None of the line items that are included in the following outline are meant to be links.
The outline itself represents the material that is to be covered in the upcoming book known by the above title (available after June 2039).

Foreword by Huathe Fearn

1. Introduction to Merlin, Prophet and Wizard of Logres
2. Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison: Merlin’s Name, Multiple Merlins, and Other Similar Alchemists/Visionaries/Guides/Gods
1. Introduction to the Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison:
                  Merlin’s Name, Multiple Merlins, and Other Similar Alchemists/Visionaries/Guides/Gods
2. Meaning and Origin of Merlin’s Name
1. Introduction to Meaning and Origin of Merlin’s Name
1. The fundamental problem:
1. Merlin is a composite figure,
2. and the name’s history is inseparable from the conflation
3. of multiple historical and legendary antecedents
2. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s deliberate Latinisation from Welsh Myrddin to Merlinus:
1. the probable motive being the avoidance
2. of the obscene connotations of merde in Anglo-Norman French
3. The name as it appears across traditions:
1. Latin (Merlinus),
2. Old French (Merlin),
3. Welsh (Myrddin),
4. Scots (Merling),
5. and variant Continental forms
4. The central scholarly debate:
1. does the legend preserve a single historical or legendary individual,
2. or does it represent the conflation of multiple figures:
• principally Myrddin Wyllt (Northern Wild Man),
• Myrddin Emrys (the Ambrosian prophet-child),
• and Lailoken (the Cumbrian madman)?
5. The prior question:
1. whether any genuine historical personage underlies the legend at all,
2. and if so, of what period and cultural milieu
6. Note on methodology:
1. etymological inquiry into this name requires simultaneous attention to Brittonic phonology,
2. Welsh poetic tradition,
3. and Continental reception
2. As Title, Honorific, or Office
1. Hypothesis that Myrddin or Merlin designates
1. a bardic,
2. prophetic,
3. or druidic office
4. rather than a personal name
5. — a designation that could be held by a succession of individuals
2. Parallels within Arthurian tradition:
1. titles that have migrated into apparent personal names
2. (The Fisher King,
3. The Lady of the Lake,
4. Ambrosius as epithet)
3. The awenydd (the divinely inspired prophetic poet) in Welsh tradition
1. as a possible institutional context
2. for a recurring “Merlin” title
4. Related offices:
1. the pencerdd (chief poet/bard of a royal court)
2. and the bardd teulu (household bard);
3. whether “Merlin” could function as a title within such a hierarchy
5. The Two Merlins tradition in Geoffrey of Monmouth and later scholarship:
1. Merlinus Ambrosius (Myrddin Emrys):
• the prophetic child of Vortigern’s narrative,
• associated with Dinas Emrys and southeastern Snowdonia
2. Merlinus Caledonensis/Merlinus Sylvestris (Myrddin Wyllt):
• Northern madman of the Caledonian Wood,
• driven mad at the Battle of Arfderydd (c AD 573)
6. Whether “Merlin” subsequently became a generic or semi-generic designation for
1. wizard,
2. seer,
3. or prophet
4. in certain vernacular traditions,
5. analogous to the role of “Sibyl” in the Classical world
7. The possibility that Geoffrey himself,
1. recognising the title-like quality of the name,
2. deliberately fused the two figures to create a single authoritative prophetic voice
3. Individual Name(s)
1. Moridunum/Moridunon/(Cær Moriddyn)/Cærfyrddin/Carmarthen — “sea fortress”
1. Introduction to Moridunum/Moridunon/(Cær Moriddyn)/Cærfyrddin/Carmarthen — “sea fortress”
• The Brittonic settlement name Moridunum,
• composed of mori- (sea, great water)
• and dūno- (hill-fort, enclosed high place, stronghold)
• Roman Moridunum Demetarum:
• the civitas capital of the Demetae tribe in southwest Wales,
• an established Roman administrative and military centre
• The documented phonological evolution of the place-name:
• Moridunum →
• Moridunon →
• Moriddyn/(Cær Moriddyn) →
• Caerfyrddin
• (with the intrusion of the personal-name element Myrddin
• into the place-name through folk-etymology)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth’s use of this location as Merlin's birthplace
• in Historia Regum Britanniae (c AD 1136):
• “in the city of the Demetae, which the Saxons now call Kaermerdin”
• The folk-etymological loop at the heart of the problem:
• did the city’s name generate the wizard’s name,
• or did the wizard’s name come first and the city’s name honour him?
• Scholarly consensus (Jarman, Bromwich, Koch):
• the place-name Moridunum is centuries older than any Arthurian legend;
• the wizard’s name almost certainly derives from the city, not vice versa
2. City founded by Merlin
• A minority tradition,
• present in later mediaeval texts and local legend,
• that Merlin himself was the founder or magical architect of the city
• The prophetic bond between wizard and settlement:
• the Merlin’s Oak tradition
• — the ancient oak said to have been planted by Merlin in Carmarthen,
• accompanied by the prophecy “When Merlin’s Oak shall tumble down, then shall fall Carmarthen town”
• The removal of the last fragment of Merlin’s Oak in 1978
• and the subsequent flooding of Carmarthen,
• noted by local tradition as a partial fulfilment of the prophecy
• The city-founding wizard as a mythological archetype:
• parallels with Amphion (whose music built the walls of Thebes),
• Romulus,
• and the druidic consecration of sacred enclosures
• Whether this tradition
• preserves a genuinely ancient stratum of Welsh legend
• or represents a secondary elaboration generated by the identification of Merlin with the place-name
3. Named for the Wizard
• The more prevalent and textually dominant tradition: Caerfyrddin understood as “the City (or Fortress) of Myrddin”
• Geoffrey’s apparent acceptance of this folk-etymology as biographical datum: the city’s name provides him with a birthplace for his prophet
• The historical irony:
• Moridunum predates any Arthurian tradition by at least five centuries,
• and the name Myrddin appears to have been coined or adapted from the place-name,
• inverting the relationship that later legend assumed
• Comparative instances of the same etymological inversion in Arthurian tradition:
• place-names generating personal names,
• which then appear to name the place (confer the “Camelot” problem)
• The cultural significance of the inversion:
• it demonstrates the generative power of place-names in Welsh legend-making,
• and the degree to which Geoffrey and his Welsh sources used topography as a biographical archive
2. Mer-/Myr-/Mor- — “sea”
1. The root mori- in Common “Celtic”:
• cognate with Latin mare,Old Irish muir,
• Welsh môr,
• Breton mor,
• Gaulish mori-,
• and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European móri (large body of standing water)
2. Its pervasive presence in “Celtic” toponymy:
• Armorica (Brittany, “before/on the sea”),
• Moray (Scotland),
• Morbihan (Brittany, “little sea”),
• the Mariscos,
• and numerous further instances across the Atlantic “Celtic” fringe
3. The semantic range of the root:
• “sea”,
• “great water”,
• “expanse of water”,
• occasionally “lake”
• or “river-mouth” in later usage
4. The phonological question:
• is the mor-/mer-/myr- element in “Merlin/Myrddin” genuinely bearing this maritime semantic weight,
• or is it merely a phonological survival of the place-name Moridunum that has lost its original meaning in transmission?
5. The transmutation of mor- to myr- in Middle Welsh:
• a regular phonological shift involving vowel affection,
• wherein o before i or y in the following syllable raises and fronts
6. Possible symbolic resonance, whether intentional or not:
• the “sea” element may have contributed,
• through secondary mythological elaboration,
• to Merlin’s liminal, boundary-crossing nature
• — a figure who stands between worlds, as the sea stands between lands
3. Muir-Dún/Mer-Then — “sea fort(ress)”
1. The Gaelic parallel formation:
• Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic muir (sea) + dún (fort, enclosed stronghold, hilltop settlement)
• the same semantic compound as Brittonic mori- + dūno-, but in a sister “Celtic” language
2. Whether this represents an independent formation within a cognate “Celtic” tradition,
• or whether direct linguistic borrowing
• or shared ancestral naming conventions account for the parallel
3. Mer-Then:
• a proposed or attested variant;
• the element -then as a possible further phonological reduction or dialectal variant of dún/din,
• perhaps influenced by Brittonic -dun/din forms in contact zones
4. The broader typological argument:
• the same semantic compound (sea + fort)
• appearing independently or quasi-independently across multiple “Celtic” branches
• argues for its antiquity as a descriptive place-name element,
• and may indicate the prevalence of coastal hill-fort settlements
• as a cultural type throughout the “Celtic” world
5. Implications for the geographic and cultural origin of the Merlin name-tradition:
• the compound presupposes a coastal or littoral site,
• consistent with Carmarthen’s position on the tidal Afon Tywi
4. Myrddin — “fortress”, or “(voice of) the eagle”
1. The standard Welsh form of the name
• and its phonological derivation from Moridunum
• via regular sound-changes
2. The -ddin element:
• from Brittonic dūno- (fort, stronghold, enclosed high place),
• cognate with Irish/Scottish dún,
• Pictish dun- (in place-names),
• Gaulish -dunum
• (as in Lugdunum/Lyon,
• Augustodunum/Autun,
• Camulodunum/Colchester),
• and ultimately Proto-“Celtic” dūnom
3. The “fortress” reading as the dominant etymological consensus:
• Myrddin = (Mori-)dūnon with the first element reduced
• — “the (sea-)fort” —
• with the personal name derived from this toponym
4. A O H Jarman’s foundational scholarship
• (The Legend of Merlin, 1960;
• Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, 1951)
• as the foundation for the modern philological understanding of the name
5. The “eagle” or “voice of the eagle” reading:
• A secondary, folk-etymological,
• or mythological layer of interpretation,
• not supported by the primary phonological evidence
• The eagle as a sovereignty and prophetic bird in “Celtic” tradition:
• the Eagle of Gwernabwy,
• the Eagle of Snowdon (Culhwch ac Olwen),
• the Eagle of Loch Treig
• — each a figure of immense antiquity
• and prophetic or cosmological significance
• Myrddin’s visionary utterances in Welsh vaticinary poetry
• the Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer,
• the Afallennau,
• and the Hoianau
• — as texts in which the prophet speaks with the voice of an eagle-like or wind-borne inspiration
• Whether myr- could connect,
• via a different and non-standard etymology,
• to a root meaning
• “voice”,
• “cry”,
• or “utterance”:
• linguistically tenuous but mythologically suggestive
• The eagle of Myrddin as a figure within Welsh prophetic tradition itself:
• whether Merlin, in certain traditions, becomes or speaks through the eagle,
• lending a secondary mythological gloss to the name’s first element
6. The crucial distinction between the two principal Welsh Merddin-figures:
• Myrddin Emrys (Merlin Ambrosius):
• the prophet of Vortigern and later of King Arthur,
• associated with Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd,
• the child without a father,
• the revealer of the warring dragons
• Myrddin Wyllt (Merlin the Wild, Silvestris or Caledonensis):
• the Northern British homo silvaticus driven mad at the Battle of Arfderydd (c AD 573),
• wandering the Caledonian Wood, prophesying to his sister Gwenddydd
• probably the earlier and more historically traceable of the two figures
5. Meliodunum/Mael-Din — “iron-fort”/“prince’s fort”
1. Introduction to Meliodunum/Mael-Din — “iron-fort”
• Meliodunum:
• a Gaulish/Continental Celtic settlement name attested in classical sources,
• principally associated with the territory of the Senones on the River Seine (near modern Melun, Île-de-France),
• though homologous formations appear elsewhere in the “Celtic” world
• The compound: melio-/mael- + -dunum/-din; the first element is ambiguous:
• Mael- (Welsh/Brittonic):
• meaning “prince”,
• “chief”,
• “lord”,
• “noble”
• — yielding “prince’s fortress”
• or “chieftain’s stronghold”
• Possible connection to an earlier root meaning “iron”
• (isarno- in Common “Celtic”;
• the “iron” reading is less secure but has been proposed)
• Melio-:
• possibly a Gaulish variant or phonological form of the same mael- root,
• or alternatively connected to Gaulish melo- (honey? — less likely in a fortification context)
• The etymological relevance to Merlin’s name:
• this remains speculative
• — the connection rests on phonological similarity
• and the shared -dunum element
• rather than demonstrated historical or literary transmission
• Whether this represents a genuine alternative origin point for the name,
• a cognate naming-tradition operating in parallel,
• or a learned mediaeval association
• The Gaulish and Brittonic dialects’ close relationship:
• Continental Celtic place-name formations regularly have close British analogues,
• so parallel formations carry limited inferential weight without supporting textual evidence
2. Home of the Celtic Boii/Boians/Boji tribe
• The Boii:
• one of the major “Celtic” tribal confederacies of the La Tène period (c 5th–1st century BC),
• widely attested across Continental Europe
• Their primary Continental settlements:
• Bononia (modern Bologna) in the Po Valley of northern Italy;
• Boiohaemum (Bohemia) in what is now the Czech Republic
• — the very name Bohemia derived from Boii + Germanic haim (home, settlement)
• Meliodunum/Mael-Din
• as a claimed Boian settlement
• or associated place-name within their Danubian
• and trans-Alpine territories
• The Boian contribution to the oppida culture of Central Europe:
• large, planned urban settlements
• with evidence of advanced La Tène metalwork, coinage, and long-distance trade networks
• Note:
• a separate Boian settlement,
• Meliodunum of the Senones,
• may represent a different tribe’s usage of the same toponym-type,
• illustrating the pan-“Celtic” currency of the -dunum element
3. Located to the North of the Alps and East of the Rhine, in what is now Eastern Germany and Western Czechia
• The geographic heartland of Boian presence in the later Iron Age:
• the Bohemian basin,
• the upper reaches of the Elbe and Vltava,
• extending westward into what is now Bavaria and Saxony
• The Boian migration narrative:
• southward into northern Italy in the late 4th century BC
• (culminating in the sack of Rome, c 390 BC,
• in which the Boii participated alongside other Gallic tribes);
• their eventual displacement from Bohemia by the Germanic Marcomanni under Maroboduus (c 8 BC)
• The resulting cultural palimpsest:
• after the Boian withdrawal,
• their settlements were occupied successively by Germanic,
• then later Slavic peoples,
• with the Celtic stratum surviving principally in place-names
• Key archaeological sites associated with the Bohemian Boii:
• the oppida at Závist (near Prague),
• Stradonice,
• and Třísov
• — major centres of late La Tène urban life
4. Origin of the tribe is uncertain (Gauls, Sarmatians, or Slavs)
• The historiographical debate over Boian origins is multifaceted and unresolved:
• The dominant and most widely accepted view: the Boii were Gaulish Celts of La Tène culture,
• forming part of the great Celtic eastward and southward expansion of the 4th–3rd centuries BC;
• their material culture, coinage, and the testimony of classical authors (Caesar, Strabo, Livy) support this position
• The Sarmatian hypothesis: a minority and largely deprecated theory,
• proposing that certain Iranian/Steppe elements in Boian material culture indicate either
• an admixture with or origin among Sarmatian populations north of the Black Sea
• — the argument rests on contested archaeological parallels
• The proto-Slavic or mixed Celtic-Slavic theory:
• advanced principally by certain Czech and Slovak nationalist historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries,
• arguing for a proto-Slavic or at least ethnically mixed identity for the Bohemian Boii;
• now largely rejected by mainstream scholarship but occasionally revisited in discussions of Bohemian cultural continuity
• - The relevance of this uncertainty to Arthurian studies:
• if the Boian place-name element Meliodunum/Mael-Din is to be connected to Merlin’s name,
• the cultural and linguistic transmission required is
• complex,
• multi-generational,
• and would require passage through several distinct ethnic and linguistic milieux
• (Celtic → Germanic contact zone → possible Brittonic transmission)
• A necessary scholarly caution:
• the connection between Meliodunum and Merlin’s name remains at present speculative
• and must be clearly marked as such in any encyclopaedic treatment;
• it belongs to the history of proposed etymologies rather than established derivations
4. The historian Godfried of Viterbo claimed Merlin was “Saxon”
1. Godfrey of Viterbo (c AD 1120 – c 1196):
1. an imperial court chronicler who served at the courts of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI;
2. a figure of considerable literary and diplomatic importance within the culture of the Holy Roman Empire
2. - His principal works:
1. Pantheon (a universal chronicle in mixed prose and verse, c AD 1186–1190)
2. and Speculum Regum
3. — both presenting a synthesis of
• classical,
• biblical,
• and contemporary historical material
• within a providential framework
3. His treatment of Merlinian material:
1. Godfrey incorporates Merlin into his universal chronicle narrative,
2. drawing on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophetiae Merlini
3. (the prophecies, which circulated independently before Historia Regum Britanniae)
4. while adapting them to a Continental and Imperialist ideological context
4. The claim of Saxon identity: its likely sources and motivations:
1. Possible derivation from a now-lost Continental source,
• or from a misreading
• or creative reinterpretation of Geoffrey’s text
2. A deliberate political or dynastic recasting:
• attributing Merlin to a Germanic/Saxon tradition
• would serve to naturalise his prophecies
• within the ideological framework of the Holy Roman Empire,
• lending Hohenstaufen imperial claims the same prophetic authority
• that the Plantagenets had sought through their patronage of Arthurian legend
3. The broader context of 12th-century translatio imperii the competition between:
• English,
• French,
• and Imperial traditions for ownership
• of the great prophetic and legendary heritage of Western Christendom
5. The anomalous character of Godfrey’s claim:
1. it stands in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly Brittonic/Welsh consensus in every other major mediaeval source
2. — Geoffrey of Monmouth,
3. Wace,
4. Layamon,
5. the Welsh Myrddin poems,and the French romances all present Merlin as a figure of the ancient British, not Saxon, world
6. Whether Godfrey’s attribution influenced any subsequent Continental tradition or remained an isolated curiosity:
1. its impact appears to have been minimal,
2. with later encyclopaedists and chroniclers returning to the Galfridian Brittonic presentation
7. The broader question of how Continental European chroniclers
1. — especially those operating within the Imperial court culture —
2. received, adapted, and politically instrumentalised Merlinian material,
3. and what their divergences from the insular tradition reveal about the ideological uses of Arthurian legend
3. Existence of Multiple Merlins
1. Introduction to the Existence of Multiple Merlins
2. The idea that there were, at least, two Merlins: A Wizard and A Madman/(Wild Man)
1. Found in Giraldus Cambrensis (Norman-Welsh chronicler of the 12th Century AD)
2. Impossibly long lifespan assigned to Merlin by Geoffrey of Monmouth
3. Myrrdin/Myrddin/Merdyn/Merlin
1. God of Druid, Magic, Sorcery, and the Supernatural
2. (The Evening Star)
3. In the Trioedd Ynys Prydein/Prydain (Triads of British Isle, or Welsh Triads)
1. Earliest name for Britain was (Clas Myrddin)/(Enclosure/Precinct of Merlin)
2. As though Myrrdin/Myrddin/Merdyn/Merlin were a God with proprietorial rights
4. Britain was also known as the Fortress Isle, or Myrddin’s Isle
4. Myrddin/Merlin
1. Culling the characteristics of Merlin’s role in
1. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini (Life of Merlin)
2. Trioedd Ynys Prydein/Prydain (Triads of British Isle, or Welsh Triads)
3. Ellis Gruffudd’s Ystoria Myrddin Wyllt (The Story of Merlin the Mad)
2. His original or older role appears as one who coordinates the daily and annual movements of the Sun (and/or Sun God) from the Underworld into the sky and back (as perhaps a Sky God)
5. Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merdhin/(Merthen/(Mert + Hen = Noble + Old)/Martis/Mars/)Merlin(us) Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild)/Caledonensis/Sylvester/Sylvestris
1. late 6th/early 7th Century AD
2. Welsh
3. Bard
4. Adviser
5. At the court of King Gwenddalou/Gwenddolau/Gwenddoleu (who died at Arfderydd/Arthuret in AD 564/573)
6. Was known to Kentigern(us)/Cyndeyrn/Mungo
1. Who lived from AD 528/550 to AD 603/612
2. Was (Alt Clut)/(Ystrad Clud)/Strath-Clota/Strathclyde bishop of Glasgow
3. Appointed by Rhydderch/Riderch/Rederech, the new king of (Alt Clut)/(Ystrad Clud)/Strath-Clota/Strathclyde
7. Spoke Prophecies
6. Myrddin/Merdhin/Merlin(us) Emrys/Ambrosius
1. Meir(ch)ion/(Mari(an)us/Mars), name possibly related to the name Merthen
2. Son of one of the following:
1. Cunedda Wledig (Cunedda born c AD 385), as in the age of a son of Vortigern (Vortigern born c AD 387), Pascent born c AD 430
2. Tybion ap Cunedda Wledig (Tybion born c AD 410)
3. Rhufon ap Einion ap Idgwyn ap Cadwallon Crisban ap Cyngen ap Meig ap Cynlas ap Owain Ddantgwyn ap Einion Yrth ap Cunedda Wledig (Rhufon born c AD 675)
3. Born around one of the following years
1. AD 420
2. AD 465
3. AD 706
7. (Merdhin ap Morfryn/Morvryn)/(Merlinus Avalonius)
8. Myrdhinn/Merdyn (Ennis)
1. Mer + Dyn = fool, witless + person
2. Smerevie/Smeirbhe/(fool of the forest)
9. Mirth-Élan/(happy/laughter/celebration-energy/style/enthusiasm)
10. Meurt a l’haine/(to die at hate)/(to live in the direction opposite of hate)
11. Merrillin
12. Merlynum
1. Merlin in Vita Merlini Silvestris (Life of Merlin of Forest)
2. Twelfth Century AD
13. Mellin
1. Merlin at the end of the Le Petit Saint Graal (The Lesser Holy Graal), or Joseph d’Arimathie (Joseph of Arimathea)
2. By Robert de Boron
3. Late Twelfth Century AD (AD 1190/1191/1202/1210)
14. Mellins
1. Merlin in the Roman de l’Escoufle (Romance of the Kite)
2. By Jehan Renart
3. Late 12th/early 13th Century AD
15. Méilleurs/(better)
16. Marlyn
1. Son of Morgan le Fay and Ogier the Dane
2. AD 1405
17. Merlyn
1. Merlin in the Bath manuscript of “Merlyn”
2. AD 1420s
18. Merlyon
1. Merlin in Malory’s The Death of Arthur
2. AD 1469/1470/1481/1485
19. Marlanis
20. Mere Lionheart
21. Mor(t)al Who (Asc)en(d)
22. Magus Myrri (Magician of Myrrh)
1. In Gydo und Thyrus (Guido und Tirius — Guy and Tirius) (Sixteenth Century AD)
2. A hermit-sage who advises Arthur off-stage
3. Offering prophetic guidance that echoes the hermeneutic role of Merlin
23. Virgilius
1. Arthur’s Necromancer
2. In Hans Sachs’ Die Ehbrecherbruck (The Adventurer’s Bridge) (AD 1545)
4. Comparison of Merlin to Other Similar Alchemists/Visionaries/Guides/Gods
1. Introduction to the Comparison of Merlin to Other Similar Alchemists/Visionaries/Guides/Gods
2. Suibhne Gelt
3. Lailoken/Lailocen/Laloecen/Llallogan/Llallawg/(llallog)/(brother, friend, lord)/(honour, diginity)/(a twin; twin(-like)) the Madman/(Wild Man)
4. Gwyn(n)
1. (Son of)/ap (L(l)ud(d) (Llaw))/Nudd/((Nudd Llaw)/(Addedomaros) (Ereint/Erient))/Nodens/(Nuada Airgetlám)
2. ((Aedd Mawr)/(Addedo the Great)/Addedomarus/Addedomaros/Αθθε-Domaros/Αθθε-Domarus/Aththe(-)domaros)
3. Welsh Wild Huntsman God
4. Born c 75/70/49/45/40/35/23 BC/AD 52/53
5. (Mars Belatucadros)/Belatucadrus/((Mars) Belatucader)/((Mars) Braciaca)/((Mars) Camulus)
1. son of Iupiter and Iuno
2. Romano-British God of War
3. Worshipped in his own right as a Warrior God
4. His name is said to be from Irish and Welsh meaning ‘the fair shining one’
5. Appears on many altar stones along Hadrian’s Wall and in northern Britain
6. (Mars Condatis)/(Saint Martin at (Condate, Cumbria)/(Candes, Gaul))/Martinus/Martius/(of Mars)/(warlike, martial)
7. Aurelius Ambrosius
1. Son of Aurelius Tacitus, son of Lucius Aurelius Tacitus, son of Aurelius Lucius (and Seanad map Cein), son of Marcus Aurelius Castus, son of Aeturnus Artorius Venedos (and Papiria Celena verch Gurdomnus)
2. Born AD 310/317
3. Prætorian Prefect of Gaul (Præfectus Prætorio Galliarum) — AD 337 to AD 340
4. Possible father of Saint Ambrose
5. Died AD 354
8. Aurelius Ambrosius (Saint Ambrose)
1. His father
1. Aurelius Ambrosius, Prætoran Prefect of Gaul (Præfectus Prætorio Galliarum)
2. or Constantine Marcus Aurelius Carausius
3. or Uranius [before his celibacy Ambrose fathered a child, Uranius Satyrius, with Elsa]
2. His mother — a sister of Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus and daughter of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Tullianus Symmachus Phosphorius, son of Aurelius Hermogenes (and Tullia Valeria de Rome), son of Marcus Aurelius Hermogenes
3. Born AD 339/340
4. Augusta Treverorum (present-day Trier), Gallia Belgica, Roman Empire
5. Dux Mediolani (Duke of Milan) from AD 371
6. Episcopus Mediolani (Bishop of Milan) from AD 374
7. Died 4 April AD 397
8. Mediolanum, Italia, Roman Empire
9. Elistus Aurelianus Mih(i)r(l)(i)nus
1. Son of Prætorian Prefect Aurelius Ambrosius of Gaul and Asloeg/Aslaug/Esla verch Gewis
2. Born c AD 371
3. Gloucester
4. Died AD 439
5. Taigh Mhàrtainn (Whithorn Island) in Wales
10. Aurelius Ambrosius (Aurelian the Divine) the Elder, Duce of Caer Gloui
1. Son of Flavius Constantius III Augustus (and an earlier wife), son of Malvius, son of Eucherius (son of Flavius Honorius and Placidia Flavia) and Flavia
2. Born c AD 396(/403)
3. Flourished AD 437
4. Reigned AD 412/432/435/440 to AD 425/436/442 (Midland, Cornovii)
5. Died AD 473
11. Ambrosius/Emrys/Embreis Aurelianus Wledic/(G)wledig/Guletic the Younger
1. Son of either
1. Biduz/Custennin/Constantin(e)/(Constantinus I)* ap Selyf(an)/Salomon/Solomon I, son of Urbienus/Gradlon Mawr/(The Great)
2. or Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus (and a daughter of the King of Demetia), son of Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus,
        [son of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (and Rusticiana), son of Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus and Acyndinia]
3. *[the above Biduz/Custennin/Constantin(e)/(Constantinus I) may be a conflated personage]
2. Born AD (403/)425/430/446/469/470
3. Flourished AD 459/460/475/480
4. Reigned AD 480 to AD 488 (High-King/Pendragon of Briton; Breton/Cornouaille/Kerne(v))
5. Died AD (473/)495/500
12. Malduc
13. Menw ab/ap Teir(g)waedd
14. Dubric(ius)/Dyfrig of/the Myrddin/Merlin/(mermaid/merman/waterman/baptiser)
1. A miraculous birth
1. Dubricius had no father
2. He was the son of a nun
• The nun herself was a granddaughter of King Constantine
• Making her a second cousin to “King Arthur”
2. Dubricius was an acknowledged historical person
3. He founded the bishopric at Llandaff
4. Ordained Samson (born AD 480, died AD 565), late Bishop of Dol in Brittany
5. He was raised to the See of Caerleon
6. In later years, he was raised to the Sainthood
7. Dubricius became “Primate of Britain”
8. Attributed with miraculous powers of healing
9. At the Battle of Mount Badon
1. Dubricius speaks to the troops
2. From the Mount
10. This saintly man resigned his archbishopric
1. In order to become a hermit
2. To devote his final years to solace and prayer
11. Merlin and Dubricius may have been enemies
1. Dubricius represented the church
2. Merlin represented a pagan culture, synonymous with the Druids
12. Dubricius died c AD 550/612 (or even earlier)
13. He was buried on the Isle of Bardsey
14. His body was translated to the abbey at Llandaff in AD 1120
15. Talies(s)in
16. Guynglaff
1. In An Dialog Etre Arzur Roe d’an Bretounet ha Guynglaff (AD 1617/1619)
2. Parallels Merlin in Vita Merlini and Welsh prophetic verse
3. Both are wild-men magicians whom Arthur seises to extract hidden knowledge
17. Mâth/Math
1. Fab/Ap/(Son of) Mathonwy
2. King of Gwynedd
18. Math(gen) the Wizard
19. Llywarch Hen
20. Aneurin
21. Mabon
22. Cernunnos
23. Matu(ti)nus/Matunos/(matu)/(bear)
24. Cis(s)onius/Cesonius/(carriage-driver)/(cit + souno = bringer + sleep, dream)(/Cissonia)
25. Vishnu
26. Yehohanan/John the ((Miqwe/Mikvah) Man)/Baptist(-iser)
27. Banb(h)a/(Ces(s)air/Ceasair/Kesair)
28. Øðinn/Óðin(n)/Woðinz/Wōðanaz/Wo(u)tan/Wuotan/Wuodan/Wêda/(W)oden/(W)ōden/(V)odin(n)/(V)othin(n)/Uuôden
1. (“lord of frenzy”)/(“leader of the possessed”)/(“master of the possessed/inspired/delirious/raging”)/(“with a gift for (divine) possession”)
2. Son of Bor/Frithuwald/Fiarlef/Frialafr/Firthleif/Friallaf/Fríallaf and Beltsa
3. Norse/Germanic God
4. Born c AD 200/215
5. King
6. Died c AD 306
29. Tohil/Tezcatlipoca
30. Paracelsus
31. Hermes Trismegistus
32. Mercurius/Mercury
33. Simon Magus
34. Suyolak
35. Friar Laurence
1. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (AD 1592/1593/1596)
2. The learned counsellor who engineers the lovers’ secret union and devises (mis)guided plans
3. Much like Merlin’s magical interventions in Arthur’s rise
36. Ulysses
1. In William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (AD 1602/1606)
2. Cunning counsellor engineering key schemes
37. Soothsayer
1. In William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (AD 1606/1607/1608)
2. Prophetic voice whose counsel is ignored
38. Belarius
1. In William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (AD 1609/1610/1611)
2. Exiled and disguised, Belarius guides the lost princes much as Merlin shelters and mentors the hidden Arthur
39. Prospero, the right Duke of Milan
1. In William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (AD 1610/1611)
2. Prospero’s books and spells function like Merlin’s prophecies and enchantments, steering events toward a fated reconciliation
3. Both withdraw from temporal power once their designs are fulfilled, leaving behind a redeemed sovereign and restored order
40. Saint Moling
41. (Máel Dúin)/(Mael Duin)/Máeldúin/Maeldune/(Mael Dunn)/Maeldu(i)n/(Mail Duin)/Maildun/(Maol Duin)
1. Means (prince/chief) + (down/fort)
2. Son of warrior chieftain Ailill Ochair Aghra
3. His mother was a nun raped by Ailill
42. Christian Rosencreutz
43. Melin de Saint-Gelais
1. Poet
2. Late 15th/early 16th Century AD
44. Moros
1. Born c 10,000 BC
2. From Altera
3. Last High Councillour of Atlantis
4. Travelled to Earth
5. Ascended
6. Retook human form by the 5th Century AD
7. Was put into status by c AD 1007
8. Upon being removed from status in AD 2007, he died
9. On “Osric’s planet”
3. Beginnings
1. Family
1. Introduction to Family
2. Mother — a nun, of royal birth
1. Aldan/Adhan
2. Optima
3. Marinaia
4. A Sister of Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus
5. An Earlier Wife of Flavius Constantius III Augustus
6. A Demetian Princess (A Daughter of the King of Demetia)
3. Father
1. Demon(s) of Air (Incubus/Incubi)
2. A Devil
3. Morfryn/Morvryn Frych, son of Morydd ap Mor
1. Sometimes separately as
2. Madog Morfryn/Morvryn, son of Morydd ap Mor
3. Morgan Frych/(the Freckled), Prince of Gwynedd//Vendotia
4. A Roman Consul (possibly one of the following):
1. Uranius
2. Flavius Constantius III Augustus
3. Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus
4. Sister — Ganieda/Gwend(d)ydd/Languoreth
1. As a person (perhaps Merlin’s twin)
2. As a Goddess (the Morning Star)
5. Wife — (Elen Lwyddawg)/Gwendoloena/Guendoloena/Coventina
6. Son — Vanoc
7. Daughters
1. Inogen
2. La Damosel del Grant Pui de Mont Dolerous
8. Merlin’s Assistant — Melior
2. Historical Context
1. Introduction to Historical Context
2. Patrick
1. Arrived in Ireland c AD 432
2. Established a bishopric at Armagh c AD 454
3. Died c AD 461
4. Patrick may well have known Merlin or known of him
3. Attila the Hun
1. Became king of the Huns in AD 434
2. He invaded what is now called France in AD 451
3. Invaded what is now called Italy and the city of Rome itself in AD 452
3. Conception and Birth
1. Introduction to Conception and Birth
2. Conception
3. Birth — c AD 448/449
1. Robert de Boron has Merlin born in Brittany
2. Merlin was of royal blood
1. Geoffrey of Monmouth considered Merlin to be the King of Powys
2. Giulio Strozzi
• In his Venetia edificata (Venice Edified)
• AD 1624
• Makes Merlin royal
4. Childhood — Innocent Prophetic Youth
1. Introduction to Childhood — Innocent Prophetic Youth
2. At his mother’s trial, the infant (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus) himself
1. Revealed who was his father
2. Made a few other prophecies and revelations
1. At least one of them rather embarrassing
2. To the judges
3. (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus) was raised in a nunnery
4. King Vortigern of Britain (born c AD 387, died c AD 456)
1. The Saxons aided Vortigern in the repulsion of the Picts
2. For a short period there was peace
3. Vortigern married Hengist’s daughter
1. Reinwen
2. To form an alliance
4. In AD 455, Hengist sent for further reinforcements
5. Vortigern then fled to the Welsh hills a couple of years before his death
6. He was haplessly trying to build a new tower
1. Whenever it was erected
2. It would collapse
7. The king’s counsellours told him
1. To remedy this
2. He would need to sacrifice a fatherless child
8. Such children were hard to find
1. (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus), now a youth, was popularly supposed to be sireless
2. He was secured for this purpose
• By Vortigern’s soldiers
• When (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus) was about eight or nine years old (AD 457)
• This followed the Saxon invasion of Britain
• Under Hengist
• Usually dated to c AD 449
9. (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus) pointed out the real reason for the collapse
1. The existence of a pool beneath the foundations
2. Digging revealed the truth
3. A brace of dragons emerged
• One red
• One white
• Thus revealing a double vase cremation burial of two dragons-chieftains
4. This caused (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus) to utter a series of prophecies
10. To cheer up Vortigern’s melancholy, Myrddin Emrys provided various entertainments
1. Invisible musicians
2. Flying hounds chasing flying hares
11. Vortigern went on to be killed
1. By the sons of Constans/Constantine
2. As per (Myrddin Emrys’)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius’)/(Ambrosius Merlinus’) prophecy
5. Adolescence of Merlin
1. Introduction to the Adolescence of Merlin
2. Merlin went to study magic from Blaise
3. Outstripped his master in necromantic learning
4. Merlin swore
1. Never to do Blaise harm
2. To ask Blaise to write a book
5. Blaise retired
1. Into the forest of Northumberland
2. To write down the doings of his former student
1. One does not envy Blaise his task
2. It would be difficult and tedious
3. To list every deed and prophecy of Merlin’s
3. Merlin visited Blaise from time to time
4. Adulthood — Wizard: Hermit/(Wise Elder) and the Great Necromancer
1. Introduction to Adulthood — Wizard: Hermit/(Wise Elder) and the Great Necromancer
2. Hermit/(Wise Elder)
1. Introduction to Hermit/(Wise Elder)
2. Appearances/Reincarnations
1. Merlin first appeared in the time of Emperor Iulius/Julius Caesar of Rome, as both a Stag and as The Wild Man of the Woods
2. Then in Vortigern’s time as (Myrddin Emrys)/(Merlin(us) Ambrosius)/(Ambrosius Merlinus)
3. And once more as Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild)
3. Ambrosii (the Elder and/or the Younger)
1. Pandragon/Pendragon/(Aurelius Ambrosius) and Uther returned from Gaul
2. Hengist is killed
1. Having ruled over his stronghold in Kent for at least thirty years
2. He perished c AD 488 (the date in Anglo-Saxon Chronicles)
3. King Pandragon/Pendragon/(Aurelius Ambrosius)
1. Constans’/Constantine’s son
2. A descendant of a Roman family
3. Sought to uphold the last vestiges of Roman civilization in Britain
4. From a noble British family with Roman sympathies
5. Defeated Vortigern
6. Fought back the Saxons from overrunning Britain
7. Established an uneasy peace with Hengist’s men remaining in Kent
8. Had lordship over the rest of southern Britain
9. Involved in a battle at Guoloph, or Wallop, in Hampshire
10. Killed by the Sesnes
11. Merlin made an expedition to Ireland
• Brought back stones
• To be erected on Salisbury Plain
• Raised as Stonehenge
• To serve as
• A monument and memorial
• Pandragon’s/Pendragon’s/(Aurelius Ambrosius’) tomb (“sepulchre”)
4. The new king
1. Pandragon’s/Pendragon’s/(Aurelius Ambrosius’) brother Uther
2. Surnamed Pendragon (chief dragon/ruler) in honour of the late king
3. Gained Merlin as his advisor
4. Sought to hold back the Saxons (less successfully than his predecessor)
4. Uther
1. To Uther, Merlin revealed the mysteries of the two holy tables
1. The one Christ and His disciples used at the Last Supper
2. The one Joseph of Arimathea and his followers set up
2. Merlin erected the third great table, the Round Table
1. For Uther
2. At Cardoel in Wales
3. From where it passed into the keeping of Leodegrance
4. Thence to Arthur
3. Uther conceived a lust for the duchess Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive of Tintagel
1. Merlin gave Uther the appearance of the lady’s husband Gorloïs
2. So that Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive lay with Uther unsuspecting
3. Uther married Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive soon after the death of Gorloïs
4. Merlin visited Uther
1. He told Uther that someone must foster the child
2. Uther told Merlin to make the decision
3. Arthur’s foster father
• Merlin knew of a lord of Uther’s in the land
• His name was Sir Ector
• Merlin said that Ector shall foster Uther’s child
• Sir Ector was sent for, and spoke with Uther
4. When the child (Arthur) was born
• He was to be delivered to Merlin
• “At yonder privy postern”
• Unchristened
• To make of Arthur
• Merlin’s own pawn and tool?
5. An Arthur’s Birth
1. c AD 475 — Merlin at age 26/27 years
1. Introduction to c AD 475 — Merlin at age 26/27 years
2. “Arthur as Custennin”
• Arthur/Artorius ap Anblaud/Amlawd(d)/Amlawt/Anlawd(d)/Amlodd/Amlwyd/Aflawdd/Amalg(h)aid/Amolgaid/Amlethus/Amlóði
• Born AD 460/468
• Flourished AD 495
3. Iaun/Iuan/John Reith/Riatham/Regula/(The Righteous) [Riatham II]
• Ap Budic/Budig I ap Aldrien/Aldroenus ap Selyf(an)/Salomon/Solomon I ap Urbienus/Gradlon Mawr/(The Great) ap Cynan/Conan
• Breton
• Born c AD 454/470
• Flourished c AD 500
4. “Arthur, War Chief”
• Artorius (Dux Bellorum)/Soldier/Warlord
• Briton, possibly Northern Welsh
• Late 5th/early 6th Centuries AD
• Born c AD 471
• Died c AD 524
5. “Prince Arthur of the Silures”
• Southeastern Welsh Prince, Silures (Gl(y)wys(s)ing — House of Finddu)
• Flourished c AD 500
6. Ceidio/Ceidiaw/Keidyav
• Ap/(m)ab Athrwys/Arthwys/Einion (of the Artenses in the Irthing valley of the North Pennines) ap/(m)ab Mor/Mar ap Ceneu
• Born AD 470/472/488
• Flourished AD 488/490
7. “Arthur, Warlord of Gwynedd”
• Northern Welsh Warlord, Gwynedd
• Late 5th/early 6th Centuries AD
8. “Arthur as a God”
• Arddhu/Arrdhu/Atho/(The Green Man)
• Brittonic Raven God
• 5th/6th Centuries AD
9. “King Arthur of Rheged”
• Art(h)ur ic Uther/Uibar/Iubur/Iubar/I(o)bhar/Ambros(ius)/Emrys/Embreis ic Biduz/Custennin/Constantin(e)/(Constantinus I)
• North Briton King, Cumbrian, Rheged
• Born c AD 475
• Died c AD 515/542
10. “King Arthur of Dumnonia”
• Arthyr/Arthur, son of Uverian/Uthyr/(Uther (Pendragon))/(crudelisque tyrannus) (and Eigyr/Igraine), son of Kusten(n)in/Mustennin
• Born c AD 474/475
• King of Dumnonia, West Wales
• Flourished c AD 489/490 to c AD 525/526
• Died c AD 525/526
11. “Arthur, Chief of the Picts and the Interior of Britain”
• Art(h)ur Dux Pictorum, interioris Britannia
• Pict
• Flourished AD 492/493
• Died before AD 552
12. Cunedda Menrudd
• Ap Coel ap Cunedag/Cuned(d)a/Cunorix Wledig/(The Imperator) ap Edern/Ætern(us) ap Padarn/Padernus/Patern(us) Beisrud/Pesrut
• Northern Welsh King
• Born c AD 474
13. “Prince Arthur of Elmet”
• Arthwys/Arthius ap Masgwid Gloff (and Gwenllian verch Brychan) ap Gwrast/Gwrgwst Lledlwm/(The Raggéd) ap Ceneu
• North Briton Prince of Elmet
• Born c AD 479
14. “King Arthur of Gl(y)wys(s)ing”
• Arthfael ap Einudd
• Southeastern Welsh King in Neath, Glamorgan, Gl(y)wys(s)ing (Cernyw — House of Finddu)
• Born AD 480
• Died AD 550
15. Vortipor(us)/Vortepor(ix)/Guortepir/Gw(o)rthyfyr/Gw(e)rthefyr/Gordeber/Gartbuir
• Ap Erbin Llawir (m)ap Triphun/Tryphun/Tyffin Farfog (The Bearded) map Clotri(us) (m)ap Gloitguin/Gloitquin/Kyndeyrn
• Mid/Southern/Southwestern Welsh King/Protector, Dyfed
• Born AD 470/475/490/498/500
• Flourished c 490/495 to 520/540
• Died AD 540/580
16. Cuneglas(s)us/Cyngen/Cynlas Goch/(The Red)
• Ap Owain D(d)an(t)(g)wyn/(White-Tooth) ap Einion Yrth/(The Impetuous) ap Cuned(d)a/Cunorix Wledig/(The Imperator)
• Northern Welsh King, Rhôs, Gwynedd
• Late 5th/early 6th century AD
• Born AD 480/490
• Reigned AD 500/520 to AD 537/540
• Died AD 550/560
17. Cerdic/Ceretic/Keretic/Ceredig/Careticus/Caraticos
• Son of Elafius/Elasius/Elesa/Esla/Aloc/Alusa/Hyddwn, son of Esla, son of Gewis, son of Wig
• Mercenary/Non-Briton, King
• Wessex/Gewissei/Gewissae
• Born c AD 467/480
• Reigned AD 549 to AD 554
• Died AD 534/550
2. Then when the lady Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive was delivered
1. King Uther commanded two knights and two ladies to take the child
• Bound in a cloth of gold
• “That ye deliver him
• To what poor man ye meet
• At the postern gate of the castle”
2. So the child was delivered unto Merlin
6. Uther died
1. At least two years after Arthur’s birth (c AD 477 — Merlin at 28/29 years old)
2. But no more than fifteen (c AD 490 — Merlin at 42/43)
3. The noblemen of Britain implored
1. To “Dubricius, Archbishop of the City of the Legions
2. That is their king he should crown Arthur”
4. Dubricius had clear authority and the power to anoint kings
7. Merlin during an Arthur’s Adolescence
1. Merlin/Dubricius as wise counsellor (senior advisor) to Arthur
1. A boy king may sustain the support of his people
2. He would require someone to help him in his judgements
3. An obvious role for Merlin
4. Geoffrey of Monmouth makes no record of this role
2. Merlin arranged the famous test of the Sword in the Stone
3. He had Arthur crowned king
1. On the strength of this test
2. On the sentiment of the commons (both rich and poor)
4. The rebel kings and barons gave Arthur their challenge
1. Of refusing to yield their allegiance
2. At once to
• An unknown
• Unproven youth
• The protégé of a devil’s son
5. Merlin made them a bald statement
1. With no supporting evidence
2. Of Arthur’s birth
6. Some of the rebel kings and barons
1. Laughed Arthur to scorn (as example, King Lot)
2. Called Arthur a witch
8. An Arthur’s True Parentage
1. Nor had Merlin yet told this Arthur of his parentage
2. Which omission resulted in the incestuous begetting of Mordred on Margawse
3. This Arthur’s lack of knowledge
1. Concerning Margawse’s blood relationship
2. Is a later Christianisation of the situation
4. Earlier tales
1. Call her Anna
2. Make her Arthur’s full sister
• Of which Arthur had prior knowledge
• Of this particular blood relationship
5. The battle of Bedegraine
1. A slaughter so bloody it seems to have disgusted Merlin himself
2. Merlin had helped engineer Arthur’s victory
• By bringing the army of Ban and Bors
• Swiftly and secretly to the place
3. After the battle, Merlin reveals this Arthur’s parentage
• With some supporting evidence
• To Arthur and the assembled court
• That suggests a practical joke played by Merlin on Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive
• To give her an additional moment of grief
• Before restoring her to her son
• Later addition to rationalise Arthur’s earlier ignorance
• Sir Ulfius himself stated
• That “Merlin is more to blame than” Igerne/Igraine/Ygraine/Arnive
• For the wars of the rebellion
3. The Great Necromancer
1. Introduction to the Great Necromancer
2. Merlin did considerable travelling on the Continent
1. Between the times of Vortigern’s and Pandragon’s/Pendragon’s/(Aurelius Ambrosius’) deaths
2. During the years when Sir Ector was raising Arthur
3. One of his continental adventures, which occurs in the First Century BC, may be found in Maistres Heldris de Cornuälle’s L’Estoire de A(ve)nable (The Story of Grisandole(s))
1. A(ve)nable(s)/Auenable, whose name means Lovely,
2. Is the daughter of
1. Either Duke Mathem/Matan of Soane
2. Or Duke Cador of Alemaigne/Almayne and Eufemie (daughter of King Begon of Norway)
3. A(ve)nable(s)/Auenable disguises herself as a squire named Grisandole(s)
4. And Enters the Service of Emperor Iulius/Julius Caesar of Rome (62/59 BC)
5. Merlin knows that the Emperor at this Time is Sorely Troubled by an Incomprehensible Dream
6. Accordingly, Merlin goes to the forest of Romenie/Romayne (Forests of Rome) to help the Emperor
4. Merlin dabbled in Christian missionary work
1. Converting King Flualis of Jerusalem and his wife
2. This royal couple had four daughters, who in turn had fifty-five sons
1. All good knights
2. These went forth to convert the heathen
3. Some of them reached Arthur’s court
5. During this period, Merlin met Nin(n)ian(n)e/Nimuë/Nimue/Nymue/Viv(i)ane/Vivienne/Nivian(e)
1. The Lady of the Lake
2. He fell in love with her
3. Taught her his crafts in return for the promise of her love
6. Merlin could prophecy anything
1. Though fairly early in his career, before Arthur’s birth
2. He decided to phrase his prophecies in obscure terms
3. Merlin could apparently do anything within the scope of necromancy
4. Except break the spell that was to be his downfall
5. Merlin uttered prophecies about the House of Hohenstaufen
6. He was charged (unsuccessfully) with heresy by a bishop called Conrad
7. Merlin must have made rather a pest of himself with his disguises
1. Toddler
2. Beggar
3. Blind minstrel
4. Stag
5. Other disguises
8. He seems to have had the temperament of a practical joker
9. Some of his prophecies may well have been more mischievous than useful
1. Merlin entered the battlefield with Arthur and his armies
2. Does seem to have given them invaluable help
3. One of Merlin’s pastimes in battle was moving around the field
1. Telling the King and his knights
2. Every time they took a short break
3. From doing really tremendous deeds of arms and valour
• What cowards they were
• How disgracefully they were carrying on
10. Merlin may not have counselled Arthur to destroy the May babies, Herod-like
1. Merlin certainly sowed the seed of that action
2. By telling Arthur that one of these babies would be the King’s destruction
3. Merlin appears not to have lifted his voice against the mass slaughter
11. He did warn Arthur against marrying Guinevere
1. Foretelling her affair with Lancelot
2. In that instance, Merlin’s advice was ignored by Arthur
3. (Did Merlin implant the suspicion that erupted in Arthur’s vengeful rage?)
12. Merlin engineered Arthur’s acquisition of Excalibur, sword and sheath/scabbard
1. Apparently acted in unison with Malory’s first British Lady of the Lake
2. Who was later revealed to have been very wicked
3. By the sincere though unfortunate Balin le Savage
1. Merlin learned of Balin’s accusation
2. He did not defend his slain cohort by denying the charge
3. Nor rail against Balin for killing her
4. Merlin only replied with a countercharge against the damsel “Malvis”
13. Merlin had a habit of arriving just a little too late to do the most good
14. He was capable of very rapid travel
1. Merlin let Balin
1. Lie beneath the ruins of Pellam’s castle
2. For three days before coming to rescue him
3. By which time Balin’s damsel (Sir Herlews’ lady) was dead
2. Later Merlin showed up the morning after the deaths of Balin and Balan
1. Just in time to write their names
2. On their tomb
15. Merlin appears to be something of a misogynist
1. He could hardly have been insensitive to a beautiful face
2. He did not spend all his time at Arthur’s court
3. During one of Merlin’s absences
1. He taught necromancy
2. To Morgan le Fay
3. In Bedingran
4. Merlin and Tristan
1. Merlin delivered King Meliodas of Lyonesse
1. From the enchantress’ prison
2. The morning after the death of Meliodas’ wife
3. Had Merlin arrived a few days earlier
4. The brave and devoted Elizabeth would not have died
2. He saved the baby Tristan
3. Boiardo (an Italian poet) said Merlin made a fountain for Tristan
1. To drink from so he would forget Isolde
2. But Tristan never found it
5. Endings — Madman/(Wild Man)/Lailoken/Lailocen/Laloecen/Llallogan/Llallawg/(llallog); and Merlin’s Retirement/Death/Imprisonment, “Burial”, and Haunting(s)
1. Introduction to Endings
2. Madman/(Wild Man)/Lailoken/Lailocen/Laloecen/Llallogan/Llallawg/(llallog)
1. Introduction to Madman/(Wild Man)/Lailoken/Lailocen/Laloecen/Llallogan/Llallawg/(llallog)
2. Myrddin/Merlin is active after Camlann
1. Bringing a wounded Arthur
2. To Avalon
3. Myrddin/Merlin then went mad after the battle of Arthuret/Arfderydd
1. In AD 564/573
2. Myrddin/Merlin became a Wild Man
3. Living in the woods (Caledonian Forest)
4. According to Giraldus Cambrensis
1. This was because of some horrible sight
2. He beheld in the sky
3. During the fighting
5. Rhydderch/Riderch/Rederech Hael
1. Was King of Cumbria
2. Who married Myrddin’/Merlin’s sister, Ganieda/Gwend(d)ydd/Languoreth c AD 556
3. Had Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) fighting against him (or fighting by his side, in other accounts)
4. The new king of (Alt Clut)/(Ystrad Clud)/Strath-Clota/Strathclyde, who had defeated (and killed) Gwenddalou at Arfderydd/Arthuret
5. Threatened to hunt down Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild)
• Because of poetical propaganda
• Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) had been spreading against King Rhydderch/Riderch/Rederech
6. Three of Myrddin’s/Marzhin’s/Merzhin’s/Merlin Wyllt’s/Gwyls’/Gueld’s/(the Wild’s) brothers died in the battle
7. It was for these reasons that Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) fled into the Caledonian Forest
8. As a latter-day Druid who took part in shamanistic practices
4. After a time
1. Ganieda/Gwend(d)ydd persuaded Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) to give up his life in the forest
2. Myrddin/Marzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/(the Wild) revealed to Rhydderch/Riderch/Rederech that Ganieda/Gwend(d)ydd had been unfaithful to him
5. Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) decided
1. To return to the greenwood
2. To urge his wife to remarry
6. His madness once again took hold of him
1. Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) turned up at the wedding
2. Riding a stag
3. Leading a herd of deer
4. In Myrddin’s/Marzhin’s/Merzhin’s/Merlin Wyllt’s/Gwyls’/Gueld’s/(the Wild’s) rage
1. He tore the antlers from the stag
2. Flung them at the bridegroom, killing him
7. Myrddin/Marzhin/Merzhin/Merlin Wyllt/Gwyls/Gueld/(the Wild) went back to the woods
8. Ganieda built him an observatory from which he could study the stars
3. Merlin’s Retirement/Death/Imprisonment, “Burial”, and Haunting(s)
1. Introduction to Merlin’s Retirement/Death/Imprisonment, “Burial”, and Haunting(s)
2. Retirement/Death/Imprisonment
1. According to Malory
1. Merlin had become infatuated by Nimuë/(Viv(i)ane/Vivienne/Nivian(e))
2. The Lady of the Lake
3. Whom he had taught magical secrets
4. Which she used to imprison him, ensnared, under a stone in Cornwall
2. In the Prophetiae Merlini
1. Nivian(e) confines him in the forest of Brocéliande
2. With walls of air
• Visible as mist to others
• But as a beautiful tower to Merlin
3. An unsubstantiated story has it that Merlin angers Arthur
1. To the point where Arthur beheads Merlin
2. Cuts him in half
3. Burns Merlin
4. Curses him
4. According to Giulio Strozzi
1. Merlin lived in a cave when Attila the Hun invaded Italy
2. While there, Merlin invented the telescope
5. Merlin retired voluntarily to an esplumeor or esplumoir
   1. A “place of confinement”
   2. To “leave behind the ways of the world”
   3. “To watch from within all that takes place outside”
6. Older versions of the tale
1. Have Nimuë/Viv(i)ane retiring Merlin through affection
2. Giving him a retreat of comfort and cheer
7. Otherwise, Merlin is in cozy retirement in a tumulus on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
8. Perhaps Merlin requested Nimuë
1. To take over the mentorship of Arthur’s court for him
2. She does appear from time to time in this role
3. Throughout much of Malory’s work
3. “Burial”
1. Tombeau de Merlin (Merlin’s Tomb)
1. Buried in a neolithic formation of stones
2. Leading to an antechamber within the earth
3. Now composed of only two perpendicular slabs of red schist
4. Separated by an old holly tree
2. A bank of earth at the Camp du Tournoi in Brittany
3. Ille-et-Vilaine
4. Hotie de Viviane
5. Drumelzier in Scotland
6. Merlin’s Mount in the grounds of Marlborough College
7. Bardsey
1. (Bardsey Island)/(Ynys Enlli)
• Possible location for the “Thirteen” Treasures of (the Isle of) Britain
• Brought there by Merlin
2. Bardsey (Leeds), West Yorkshire
8. Mynydd Fyrddin
9. Merlin’s Hill Cave in Carmarthen
10. According to Ariosto, Merlin’s soul was in a tomb
1. The soul informed the female warrior Bradmante
2. That the House of Este would descend from her
4. Haunting(s)
1. Merlin’s ghost is said to haunt Merlin’s Cave at Tintagel
2. At various times
1. Bagdemagus and Gawain passed near his tomb and spoke with him
2. Others heard him as well
3. Gawain seems to have been the last to hear his voice
4. There was a prophecy
• That either Perceval or Galahad
• Was to rescue Merlin
• After achieving the Grail
3. Pilgrimages made to Merlin’s Spring at Barenton in Brittany
1. Were stopped by the Vatican
2. In AD 1853
6. Merlin’s Association with Related Physical Objects/Locations
1. Merlin’s Bridge and Brook
2. Merlin’s Cave
1. Carmarthen
2. Tintagel
3. Merlin’s Grave(/Tomb)
1. Drumelzier
2. Marlborough
3. Bardsey
1. Bardsey Island
2. Bardsey (Leeds), West Yorkshire
4. Merlin’s Grove (Carmarthen)
5. Merlin’s Hill (Carmarthen)
6. Merlin’s Mount (Marlborough)
7. Merlin’s Rock (Mousehole)
8. Merlin’s Stone
9. Merlin’s Tree (Carmarthen)
10. Myrddin’s/Merlin’s Quoit (Carmarthen)
7. Occurrences of “Merlin” (by various names and descriptions) in Related “Literature”
1. (A)neirin/Aneurin of the Votadini. Y Guotoðin (The Gododdin: The Votadini),
            in Llyfr Aneirin/Aneurin (Book of Aneirin/Aneurin). Sixth/Seventh/Ninth/Tenth Centuries AD (c AD 600).
2. (pseudo-)Nennius/Nemnuuis/Ninnius/Nemnius. Historia Brittonum (History of Britons). late Eighth/early Ninth Century AD (AD 828/829/830).
3. Immram Curaig (Maíl(e )Duin)/Maíldúin, or Immram(m) Curaig Mælduin Inso,
            or Immram Mæle Dúin (The Voyage of Mæl Duin’s Boat), or (Voyage of Máel Dúin),
            mainly from Lebor na hUidre and the Yellow Book of Lecan. Eleventh Century AD (as early as Eighth Century AD).
4. Annales Cambriæ (Annals of Wales). Ninth/Tenth Century AD (AD 950/960/970/980).
5. of Malmesbury, William. Gesta Regum Anglorum, or De Gestis Regum Anglorum
            ((On) Deeds of Kings of England/(the English), or (The) Chronicle(s)/History of Kings of England). AD 1125.
6. of Monmouth, Geoffrey. Prophetiæ/Libellus Merlini (Prophecies/Prophecy/Petition of Merlin). AD 1133.
7. of Monmouth, Geoffrey. Historia Regum Britanniæ (History of Kings of Britain), or De Gestis Britonum (Of Deeds of Britons). AD 1136/1138/1139.
8. of Llancarfan, Caradoc. Vita Sancti Gildæ (Life of Saint Gildas). c AD 1130 (mid Twelfth Century AD).
9. Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin (Dialogue/Colloquy/Conversation of Merlin and Taliesin),
            from Llyfr Du Cærfyrddin (Black Book of Cærmarthen) early/mid Thirteenth Century AD, originally written Eleventh Century AD.
10. of Monmouth, Geoffrey. Vita Merlini (Life of Merlin). AD 1148 to 1150/1151.
11. Vita Merlini Silvestris (Life of Merlin of Forest). Twelfth Century AD.
12. Wace of Jersey, Robert. Roman de Brut (Romance of Brutus, or A History of the British);
             or Geste des Bretons (Deeds of the British/Britons/Bretons);
             or Brut d’Engleterre (Brutus of England); or Roman des Rois d’Angleterre (Romance of Kings of England). AD 1155.
13. de Boron, Robert. Merlin. AD 1191/1195/1202/1210.
14. de Boron, Robert. Joseph d’Arimathie (Joseph of Arimathea),
             or Le Roman de l’Estoire dou Graal (Li Romanz de l’Estoire dou Graal) (The Romance of the History of the Grail),
             or Le Petit Saint Graal (The Lesser Holy Grail). late Twelfth/early Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1190/1191/1202/1210).
15. of Lisle, Alain (Bishop Bernardine of Auxerre). Commentary on the Prophecies of Merlin. Twelfth/Thirteenth Century AD.
16. Renart/Renaut, Jehan/Jean. (Roman de) l’Escoufle ((Romance of) the Kite). late Twelfth/early Thirteenth Century AD.
17. Cambrensis, Giraldus (Gerald of Wales). (Liber) de Principis Instructione: Libri III,
             or De Instructione Principum (On Instruction of Princes, or Book of Early Instruction: Book Three). c AD 1193/1216.
18. Vulgate Lancelot Propre (Lancelot Proper). AD 1210s/1215/1230.
19. Le Livre d’Artus (The Book of Arthur). early Thirteenth Century AD.
20. Vulgate/Post-Vulgate Estoire del Saint Grail (History of the Holy Grail), or L’Estoire de Merlin (The History of Merlin), or Prose Merlin.
             early Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1220/1230s/1235).
21. Vulgate Suite du Merlin (Story of Merlin). AD 1220/1230s/1235.
22. Post-Vulgate Huth-Merlin (Continuation of Merlin, or The Merlin Continuation). AD 1230/1240.
23. Kyuoessi Myrdin aGỽendyd yChỽær, or Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwær ((The Dialogue Between)/(Conversations of) Myrddin and His Sister Gwenddydd),
             from Llyfr Coch Hergest (Red Book of Hergest). late Fourteenth Century AD (AD 1375/1383 to AD 1400/1425), originally composed before AD 1100.
24. Bristol Merlin fragments. Thirteenth Century AD.
25. de Cornuälle (of Cornwall), Maistres (Master) Heldris. Le Roman de Silence (The Romance of Silence),
             or L’Estoire de A(ve)nable (The Story of Grisandole(s), otherwise known as Silence). Thirteenth Century AD.
26. van Mærlant, Jacob. Boec van Merline (Book of Merlin). c AD 1261.
27. von Scharfenberg, Albrecht. Merlin. c AD 1270s.
28. d’Irlande, Richart. Les Prophecies de Merlin. (The Prophecies of Merlin). AD 1272/1279.
29. Arthour and Merlin (Arthur and Merlin). late Thirteenth Century AD.
30. Pieri, Paolino. La Storia di Merlino (The Story of Merlin). c AD 1300/1305.
31. Gỽasgargerd/Gwasgargerdd Vyrdin/Fyrddin yn y bed(d) (A Fugitive Poem of Merlin in His Grave, or The Song Uttered by Merlin in the Grave),
             in Llyfr Coch Hergest (Red Book of Hergest). before AD 1382.
32. Perceforest (Pierce the Forest). AD 1330/1344.
             (The most complete of the four manuscripts known is “Manuscript C”.)
             (It was written by David Aubert, c AD 1459/1460; for Duc Philippe de Bourgogne le Bon.)
33. Bath manuscript of “Merlyn”. AD 1420s.
34. Lovelich, Henry. Merlin. c AD 1450.
35. Prose Merlin. mid Fifteenth Century AD (AD 1450/1460).
36. Malory, Syr Thomas. (Le) Morte Darthur (The Death of Arthur, or, as originally titled, The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table).
             This ‘Winchester Manuscript’ was published AD 1469/1470/1481/1483.
37. Quando Tristano e Lancielotto al Petrone di Merlino (When Tristan and Lancelot fought at a Stone of Merlin). late Fifteenth Century AD.
38. Vita di Merlino con le Sue Profetie (The Life of Merlin, with His Prophecies). c AD 1480.
39. Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). Printed by William Caxton in AD 1485.
40. Historie van Merlijn (History of Merlin). c AD 1540.
41. Gruffudd, Ellis. Ystoria Myrddin Wyllt (The Story of Merlin the Mad), from The Chronicle of Elis Gruffudd. Sixteenth Century AD.
42. Spenser, Edmund. The Færie Queene. AD 1570/1599.
43. Strozzi, Giulio. Venetia Edificata (Venice Edified). AD 1624.
8. Astrological Signs Associated with Merlin
1. Gemini — Mercury+ — Air
2. Sagittarius — Jupiter+ — Fire
9. Geography, Genealogy, and Timeline of Merlin
1. Geography of Merlin
2. Genealogy of Merlin
3. Timeline of Merlin