There appears to be two Merlins of literary or historical note – the prophet Myrdynn associated with the town of Carmarthen in Wales who prophesied the return of the British under the rule of Cadwaladar of Britain and Cynan of Brittany. Alternatively he was the mad poet of the arch Druid Gwendoleu (Lailoken) or some say the protégé of Rhydderch Hael, King of Dumbarton who sheltered him after his years in the mountain wilderness or wanderings in the forest. He had previously been involved in a bloody battle in which many comrades were slain which engendered his madness. The earliest prophetic poem about or by him is called simply “Apple Trees”:
“Sweet Apple Tree that pleasantly grows,
Whose fruit I once stole to please a fair maid.
When, with sword on my thigh, my shield on my shoulder,
Alone I slept in the woods of Calydon.
Beneath its branches I began to fade.
I dreamed that I curl’d around its’ trunk
With a sweet enchantress of most splendid form.
And since then for ten and forty years
I became the puppet of the Lawless Ones,
Wandering in gloomy dread among the faery sprites.
Hear now little pig how pleasantly the song birds sing:
Foretelling of the Sovereign’s Return from o’er the sea.
They’ll land no doubt on Monday.
Blessing the Welsh with their grand scheme.
Sweet Apple Tree, and other trees of crimson stain,
Which grew concealed within the Calydonian Wood
Your fruit they sought but all in vain.
Until Cadwalydyr returns from the Rhyd Rheon Assembly
With Cynon to meet the Saxon horde.
Then will the Cymric peoples gain their victory,
Their leader’s brow shining in sublime Glory.
Only then shall they gain their rightful inheritance,
And the Britons will rejoice at last,
Chanting once again their songs of peace, and dance
Yeah – sounding their horns with lightning blast.”
It seems Geoffrey of Monmouth discovered this wild man of the woods character from accounts about the Scottish Lailoken and Welsh Myrddin and devised his own version in “The Prophecies of Merdyn” before 1135, prior to preparing the “History of the Kings of Britain”. Whether this was intentional or not he managed to merge two distinct historical or literary characters into one, the miraculous child progeny (Taliesen) with poetic and prophetic airs and the demented hermit (Merlinus) who scorned civilisation and lived an austere and rambling lifestyle with a wolf companion in a dark and foreboding forest. Because the Welsh word would automatically translate in French as “shitty-one” (merde) Geoffrey of Monmouth altered it to ‘Mer-linus’ meaning “born of the sea”. In other versions he has a piglet as a pet or ‘familiar’. This was due largely to a mistranslation of an account of the child Taliesin‘s describing his origins – “I was called by Merdynn” became “I was called Merdynn”. In another account his patron Rhydderch dies and his widow sells the estate and then joins Merlin in the woods where she spends the rest of her life constructing a magical sanctuary around his simple pilgrim’s shelter. This contained a hall with seventy doors, from which spring seventy rooms with seventy windows and seventy secretaries in each one to record his prophecies and magical utterances. Merlin is of course largely responsible for creating or engineering the birth of Arthur to whom he is in some sense synonymously linked. Merlin represents a pagan substitute for the Christianised Oannes or Jewish Jonah who was swallowed by a fish (See the Myth of Melusine). This is the impetus of prophecy and inspiration ie: being swallowed up by a mouth or breath greater than one’s own. John the Baptist was also a precursor to Jesus Christ, therefore it would be safe to assume this type of allegorical or symbolic parallel in Christian narrative. The account in a Welsh romance “Culwych & Olwen” describes Culwych demanding a means to secure the love of Olwen (alias Blodeuwedd/Rhea) just as Arthur had demanded from Merlin the means of securing the illicit love of Igraine. Olwen is the poet’s muse, the white virgin goddess – “she of the white track” who offers Merlin an apple orchard (a symbol of immortality) as his final repose. As the original or archetypal “White Goddess” she is an allegorical icon of the Moon, or perhaps the evening star or pentacle, the triple muse who enlarged herself to become the nine fold goddess residing in Avalon – the Island of Apples. Symbolically it is worth noting that a Druid‘s costume, galaxies, milk, lilies, mistletoe, apple blossom, snow and the leprosy of death are all white. Therefore in this sense she might also be more closely connected with Lady Elaine (Lancelot‘s nurse) of the Arthurian romances. (See “Les Dames Blanche” from the “Melusine Legend”)
Merlin is not entirely a misogynist but as a celibate or renunciate he was certainly wary of the feminine sex. It may be that his own life was beset with tragedy where women were concerned. The Druids, like the Knight Templars both took oaths of celibacy which is also a feature of “Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table”. Merlin, appears to resemble similar statuettes historically linked to a pagan Pan-Indian cult (called “Nagas” or forest dwellers) who 2,500 years ago worshipped a similar deity known as Shiva in S. India and some areas of the early Indus Valley region. They lived an austere lifestyle in various hermitages and shunned society in favour of the true pagan religion of India before the civilising forces of the Vedic race overwhelmed them. In particular they venerated snakes and kept sanctuaries filled with them. It has been suggested that these races practised and developed an embryonic form of yoga and meditation. A useful example of dissemination is the image of the Celtic God Cernunnos on the Gundesrup Cauldron. He is depicted with a torc in his hand, sat in a half lotus posture, with a headdress made of deer’s antlers, surrounded by numerous totem beasts. This coincidence is more than just animistic synchronicity at work – it indicates far-reaching cultural exchanges existed between eastern and western schools of mythographic, literary and religious thought. In other accounts Merlin is portrayed as a brilliant engineer – the original superintendent or architect of Stonehenge who devised the means of transporting the huge stones from Prescelli in Wales to Salisbury Plain. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrongly presumed that these stones came from Ireland because some geological sites there also contained large single stones similar to those at Stonehenge. In the Arthurian Romance he is beguiled by Morgana when she becomes his mistress and student. She discovers the magic utterances which bring the Dragon’s Breath into the world and then magically imprisons him wrapping him in a web-like shroud and encasing him in a block of crystal or ice. One is obliged to ask could this be an indirect reference to ancient burial rites such as mummification. Or,…… is the “WEB” she weaves of some other significant means or artifice?
The Lady of the Lake
The enchantress Nimue, or the Lady of the Lake, as she is commonly known features strongly in three episodes. The Suite de Merlin – where she gives the sword Excalibur to Merlin. Secondly, when she kidnaps the child Lancelot, and thirdly when she beguiles Merlin. She is a type of “Triple Goddess”, a maiden, a mother and hag. However, in some stories Morgan le Fey is the one who beguiles Merlin. She was a celebrated personification of sorrow or fate in Alfred Lord Tennyson‘s poem “The Lady of Shalott”:
“She left the web, she left the loom,
she made three paces through the room,
she saw the water-lilies bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse has come upon me” – she cried
The Lady of Shalott.”
The poem however was really inspired by Lady Elaine not Nimue and may have some connection with the myths surrounding Melusine – the Mermaid enchantress who leads men to their watery deaths. (See “Melusine the Mermaid” & “Les Dames Blanches”).
Morgan Le Fay
Queen Morgana, the wife of King Urien of Gorre is another half-sister of King Arthur, the daughter of King Gorlois and Queen Igraine of Cornwall. She is either the sister or another aspect of Queen Morgeuse – the wife of King Lot of the Orkneys. Her archaic origins stem from the Celtic myth of Morrigan and Macha the Dark Goddess – both warring deities but also associated with the protection of the land. The word Fay means literally ‘fairy’, so she was considered other-worldly in aspect. She has the ability to change her shape and appearance especially when in the company of men. When she and her warriors are pursued by Arthur she transforms herself and her companions into huge stones. She was also thought to be skilled in the necromantic and healing arts. Therefore she was thought to have been something of a sorceress, having much later beguiled Merlin and learnt his secrets of magic and witchcraft through him, eventually becoming his paramour. She persuades the ill-fated Sir Accolon of Gaul to join in her plot to kill King Arthur. She allies herself with the Dane Ogier.
The Fisher King
The Fisher King is a type of analogue extension of the story about the knight with two swords – Sir Ballin who met the man whose son’s wounds would not heal without the elixir of the blood of his assassin – the Red Knight Sir Ballan. In Chretien de Troyes rendition, Sir Perceval encounters a “maimed king” during his search who is living in the Castle of the Grail. He was trying to cross a river when he is offered hospitality at the castle of the crippled Fisher King. He is invited to a sumptuous feast at which the various qualities or elements of the Grail are ceremoniously revealed to him. These are the bleeding lance, the chalice of blood, and the sword. However, later, when he meets his cousin he is told that he failed miserably to ask the relevant question. To heal the King Perceval has to give the right answer to the riddle posed by the Fisher King – “whom does the Grail serve?”. Sir Perceval returns to King Arthur‘s court and is reprimanded by an ugly hag for his absent-mindedness. His neglect to ask the question only signals the subsequent decline of the Kingdom. He meets Sir Gawain and befriends him, then hears from a local hermit the real reason why he failed in his quest to the Maimed King‘s castle. He tells him that because he’d left his mother to die that he must now atone for this sin before he can return to the King’s Castle and make another final attempt. At this point Sir Perceval realises his religious obligations are paramount to his continued survival and progress. Sir Perceval then vows to seek the Fisher King’s Castle again and to ensure that he solves the mystery surrounding the objects revealed to him. His second attempt is more successful and he is told the meaning of the mysteries surrounding the sacred objects. The spear is that which pierced Christ‘s’ side, and that The Grail was indeed the sacred cup into which the blood and water of Christ had been collected. He is told that the Fisher King is a direct blood line descendant of Joseph de Arimathea and therefore his own uncle. He discovers that King Pelles has been wounded when attempting to mend a sword that had been broken by a knight named Pertinax and that only the death of this knight could secure the King’s well being again. So Perceval seeks out the knight and kills him. Towards the end of the tale he discovers that there is no higher calling than to serve the Grail and that the Grail serves all humanity. The Fisher King supposedly corresponds to the Greek centaur Chieron, a mentor and healer who was also accidentally wounded by Hercules.
The Dolorous Stroke (The “Maimed King” or the wound that never heals)
One day a sad knight passes by King Arthur and he asks one of his knights, Sir Ballin to find out what was distressing him. Sir Ballin then intercepts the knight in the forest with a young damsel and despite his remonstrations persuades him to leave his business with the young maiden and attend the court of the King immediately. On their way to the castle the sad knight is unexpectedly slain by a mysterious attacker with a spear, despite Ballin’s assurances of a safe conduct. Before he dies he whispers the name of his assassin – Sir Garlon, and asks Ballin to see to the safe conduct of the damsel in the forest and to complete the mission he was undertaking. Ballin secures the maiden and rides off in search of the knight Garlon and they then meet a man who, coincidentally needs the blood of this knight to heal his son who received incurable wounds from Garlon‘s sword. He tells them also that Garlon will soon be attending a local feast. At the feast Ballin identifies Sir Garlon and smites him down with a truncheon which he secretly smuggled into the banquet. The brother of Sir Garlon, who held the feast, namely King Pelles, was so outraged at this that he vows to slay Sir Ballin. The knight now realising he was without a weapon, his truncheon firmly embedded in the chest of Sir Garlon, escapes into various rooms searching for a weapon with which to confront the murderous assaults of King Pelles. When finally confronted he luckily spies a ceremonial spear on the wall, seizes it and then wounds the King in the thighs. The spear was reputedly the same one which pierced the side of Christ and its use in this affair had ominous consequences.
King Pelles‘ wound would not heal until Sir Galahad finally intervenes in the quest for the Grail. However, this travesty by Sir Ballin causes a drought to occur in the land, and as Ballin rides on with the damsel he meets a party of knights and ladies who challenge him to do battle with a certain Red Knight who kept watch over a treacherous pass. For the conflict with the Red Knight he is given a new magical shield, just as Perseus employed in his murderous quest against Medusa. He eventually meets the Red Knight and though unbeknown to either combatant that they were blood brothers they both attacked each other until they were weary. Finally, Sir Balan, the Red Knight asked for the name of the man he was duelling with, and when told he was Sir Ballin he was overjoyed and relieved. Nevertheless the two knights died soon after from their horrendous wounds. There are several interesting additions to the Arthurian Legends which are also worthy of some consideration – The stories surrounding Tristan & Isolde, the Fisher King and the Green Knight.
Tristan & Isolde
While the Lord of Lyonesse Rivalin was visiting King Mark of Cornwall he saw and fell in love with his sister Blanchefleur. As a consequence of this fatal attraction they conceived a child but in his absence Rivalin discovered his own lands had been invaded and he returned to Lyonesse and there married Blanchefleur. Unfortunately Rivalin died in battle defending his lands and his lady Blanchefleur whilst giving birth to a boy died in childbirth. The child of their brief union was called Tristan who was fair, gifted and strong. Such was his handsome appearance that one day he is kidnapped by Norwegian pirates, but as their ship returns, a storm blows the pirates’ ship to Tintagel in Cornwall and finds himself coincidentally at the court of King Mark. Although King Mark is unaware of the child’s lineage as his nephew he instinctively asks him to settle there. Meanwhile the child’s custodian Rual having searched high and low for Tristan finally discovers he is at the court of King Mark. When the King discovers this he is naturally overjoyed and offers Tristan a place among his other chivalrous knights. To prove his worthiness Tristan decides to challenge an old rival of the Kings – a certain Morold from the Irish court who had a beautiful sister called Isolde. They sail in their boats to a deserted island and there commence combat. Tristan is wounded in the thigh and is then informed that Morold‘s sword is impregnated with a deadly poison. Tristan realising his predicament resolves to slay the knight with what remaining strength he has and when he has accomplished this returns with his festering wound. Whilst in a fever of delirium Tristan is told that the sister of the man he has killed has the antidote to the poison. Therefore he disguises himself in rags, borrowed a harp, changed his name to Tantris and went off to the country of Morold in search of the princess Isolde. Meeting her at court she agrees to heal his wound if he would in turn teach her in the fundamentals of music. When he was fully healed he then returned to Cornwall only to discover to his dismay that the King‘s lords were so jealous of his close relationship with the King that they had conspired to have him marry the Irish maiden Isolde thereby reinforcing their alliance with Dublin. The King‘s barons elect Tristan as the King‘s envoy to ask for the hand of Isolde thinking that he would most likely be killed anyway by the Irish warriors.
Whilst Tristan sails to Wexford he hears that a certain dragon was terrorising the populace and is then resolved to destroy it. He finds the dragon and although in the conflict it succeeds in devouring half of his horse he kills it and removes its tongue and hides it inside his cuirass. Somewhat exhausted by the arduous task he then has to rest awhile inside a cave. Meanwhile another knight comes across the dragon’s carcass and with deception in mind resolves to remove the head of the dragon and claim it as his own victory. This wicked knight proceeds to the court of Isolde and boasting of his courage declares himself worthy of the hand of Isolde in marriage. Isolde‘s mother however is not convinced of the knight’s virtue and consoles poor Isolde who has no genuine fancy for this suitor. They venture forth to locate the site of the dragon-slaying and having discovered the remains of Tristan‘s horse realised another party was responsible for slaying the monster. Then quite by chance Tristan is discovered nearby in a most terrible state being overcome and poisoned by the foul breath of the dragon. The ladies attend to him and when fully cleaned and recovered they recognise him as the valiant Tantris who visited their court only quite recently. He then informs them that his mission was to secure the hand of Isolde for his Uncle the King of Cornwall. The next day the wicked knight officially approaches the Irish court with the head of the dragon claiming the hand of Isolde as his right. However, Tristan being seated there rises and says: “Where is the dragon’s tongue?” – the knight examines its mouth only to find it missing. Tristan then produces the tongue still in his possession and reveals the knight to be a disgraceful liar. The marriage between Isolde and King Mark is then agreed thanks to Tristan‘s courage and the ladies’ timely intervention.
Before they depart for the court of King Mark Isolde‘s mother prepares a powerful love elixir for the benefit of Isolde and Mark and charges one of her ladies Brangane to keep it safe until after the marriage has taken place. After the ceremony she instructs her to pour out the drink for Mark and Isolde to seal their love forever. However while sailing across one night Isolde and Tristan are gathered in each other’s company and seeking some refreshment they inadvertently discover the flask of love potion believing it to be simply wine. Taking a glass each for themselves they become heavily intoxicated by its spell and fall hopelessly in love with each other. So passionate were their feelings that they had no other choice but to act upon them too, so that Isolde unwittingly lost her maidenhood not to the King as intended but to Tristan. When they returned the marriage went ahead as arranged and Brangane devised to take the place of Isolde on their wedding night in order to hide the loss of Isolde‘s virginity and her own folly.
So for many years Isolde and Tristan managed to keep their clandestine affair a secret however in the King‘s court tongues began to wag and rumours were spreading. An evil dwarf named Melot told the King that they met secretly on certain nights below an apple tree where they declared their illicit love for each other. Before Isolde and Tristan met they hid themselves in the boughs of the apple tree in order to spy on them. However, both lovers saw their reflections in the nearby pool and remained distant throughout, in fact declaring instead how the evil gossip was ill founded and embarrassing to all concerned. Somewhat disappointed the King and the dwarf went away with no evidence to substantiate the Melot‘s claims. Melot then devised another cunning trick, he sprinkled flour on the floor between Tristan and Isolde‘s beds. Tristan was aware of this and made a giant leap between his and Isolde‘s bed injuring himself his blood spilled over the sheets. As a result their infidelity was discovered and the King resolved to place publicly Isolde on trial by ordeal. In full knowledge that she would be forced to swear by the most sacred of relics she devised her own loophole. She asked Tristan to disguise himself as a leper and await her near the trial. Before entering the court she dismounted from her palfrey and then had to cross the marsh before entering the court. Seeing Tristan nearby and in full view of the assembly she requested the leper to carry her across the marshy ford, to which he kindly accepted. Isolde then swore over the sacred relics “I swear that no man has come between my thighs except for that poor leper who carried me across the marsh”. Having spoken truthfully she remained unharmed.
Islode passed this initiatory test by her feminine cunning and the King was now satisfied that no misconduct had taken place between her and Tristan. For some time Tristan took his leave from the court but then eventually returned and recommenced his adultery with Isolde. One day King Mark was out hunting and discovered them lying blissfully gazing into each other’s eyes and in each other’s arms hidden in a secret glade. As the King‘s suspicions were finally confirmed Tristan and Isolde were forced to leave the court and go their separate ways. After a series of adventures Tristan returns to his uncle’s court and helps him with the invasion. He finds a friend in the Duke‘s son Caherdin whose sister Isolde is somewhat enamoured of Sir Tristan. When she overhears him one day playing on his harp and declaring his love for Isolde she thinks that he is secretly declaring his love for her not realising she bears the same name as his secret lover over the sea. Anyway the couple decide to wed but the marriage is never consummated. As a result of the spell of the magic potion Tristan cannot bring himself to take another woman as a lover. When Caherdin discovers this state of affairs he persuades Tristan to go with him to see this paragon of love and beauty who bears the same name as his sister. Caherdin gains an audience with Isolde and gives her Tristan‘s ring and a message begging her to abscond with him back to Brittany. However the couple are destined never to meet again as Caherdin‘s ship is taken by a storm and Tristan finally dies pining for his loved one to return.
Related articles include: “King Arthur & the Holy Grail”, “The Knights of the Round Table” and “The Sword in the Stone”.