Merlin's Oak, also known as the Old Oak and Priory Oak, was a pedunculate oak that once stood on the corner of Oak Lane and Priory Street in Carmarthen, South Wales. [1] Merlin's Oak is associated with the legend of Merlin in the local lore, but it is also said to have been planted by a schoolmaster in 1659 or 1660, to celebrate the return of King Charles II of England to the throne. Legend had it that should the oak fall, disaster would befall the town. [2]
According to a tradition, Carmarthen is the birthplace of Merlin, the mythical magician. [1] It is said that Merlin made the following prophecy: [1]
Should Merlin's Oak shall tumble down, Then shall fall Carmarthen town
According to another version of the prophecy, the town of Carmarthen will flood or drown if the oak falls. During the years, generations of town councilors have worked much to maintain this tree, despite the fact that it was inconveniently situated in the traffic, presumably figuring that "it is better to be safe than sorry." [1] The origin of the Oak is not clear, though the tree is reported to have sprung from an acorn planted in 1659 by a master called Adams from the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, who is thought to be an ancestor of the American President of the same name. Adams planted the acorn to commemorate King Charles II of England's restoration to the throne. [1]
It is also possible that the tree was formerly positioned in the grounds of the medieval Carmarthen Priory. The planting location is just approximately 100 yards (91 meters) north-west of the former gatehouse priory, which may reflect why the tree is sometimes referred to as the Priory Oak. As the previous priory's properties were converted via building construction and new roads around the old tree, it essentially became a tree street in the middle of this crowded market town. [1]
In the early 19th century, a local man appears to have poisoned the tree. [2] It is reported that the poisoning was done by a nearby shopkeeper who objected to the age-old tradition of people gathering under its spreading branches on days and nights and the oak is believed to have died in 1856. Because of the prophecy relating the tree's destiny to the fate of the town, the council members refused to consider cutting the dead tree. Then, as traffic levels rose, the space around the tree was converted into a traffic island. [1] In 1951, a branch was broken off the dead tree; this fragment can still be seen in Carmarthenshire County Museum. [2] In 1978, the last fragment of the tree's stump was removed from its original place, to help the traffic flow at a busy junction. [1]
The Old Oak is now displayed in Saint Peter's Civic Hall in Nott Square, Carmarthen. [3] A replacement tree was planted at the same site in 2009. [4]
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 historical 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 prose successors in the 13th century.
Ursula Southeil ; also variously spelt as Southill, Soothtell, Sontheil, or Sonthiel, popularly known as Mother Shipton, was an English soothsayer and prophetess according to English folklore.
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; it includes some 500 species, both deciduous and evergreen. Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene. Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades, but many oak species hybridise freely, making the genus's history difficult to resolve.
Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the preeminent hardwoods of eastern and central North America. It is a long-lived oak, native to eastern and central North America and found from Minnesota, Ontario, Quebec, and southern Maine south as far as northern Florida and eastern Texas. Specimens have been documented to be over 450 years old.
Uther Pendragon (Brittonic), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur.
Quercus ilex, the evergreen oak, holly oak or holm oak is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the Ilex section of the genus, with acorns that mature in a single summer.
Carmarthen is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy 8 miles (13 km) north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, down from 15,854 in 2001, but gauged at 16,285 in 2019. It has a claim to be the oldest town in Wales – Old Carmarthen and New Carmarthen became one borough in 1546. It was the most populous borough in Wales in the 16th–18th centuries, described by William Camden as "chief citie of the country". Growth stagnated by the mid-19th century as new settlements developed in the South Wales Coalfield.
The Royal Oak was the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. Charles told Samuel Pepys in 1680 that while he was hiding in the tree, a Parliamentarian soldier passed directly below it. The story was popular after the Restoration, and is remembered every year in the English traditions of Royal Oak Day.
The Treaty Oak is a Texas live oak tree in Austin, Texas, United States, and the last surviving member of the Council Oaks, a grove of 14 trees that served as a sacred meeting place for Comanche and Tonkawa tribes before European colonization of the area. Foresters estimate the Treaty Oak to be about 500 years old. Before its vandalism in 1989, the tree's branches had a spread of 127 feet (39 m). The tree is located in Treaty Oak Park, on Baylor Street between 5th and 6th Streets, in Austin's West Line Historic District.
Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon was king of Gwynedd in Wales from around 655 to 664 or 682. He died in one of two devastating plagues that happened in 664 and in 682. Little else is known of his reign.
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.
The Charter Oak was an enormous white oak tree growing on Wyllys Hill in Hartford, Connecticut, from around the 12th or 13th century until it fell during a storm in 1856. Connecticut colonists hid Connecticut's Royal Charter of 1662 within the tree's hollow to thwart its confiscation by the English governor-general. The oak symbolized American independence and was commemorated on the Connecticut State Quarter. It was also depicted on a commemorative half dollar and a postage stamp in 1935, Connecticut's tercentennial.
The acorn is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives. It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons, enclosed in a tough shell known as the pericarp, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns are 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm on the fat side. Acorns take between 5 and 24 months to mature; see the list of Quercus species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology and phenology are important factors.
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.
Shelton is a suburb located in the west of the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England, described by the Pevsner Architectural Guides as "Shrewsbury's principal interwar suburb."
Drumelzier, is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders.
Bedfords Park is public open space of 215 acres or approximately 87½ hectares near Havering-atte-Bower in the London Borough of Havering in England. It is one of three large parklands around Havering-atte-Bower; the others are Havering Country Park and Pyrgo Park.
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.
The threefold death, which is suffered by kings, heroes, and gods, is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European theme encountered in Indic, Greek, Celtic, and Germanic mythology.
The Allerton Oak is an Irish oak tree in Calderstones Park in Liverpool, England. It is thought to be around 1,000 years old and is described as the oldest oak in North West England. It is reputed to have been the setting for a medieval hundred court and said to have been damaged in an 1864 gunpowder explosion. The tree won the 2019 English Tree of the Year competition and had been entered into the 2020 European Tree of the Year competition.
Video on YouTube BBC Nationwide 1975
51°51′38″N4°17′56″W / 51.8606°N 4.2989°W
 | This tree-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |