In Defence of King Arthur
Part 4 - The Story of Merlin
In Defence of King Arthur,
by a Canadian Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Part 4 - The Story of Merlin
Part 4 - The Story of Merlin
Our story begins around the end of 4th century AD, when the Roman Empire was readying to withdraw their legions from Briton to go and fight elsewhere on the European continent, and all the men of military age were called to assemble at London, where they were addressed by Guithelinus, the Archbishop of London:
“I am greatly saddened by the state of deprivation and abjectness which has overtaken you since [Roman emperor] Maximianus stripped this kingdom of all its army and all its young men. You are simply the last remnants left, common people, ignorant of the ways of war, men who were busied in other matters: some in cultivating their fields, for example, others in the various makeshifts of business life.
When hostile men of other nations came to attack you, they forced you to abandon your sheepfolds, just as if you yourselves had been sheep wandering about without a shepherd. Then the might of Rome restored you to your possessions. Surely you will not always put your trust in being protected by someone else! Won’t you accustom your hands to brandish shields, swords, and spears against those who would be no mightier than you yourselves, if only you could throw off your laziness and lethargy?
The Romans are tired of all this perpetual travelling-about which they have to do in order to fight your enemies for you. They now elect to forgo all the tribute which you pay, rather than be harassed any longer in this way on sea and land. Given that you were only ordinary folk in the days when you possessed soldiers, do you think that for this reason you have lost claim to manhood?
Surely men can be born out of their social caste – a soldier from a farmer, for example, or a farmer from a soldier? Surely a military man can be the son of a shop-keeper, or for that matter, a shop-keeper the son of a military man? Given the possibility of one caste being born from another, I find it hard to believe that people are such that they can actually lose their manhood. If you are men, then behave like men! Pray to Christ to give you courage and then protect your own liberty!”
Some of these young men from Briton that Maximianus had earlier taken with him to Gaul, stayed in Gaul, and ended up settling on the peninsula of Brittany, that they called Armorica.
But as soon as the Romans left, Briton was invaded and attacked by the Picts, along with the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Guithelinus then crossed over to his fellow countrymen in Armorica to ask for their help. The king, Aldroenus, agreed to send his brother Constantine with soldiers under his command, and if he should free the country from the barbarians, then Guithelinus should place the crown on his head.
When Constantine arrived in Briton, the young men joined him in battle and they were victorious, and all the Britons came together and made Constantine their king. [Constantine was Arthur’s grand-father.]
But after Constantine was treasonously killed, the question was – who would succeed him? Constantine’s eldest son, Constans, had been raised in a monastic order, and his two younger sons, Ambrosius and Uther [Arthur’s father], ‘still lay in their cradles and could hardly be raised to the kingship’. Vortigern, a treasonous clan leader, convinced Constans that if he agreed to his plan, then Vortigern could make Constans king.
Constans had been a monk – ‘what he had learned in the cloister had nothing with how to rule a kingdom’, and upon becoming king ‘he handed the entire government over to Vortigern’. Later, Constans was assassinated, and Vortigern usurped the throne.
When the Picts, and the peoples of the neighboring islands revolted against Vortigern, Vortigern made a treaty with Hengist of the Saxons who had settled in Briton, who would assist him in his battles against the Picts, and Vortigern would give the Saxons grants of land.
Also, Vortigern feared that either Ambrosius or Uther, who had fled to Brittany (in France) might sail from France to depose him, and so he allowed many more Saxons to come to Briton, to assist with his defence. Vortigern came to love the Saxons more than the Britons, and he even would marry the daughter of Hengist. But Vortigern would later be betrayed by Hengist and he was forced to flee to the western part of Briton. And here begins the story of Merlin.
“Vortigern summoned his magicians, asked them for their opinion and ordered them to tell him what to do. They all gave him the same advice: that he should build for himself an immensely strong tower, into which he could retreat in safety if he should lose all his other fortresses …”
“He assembled stonemasons from different parts of the country and ordered them to build a tower for him. However much they built one day the earth swallowed up the next, in such a way that they had no idea where their work had vanished to.”
“When this was announced to Vortigern, he consulted his magicians a second time, to give them a chance of explaining the reason for it. They told him that he should look for a lad without a father, and that, when he had found one, he should kill him, so that the mortar and stones could be sprinkled with the lad’s blood. According to them the result of this would be that the foundations would hold firm. Messengers were immediately sent out through the different parts of the country to find such a person if they could.”
The messengers found ‘Merlin’ – a boy who didn’t have a father. There is a little story about how his father was not a human, but was a daemon, from the spirit world, who had fallen in love with Merlin’s mother.
Although later Hollywood romantics would try to say that Merlin was half demon and half human and that he was like an anti-Christ, NO, Merlin was half-daemon, like the daemon of Socrates – he was half-mortal and half-divine. And we will see the role of Merlin later. But now, when Merlin was presented to the king, he told him:
“Tell your magicians to appear in front of me, and I will prove that they have lied. Just because you do not know what is obstructing the foundations of the towers which these men have begun, you have recommended that my blood should be sprinkled on the mortar to make the building stand firm. Tell me then, what lies hidden under the foundation.”
The magicians, who were terrified, said nothing.
“My Lord King, summon your workmen. Order them to dig in the earth, and underneath you will find a pool. That is what is preventing the tower from standing.”
This was done. A pool was duly found beneath the earth, and it was this which made the ground unsteady.
“Tell me now you lying flatterers. What lies beneath the pool?”
They remained silent, unable to utter a single sound.
“Order the pool to be drained and at the bottom you will observe two hollow stones. Inside the stones you will see two Dragons which are sleeping.”
After Vortigern ordered the pool to be drained, the two dragons emerged from the pool and breathed fire and fought bitterly. Vortigern ordered Merlin to explain what this battle meant.
“Alas for the Red Dragon, for its end is near. Its cavernous dens shall be occupied by the White Dragon, which stands for the Saxons whom you have invited over. The Red Dragon represents the people of Briton, who will be overrun by the White One: for Briton’s mountains and valleys shall be levelled, and the streams in its valleys shall run with blood.”
Then Geoffrey adds another whole chapter (one that is not found in Tysilio’s ‘Chronicles’) concerning Merlin’s continuation of his interpretation of the two dragons:
“… The Boar of Cornwall [i.e. Arthur] shall bring relief from these invaders, for it will trample their necks beneath its feet. The Islands of the Ocean shall be given into the power of the Boar and it shall lord it over the forests of Gaul. The House of Romulus [i.e. the Roman Empire] shall dread the Boar’s savagery and the end of the Boar will be shrouded in mystery. The Boar shall be extolled in the mouths of the peoples, and its deeds will be meat and drink to those who tell tales …”
Geoffrey continues with Merlin’s prophesy about the two dragons – a cryptic story of the history of Briton after King Arthur, until the last king Cadwallader. For this short period in Briton’s history between the Roman imperial rule and the Saxon conquest, Briton was again ruled independently by its own kings.
So, here we see the emergence of Merlin into the story, in opposition to the superstitious and scheming magicians who were advising the king. Merlin was NOT a magician. Geoffrey calls him a soothsayer. Sooth is an old English word meaning truth. So a soothsayer is someone who tries to tell the truth, someone who tries to forecast or to predict the truth, or the future – a prognosticator, NOT a magician.
Also at that time, Ambrosius and Uther sailed with an army from Armorica, landed in Briton, laid siege to the castle where Vortigern had sought safety, and burned it down, along with Vortigern. Then they marched to do battle against Hengist and the Saxons and defeated them. Hengist was executed but his son and the remaining Saxons begged for mercy, and Ambrosius, the new king, granted them the region near Scotland to live, and made a treaty with them.
Now, at Salisbury, there were buried the leaders and princes of Briton who had been betrayed and murdered by Hengist and the Saxons, and so Ambrosius ‘collected carpenters and stone-masons together from every region and ordered them to use their skill to contrive some novel building which would stand forever in memory of such distinguished men. The whole band racked their brains and then confessed themselves beaten.’
Then Merlin was sent for, and when he arrived, Ambrosius ordered him to prophecy the future, because he wanted to hear some marvels from Merlin. But Merlin said:
“Mysteries of that sort cannot be revealed except where there is the most urgent need for them. If I were to utter them as an entertainment, or where there is no need at all, then the spirit which controls me would forsake me in the moment of need.”
“If you want to grace the burial-place of these men with some lasting monument, send for the Giants’ Ring which is on Mount Killaraus in Ireland. In that place there is a stone construction which no man of this period could ever erect, unless he combined great skill and artistry. The stones are enormous and there is no one alive strong enough to move them. If they are placed in position round this site, in the way they are erected over there, they will stand forever …”
“Many years ago the Giants transported them from the remotest confines of Africa and set them up in Ireland at a time when they inhabited that country. Their plan was that, whenever they felt ill, baths should be prepared at the foot of the stones; for they used to pour water over them and to run this water into baths in which their sick were cured.”
There is much controversy about this mention of the ‘Giants’ and about the origin of the stone circles in Briton. The giants, as Geoffrey earlier said, were the inhabitants of Briton before the arrival of Brutus.
But Geoffrey writes that at that time in Briton, they only seemed to think that the stones had medicinal properties, and they seemed to have forgotten about the astronomical uses and calendar dating uses for the stones. It’s like they’re coming out of a dark age. And I guess that 400 years suffering under the Roman Empire might not have helped any.
Ambrosius sent his brother Uther [Arthur’s father] and 15,000 men, along with Merlin, to Ireland to remove the stones and bring them back to Briton. When they came to the stone ring, Merlin said:
“Try your strength, young men, and see whether skill can do more than brute strength, or strength more than skill, when it comes to dismantling these stones.”
‘They rigged up hawsers and ropes and they propped up scaling-ladders, each preparing what he thought most useful, but none of these things advanced an inch. When Merlin saw what a mess they were making he burst out laughing. He placed in position all the gear which he considered necessary and dismantled the stones more easily than you could ever believe. Once he had pulled them down, he had them carried to the ships and stored on board, and they set sail once more for Briton with joy in their hearts.’
Back in Briton, Merlin had the stones placed in a circle around the sepulchre, in exactly the same way as they had been arranged on Mount Killaraus in Ireland. Merlin, Uther and the men did not use magic, or brute strength to move the stones and to reconstruct them, they used ‘skill’.
Ambrosius would be poisoned by a treacherous Saxon, and Uther [Arthur’s father] would become king. And now we are ready to read the story of King Arthur.
[quotes are from the ‘History of the Kings of Briton’, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe]
[ next week - part 5 - the Story of Arthur]