1. Myrddin, the Welsh prophet: There are medieval Welsh poems ascribed to him, and he is the central character of a legend found only in scattered references in six late twelfth to mid-fifteenth century manuscripts. The Black Book of Carmarthen (ca. 1200) contains poems called Afallennau (‘Apple trees’), Hoianau (‘Greetings, little pig’) and Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin (‘Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesin’). The Red Book of Hergest (ca. 1400) contains CyfoesiMyrddin a Gwenddyd ei Chwaer (‘Conversation of Myrddin and his sister Gwenddydd’) and Gwasgargerdd Fyrddin yn y Bedd (‘Song uttered by Myrddin in the grave’). Earlier versions of these last two from ca. 1300 exist in MSS. Peniarth 12 and Peniarth 3 of the Royal Library of Wales. A final poem, Peiran Faban (‘Commanding youth’), is in the 15th c. MS. Peniarth 50.

        In these poems Myrddin is presented as a 6th-century northern British prophet warning against the British struggles with the Saxons and later the Normans. Three stanzas of "The Apple Tree" are regarded as the oldest part of the legend, which is believed to have taken shape between ca. 850 and 1050; it may have been written down before Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Prophecies of Merlin in the 1130’s while he was working on the History of the Kings of Britain. In these three stanzas, Myrddin has gone mad and lives as a vagabond in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland. Text:

            Sweet apple tree which grows in a glade,
            Its peculiar power hides it from the men of Rhydderch;
            A crowd by its trunk, a host around it,
            It would be a treasure for them, brave men in their ranks.

            Now Gwenddydd loves me not and does not greet me
            --I am hated by Gwasawg, the supporter of Rhydderch--
            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 delights me not, no woman visits me;
            And in the battle of Arfderydd my torque was of gold
            Though today I am not treasured by one of the color of swans.

            Sweet apple tree with gentle flowers
            Which grows hidden in the woodlands;
            I have heard tidings since early in the day
            That Gwasawg the supporter of . . . has been angered,
            Twice, thrice, four times in one day.
            O Jesus! Would that my death had come
            Before I became guilty of the death of the son of Gwenddydd.

            Sweet apple tree which grows on a river bank,
            The steward, approaching it, will not succeed in
            obtaining its fine fruit;
            While I was in my right mind I used to have at its foot
            A fair wanton maiden, one slender and queenly.
            For ten and forty years, in the wretchedness of outlawry,

            I have been wandering with madness and madmen.
            After goodly possessions and pleasing minstrels
            Now I suffer want with madness and madmen.
            Now I sleep not, I tremble for my lord,
            My sovereign Gwenddolau, and fellow countrymen.
            After enduring sickness and grief in the Forest of Celyddon [= Caledonia]

            May I be received into bliss by the Lord of Hosts.

Comment: The role of the apple tree is perhaps explained by an analogous story about another wild man-prophet, Suibne Geilt of Ireland, who lost his mind at the battle of Moira in 673. He was pursued, hid in a tree, and when the army surrounded the tree, he levitated into heaven. Perhaps this explains why the apple tree has a "peculiar power" that hides it from Rhydderch's men, why there is "a crowd by its trunk, a host around it," and that "it would be a treasure for them" although no mention is made of any power of levitation.

        "Greetings, Little Pig" explains that Myrddin’s sole companion in the forest was a little pig, and in it Myrddin laments the death of his lord Gwenddolau, part of the reason for his sorrow. Nothing else is known of him, but it is assumed that he died in the battle of Arfderydd, as is explicitly stated in "The Conversation..." and the battle is dated 573 in the Annales Cambriae. We learn also that Rhydderch was a huntsman and "defender of the Faith." The historical Rhydderch ap Tudwal, called Hael (‘the generous’) was king of Dumbarton in Scotland towards the end of the 6th c. Scholars think that Arfderydd was a battle in which Rhydderch defeated and killed Gwenddolau. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (ca. 1150) says as much, and Latinizes all the names. A 13th century manuscript of the Annals of Wales reiterates this and adds that after the battle Merlin went insane, but this is probably based on the earlier Welsh material and Geoffrey.

        Gwenddydd is, according to "The Conversation...", Myrddin's sister. Geoffrey's Vita makes Ganienda (Lat. form of Gwenddydd) the wife of Rodarchus (Lat. form of Rhydderch) as well. She seems to have been an enemy of Myrddin’s at the battle, according to "The Apple Trees," but in "The Conversation..." she and Merlin are friendly. The other poems contain virtually nothing else about Myrddin himself, but they are full of obscure prophecies by him.
 

2. Lailoken (or Lailochen): The Life of St. Kentigern (Scotland, 12th c.) refers to a certain homo fatuus (‘crazy man’) named Laloecen who lived at the court of king "Rederech," (=Rhydderch) and who prophesied correctly that the king would die a year after the saint. In a 15th c. manuscript, London, British Library Titus A.xix, is a story about how Kentigern met a naked, hairy madman named Lailoken, said by some to have been Merlin, who told him that he was unworthy to do penance among men and so had been punished with banishment to the wilderness. He said that he had caused the deaths of all the people slain at the battle "between Lidel and Carwannok," and that during the battle a voice from the heavens told him of his guilt and of his punishment. A similar story is found in Geraldus Cambrensis, Journey Through Wales, about "Merlinus Celidonius." The name Lailoken goes back to Welsh llallogan, used in "The Conversation..." to refer to Myrddin. On the basis of the name Arfderydd and the reference to a battle between Lidel and Carwannok, it has been established that the battle took place at Arthuret, ca. 8 miles noth of Carlisle.

Comment: Myrddin is a Welsh name, and scholars now believe it lies behind the name Caer-fyrddin (modern Carmarthen), derived from caer (‘fort’) and Brythonic Moridunon (‘sea fort’). It is though that the name came from an eponymous person Myrddin, and when the story of Lailoken came from Scotland, in the 7th or 8th c. (?), it retained the northern setting but changed Lailoken’s name to Myrddin. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain locates Merlin in Carmarthen, and makes him a grandson of the Welsh king Dyfed; but his Life of Merlin moves him to the Caledonian Forest.
 

3. Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Prophecies of Merlin, perhaps as early as 1134, is the first to use the name Merlin (Lat. Merlinus). Geoffrey incorporated the Prophecies into his History of the Kings of Britain (ca. 1138). The Prophecies are indebted to the Welsh tradition of Myrddin as a prophet. In general, the Prophecies predict the coming of Arthur and his later downfall. Along the way, they make many other dire predictions that later generations of Englishmen applied to their times as social criticism. Hence, in the 14th and 15th centuries, social critics often invoked them against the corruptions of court and the civil wars. In Shakespeare’s King Lear, 3.2.79-95, the Fool’s prophecy, which is in the same vein, poses as the prophecy of Merlin: "This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time" (line 95).
 

4. Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain (1138), 6.17 ff. King Vortigern’s magicians advise him to build a strong tower in which to defend himself against the Saxon invaders. On the site he chooses, the foundations are swallowed up by the earth each night. The magicians tell him that the solution to the problem is to find a boy without a father, kill him, and sprinkle the stones and mortar with his blood. The king’s men search the kingdom and find Merlin being taunted by his playmates for not having a father. It turns out that he was sired on his mother, a nun, by an incubus (=devil). Merlin is brought to Vortigern and promptly shows that his problem is that beneath the foundation of his castle there is a pool, two hollow stones, and inside two dragons. Next follow Merlin’s prophecies (book 7). Merlin next appears in 8.11 ff., where he moves the "Giants’ Ring" from Ireland to England, building Stonehenge out of it. Then in 8.19 ff. Merlin aids Uther, the next king, in his pursuit of Igerna, wife of Gorlois the Duke of Cornwall. He does this by enchanting Uther so that he is a double for Gorlois, and while Gorlois is away fighting Uther’s battles, Uther has a conjugal visit with Igerna. She becomes pregnant, Gorlois is killed in battle, Uther takes the widow Igerna as his wife, and the child she bears is Arthur. The story in the History of the Kings of Britain about Vortigern and Merlin derives from Nennius’s Historia Brittonum (compiled in about 800) but which some changes. In Nennius, the orphan boy is called Ambrosius, and he is found in Glamorgan. Geoffrey calls him Merlinus Ambrosius and puts him in Carmarthen. Geoffrey seems to have invented other stories about Merlin--or at least no source is known: he moves the stones for Stonehenge from Ireland to Salisbury Plain, the interprets the comet as an omen about the birth of Arthur, and he enables Uther to seduce Ygerna and thus beget Arthur.
 

5. Robert de Boron, poem about Merlin, end 12th c., now extant in only 504 lines. It retells the material found in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain but with an important addition: here, Merlin is young Arthur’s tutor, the founder of the Round Table, and the deviser of the test by which Arthur was proved king--removing the sword from the stone.
 

6. Prose History of Merlin, 13th c., an expanded version of Robert de Boron. From the point where Robert leaves off, the anonymous author continues: Merlin continues to counsel Arthur, now King, in military strategy against rebellious barons. Gawain emerges as Arthur’s right-hand man. A link-passage called the suite-Vulgate links The History of Merlin to the Prose Lancelot of the Vulgate Cycle: in it, we learn of Arthur’s marriage to Guenevere, Merlin’s love affair with Viviane (The Lady of the Lake, who enchants Merlin with spells he taught her), and the birth of Lancelot. Once enchanted by Viviane, who imprisons him in a tower of air, Merlin is out of the Vulgate Cycle.