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Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a magician, with several other main roles. The familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historic and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British pseudo-historical author Geoffrey of Monmouth and then built on by the French poet Robert de Boron and their prose successors in the 13th century.
Kentigern, known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow.
The wild man, wild man of the woods, or woodwose/wodewose is a mythical figure and motif that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to Silvanus, the Roman god of the woodlands.
Myrddin Wyllt is a figure in medieval Welsh legend. In Middle Welsh poetry he is accounted a chief bard, the speaker of several poems in The Black Book of Carmarthen and The Red Book of Hergest. He is called Wyllt—"the Wild"—by Elis Gruffydd, and elsewhere Myrddin Emrys ("Ambrosius"), Merlinus Caledonensis or Merlin Sylvestris("of the woods"). Myrddin Wylt was born in 540 CE.
Peredur is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in sub-Roman Britain. The Peredur who is most familiar to a modern audience is the character who made his entrance as a knight in the Arthurian world of Middle Welsh prose literature.
The Black Book of Carmarthen is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. The book dates from the mid-13th century; its name comes from its association with the Priory of St. John the Evangelist and Teulyddog at Carmarthen, and is referred to as black due to the colour of its binding. It is currently part of the collection of the National Library of Wales, where it is catalogued as NLW Peniarth MS 1.
Idwal Iwrch, or Idwal ap Cadwaladr, is a figure in the genealogies of the kings of Gwynedd. He was the son of King Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon and the father of King Rhodri Molwynog. William Wynne places Cynan Dindaethwy as his son, but other sources have Cynan as the son of Rhodri. The records of this era are scanty, and Idwal's name appears only in the pedigrees of later kings and in a prophecy found in two 14th-century Welsh manuscripts, which says that he will succeed his father Cadwaladr as king.
Awen is a Welsh, Cornish and Breton word for "inspiration".
The Caledonian Forest is the ancient (old-growth) temperate forest of Scotland. The forest today is a reduced-extent version of the pre-human-settlement forest, existing in several dozen remnant areas.
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Drumelzier, is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders.
Arthuret is a civil parish in Cumbria, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,434, increasing to 2,471 at the 2011 census. The parish includes the town of Longtown and the village of Easton. It is bounded by the River Esk to the west and the River Lyne to the south.
The Battle of Arfderydd was fought in medieval Britain in AD 573, according to the Annales Cambriae. The opposing armies are identified in a number of Old Welsh sources but vary between them, perhaps suggesting several allied armies were involved. The main adversaries appear to have been Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio and either the princely brothers Peredur and Gwrgi or King Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde. Gwenddoleu was defeated and killed in the battle. His bard, Myrddin Wyllt, reportedly went mad and ran into the forest. He is one of several proposed origins for the Arthurian character Merlin. The Welsh Triads refer to this battle as one of the "Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain", along with the Battle of Camlann and the Battle of the Trees.
Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, is a Latin poem in 1,529 hexameter lines written around the year 1150. Though doubts have in the past been raised about its authorship it is now widely believed to be by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It tells the story of Merlin's madness, his life as a wild man of the woods, and his prophecies and conversations with his sister, Ganieda, and the poet Taliesin. Its plot derives from previous Celtic legends of early Middle Welsh origin, traditions of the bard Myrddin Wyllt and the wild man Lailoken, and it includes an important early account of King Arthur's final journey to Avalon, but it also displays much pseudo-scientific learning drawn from earlier scholarly Latin authors. Though its popularity was never remotely comparable to that of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae, it did have a noticeable influence on medieval Arthurian romance, and has been drawn on by modern writers such as Laurence Binyon and Mary Stewart.
T. Gerald Hunter FLSW, more commonly known as Jerry Hunter, is an American graduate of the University of Cincinnati (BA), Aberystwyth (MPhil) and Harvard University (PhD). Originally from Cincinnati, he now lives in Wales and has held academic posts at Cardiff and more recently Bangor University, where he is currently (2015) a professor in the School of Welsh and deputy vice chancellor of the university He was a founding member of the pressure group Cymuned and is former editor of the Academi's literary periodical Taliesin.
Stobo Kirk is an ancient church of the Church of Scotland. It is dedicated to St Mungo and is situated near the B712 off the A72 just 6 miles south-west of Peebles in the ancient county of Peeblesshire, now part of the Scottish Borders Council area.
Peniarth 20 is an early Welsh manuscript, written on parchment, that is part of the Peniarth collection in the National Library of Wales. It is also known as the Chronicle of the Princes because it contains an important version of the chronicle Brut y Tywysogion. Daniel Huws, the leading authority on Welsh manuscripts, has argued that the majority of Peniarth 20 dates from circa 1330. A date around the 15th century had previously been offered by J. Gwenogvryn Evans.
Meldred is a character who appears in literary accounts of post-Roman Britain. He is identified as a chieftain in part of what is now southern Scotland for a period in the 6th Century. A twelfth century text references a petty king named Meldredus who had ruled in Tweeddale. The village of Drumelzier in Peeblesshire may take its name from him and his seat of power may have been the fort of Tinnis Castle. He is of interest as a character in the source texts on which the Arthurian romances are based and potentially the first named political leader associated with the Scottish Borders in the post-Roman period.
Gwenddydd, also known as Gwendydd and Ganieda, is a character from Welsh legend. She first appears in the early Welsh poems like the Dialogue of Myrddin and Gwenddydd and in the 12th-century Latin Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth, where she is represented as being a figure in the Old North of Britain, the sister of Myrddin or Merlin, and a prophet in her own right. Geoffrey also makes her the wife of the northern king Rhydderch Hael. She was remembered in Welsh traditions recorded in the 16th century by Elis Gruffydd, and even as late as the 18th century. Since the late 19th century she has occasionally appeared as Merlin's sister or lover in Arthurian fiction, poetry and drama by writers such as Laurence Binyon, John Cowper Powys, John Arden, Margaretta D'Arcy and Stephen R. Lawhead.
Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer is an anonymous Middle Welsh poem of uncertain date consisting of 136 stanzas, mostly in englyn form. Myrddin, the legendary 6th-century North British bard and warrior, is depicted as being encouraged by his sister Gwenddydd to utter a series of prophecies detailing the future history of the kings of Gwynedd, leading up to an apocalyptic ending. The mood of the poem has been described as "one of despair and of loss of faith and trust in this world".
References
- ↑ Goldberg, Christine. Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Routledge, 2019, p.35 ISBN 9781317946830
- ↑ Jocelyn of Furness (1989) The Life of St Kentigern Lampeter: Llannerch Enterprises
- ↑ Bromwich, R. (1978) (2nd edn.) 'Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads'. Cardiff: University of Wales Press
- ↑ Jarman, A.O.H. (1967) 'Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin'. Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru
- ↑ Clarkson, T. (2016) Scotland's Merlin: a medieval legend and its Dark Age origins. Edinburgh: John Donald ISBN 978-1-906566999
- ↑ MacQueen, W. and MacQueen, J. (1989) "Vita Merlini Silvestris" Scottish Studies 29: 77-93
- ↑ Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru / Dictionary of the Welsh Language, A: Rhan 33., University of Wales, 1984, p. 2091.
- ↑ Geilt (Gwyllt in Welsh): "one who goes mad with terror or flees panic-stricken from the field of battle"