Who was Merlin?
(In Welsh: Emrys or Myrddin, latinized as Merlinus). In the traditional
legend, Merlin was Arthur's magician and counsellor, in many ways the architect
of his reign. The popular modern image of Merlin is a wise elder, but there
is abundant evidence in many early sources of Merlin's true nature as a
shamanistic mad prophet, magician, wise man, and, paradoxically, foolish
seeker of the truth. During the middle ages, his glamour outshown Arthur.
His life was in three phases: innocent prophetic youth, madman and hermit,
and wise elder. It was Geoffrey of Monmouth whose HISTORIA REGNUM BRITTANIAE
and VITA MERLINI provide the chief early sources for his life. In these
books, Merlin makes a series of prophecies concerning the fate of Britain.
In the classic form of the tale, Merlin was begotten by an incubus.
Robert de Boron says the devils of Hell had determined to set on earth
an evil being to counterbalance the good introduced by Jesus Christ. Happily,
the child was promptly baptized countering the evil and giving us our magician!
At the time of Merlin's youth, Vortigern, King of Britain, retreating from
the treachery of his Saxon allies and the arrival of his British enemies,
Ambrosius Aurelianus and Uther later called the Pendragon, determined to
build a tower near Mount Snowdonia in Wales. His engineers' attempts proved
futile for each day's labors were lost as the tower collapsed without apparent
reason during the night. The king's counsellors told him he would need
to sacrifice a fatherless child to remedy this. A search turned up Merlin
Emrys. The youth confounded the king's advisors and prophesied that the
real reason for the tower's collapse was the existence of a pool beneath
the foundations. Digging revealed the truth of this and a brace of dragons
emerged, one red and one white; which caused Merlin to utter a series of
prophecies about Vortigern's death and the future of the land.
From this point, he becomes increasingly involved in the struggle that
was to have its peak with the reign of Arthur. When Aurelius Ambrosius
defeats Vortigern, he wished to put up a monument of the men killed treacherously
by the Saxons during the 'Night of the Long Knives'. Merlin advised him
to procure certain magical sarsen stones from Ireland and these were erected
on Salisbury Plain as Stonehenge (historically inaccurate as Stonehenge
was built over a thousand years before the time, but may show an attachment
between the great henge monument and the name Myrddin, since Britain was
known as Clas Myrddin or Merlin's Enclosure). After the death of Aurelius,
when Uther came to the throne, Merlin arranged for him to seduce Igraine
by magically making him take the shape of her husband, Gorlois. He took
the child, Arthur, born of this union, and spirited him away for safety.
When the aged and infirm Uther is nearing his last battle, Merlin arranges
the Sword-in-the-Stone contest, and magically or pre-ordained, Arthur draws
forth the sword and becomes the true and rightful king. Merlin becomes
Arthur's main counselor and architect of the Round Table but slowly withdraws
from the court.
According to Malory in the Morte D'Arthur, Merlin became infatuated
by Nimue (elsewhere called Viviane), whom he taught magical secrets which
she used to imprison him in a glass tower, or under a stone or in a hawthorn
tree. Geoffrey, however, has him active after Camlann, bringing the wounded
Arthur to Avalon.
It is possible that Geoffrey's Merlin may be a merging of extant stories
of Arthur's Merlin and the sixth-century Welsh poet, Myrddin ab Morvryn,
often called Merlin Sylvester or Merlin Calendonensis (several ancient
poems are attributed to him, including Affalenau). Myrddin was the court
poet of Gwenddolau ab Ceidio, a pagan king whose court was located just
north of Hadrian's wall near Carlisle, and fought at his side at the Battle
of Arfderydd in 573CE. Myrddin was driven mad when his king and patron
Gwenddolau was killed in the battle. Myrddin's madness is paralleled in
several traditional stories concerning the Irish Suibhne Gelt and the madman
from the life of Saint Kentigern, Lailoken. All three mad prophets are
said to suffer the threefold death caused by falling, hanging and drowning,
a druidic style ritual death.
As mentioned above he went mad after the battle of Arthuret and became
a wild man, living in the woods. According to Giraldus Cambrensis, this
was because of some horrible sight he beheld during the fighting, where
three of his brothers were killed. King Rhydderch Hael was married to Merlin's
sister, Ganieda, who persuaded him to give up his life in the forest, but
he revealed to Rhydderch that she had been unfaithful to him. He decided
to return to the greenwood and urged his wife, Guendoloena, to remarry.
However, his madness once again took hold of him and he turned up at the
wedding, riding a stag and leading a herd of deer. In his rage, he tore
the antlers from the stag and flung them at the bridgegroom, killing him.
He went back to the woods and Ganieda built him an observatory from which
he could study the stars. Welsh poetry antedating Geoffrey largely agrees
with this account, though it has Merlin fighting against Rhydderch rather
than for him. Similar tales are told about a character called Lailoken,
who was in Rhydderch's service and this may have prompted Geoffrey to change
the side which Merlin was on.
As to the historical Merlin, if he existed, modern writers such as Ward
Rutherford and Nikolai Tolstoy think he may have been a latter-day Druid
and so took part in shamanistic practices. Jung and von Franz also see
shamanistic elements in the story of Merlin. This contrasts with the earlier
theory of E. Davies that Merlin was a god (the evening star), and his sister
Ganieda a goddess (the morning star). There is some evidence that Merlin
may originally have been a god, for in the TRIADS, we are told that the
earliest name for Britain was Merlin's Precinct, as though he were a god
with proprietorial rights. Geoffrey Ashe would connect him with the cult
of the god Mabon. Because of his association with stags, there may be a
connection with Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god. Merlin's mother was called
Aldan in Welsh tradition. The Elizabethan play THE BIRTH OF MERLIN - which
may have been partially authored by Shakespeare calls her Joan Go-to-'t.
That he had no father does not seem to be a feature of Welsh tradition
in which he is given the following pedigree: Coel Godebog - Ceneu - Mor
- Morydd - Madog Morfryn - Myrddin (Merlin). He was also said to be the
son of Morgan Frych who, some claimed, had been a prince of Gwynedd. Both
Welsh poetry and Geoffrey have him speaking with Taliesin, with whom he
seemed to be considerably connected in the Welsh mind. Thus one Welsh tradition
asserted he first appeared in Vortigern's time, then was reincarnated as
Taliesin and reincarnated once more as Merlin the wild man. The idea that
there were two Merlins, wizard and wild man, is found in Giraldus Cambrensis
(the Norman-Welsh chronicler of the twelfth century), doubtless because
of the impossibly long lifespan assigned to him by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
A modern relic of the Merlin legend was to be found in the pilgrimages
made to Merlin's Spring at Barenton in Brittany, but these were stopped
by the Vatican in 1853.
Affalenau (Modified from one of my own works) (myrddin@mindspring.com
)
"Sweet apple tree with fragrant branches
Fruit bearing, of great value, belonging to me,
Sweet apple tree, a tall green tree,
Fruit bearing, full branches and fair trunk,
Sweet apple tree, a yellow tree,
Which grows at the end of a hill without tilled land around it,
Sweet apple tree which grows beyond Rhun.
I had contended at its foot for the satisfaction of a maiden,
With my shield on my shoulder and my sword on my thigh,
And in the forest of Celyddon I slept alone;
O! little pig why didst thou think of sleep?
Listen to the birds, their imploring is heard,
Sweet apple tree which grows in a glade,
Its peculiar power hides me from the men of Rhydderch;
A crowd by its trunk, a host around it,
It would be a treasure for them to find me, brave men in their ranks.
I am hated by Gwasawg, the supporter of Rhydderch,
Now Gwendydd loves me not and does not greet me,
For I have killed her son and her daughter,
Death has taken everyone, why does it not call me?
For after Gwenddolau, no lord honors me,
Mirth gives me no delight, no woman visits me;
In the battle of Arderydd, my torc was of gold,
Though today I am not treasured by the one of the aspect of swans."
Short Bibliography:
Quest for Merlin, The, Nikolai Tolstoy, Little, Brown & Co, Boston,
MA, 1985
Merlin, Norma Lorre Goodrich, Franklin Watts, New York, Ny, 1987
Who was Taliesin?
(originally compiled by Chris Thornborrow from questions and answers
on the Camelot mailing list. ) (myrddin@mindspring.com )
Taliesin was an early bard who may have lived a little later than the
traditional Arthurian period but was nonetheless drawn into the Arthurian
saga. We know very little about the historical poet. The best conjecture
is that he was active in the late sixth century (somewhat earlier than
Aneirin). He probably came from Powys and the first authentic poem attributed
to him was a tribute to Cynan Garwyn, ruler of Powys and father to the
Selyf who fell at the battle of Chester in 615. From Powys, he was attracted
to the court of Urien, ruler of Rheged, the most prominent of the Northern
British kingdoms. Urien was probably active campaigning against Theodoric
and Hussa of Northumbria in the period 572 to 592. There has been much
speculation as to the location and boundaries of Rheged (from Cumbria to
Loch Lomond - if you exclude the aberrant suggestion of Gower) but northern
Cumberland seems most likely. Urien's power, if not Rheged proper, stretched
eastwards to Catterick.
Another Taliesin poem is for Gwallawg ap Lleennawg , ruler of Elmet,
another North British kingdom centered on Leeds. Gwallawg was the father
of the Ceredic (Cerdic) expelled from his kingdom by Edwin of Deira in
the early seventh century. This lends additional credibility to the placing
of the historical personage in the latter part of the sixth century.
The twelve poems attributed to Taliesin are published as "Canu Taliesin"
by the University of Wales Press with extensive notes and introduction
by Sir Ifor Williams. The same poems are published by the Dublin Institute
of Advanced Studies (DIAS) as "The Poems of Taliesin" with the introduction
and notes translated into English by J. E. Caerwyn Williams. An edition
of the poems in the original orthography, with accompanying verse translations
into English by Meirion Pennar, is published by Llanerch Press.
The Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwfn states that Taliesin was a companion
of Arthur when the latter went to the Otherworld, and one of the seven
men who returned from that expedition. He is also supposed to have accompanied
Bran Bendegeid in his invasion of Ireland to rescue his sister Rhiannon.
In another Welsh tradition, Taliesin was once named Gwion Bach and was
set to watch over the cauldron of Ceridwen in which was brewed a drink
of knowledge and inspiration intended for her son, Morfran or Afagddu.
Three drops splashed out onto his fingers which he then thrust into his
mouth, in order to cool them - thus did he have access to all knowledge.
He was smart enough to know that Ceridwen would be out to get him, so he
underwent a series of shape-shiftings to avoid her. After several changes,
he turned himself into a grain of wheat and she turned into a hen and ate
him. He grew in her stomach and was reborn. (The cauldron of knowledge
story is also attributed to several other personages including the great
Finn MacCumhal of Ireland.)
After her plan had been spoiled, Ceridwen desired to get rid of him,
but he had been born of her and being a fertility goddess (wheat/pigs),
she put him in a coracle or a leather bag and sent him sailing off down
the River Dee. He arrived in Aberdovey where King Elphin the Unfortunate
found him on May-Eve at the Salmon Weir and rescued him. The King was struck
by the brightness of the baby's forehead and called him Taliesin, meaning
Radiant Brow.
Taliesin grew up in Elphin's court and was tutor to Elphin's son, but
misfortune befell him and Taliesin was sent packing. He went to Gwynedd
and became a bard, putting all others to shame. Some legends have it that
that was in the court of King Maelgwn Gwynedd. Others claim that it was
the court of King Arthur. Later, Taliesin was associated with another Prince
Elphin whose life he saved from the Drowned Hundred, the villages which
were submerged when Sienhethryn the Drunkard failed to repair the dikes
holding back the ocean. (The legend of Yr Gantref yr Gwaelod -- the drowned
villages). Eventually, Taliesin wrote songs of praise for Kings.
Taliesin was regarded as both poet and prophet. In both Welsh tradition
and the Vita Merlini he is represented as discoursing with Merlin and has
also been associated with Aneirin.
In the medieval period, another Taliesin wrote, using the name as his bardic pseudonym and many poems attributed to the sixth century Taliesin are in fact the medieval Taliesin's. however in myth the two have been subsumed into one and the attributes of both are given to the earlier Taliesin.
Taliesin
the Shamanic storyteller par excellence...
Taliesin is one of the major figures of Celtic mythology. He was a Druidic
shaman/bard who lived in Wales in the 6th century. There is a wonderful
story about his childhood and transformation: born Gwion Bach, he grew
up as a poor shepherd boy, and eventually came to the service of Caridwen,
a witch/goddess and herself a central figure in the Druidic pantheon. Caridwen
was brewing up a spectacular potion, which after boiling for a year yielded
three drops sufficient to confer upon their recipient all knowledge of
past and future. Gwion Bach had been tending the fire, and accidentally
the three magic drops landed on his finger. In an instant both Caridwen
and he knew that he was as powerful as she - and therefore as dangerous.
The boy fled, with the witch in hot pursuit.
The chase lasted a year; both parties changed shape numerous times in
the process. Finally, Caridwen caught up to Gwion Bach while he was disguised
as a grain of wheat; the witch cleverly took the form of a hen, and ate
him. However, even this does not seem to have done the trick, for he ended
up somehow being thrown into the sea, caught in a fisherman's net, and
rescued. Taliesin came to shore from his ordeal in full glory, and announced
to the world his new identity. He quickly came to the attention of the
Druids, who were very impressed by his supernatural knowledge and wisdom.
He became the greatest of the Druidic bards, and his songs form one of
the major contributions to early Celtic literature. They are collected
and interpreted in a book, "Taliesin: Shamanism and the Bardic Mysteries
in Britain and Ireland", by John Matthews.
Thanks to Fiona for this information.
© 1997 ceridwennight@geocities.com
Get your own Free Home Page