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 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.
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 in 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.
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 682 AD. Two devastating plagues happened during his reign, one in 664 and the other in 682; he himself was a victim of the second. Little else is known of his reign.
Quercus agrifolia, the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is generally a medium-sized tree. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section of oaks.
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 acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives. It usually contains one seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, 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.
Talking trees are a form of sapient trees in mythologies and stories.
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.
Carmarthen Castle is a ruined castle in Carmarthen, West Wales, UK. First built by Walter, Sheriff of Gloucester in the early 1100s, the castle was captured and destroyed on several occasions before being rebuilt in stone during the 1190s. The castle was captured by Owain Glyndŵr in 1405. Henry VII's father died at Carmarthen Castle in 1456. During the Wars of the Roses the castle fell to William Herbert and, during the Civil War, was captured by Parliamentary forces. It was dismantled by order of Oliver Cromwell in the mid 1600s.
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.
Queen Elizabeth's Oak was a tree in the grounds of Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England. Elizabeth I is said to have been sitting beneath the tree when she was told of her accession to the throne in 1558. The tree was visited by Queen Victoria and Albert in 1846 and they were presented with a branch and an acorn from it as a memento. The tree had deteriorated by the early 20th century and its remains were removed in 1978. A replacement oak was planted on the site by Elizabeth II in 1985.
51°51′38″N4°17′56″W / 51.8606°N 4.2989°W
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