Overview Commonly in his appearances, Merlin guides, helps, saves, predicts, and judges through his great wisdom. According to Gaëlle Zussa, "Merlin's literary legend presents itself as a sort of great dump in which pieces of the myth are scattered. Contemporary authors come to draw their ideas and recycle this debris to recreate an ever new Merlin, in motion." Villemarqué attempted to synthesize the known information around Merlin, beginning as a figure of
bard gifted with
prophecy. While Merlin's prototypes were originally these of both poet and warrior king, the familiar character from the French romances became the master of amazing magical knowledge. According to a summary of the legend by Danielle Quéruel of the
Bibliothèque nationale de France,
R. Howard Bloch described Merlin's character throughout the legend:
Geoffrey and his sources Geoffrey of Manmouth's composite Merlin, imagined primarily as a prophet, is fundamentally based on the
North Brythonic poet and seer
Myrddin Wyllt, that is Myrddin the Wild (known as
Merlinus Caledonensis or
Merlin Sylvestris in later texts influenced by Geoffrey), in turn inspired by either real or legendary figure from the Welsh oral tradition that appears in 12th-century written poems such as "
Afallennau Myrddin" ("Myrddin's Apple Trees") or "Yr Oianau" ("The Piglet"). and with
Buile Shuibhne, an Irish tale of the wandering insane king Suibihne mac Colmáin (often Anglicised to
Sweeney), set after the 637
Battle of Moira. In Welsh poetry, Myrddin was a bard who was driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war and subsequently fled civilisation to become a
wild man of the wood in the 6th century. which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary poet (including some distinctively apocalyptic prophecies for Geoffrey's contemporary 12th century). However, the work reveals little about Merlin's background. Geoffrey was further inspired by Emrys (
Old Welsh:
Embreis), a Welsh legendary character based in part on the 5th-century historical figure of the
Romano-British war leader
Ambrosius Aurelianus (Welsh name
Emrys Wledig, later also known as
Myrddin Emrys). When Geoffrey included Merlin in his next work,
Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1136), he supplemented his characterisation of Merlin by attributing to him a story taken from the early 9th-century
Historia Brittonum attributed to
Nennius, which Geoffrey adapted almost without changes. In the source text, Ambrosius was discovered when the
King of the Britons,
Vortigern, attempted to erect a tower at
Dinas Emrys (City of Emrys). More than once, the tower collapsed before completion. Vortigen's wise men advised him that the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child. When he was brought before the king, Ambrosius revealed that below the foundation of the tower was a lake containing two dragons battling into each other, representing the struggle between the invading Saxons (
the white dragon) and the native
Celtic Britons (
the red dragon). Geoffrey included the story in his
Historia Regum Britanniæ, adding the new later episodes that tie Merlin with King Arthur and his predecessors. Geoffrey stated that this Ambrosius was also called "Merlin" (
Merlinus), hence
Ambrosius Merlinus. Geoffrey's account of Merlin's early life is thus based closely on the story from the
Historia Brittonum. A popular theory has his Merlin as a fusion between a legendary Celtic character possibly based on a historical figure, a supposed clan leader named Myrddin, confused with the Ambrosius spoken of by Saint
Gildas. At the same time, however, Geoffrey also turned Ambrosius Aurelianus into the separate character of
Uther Pendragon's brother Aurelius Ambrosius. Geoffrey added his own embellishments to the tale, which he set in
Carmarthen, Wales (Welsh: Caerfyrddin). While Nennius' "fatherless" Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son of a Roman
consul, Geoffrey's Merlin is fathered by an
incubus demon through a nun, daughter of the
King of Dyfed (
Demetae, today's
South West Wales). Usually, the name of Merlin's mother is not stated, but it is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the
Prose Brut, the text also naming his grandfather as King
Conaan. This was the first popular account of
demonic parentage motif in Western Christian literature. The
Historia's Merlin (Ambrosius Merlinus) is born all hairy like a bear and already able to speak like an adult, as well as possessing supernatural knowledge that he uses to save his mother. The story of Vortigern's tower is the same; the underground dragons, one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the Britons, and their final battle is a portent of things to come. At this point Geoffrey inserted a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken from his earlier
Prophetiae Merlini. Geoffrey also told two further tales of the character. In the first, Merlin creates
Stonehenge as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius, bringing the stones from
Mount Killaraus in Ireland. This episode establishes Merlin as a great builder endowed with astonishing knowledge of science. Unlike in the later accounts since
Layamon's Brut, Geoffrey's Merlin actually does not use magic in this episode. In the second follow-up story, Merlin's magic enables the new British king, Uther Pendragon, to enter into
Tintagel Castle in disguise and to father Arthur with his enemy's wife, Igerna (
Igraine). These three iconic episodes appear, separately or together, in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. However, Merlin subsequently disappears from the narrative of the
Historia. He does not tutor or advise Arthur as in later versions. As the "enchanted
white stag"
Otherworld motif become increasingly Christianised, monastic writers of Arthurian romances would even equate it with the Christ himself. Geoffrey of Monmouth dealt with Merlin again in his third work, the
Vita Merlini ("The Life of Merlin", 1150). He based it on stories of the original 6th-century Myrddin, set long after his time frame for the life of Merlin Ambrosius. Nevertheless, Geoffrey asserts that the characters and events of the
Vita Merlini are the same as told in the
Historia Regum Britanniae. According to Walter, the text is based on a slightly restored myth rather than historical sources, and should be read as a
palimpsest as it contains many legendary elements (the majority purely Celtic) integrated into a biographical story in Latin. Geoffrey adapts his story to his time, but seems to have respected his sources. Here, Merlin survives the reign of Arthur, whose fall he is told about by the bard
Taliesin. Merlin himself is depicted as a Welsh king of
Dyfed, a scholar, a
diviner, and a cursed prophet. He loses a battle with his army and, after fleeing from the soldiers of his Scottish enemy Gwenddolau (a character inspired by the historic Brythonic king
Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio), he then spends a part of his life as a madman in the woods, transforming both mentally and physically (as Merlin always do in the stories of his madness; here his changes being triggered,
lycanthropy-style, by the phenomenon of red full moon). He abortively marries a woman named
Guendoloena, whose new husband he later murders after arriving at their wedding while riding a stag.), who has become queen of the
Cumbrians and is also endowed with prophetic powers. Merlin's spiritual search brings him closer to Christianity, and the text concludes with his redemption. Compared to Geoffrey's own
Historia, his
Vita seems to have little influence on the later portrayals of Merlin. A long-running debate in the Arthurian scholarship pits supporters of a historical origin of Merlin against those of a mythological origin. Mark Chorvinsky hypothesised that Merlin is based on a historical person, probably a 5th and/or 6th-century
druid living in southern Scotland.
Nikolai Tolstoy makes a similar argument based on the fact that early references to Merlin describe him as possessing characteristics which modern scholarship would recognize as druidical (but that sources of the time would not have recognised), the inference being that those characteristics were not invented by the early chroniclers but belonged to a real person, "the last of the druids": the Myrddin of Welsh poems, deliberately merged with another character into one by Geoffrey. Regarding the druidical origins theories, Walter noted Merlin's connections to apples and trees (including oaks) in Geoffrey and some of the other versions, and how Myrddin Wyllt, Lailoken, and Suibhne (considered variations of the same mythical theme) all three convert to the Christian faith at the end of their respective stories. Notably, Myrddin also shares similarities with the druidic bard figure of Taliesin. The two appear alongside each other in the Welsh Triads and in the
Vita Merlini, as well as in the poem "Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin" ("The Conversation between Myrddin and Taliesin", where they discuss seven battles that would fill rivers with blood) from
The Black Book of Carmarthen, which was dated by
Rachel Bromwich as "certainly" before 1100, that is predating the
Vita by at least half century while telling a different version of the same story. The existence of one or more "historical Merlins" has been defended by others, such as
Norma Lorre Goodrich. Such proposed "historical Merlin" may have inspired various authors since the 6th century but such manuscripts would have since disappeared. A late version of the
Annales Cambriae (dubbed the "B-text", written at the end of the 13th century) and influenced by Geoffrey, records that in the year 573 after "the
battle of Arfderydd, between the sons of Eliffer and Gwenddolau son of Ceidio; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Myrddin went mad." However, the earliest version of the same entry in
Annales Cambriae (in the "A-text", written c. 1100), as well as a later copy (the "C-text", written towards the end of the 13th century) do not mention Myrddin. In another
Black Book poem, "The Dialogue Between Merlin and His Sister Gwendydd", she dubs her brother a set of titles including the Judge of the North, the Prophet, the Master of Song, and the Warrior of Arfderydd. Nevertheless, even if Myrddin was presented as a historical figure in certain period sources, it does not necessarily mean that he really did exist. that would have been rediscovered, Christianised, and gradually reinvented by different authors, including Geoffrey. Legendary stories surrounding Merlin may thus have their origins in not just Celtic but even pre-Celtic background in a proto-myth prior to the changes brought by the influence of Christianity as well as of aristocratic traditions of the Britons of their time. Some "folkloric" beliefs, including a set of poetic and narrative traditions, would survive orally until the 12th century, when clerics committed this oral material to writing. In his earliest expressions, according to Walter, Merlin embodies magical sovereignty and shamanic royalty, quite far from the later warrior and priest functions, and his power is essentially spiritual.) transformation into a bird. In more of arguably shamanistic characteristics, Merlin of the
Vita rides a stag accompanied by a wolf and understands all animals that in turn all can understand him. According to Villemarqué, the origin of the legend of Merlin lies with the Roman story of Marsus, a son of
Circe, which eventually influenced the Breton and Welsh tales of a supernaturally-born bard or enchanter named Marzin or Marddin. Tolstoy and Markale suggested that Merlin was originally an avatar of
Cernunnos, a Celtic god of nature.
Romance reimagination Around the turn of the 13th century,
Robert de Boron retold and expanded on this material in
Merlin, an
Old French epic poem inspired by
Wace's
Roman de Brut, an Anglo-Norman creative adaptation of Geoffrey's
Historia, but not based directly on it. The work presents itself as the story of Merlin's life as told by Merlin himself to be written down by the "real" author while the actual author claimed merely to translate the story into French. Only a few lines of what is believed to be the original text have survived, but a popular prose version had a great influence on the emerging genre of Arthurian-themed
chivalric romance. The French
Merlin links the two British traditions, that of the fatherless child prophet and that of the wild man. As in the
Historia, Merlin is created as a demon spawn, but in Robert's account he is explicitly to become the
Antichrist intended to reverse the effect of the
Harrowing of Hell. The infernal plot is thwarted when a priest named (the story's narrator and perhaps Merlin's
divine twin in a hypothetical now-lost original Breton oral tradition) is contacted by the child's mother: Blaise immediately baptizes the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan and his intended destiny. The demonic legacy invests Merlin (already able to speak fluently even as a newborn) with a preternatural knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the boy prophetic knowledge of the future. The text lays great emphasis on Merlin's power to
shapeshift, his joking personality, and his connection to the
Holy Grail, the quest for which he later foretells. It presents him, during his childhood, as a being both disturbing and prodigious, of incredible precocity, describes Merlin's efforts to escape the influence of his diabolical ancestry, and contains many scenes where Merlin laughs (especially when he practices magic), echoing his origins. Robert does not give much space to Merlin's madness but his laughter may reflect the otherness of his mind.
Merlin is thought to be a part of a trilogy of Robert's stories telling the history of the Grail over the centuries, sometimes dubbed the Little Grail Cycle. The narrative of the Prose
Merlin is largely based on Geoffrey's familiar tale of Vortigern's Tower, Uther's war against the Saxons, and Arthur's conception. New in this retelling is the episode of young Arthur (who had been secreted away by Merlin, presenting himself successively as an old man to abduct the newborn Arthur, then as a young man to hand him over to be raised by
Ector) drawing the
sword from the stone, an event orchestrated by Merlin in the role of kingmaker. Earlier, Merlin instructs Uther to establish the quasi-religious chivalric order of the
Knights of the Round Table for fifty members, handpicked by Merlin, following his own act of creating
the table itself as a replica of both the original
Last Supper table and the subsequent table of
Joseph of Arimathea. The story of the prose version of
Merlin was resumed in the 13th-century
Merlin Continuation, telling of King Arthur's early wars and Merlin's role in them. In this text, also known as the
Suite du Merlin, the mage both predicts and, wielding elemental magic, In the Vulgate Cycle's version of
Merlin, his acts include arranging the consummation of Arthur's desire for "the most beautiful maiden ever born," Lady Lisanor of Cardigan, resulting in the birth of Arthur's illegitimate son
Lohot from before the marriage to
Guinevere. A further reworking and an alternative continuation of the Prose
Merlin were included within the subsequent
Post-Vulgate Cycle as the Post-Vulgate
Suite du Merlin or the Huth
Merlin, the so-called "romantic" rewrite (as opposed to the so-called "historical" original of the Vulgate). The work contains a series of prophecies entrusted by Merlin to Blaise, and presents the Grail as the central point of all of them. It adds some content such as Merlin providing Arthur with the sword
Excalibur through a
Lady of the Lake, while either removing or altering many other episodes. Merlin's magical interventions in the Post-Vulgate versions of his story are relatively limited and markedly less spectacular, even compared to the magical feats of his own students, and his character becomes less moral. In addition, Merlin's prophecies include sets of alternative possibilities (meaning that the future can possibly be changed) instead of sure outcomes. In the romances, he may take refuge from Arthur's court to live with Blaise in a forest in
Northumberland, Through his ability to change his shape, he may appear as a "wild man" figure, evoking his prototype Myrddin Wyllt, as a civilised man of any age (including as a very young child), or even as a talking animal. His guises can be highly deformed and animalistic even when Merlin is presenting as a human or humanoid being. Both
Merlin and its continuations have been adapted in verse and prose, translated into several languages, and further modified to various degrees by other authors. Notably, the Post-Vulgate
Suite (along with an earlier version of the Prose
Merlin) was the main source for the opening section of
Thomas Malory's English-language compilation work ''
Le Morte d'Arthur which formed a now-iconic version of the legend. Compared to some of his French sources (such as the Vulgate Lancelot'' which described Merlin as "treacherous and disloyal by nature, like his [demon] father before him"), Malory limited the extent of the negative association of Merlin and his powers. He is relatively rarely condemned as demonic by other characters such as
King Lot; instead he is presented as ambiguous. The earliest English verse romance concerning Merlin is
Of Arthour and of Merlin of the late 13th century, which drew from the chronicles and the Vulgate Cycle. In English-language medieval texts that conflate
Britain with the
Kingdom of England, the
Anglo-Saxon enemies against whom Merlin aids first Uther and then Arthur tend to be replaced by either the
Saracens or unnamed heathen invaders. The earliest Merlin work written in Germany was
Caesarius of Heisterbach's Latin theological text
Dialogus Miraculorum (1220). Among other medieval works dealing with the Merlin legend is the 13th-century French romance
Roman de Silence, and the 13th-14th Italian story collection
Il Novellino that pictures him as a righteous seer chastising people for their sins. Conversely, the
Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, which sympathizes with Mordred as usual in Scottish chronicle tradition, particularly attributes Merlin's supernatural evil influence on Arthur to its very negative portrayal of his rule. He is also a villainous figure, opposing Arthur's daughter, in the late Irish romance
Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando. Merlin is presented as inherently evil in the so-called
non-cyclic Lancelot, in which he was born as the "fatherless child" from not a supernatural rape of a virgin but a consensual union between a lustful demon and an unmarried beautiful young lady, and was never baptised. It even says that he never did anything good in his life.
Wilhelm von Österreich by Johann von Würzburg (1324) paints a villainous portrait of Merlin as a magician born of a devil in an otherwise non-Arthurian story. In the Second Continuation of
Perceval, the Story of the Grail, written around 1210, a young daughter of Merlin called the Lady of the High Peak of Mont Dolorous, appears to guide
Perceval towards the Grail Castle. Merlin's usually unspecified mother is sometimes called Adhan or Aldan, or Optima, as in Bauduin (Baudouin) Butor's 1294 romance known as either
Les Fils du Roi Constant or
Pandragus et Libanor. Paolino Pieri's 14th-century Italian
La Storia di Merlino, which invents a new version of the story of Merlin's youth, names his mother as Marinaia.
Ulrich Füetrer's 15th-century
Buch der Abenteuer, in the section based on
Albrecht von Scharfenberg's lost
Merlin, turns Merlin into father of Uter, effectively making Merlin's grandson Arthur a part-devil too. One version of the
Prose Tristan also makes Merlin essentially a "half-brother" of the monster known as the
Questing Beast. In much of the prose tradition, Merlin has a major weakness—young beautiful women of
femme fatale archetype. This is what eventually leads him to his doom by a Lady of the Lake. Besides her, Merlin's apprentice in chivalric romances is often King Arthur's half-sister,
Morgan, who is sometimes depicted as Merlin's lover and sometimes as just his unrequited love interest. Contrary to many modern works in which they are archenemies, Merlin and Morgan are never opposed to each other in any medieval text, other than she forcibly rejecting him in some of them. Merlin's love for Morgan is so great that he even lies to the king to save her in the Huth
Merlin, which is the only instance of him ever intentionally misleading Arthur. In the originally Venetian prose romance
Prophéties de Merlin, alternatively known as the
Prophécies de Merlin (c. 1274–79), he further tutors
Sebile, two other witch queens, and the Lady of the Isle of
Avalon (Dama di Isola do Vallone). Those who learn sorcery from Merlin also include the male wizard
Mabon in the Post-Vulgate
Merlin Continuation and the Prose
Tristan, and the Wise Damsel (Savia Donzella / Savia Damigella) in the Italian prose romance
Historia di Merlino. While Merlin's apprentices are able to gain or expand their magical powers through him, his unique prophetic powers cannot be passed on.
Merlin's prophecies The works dealing with Merlin's prophecies did not end with Geoffrey's
Prophetiae. Abundant prophetic literature attributed to Merlin is divided into two main currents, the prophecies of the British Isles and those of the European continent, different in their themes, purposes, and inspirations. Particularly in Britain, Merlin remained as much as a prophet as a magician up to and including the 16th century, when political content in the style of
Agrippa d'Aubigné continued to be written using Merlin's name to guarantee their authenticity. The late medieval
Vita di Merlino con le sue Profetie (1379), combining Merlin romance material and prophecies related to the author's recent contemporary history and politics, became the first Arthurian text printed in Italy. The influential
Prophéties de Merlin (later abridged and clarified in Pieri's
Storia) was written in French but obviously by an Italian in Venice (falsely claiming to be one "Richard from Ireland") on the bidding of
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and to propagate on his behalf. It contains long prophecies mostly concerned with 11th to 13th-century history and contemporary politics relating to Italy and the
Holy Land, some supposedly told by Merlin's ghost after his death, interspersed with episodes relating Merlin's deeds and with assorted Arthurian adventures in which Merlin does not appear at all. The German
Sagen von Merlin from the same era, which included the
War of the Keys between Frederick and the Papacy, contains prophecies directed against the Popes. The widely circulated short political tract
Expositio Abbatis Joachimi super Sibillis et Merlino (c. 1240), falsely attributed to
Joachim of Fiore, contains the praise of Frederick's miraculous birth, which backfired, making it look like the coming of Antichrist. During the 15th century, old Welsh works predicting the Celtic revenge and victory over the Saxons were recast as Merlin's (Myrddin's) prophecies and used along with Geoffrey by the propaganda of the Welsh-descended
Henry VII of England (who fought under the red dragon banner) of the
House of Tudor, which claimed to trace its lineage directly to Arthur. Later, the Tudors' Welsh supporters, including bards, interpreted the prophecy of
King Arthur's return as having been fulfilled after the Tudors' ascent to the throne of England that they sought to legitimize following the
Wars of the Roses. Prophecies attributed to Merlin have been also previously used by the 14th-century Welsh hero
Owain Glyndŵr in his fight against the English rule. The vagueness of Merlin's prophecies enabled British monarchs and historians to continue using them even in the early modern period. Notably, the King of Scotland and later also of England and Ireland,
James VI and I, claimed his 1603 unification of Britain into the United Kingdom had been foretold by Merlin.
Tales of Merlin's disappearance The Merlin stories often end with his removal from the world. In the prose romance tradition, Merlin's eventual undoing comes from his lusting after another of his female students: the one often named Viviane or Vivien, among various other names and spellings (including Malory's own Nyneve that his editor
William Caxton changed to Nymue which in turn eventually became the now-popular Nimue). The theme of Merlin's entrapment by a woman became one of the most popular and iconic in his legend. There are several versions of their story. Common themes in most of them include Merlin actually having the prior prophetic knowledge of her plot against him (one exception is the Spanish Post-Vulgate
Baladro where his foresight ability is explicitly dampened by sexual desire) but lacking either ability or will to counteract it in any way, along with her using one of his own spells to get rid of him. Usually (including in ''Le Morte d'Arthur''), having learned everything she could from him, Viviane will then replace the eliminated Merlin within the story, taking up his role as Arthur's adviser and court mage. However, Merlin's fate of either demise or eternal imprisonment, along with his destroyer or captor's motivation (from her fear of Merlin and protecting her own virginity, to her jealousy of his relationship with Morgan), is recounted differently in several variants of this motif. The form of his prison or grave can be variably a cave, a tree, or hole either within or under a large rock, or an invisible tower made of magic with no physical walls. The scene is sometimes explicitly placed in the enchanted forest of Brocéliande, a legendary location today identified with the real-life
Paimpont forest in Brittany. According to ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', this happens somewhere in Benwick, the kingdom of
Lancelot's father in Brittany. A Breton tradition cited by
Roger Sherman Loomis in
Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (where he also asserts that it "seems almost certain that Morgan le Fay and the Lady of the Lake were originally the same person" in the legend) has Merlin trapped by his mistress inside a tree on the
Île de Sein. Niniane, as the Lady of the Lake student of Merlin is known in the ''Livre d'Artus
continuation of Merlin
, is mentioned as having broken his heart before his later second relationship with Morgan, but here the text does not tell how exactly Merlin did vanish, other than relating his farewell meeting with Blaise. In the Vulgate Merlin
, she (aged just 12 at the time In the Post-Vulgate Suite de Merlin
, the young King Bagdemagus (one of the early Knights of the Round Table) manages to find the rock under which Merlin is entombed alive by Niviene, as she is named there. He does communicate with Merlin but is unable to lift the stone; what follows next is supposedly narrated in the mysterious text Conte del Brait
(Tale of the Cry
). In the Prophéties de Merlin'', his tomb is unsuccessfully searched for by various parties, including Morgan and her enchantresses, but cannot be accessed due to the deadly magic traps around it, while the Lady of the Lake comes to cruelly taunt Merlin, asking if he has rotted yet. One notably alternate version that has a happier ending for Merlin is the
Premiers Faits section of the
Livre du Graal, where Niniane peacefully confines him in Brocéliande with walls of air, visible only as a mist to others but as a beautiful yet unbreakable crystal tower to him (only Merlin's disembodied voice can escape his prison one last time when he speaks to
Gawain on the knight's quest to find him), where they then spend almost every night together as lovers. Besides evoking the final scenes from the
Vita Merlini, this particular variant of their story also mirrors a certain episode type found in romances in two versions. There, depending on the variant, Merlin can be object of one-sided desire by a different amorous sorceress who (unsuccessfully) plots to trap him, or it is him who does trap an unwilling lover with his magic. (1820) Unrelated to the legend of the Lady of the Lake, other purported sites of Merlin's burial include a cave deep inside Merlin's Hill (), outside Carmarthen. Carmarthen is also associated with Merlin more generally, including through the 13th-century manuscript known as the
Black Book and the local lore of
Merlin's Oak. In
North Welsh tradition, Merlin retires to
Bardsey Island (), where he lives in a house of glass () with the
Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain (). One site of his tomb is said to be
Marlborough Mound in
Wiltshire, known in medieval times as
Merlebergia (the Abbot of
Cirencester wrote in 1215: "Merlin's tumulus gave you your name, Merlebergia"). Another site associated with Merlin's burial, in his 'Merlin Silvestris' aspect, is the confluence of the Pausalyl Burn and
River Tweed in
Drumelzier, Scotland. The 15th-century
Scotichronicon tells that Merlin himself underwent a
triple-death, at the hands of some shepherds of the under-king
Meldred: stoned and beaten by the shepherds, he falls over a cliff and is impaled on a stake, his head falls forward into the water, and he drowns. The fulfillment of another prophecy, ascribed to
Thomas the Rhymer, came about when a spate of the Tweed and Pausayl occurred during the reign of the Scottish James VI and I on the English throne: "When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave, / Scotland and England one king shall have." == Modern culture ==