Introduction
erlin is a
multi-faceted figure- Druid, shaman, monk, bard, necromancer, magician, astronomer, youth
and old sage. He was also known as a seer and a prophet, and his predictions always came
true. In the legends of Arthur, it is Merlin the sorceror, court wizard, and prophet who
embodies the themes of magic and myth, and who acts as Arthur's principal advisor. It is
believed that the story of Merlin originates in legends of a Celtic poet and prophet who
lived in the 500's, a man named Myrddin. He lived in what was then a Cymric borderland
near the Solway Firth. Fragments of poetry by and about him survive, and a man named
Lailoken, a madman and prophet who figures in Scottish legend, may be the same man.
Legends of Myrddin recount his creating unrest between British chieftains and causing the
Battle of Arderydd near Carlisle, which was fought in the 570's. As a supernatural
punishment, he loses his reason and is sent wandering through the forest of Celidon in the
Scottish lowlands.
Merlin first takes literary shape in the writings of Geoffrey of
Monmouth in the early 12th century. Geoffrey published some prophecies around 1135 that
dealt with British and Welsh affairs over the coming several centuries. He ascribed them
to a British prophet named Merlin, and soon afterwards included those prophecies in his
History of the Kings of Britain. Geoffrey also wrote a Latin poem entitled Vita Merlini
(Life of Merlin). Geoffrey's Merlin is the son of an demon which had lain with his mother,
a nun at Carmarthen in southwest Wales, while she slept. In Geoffrey's History, Merlin is
credited with using magic at the request of King Aurelius to help transport Stonehenge
from its supposed original site in Ireland to Salisbury Plain.
Medieval legends of Merlin credit him with the birth of Arthur. King Uther
Pendragon was smitten by another man's wife, Lady Ingraine, and although he wanted to lay
with her, she refused. Uther called upon Merlin to help him gain access to the fair lady,
and Merlin devised a magical deceit where Uther appeared to Ingraine as her own husband.
The result of this union was Arthur, and according to Sir Thomas Malory's Tales of King
Arthur one of the conditions of Merlin performing this magic for Uther was that he would
turn over the child to Merlin to nourish and eductate him, to which Uther agreed.
As the stories of Merlin developed through the writings of various poets, he became
associated, like Arthur, with places, roots, trees, and other natural magics. One of his
many magical skills was the ablity to change shape. His prophecies were held in great
esteem, and commentators endeavored to make sense of them. Romancers added to the
mythology of Merlin by crediting him with the foundation of the Round Table and by giving
him a major role in the mysteries of the Grail. Sir Thomas Malory, in his Tales of King
Arthur writes how the seer secured Arthur's ascension to the throne by providing the sword
in the stone where Arthur can prove himself. In Malory's tales it is Merlin who creates
the Round Table for Uther Pendragon.
Merlin falls in love with Nimue, (called Nyneve by Malory, also known as Vivienne) with
disastrous results. She accompanies Merlin on a journey to learn his magic, though never
does consent to be his lover. Although Merlin foresees the tragic end through prophesy he
is unable to avert it. Nimue grows tired of him, and turns one of his own spells against
him to imprison Merlin forever in a cave, buried under a great rock. Some retellings of
the tale have Nimue trapping Merlin in a bush or a Hawthorne tree, from which his voice
may sometimes still be heard; Tennyson's Idylls of the King is adapted from this version.
Different versions of the story have Merlin variously living forever within his
confinements, dying, or descending into madness. In the romance Suite de Merlin Vivienne
tricks Merlin into a tomb and forces him to die a slow death upon being sealed within.
Afterwards, Merlin's tomb becomes known as the 'Perron de Merlin' or Stone of Merlin
and there the Knights of the round Table meet to begin their adventures. Thus, even in his
withdrawn state, Merlin may be said to influence the activities of the world of Arthur.
Le Tombeau de Merlin
According to one version of the legend of Merlin's imprisonment, he was buried in a
neolithic formation of stones leading to an antechamber within the earth.
The famous writer Félix Bellamy spoke of it quite often. He described a covered
alleyway, in ruins, of which there still existed eight stones up until 1892. At that date,
the owner of the land on which it was located, attracted by the scent of the possible
treasure waiting beneath the soil, decided to dig up whatever he could find, scientific
discovery be damned. There are few words to describe the effect of this dynamiting, but
the evil has been done, irreversibly. Today, the Tombeau de Merlin is now composed of only
two perpendicular slabs of red schist, separated by an old holly tree... a monument which
fails to enchant all visitors, a number of whom find it difficult to believe that the mage
or archdruid would be content with such a modest tomb! (translated from Le tour de
Brocéliande, a tourist publication published by the Comité F.F.R.P. d'Ille-et-Vilaine).
People come from all over to world to visit this site and sometimes hang wreathes upon
the holly tree. When I visited this place, I noticed that many people had taken clippings
of holly from the branches as souvenirs, and the tree is in serious danger of dying.
Located scarcely a few steps away is the Fontaine de Jouvence, where children were
presented to the priests to have them washed and entered into the "marith"
(register).
Merlin
