
Lailoken (from Jocelin of Furness Life of St Kentigern), p.137.
Lailoken and Kentigern (from Vita Merlini Sylvestris), pp.138-142.
Lailoken ans Meldred (from Vita Merlini Sylvestris), pp.142-144.
Myrddin Wyllt, extracts from poems attributed to Myrddin, pp.148-154.
6. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS): "Merlin's Grave"
7. Archaeologists solve ancient mystery of '˜melted' Iron Age fort – The Scotsman
8. Clarkson, pp.131-136.

Further Reading

• The results of the two year study were published last week in Archeology Reports Online. 
• Archaeologists uncover new evidence of Merlin legend in Scotland  - The National, 3 September 2024
• Unearthing ancient Tweeddale: ‘Merlin’s Grave’ and other lost stories embedded in the landscape - The Past
• Drumelzier’s Hidden Heritage project
• GUARD Archaeology: Unearthing Ancient Tweeddale

 

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Scotland's Merlin Unveiled

Scotland's Merlin
A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins
by Tim Clarkson

“In this book, Merlin’s origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious ‘wild man’ who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as important events such as the Battle of Arfderydd. Lailoken’s reappearance in medieval Welsh literature as the fabled prophet Myrddin is also examined.” [from the back cover]

Merlin the wizard of Arthurian legend has been a source of enduring fascination for centuries, his earliest roots seemingly based in the early Welsh figure of Myrddin. Today it is generally accepted that the Merlin we recognise as the Arthurian wizard was the 12th century creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Whereas the Merlin of literature and Arthurian myth is well known as magician, wise man, prophet and the modern inspiration behind popular wizards such as Dumbledore and Gandalf, Merlin the 'historical' figure is less well known and some contend that he may not have existed at all.

Not so claims Tim Clarkson in his new book Scotland's Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins (John Donald 2016) in which he argues that the roots of the Merlin legend lie in Dark Age Scotland. Impeccably researched, Clarkson traces Merlin's origins from his first appearance in Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae (‘History of the Kings of Britain’) c.1136 as the boy Ambrose (Emrys) to the later Merlin Sylvestris of Northern tradition.

Geoffrey devised his Merlin from an amalgamation of historical and legendary figures. Ambrosius Aurelianus is mentioned in 6th century De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniæ (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain) of Gildas. He is one of the few figures that Gildas admires in a Britain that has degenerated since the departure of the Romans. According to Gildas it is Ambrosius, the last of the Romans, who rallies the beleaguered Britons to victory over the Anglo Saxons, culminating in the victory at Badon.

The 9th century miscellany known as the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons), often attributed to a monk named Nennius, features an Ambrose (Emrys), as the son of a Roman consul, appears confused by Geoffrey with Ambrosius Aurelianus. In this tale Vortigern's twelve wise men advise him to retire to the remote boundaries of his kingdom and there build a fortified city to defend himself. They arrive at a province called Guenet (Gwynedd); and having surveyed the mountains of Heremus (Eryri, Snowdonia) they discovered, on the summit of one of them, a hilltop suited to the construction of a citadel. All of the materials were assembled for the building but it all disappeared in one night so that nothing remained of what had been provided for the construction of Vortigern's citadel. Materials were again procured a second and a third time, and yet again they vanished as before.

Vortigern's advisers told him  “You must find a child born without a father, put him to death, and sprinkle with his blood the ground on which the citadel is to be built, or you will never accomplish your purpose.”

Consequently, messengers were sent throughout Britain, in search of a child born without a father. When they came to the field of Aelecti, in the district of Glevesing, they found the fatherless boy who was led back to Vortigern. Before they put the boy to death, Vortigern allowed him to speak, “hidden under this pavement there is a pool" the boy said, "there are two vases in the pool, in them a folded tent, containing two serpents, one white and the other red.”

They dug and found it to be so. The serpents began to struggle with each other; and the white one, raising himself up, threw down the other into the middle of the tent and sometimes drove him to the edge of it; and this was repeated thrice. At length the red one, apparently the weaker of the two, recovering his strength, expelled the white one from the tent; and the latter, being pursued through the pool by the red one, disappeared.

The boy Ambrose (Emrys) told the meaning of this mystery; “The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon, but the white serpent is the dragon of the people who occupy several provinces and districts of Britain, even almost from sea to sea: at length, however, our people shall rise and drive away; the Saxon race from beyond the sea.”

When questioned of his origin the boy replied, “A Roman consul was my father.”

Vortigern's Tower, Dinas Emrys by Alan Lee

The story of Vortigern's Tower from the History of the Britons is essentially the same in Geoffrey's work; the underground dragons, one white and one red, representing the Saxons and the Britons, and their final battle being a portent of things to come. But of course Geoffrey has the boy named as Merlin. Thus, the episode of Vortigern's Tower is seen as the defining point in the birth of the Merlin legend.

The site has been identified as Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert in Snowdonia, North Wales. The archaeology of this remote hilltop has revealed evidence of Post-Roman activity, imported pottery from the eastern Mediterranean and a subterranean pool, probably a cistern for the water supply. The foundations of a tower were discovered on the summit during excavations in 1910 which were initially thought to have been evidence of Vortigern's Tower but turned out to be the remains of a 12th-century Norman keep. Nevertheless, there was ample evidence for Dark Age occupation.

In his Historia Geoffrey provides only two further tales concerning the wizard. In the first, Merlin creates Stonehenge as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius and a memorial to the Britons. In the second, Merlin uses enchantment to enable Uther Pendragon to enter Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with the Duke of Cornwall's wife, Igraine. Merlin then disappears from Geoffrey's story; he does not tutor and advise Arthur as in later versions.

In his book Clarkson includes a short chapter of “Arthuriana” and cites the possibility that both Merlin and Arthur legends originating in the Strathclyde region and Southern Scotland as “good enough reason to discuss Arthur in a book about Merlin” and cannot resist quoting Breeze's recent paper on the location of Arthur's battles. However, Clarkson concedes that Arthur does not appear in connection with any of the tales of the northern wildman known as Lailoken, who some relate to Merlin of the forest (Merlin Sylvestris). Significantly, before Geoffrey's story, Merlin has no connection with King Arthur in the early Welsh poems and is entirely absent from the tales of the Mabinogion.

The earliest reference to Myrddin (= Merlin in Welsh) comes from the Armes Prydein Vawr (Great Prophesy of Britain) attributed to the 6th century bard Taliesin. The reference “Myrddin foretells...” is considered not older than 930 AD and indicates there was a Welsh prophetic tradition concerning the name Myrddin before Geoffrey and may have been influential to his writings two centuries later.

Geoffrey's first work on the wizard was entitled Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin), c.1130, which he claimed were the actual words of the prophet. Yet most see the Prophecies as Geoffrey's own construct. The Prophecies were circulated as a separate publication before being incorporated into his Historia Regum Britanniæ at Book VII.

In the 1140s or early 1150s John of Cornwall produced another work entitled Prophetiae Merlini which is often considered as a direct lift from Geoffrey's work. However, John did not simply make a copy of Geoffrey's Prophecies, as they contain other elements not included in Geoffrey's works which raises the possibility, however slight, for an independent source for a southern prophetic tradition of Merlin. The reference in Armes Prydein Vawr and the sources for John of Cornwall's Merlin Prophecies are certainly worthy of further study in the argument for a northern archetype.

The Merlin story was transmitted to Europe through Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia. As a literary figure developed throughout Arthurian Romance with later authors reliably placing Merlin as the king's advisor until he becomes bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.

Geoffrey later wrote the Vita Merlini (Life of Merlin, c.1150) in which his Merlin figure changes dramatically to include the tradition of the wildman of the woods referring to the wizard's trauma after witnessing a horrendous battle in the Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North), formerly the territory of northern Britain and southern Scotland. Geoffrey seems to have stumbled across another Merlin/Myrddin. Clearly the Merlin of Vortigern's time (5th century) cannot be the same Merlin who went made after a northern battle over a hundred years later.

In the Vita Merlini Geoffrey writes of a battle fought by Peredur, prince of the North Welsh allied with Rodarch, king of the Cumbrians against Gwenddolau, who ruled a kingdom of southern Scotland. So traumatised by the slaughter on both sides, Merlin wept for three days, refusing food. “Then, when the air was full with these repeated loud complainings, a strange madness came upon him. He crept away and fled to the woods.....lurking like a wild thing” in the forest of Calidon.

This episode is entirely absent from Geoffrey's earlier tales of Merlin found in his Historia and the Prophetiae. What caused this change in his account of Merlin; had Geoffrey uncovered further source material that compelled him to elaborate and complete his account of Merlin? Here, no doubt, Geoffrey was influenced by the Welsh Myrddin poems which refer to Merlin's madness.

There are six medieval Welsh poems containing material relating to Myrddin as a wildman of the northern forest: Yr Afallennau ('The Apple-trees'); Yr Oianau ('The Greetings'); Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin ('The Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesin'); Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer ('The Conversation of Myrddin and his Sister Gwenddydd'); Gwasgargerdd fyrddin yn y Bedd ('The Diffused Song of Myrddin in the Grave'); and Peirian Faban ('Commanding Youth').

These poems are found in the 13th century Black Book of Carmarthen and the 14th century Red Book of Hergest. However, scholarly opinion asserts that the poems contain material of a much earlier date than the manuscripts, possibly 11th century and some certainly appear to pre-date the composition of Geoffrey's Vita Merlini. These poems portray a wildman of the woods, usually named as Myrddin, living in the Caledonian Forest where he has fled after the battle of Arfderydd. Here Myrddin has lapsed into madness and acquired the gift of prophecy. In this aspect he is Myrddin Wyllt, Merlin the Wild. [For a discussion on the condition termed as ‘wyllt’ see this post: Voices of the Forest]

The medieval earthwork of Liddel Strength, near Carwinley, a candidate for 'Caer Gwenddoleu'.

This conflict at Arfderydd is recorded in the Annals Cambriae (Welsh Annals), simply as '573 - Bellum Amertid'. A later, 13th century, amendment to this entry adds "Merlin went mad". The site of the battle was identified long ago by W. F. Skene as being at Arthuret, near Longtown in Cumbria. Clarkson discusses the battle in some detail, opting for the earthwork of Liddel Strength near Carwinley.

In the late 12th century Gerald of Wales identified two Merlins: one called Ambrosius who prophesied in the time of king Vortigern; the other was born in Scotland and named Merlin Celidonius, or Sylvestris, from the Celidonian forest were he sheltered and grew mad following the battle of Arfderydd. Gerald adds that this second Merlin character lived at the time of king Arthur. He is identifiable as the wildman of Welsh poetry seemingly based on Northern sources (Myrddin Wyllt).

In Scotland there exists an almost identical tale in which the Wild Man is called 'Lalocen' as he appears in the 12th century Life of St Kentigern (St Mungo of Glasgow). A 15th century Latin text called Vita Merlini Silvestris (Life of Merlin of the Forest), names the prophet as 'Lailoken', a wildman of Strathclyde.

Clarkson investigates the sources for the story of the northern wild man in depth and concludes that the Lailoken legend was transported to Wales and attached to the name Myrddin. He argues, contrary to the literary evidence, that the transmission of the northern wild man prophet to Wales must have occurred before the Welsh Myrddin poems were written down in the Black Book of Carmarthen and Red Book of Hergest and certainly before Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini. 

The crux of 'Scotland's Merlin' is that the 6th century battle of Arfderydd was the single event that sparked the Merlin legend; Clarkson identifies Lailoken as a historical character, the Merlin-archetype, whose own story became over-shadowed by the growth of the Welsh Merlin legend.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the Merlin legend.

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Tim Clarkson's previous books include:

The Men of the North: The Britons of Southern Scotland (2010)
Columba (2012)    
The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings (2013)    
Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age (2014)
The Picts: A History (New Edition 2016)

Available from Birlinn

Tim's Blog: Senchus: Notes on Early Medieval Scotland

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The Shaman and The Sorcerer: Voices of the Forest

Lud’s Church (XV)
Part One

The way is shut
It was made by those who are Dead
And the Dead keep it
The way is shut [1]

Voices of the Forest
The Myrddin and Lailoken legends show a clear relationship to the tale of Lleu Law Gyffes from the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi; following a traumatic event they all flee into the forest existing as wildmen. The condition termed as ‘wyllt’, as in Myrddin Wyllt, is derived from the old Welsh form ‘gwyllt’ meaning ‘wild, deranged, mad’, and ‘gwylleith’ = ‘madness’.

The tales of Lailoken and Myrddin are not the only accounts of ‘gwyllt’, the roots of which can be traced back to a similar primitive motif found in ancient literature such as the the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Indian tale of Rishyasninga. The Rishyasninga, meaning 'deer-horned' in Sanskrit, tells the account of a boy born with the horns of a deer who lives a solitary life in the forest. This tale appears in the Mahabharata originating from the 8th Century BC.

The story of Lleu Llaw Gyffes found in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi has been suggested as having its roots in the prototype of the legend of the Wild Man of the Woods found in the Celtic countries throughout Northern Europe. [2] 'Lleu' contains all of the essential elements associated with the stories of Myrddin and Lailoken, murder (or attempted murder), flight and recovery; elements of the tale which can also be found the story of Buile Shuibhne from the Irish texts of the Cycle of the Kings, also known as the Historical Cycle.

The Story of Suibhne Geilt
The Frenzy of Suibne is set in the 7th Century Battle of Moira (Mag Rath), a historical battle fought in 637AD near Lurgan in Co. Down. Suibhne is a vassal of Congal, the King of Ulster, and went mad during the battle and fled into the forest. The Battle of Moira corresponds to the Battle of Arfderydd and has similarities in the relationship between Congal and Suibhne to Mryddin and Gwenddolau. The Frenzy of Suibhne (Buile Shuibhne) evolved as a separate tale, in its present form dated to the 12th Century but references to the tradition of Suibhne can be found from the 9th Century. One of the contributory factors of the battle was that Congal considered himself to have been insulted when a silver dish with a goose egg placed in front of him suddenly changed into a hen’s egg on a wooden dish. This has been compared to the ‘futile’ causes of the Battle of Arfderydd ‘which was brought by the cause of the lark's nest’ as recalled in the Triads.

The story recalls how before the Battle of Moira, Suibhne had been irritated by the sound of a bell. When he found that the sound came from Bishop Ronan Finn [3] setting up a church, Suibhne stormed naked to the church, threw the Bishop’s psalter into a lake, he would have killed the bishop but at that instant he was called to battle. Bishop Ronan blessed the troops before the battle which Suibhne took the sprinkling of holy water as a taunt and killed one of the bishop's psalmists with a spear and threw another spear at Ronan himself. The spear struck Ronan's bell and broke it. Bishop Ronan placed a two fold curse on Suibhne, known as Ronan’s Curse, this was firstly, as the bell had been broken any sharp sound would send Suibhne into madness, and secondly, as he had killed one of Ronan's clerics, he too would die at by the spear. When the Battle of Moira began, three mighty shouts went out from the opposing armies:

“………when Suibhne heard these great cries together with their sounds and reverberations in the clouds of Heaven and in the vault of the firmament, he looked up, whereupon turbulence (?), and darkness, and fury, and giddiness, and frenzy, and flight, unsteadiness, restlessness, and unquiet filled him, likewise disgust with every place in which he uséd to be and desire for every place which he had not reached. His fingers were palsied, his feet trembled, his heart beat quick, his senses were overcome, his sight was distorted, his weapons fell naked from his hands, so that through Ronan's curse he went, like any bird of the air, in madness and imbecility”. [4]

From then on, Suibhne had acquired the power of levitation like a bird. Also like a bird, he could not trust mankind; people sent him mad with fear, so he fled living hungry and naked, perching on trees. After several years living as a wildman and wandering throughout Ireland, uttering nature poems (which comprise much of the content of Buile Shuibhne), his sanity was briefly restored after he was captured by his kinfolk. His mental state failed again and he returned to his wildman existence. Later he received the protection of St Moling who gave him the sacrament and entrusted his care to a woman from the parish. Unfortunately, her husband grew jealous and killed Suibhne with a spear, fulfilling the prediction of Ronan’s Curse.

The part of St Moling in the tale of Suibhne is reminiscent of St Kentigern role in the tale of Lailoken which has raised much debate as to which version came first and thereby influenced the other. An odd episode recalled during the time of Suibhne’s wanderings is his visit to the ‘land of thee Britons’. Suibhne came to a great forest were he encountered another wildman similar to himself, lamenting and wailing. The British madman explained that he was known as Fer Caille (Man of the Woods) but his name was Alladhan. Again, this account is strikingly similar to the story of Lailoken who had done the same sitting on his rock while St Kentigern held mass. The two wildmen became friends and lived together for a year in the forest. The story associates Suibhne with a place called ‘Dun Rodairc’, (The Fort Of Riderch) which is clearly the historical 6th Century king Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde associated with Myrddin and Laiolken. [5]

The name Alladhan has been explained as being possibly derived from ‘allaidh’ meaning ‘wild’ and similar in meaning to geilt or gwyllt. [6] It has also been suggested that the name Lailoken was assimilated to allaidh by the Irish writer of the Buile Shuibhne who may have seen both Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini and the Lailoken material [7] which would indicate the route of transmission of the original tale.

An extended account of Suibhne’s madness (geilt) is included in a later 14th Century version of the Battle of Moira, in which he sees phantoms and demons:

“…horrible aerial phantoms rose up, so that they were in cursed, commingled crowds tormenting him; and in dense, rustling, clamorous, left-turning hordes, without ceasing; and in dismal, regular, aerial, storm shrieking, hovering, fiend-like hosts constantly in motion, shrieking and howling as they hovered about them in every direction………from the uproar of the battle, the frantic pranks of the demons and the clashing of arms………Suibhne was filled and intoxicated with tremor, horror, panic, dismay, fickleness, unsteadiness, fear, flightiness, giddiness, terror and imbecility; so that there was not a joint of a member of him from head to foot which was not converted in to a confused, shaking mass, from the effect of fear, and the panic of dismay………his very soul fluttered with hallucination, and with many and various phantasms…. ”. [8]

The parallels in these stories from Northern England, Wales and Ireland are quite obvious: Shuibhne , like Lailoken/Myrddin predicts his own 'dihenydd', [9] there are conditions or stages to each punishment, adopting bird-like behaviour with flight to the forest (or tree tops) and ultimately it is a spear that strikes the final blow. Even the term for these madmen is similar in both languages; the Welsh wildman being known as ‘gwyllt’ and the Irish being ‘gelt’ (geilt) from the Old Irish word meaning ‘he who goes mad from terror’ the condition being known as ‘geltacht’.

In the Irish Mirabilia a definition is given for the term ‘gelt’:

“It happens that when two hosts meet and are arranged in battle-array, and when the battle-cry is raised loudly on both sides, cowardly men run wild and lose their wits from the dread and fear which seize them. And they run into a wood away from other men, and live there like beasts and shun the meeting of men like wild beasts. And it is said of these men then when they have lived in the woods in that condition for twenty years, that feathers grew on their bodies like birds, whereby their bodies are protected against frost and cold,…………Yet there swiftness is said to be so great that other men cannot approach them and greyhounds just as little as men. For these men run along tress almost as swiftly as monkeys or squirrels”. [10]

The two Myrddin poems in the Red Book of Hergest both contain references to 'mountain ghosts' who he blames for his madness.

Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer ('The Conversation of Myrddin and his Sister Gwenddydd'):

Myrddin
Since mountain ghosts have taken my reason
And I myself am full of thoughts--
After Beli, his son Iago.

Gwenddydd
Since mountain ghosts have taken your reason,
And you are filled with thoughts--
Who will rule after Iago?

Gwasgargerdd fyrddin yn y Bedd, ('The Diffused Song of Myrddin in the Grave'):
The mountain ghosts come to me,
Here in Aber Carav

This is confirmed by the following passage from Afallennau in which Myrddin states he is amongst spirits:

“Fifty years the plaything of lawless men
I have wandered in gloom among spirits
After great wealth, and gregarious minstrels,
I have been here so long not even sprites
Can lead me astray.. .. ’ [11]

In Wizards and Wildmen Part III - Magicians and Madmen we saw how in a line from the Afallennau a mysterious figure known as Hwimleian appears: “Hwimleian foretells, The tidings will come”, translated as ‘Disogogan Hwimleian’ this is reminiscent of Myrddin’s first appearance in literature; in the Omen of Britain we have the line: "Dysgogan Myrdin ..." (Myrddin fortells).
The Hwimleian also appears twice in the Oianau (Greetings).

Hwimleian (sometimes given as Chwimleian) is usually translated as ‘pale wanderer’ is yet another word for a spirit, which can also mean supernatural night-wanderers. The Hwimleian seem to possess occult knowledge from the Otherworld and pass on prophetic tidings to Myrddin. As a later development of Myrddin’s companion in the forest, the hwimleian, has come to be associated with the female fairy, the Lady of the Lake, Viviane of medieval Arthurian Romance. Viviane’s name originated variously as Niniane, Nineve, Nyneve, and as Nimue she has a connection with the sacred groves or nimidae, which associates her with Diana, the Roman goddess of the wild places.

The hwimleian, the spirits of the Myrddin poems, are the source of the wizard's prophetic inspiration and therefore must possess access to otherworld occult knowledge not accessible to Myrddin himself. It is a well known concept that psychics and mediums throughout the ages obtain access to the otherworld through a spirit guide.

An essential function of the shaman is to obtain information by consulting with the gods and to retrieve the spirits of the departed.

Continued in The Shaman and the Sorcerer Part II - The Feathered Cloak

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Notes:
1. Recited by the King of the Dead, in J. R. R. Tolkien's Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter 3, The Muster of Rohan
2. Lleu Wyllt : An early British prototype of the legend of the Wild Man?, A E Lea - Journal of Indo-European studies, 1997, vol. 25, no1-2, pp. 35-47.
3. St Ronan was Abbott of Druim-ineascluinn (modern Drumiskin) in the County of Louth.
4. Buile Suibhne (The Frenzy of Suibhne) being The Adventures of Suibhne Geilt - Author: unknown, translated by J. G. O'Keeffe. CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts, University College, Cork.
5. John Koch, The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark Age Britain, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997, p.lxxvii, footnote.4.
6. AOH Jarman, The Merlin Legend and Welsh Prophecy in The Arthur of the Welsh, University Of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1991, p.129.
7. AOH Jarman, Ibid p.130 (see end note 32).
8. John O'Donovan - The Banquet of Dun Na N-Gedh and The Battle of Magh Rath: An Ancient and Historical Tale, Published by For the Irish Archaeological Society, 1842. Available through Google Books - Digitized 2006.
9. W J Gruffydd in his masterful work Math vab Mathonwy: An Inquiry into the Origins and Development of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, Cardiff, 1928, uses the term 'dihenydd' to describe the manner of Lleu's death, modern meaning = 'end, death, execution' with associations of 'dienyddio = put to death, execute' and 'dienyddwyr = executioner'.
10. Kuno Meyer: On the Irish Mirabilia in the Old Norse Konungs Skuggsjd "Speculum Regal” - Eriu, Vol. IV. 1910, pp. 11-12.
11. Afallenau – Appletrees, The Black Book of Carmarthen

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Wizards and Wildmen: Magicians and Madmen

Lud’s Church (XIV)

Part Three

Magicians and Madmen
There are several medieval poems that mention, or are attributed to, Myrddin, the origin of Geoffrey’s Merlin, found in the Black Book of Carmarthen (compiled mid-13th Century), and the Red Book of Hergest (late 14th Century):

Gwin y Bid hi y Vedwen (The Birch Trees)
Yr Afallennau ('The Apple-trees')
Yr Oianau ('The Greetings')
Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin ('The Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesin')
Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer ('The Conversation of Myrddin and his Sister Gwenddydd')
Gwasgargerdd fyrddin yn y Bedd, ('The Diffused Song of Myrddin in the Grave')
Peirian Faban ('Commanding Youth')

These poems recount the events of a ferocious battle in the North of Britain, in which Myrddin killed his own nephew. The relationship between uncle and nephew is considered sacred in many societies; in the Mabinogi we see examples of this with Gwydion and Lleu as discussed previously and also in the Second Branch with Bran and his nephew Gwern. Tacitus, 1st Century Historian of the Roman Empire, notes the relationship between a man and his sister’s son was closer than that to his own son amongst the Germanic people and exploited this bond when taking hostages. After the battle, Myrddin flees in to the forest of Celyddon, laden with guilt, displaying classic symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, being of questionable sanity he acquires the gift of prophecy, living the life of a wildman (Wyllt). [17]

In the Afallennau a mysterious figure known as Hwimleian appears:

Hwimleian foretells, The tidings will come

The Hwimleian (meaning a pale, wild wanderer) may represent another aspect of Myrddin’s persona; perhaps here he is displaying schizophrenia. In this aspect he is known as Myrddin Wyllt, Merlin the Wildman of the forest.

'The Conversation of Myrddin and his Sister Gwenddydd', often referred to as the ‘Cyfoesi’, recalls Myrddin’s madness after the bloody battle of Arfderydd to his twin sister who refers to him as a ‘wiseman’, and ‘diviner’, and calls him “my Llallogan Myrddin”. [18] Later in the poem Gwenddydd calls him “Myrddin, son of Morvryn the skilful”. Peirian Faban ('Commanding Youth') reiterates Morvyrn (mab Morwrynn) as his father but neither Myrddin or his father appear in the Northern Genealogies, opening to door to speculation that he is purely of literary creation.

The ‘Cyfoesi’ contains two stanzas referring to Moryen, “Dead is Moryen, bulwark of battle”, which may be a reference to the same Morien alluded to in the Battle of Catraeth, recorded in the Myrddin stanza in Y Gododdin as we have seen above. The ‘Cyfoesi’ and Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin ('The Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesin') are the only two Welsh Myrddin poems that can be securely considered pre-Galfridian (prior to Geoffrey - certainly composed prior to 1100AD), which contain the concept of Myrddin the Wildman, therefore having a provenance prior to the Vita Merlini.

From the Myrddin poetry in the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest, we can deduce that the Battle in Northern Britain that Geoffrey refers to in his Vita Merlini is one and the same event, The Battle of Arfderydd, a historic event as recorded in the Annales Cambriae:

573 - The battle of Arfderydd

The primary text of this translation is from the Harleian manuscript collection, Harlian 3859, appended to the earliest copy is the Annales Cambriae (The Welsh Annals), compiled no later than the 10th Century. The battle is listed in the Triads as one of the Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain, which was brought by the cause of the lark's nest.

Later versions of the Annals contain the following text:

573 - The battle of Arfderydd ‡between the sons of Eliffer and Gwenddolau son of Ceidio; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Merlin went mad.‡

The text enclosed within the ‡double dagger‡ symbols are entries which are not found in the Harleian manuscript, but in a later manuscript written at the Cistercian Abbey of Neath, South Wales, towards the end of the 13th century, and therefore cannot be guaranteed to be free of influence from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini. However, whereas Geoffrey’s Historia has survived in over 200 manuscripts, the Vita Merlini survives complete in just one manuscript; it therefore must have had a very limited circulation and cannot be relied upon as the sole source of the Northern Merlin, termed Merlinus Caledonius, or Myrddin Wyllt. Whereas Geoffrey appears to have developed the Merlin legend from the earlier Ambrose episode at Dinas Emrys and the prophet Myrddin from the 10th Century poem the Omen of Britain, he cannot claim to have invented the Northern Myrddin tradition as it was in existence prior to his Vita Merlini, and therefore we must find another Northern source.

Saint Kentigern
St Kentigern, commonly known as Mungo, was a Briton of the Strathclyde region in the 6th Century. He was apparently called In Glaschu, "the Grey Hound," by the Goidels and according to legend was of royal descent. His mother, Thenaw, or Theneva, who became known as St. Thaney, was the daughter of the Brythonic king Lleuddun, (Leudonus in Latin) alias the legendary Lot Luwddoc (of the Host) the early king of Gododdin, from who Lothian was named. She fell pregnant after being seduced by Owain mab Urien, King of Rheged. Her angry father threw her off Dunpelder (Traprain Law) but she survived and escaped to Culross on the other side of the Firth of Forth, where Kentigern, grandson of Lot, was born. St Kentigern’s ancestry is recorded in the Bonedd y Saint (‘Descent of the Saints’) compiled in the 12th Century.

After becoming the bishop of Garthmwl, (in the Glasgow region) Kentigern was opposed by a pagan king called Morken. After his death his relatives succeeded in forcing the saint to retire from Strathclyde. He consequently took refuge with St David at Menevia (St David's), South Wales, and then founded a monastery at Llanelwy (St Asaph), in Gwynedd, North Wales. Kentigern was recalled to Strathclyde following the battle of Ardderyd in 573 in which King Rhydderch, leader of the Strathclyde Christians was triumphant.

Kentigern’s adventures are recorded in The Life of Kentigern by Jocelyn, a monk of Furness, North Lancashire, writing in the late 12th century. Accounts of Kentigern describe how he met a crazed, half-naked man in the woods when he had gone to a solitary place to pray. The wildman told Kentigern that he was a Christian, but not a good one, and was living among the beasts of the wilderness as he was paying a lifelong penance for his guilt for stirring up a battle that took many lives. This wildman was cursed with seeing the future. A day came when he foresaw his own death, sometimes he expected to die by being impaled, sometimes by drowning. Kentigern allowed the Wildman to receive the sacrament but later he returned to the forest. In the northern sources this Wildman is always referred to in the Cumbric form of Lailoken, or Lalocen, corresponding to the Welsh form Lallogan, which as we have seen above is the term his sister Gwennddydd calls her brother Myrddin in the ‘Cyfoesi’. [19]

A later 15th Century manuscript, known as Cotton Titus A. XIX, contains the tales of Kentigern and Lailoken and Meldred and Lailoken. The first tale actually refers to him as Merlin, “He was known as Lailoken, and some say he was Merlin” and records how as soon as he had received the sacrament he:

“rushed away like a wild goat breaking out of the hunter's noose and happily seeking the undergrowth of the wilderness………… it came to pass that on the same day he was stoned and beaten to death by some shepherds of King Meldred, and in the moment of death had a fall, over a steep bank of the Tweed near the fort of Dunmeller, on to a very sharp stake which was stuck in a fish pool. He was pierced through the middle of his body with his head bent over into the shallows, and so yielded his spirit to the Lord as he had prophesied.”

The tale of Meldred and Lailoken is actually referred to as a Scottish Tale of Merlin:

“As he had predicted and as it is recorded above, so we have heard was his end accomplished. It is said that the king handed over his lifeless corpse for burial in just that place which he had chosen while he lived. Now that fort is some thirty miles from the city of Glasgow. In its plain Lailoken lies buried.

Pierced by a stake, suffering by a stone and by water,
Merlin is said to have met a triple death.”

The Northern tradition, based on the Lailoken legend, states that the wizard is buried near the village of Drumelzier (Dunmeller), near the point where the Powsail Burn joins the River Tweed. Across the Tweed from Drumelzier is a spot called Merlindale. The location of Merlin’s grave seems to have been well known by the 13th Century, as Thomas the Rhymer, prophesied:

“When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave,
Scotland and England shall one monarch have”

In 1603 King James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England, and the River Tweed rose to an unprecedented height and overflowed into the Powsail as predicted.

Geoffery of Monmouth was consecrated as bishop of St Asaph on 21 February 1152 by Archbishop Theobald, though there is no evidence he ever visited his see, it does suggest a possible exposure to the tradition of St Kentigern and the Wildman as the source of his Vita Merlini. Although written down some thirty years or so previous to the Life of Kentigern, the Vita Merlini’s very limited number of extant copies indicates that transmission moved from the North of Britain to Wales.

According to A O H Jarman, the Myrddin legend developed in 5 stages:

1. Basic themes of the constituent elements of the legend developed prior to their association with characters and localities.
2. These basic themes became linked to Battle of Arfderydd (North Britain), St Kentigern and Lailoken.
3. The basic legend transferred from Northern Britain to Wales, and the identification of Lailoken with Myrddin.
4. The development of the legend in Wales.
5. The development of Myrddin as Merlin under the influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth. [20]

Which we can summarise as such:

Myrddin does not appear in any northern source
Lailoken (Lallogan) is the name always used in the northern sources
Myrddin associated with Lailoken as both possess power of prophecy
Merlin (the boy Ambrose) associated with Myrddin (Omen of Britain poem) as both possess power of prophecy
Merlin is only found in documents later than Geoffrey’s Historia

The source of the name of the wizard is still the subject of much debate, with popular claims that Carmarthen, originally the Roman fortress Moridunum, was named after the man, but the opposite would appear to be the case as it is doubtful that originally Myrddin had anything to do with the town:

Moridunum - constructed from the elements mor, mer, myr (sea) and ddun, ddin (fort)
Myrddin - derived from the Roman name Moridunum = myr + ddin (sea fort)
Caerfyrddin - Myrddin mutated to Welsh Fyrddin, popular prefix ‘caer’ (fort) became attached to mythical persons name to became known as the ‘fortress of Myrddin’.
Carmarthen - anglicized name of Caerfyrddin - Geoffrey’s 'Kaermerdin'.

We can only assume that some 15 years after completing his Historia, Geoffrey became aware of the northern tradition, possibly through St Asaph, concerning Myrddin/Lailoken the Wildman of the woods following the 6th Century Battle of Arfderydd and writes his Vita Merlini. Why he associated him with the 5th Century account of the boy Ambrose (Emrys or Merlinus Ambrosius) we don’t know, we can only assume it was the association of both Merlin and Myrddin with prophecy – perhaps if we knew the source he claims to have used, the “certain ancient book”, we could forgive his confusions. However, although Merlin would appear to be the sole creation of Geoffrey, we must not underestimate the impact of his Historia; for 500 years his fables were considered genuine history and corrupted the Arthurian legend beyond recognition.

The Tomb of the Wizard
The corpus of the Stanzas of the Graves (Englynion y Beddau) are found in The Black Book of Carmarthen (Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin), compiled around 1250AD, and give no mention Myrddin’s grave. These are considered the earliest stanzas and referred to as Series I.  [21]However, this is not the only manuscript which contains Stanza of the Graves, a further 11 stanzas are to be found in the Red Book of Hergest, also once contained in the White Book of Rhydderch, and referred to as Series II.

A third series of a further 18 stanzas is found in the 16th Century manuscript Peniarth MS 98B. The Series III stanzas are considered very corrupt and to be used with caution, however, they do contain an allusion to Myrddin in the following stanza:

The grave of Ann son of a nun on…..mountain
Causing gaps in a host, lion of Emrais;
Chief magician of Myrddin Emrys. [22]

This stanza has generated much debate and leaves us no wiser in finding the tomb of the wizard.

Some 25 miles north of Stonehenge there is a site claiming to be Merlin’s grave at Marlborough, Wiltshire. Merlin's Mount (or Mound), probably of Neolithic origin, can be found in the grounds of Marlborough College, at 60 feet high being reminiscent of a smaller scale Silbury Hill, which lies just five miles to the west near the giant stone circle of Avebury. [23] There is a tradition, tantalisingly close to the date of Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini (c.1150AD), in which it was recorded in 1215AD that the town was named after 'Merlin's Tumulus', when Alexander Neckham wrote in a poem: "Merlin's tumulus gave your name, Merleburgia". [24] The town's motto 'Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini' meaning ‘Where now are the bones of wise Merlin’ adds further speculation to the location of the wizard’s grave. It is possible of course that Merlin’s Mount was known by that name prior to the circulation of Geoffrey’s tales of Merlin, but as we have seen above the name ‘Merlin’ is not found recorded prior to Geoffrey, indeed in 1086AD it was recorded as ‘Merleberge’ (Maerla's Hill), a Saxon name.

In later Arthurian Romance Merlin is said to be held captive by the enchantress Viviane, The Lady of the Lake. There is a further tradition that Merlin’s last resting place is on an island reputed to be the burial place of twenty thousand saints. Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli), 2 miles off the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd, North Wales, where Merlin is said to be in a cave or glass tower guarding the thirteen treasures of the Island of Britain. Ynys Enlli has also been claimed to be the Island of Avalon by some self styled ‘historical detectives’.

Geoffrey does not mention Merlin’s death in either of his accounts, perhaps if he had we would expect him to say that Merlin was in the otherworld with Arthur, as he states in the Historia that following the strife of Camlann:

“Arthur himself, our renowned King, was mortally wounded, and carried to the isle of Avalon, so that his wounds might be attended to”. [25]

In the later Vita Merlini he tells how the mortally wounded Arthur was taken to Morgen and her sisters, the nine maidens, on the Island of Apples, known as "The Fortunate Island" but in this account he fails to make the connection with Avalon.

Geoffrey states that Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother Uther Pendragon were buried within the Giants Dance, and their nephew Constantine:

“They buried him by the side of Utherpendragon within the circle of stones, called Stonehenge in the English language, which had been built with such wonderful skill, not far from Salisbury”. [26]

Logically, this is the place we would expect to find Merlin’s tomb as he is intimately connected with the site but, to date, no Dark Age burials have been found within the stone circle of Stonehenge. [27] Thus, after making his first literary appearance in the 10th Century, the wizard disappears as mysteriously as he arrived.

Continued in The Shaman and the Sorcerer Part I - Voices of the Forest 

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Notes:
17. ‘Wyllt’, derives from the pre-7th century word "gwyllt" meaning wild, deranged, mad.
18. A O H Jarman, Early Stages in the Development of the Myrddin Legend, in Studies in Old Welsh Poetry, University of Wales Press, 1978, p.348.
19. Jarman, op cit. p.346.
20. Ibid. p.327.
21. Thomas Jones, The Black Book of Carmarthen ‘Stanzas of the Graves’ – Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture 1967.
22. Ibid.
23. Michael Dames, The Silbury Treasue, Thames & Hudson, 1976, pp. 134-136. Dames suggests there is a clear relationship between Silbury, Merlin’s Mount and the Avebury complex. Both hills are situated on the River Kennet, one near its source, the other near its margin.
24. Geoffrey Ashe, The Traveller’s Guide to Arthurian Britain, Gothic Image Publications, 2nd Edition, 1997, p.170.
25. Geoffrey of Monmouth - The History of the Kings of Britain, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Books, 1966, p.261. Geoffrey does not name Avalon in the Vita Merlini and does not equate it with "Glastonbury" as the place the dying Arthur is taken; this is a common misconception. He mentions Avalon just twice, on both occasions in his Historia, the first as cited above, the second time he states that it is the island where Arthur’s sword Caliburn was forged. (see Thorpe p.217).
26. Ibid. p.262. This is the only occasion that Geoffrey refers to the stone circle as Stonehenge.
27. A skeleton unearthed at Stonehenge in 1923 (and subsequently lost until refound in 1999) was radio carbon dated to the 7th or 8th century, several hundred years later than the Arthurian period. This skeleton was found with a small nick on the lower jaw and a cut mark on the fourth neck vertebra. This clean cut from behind and being found in a single grave, suggests decapitation with a sharp sword; an Anglo-Saxon execution.
Apart from this find only one other complete skeleton from the prehistoric monument exists. It was excavated in 1978 from the ditch around the circle; the body was buried in a shallow grave south-east of the main stone circle but within the main outer ditch, the man appears to have died in a hail of flint-tipped arrows and considered by some to have been a site 'guardian'.
Two other skeletons have been found at the monument but now lost. The first skeleton excavated at Stonehenge was thought to be Roman, was reburied in 1922 in an unmarked grave. The other was excavated in 1926 from the center of the circle, apparently lying under the axis of the monument, and was thought to be contemporary with the site.
However, a significant portion of the northwest of Stonehenge remains unexcavated.


Picture Credits:
• Merlin and Vivien. Engraving by Gustave Dore.
• Stobo Kirk Stained glass window of St Kentigern baptising Myrddin. One of the oldest churches in the Borders, although much of the present building dates from 12th century, it stands on the site of a 6th-century church reputedly founded by St Kentigern (St Mungo).
• Engraving of Merlin’s Mount, Marlborough, 1810.

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