Medieval

A magician, prophet and advisor, active in all phases of the administration of Arthur's kingdom. According to legend, Merlin was begotten by an incubus, an evil spirit that has intercourse with sleeping women. The evil child was supposed to provide a counterweight to the good influence of Jesus Christ on earth. Merlin, fortunately, was baptized early on in his life, an event which negated the evil in his nature, but left his powers intact.

Legend then tells us that after the Roman withdrawal from Britain and the usurpation of the throne from the rightful heirs, Vortigern was in flight from the Saxon breakout and went to Snowdonia, in Wales, in hopes of constructing a mountain fortress where he might be safe. Unfortunately, the building kept collapsing and Vortigern's house wizards told him that a human sacrifice of a fatherless child would solve the problem. One small difficulty was that such children are rather hard to find. Fortunately for Vortigern's fortress, Merlin was known to have no human father and happened to be available.

Before the sacrifice could take place, Merlin used his great visionary powers and attributed the structural problem to a subterranean pool in which lived a red and a white dragon. The meaning of this, according to Merlin, was that the red dragon represented the Britons, and the white dragon, the Saxons. The dragons fought, with the white dragon having the best of it, at first, but then the red dragon drove the white one back. The meaning was clear. Merlin prophesied that Vortigern would be slain and followed on the throne by Ambrosius Aurelianus, then Uther, then a greater leader, Arthur. It would fall to him to push the Saxons back. .


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True to the prophecy, Vortigern was slain and Ambrosius took the throne. After 460 British nobles were massacred at a peace conference, as a result of Saxon trickery, Ambrosius consulted Merlin about erecting a suitable memorial to them. Merlin, along with Uther, led and expedition to Ireland to procure the stones of the Chorea Gigantum, the Giant's Ring. Merlin, by the use of his extraordinary powers, brought the stones back to a site, just west of Amesbury, and re-erected them around the mass grave of the British nobles. We now call this place Stonehenge.

After his death, Ambrosius was succeeded by Uther, who, during his pursuit of Gorlois and his irresistable wife, Ygerna (Igraine, in some texts), back to their lands in Cornwall, was aided by Merlin. As a result of a deception made possible by Merlin's powers, Uther was transformed into the image of Gorlois. He entered their castle, managed to fool Ygraine into thinking he was her husband, had his way with her and in the course of things, conceived a child, Arthur. Poor Gorlois, not knowing what was going on, went out to meet Uther in combat, but instead, was slain by Uther's troops.

Sometime after Arthur's birth, in the defining moment of his career, Merlin arranged for the sword-in-the-stone contest by which Arthur became king. In the romances, Merlin is the creator of the Round Table, and is closely involved in aiding and directing the events of the king and kingdom of Camelot. He is pictured by Geoffrey of Monmouth, at the end of Arthur's life, accompanying the wounded Arthur to the Isle of Avalon for the healing of his wounds.

Merlin, whose name is a Latinized version of the Welsh word, Myrddin, is an invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth (as is so much else). According to Geoffrey's "Vita Merlini" (c. 1150), Merlin/Myrddin is a sixth century prophet living in the north of Britain. Merlin may have had his conceptual origin in one of the wild-man-in-the-woods motifs common to the ancient folklore of the British Isles, such as the tale of another seer named Lailoken, who may be the original for Geoffrey's character.

Merlin's career extended beyond Arthur and, according to Gerald of Wales, apparently ended in his madness and subsequent wandering in the woods, after seeing some horrible sight in the sky, during the Battle of Arthuret.

His burial place is said to be beneath Merlin's Mound at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, at Drumelzier, Tweeddale in Scotland, and in Merlin's Hill Cave in Carmarthen, Wales


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Variously portrayed in literature, she is called the daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard by Malory, the daughter of King Garlin of Galore by Welsh tradition, the daughter of a Roman noble by Geoffrey of Monmouth and wife of King Arthur by everyone. Her name is spelled differently depending on where you look. It can be either the traditional Guinevere, or Guenevere, or Guenievre, or Gwenhwyfar, or Guenhumare or Ginevra.

In all cases, she is surpassingly beautiful and desirable, if morally lax. She is either forced into or conceives and engineers an extra-marital relationship with Lancelot and is either condemned, according to law, or forgiven outright for her sins. She either was a willing accomplice to Mordred's treachery against Arthur, as suggested in Wace and Layamon, or was forced into it against her will as stated in John Hardyng's "Chronicle" (1457).

She is frequently abducted, sometimes by King Melwas of Somerset, sometimes by Mordred and sometimes by the marauding tribes from the north. She meets her end sometimes in a convent at Amesbury, sometimes as a prisoner of the Picts and sometimes she dies at the vengeful hand of Lancelot. Her bones either were or were not found by the monks of Glastonbury when they discovered the grave of Arthur in 1191, depending upon which version of the burial cross inscription you read.

Whatever Guinevere was or was not, she has been a useful tool in the hands of the romancers throughout the centuries and has greatly enhanced the legends of King Arthur.


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King Uther Pendragon loved Igraine, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. So he made war on Cornwall and in that war Igraine's husband was killed, though not until after King Uther slept with Igraine by means of magic. Arthur was conceived, and later Uther and Igraine were married. The child was raised by a knight called Sir Ector. After King Uther died, Arthur proved his right to the throne by removing a sword from an anvil which was embedded in a rock. He received his famous sword, Excalibur, from the Lady of the Lake. The independent kings of Britain fought with Arthur but were defeated. Arthur then became king of all of Britain.

King Arthur married Guinevere, the daughter of King Leodegrance, who gave Arthur as a wedding gift the Round Table and a hundred knights. Merlin the magician was captured by one of the Ladies of the Lake and imprisoned forever under a rock. Lots of other stuff happened, including the following stories: 1) Morgan Le Fay, the enchantress half-sister of Arthur, used black magic to steal Excalibur. Her paramour, Sir Accolon fought Arthur using Excalibur and nearly won the fight when the swords were accidentally exchanged and Arthur won. 2) King Lucius of Rome demanded tribute payments from Arthur, but Arthur refused to pay. All the knights of the realm promised him aid, and in the war that followed Arthur conquered Germany and Italy and was crowned Emperor of Rome. (By the way, this part is found all the way back in Geoffrey of Monmouth's version.) 3) While Arthur is off conquering Europe, Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere's favorite, set out on adventures to further the honor and glory of himself and the Queen. After lots of victories, he returned to Camelot (Arthur's castle) and was acclaimed the first knight of all Christendom. 4) A version of the famous love story of Tristram and Isolde also appears in Malory's version.




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