MER'LIN. The name of an ancient British prophet and magician, who flourished. according to the riunancers. during the decline of the native British paver in its /mutest with the Saxon in vaders. 'flue earliest traces of him are found in the Insioria Br/to/rum, ascribed to a certain (11i)out 800). Ile there appears as a prophetic child under the name Amlirosius.and is confounded with A.iirclins Ambrnsius, to whom Vnrtigern snrrenders Alount Ilerennis (Snow lle next nppears iu Geoffrey of Mon mouth's Fits, ilerlini, afterwards incorporated in the Ilistoria Regain Iiritannite (about 11391, where he is called Merlin Ambrosius, or simply Geoffrey expanded the narrative of Nen" 71111q, evidently employing for the !impose tradi tions concerning a Cambrian or Welsh hard known in Welsh legend as ts1vrddin. According to Geoffrey, Merlin lived in the fifth century, and was sprung from the intercourse of a demon and a Welsh princess. :Merlin displayed miraculous • rs from infanev. Ile is made to predict the history of Britain down to Geoffrey's own time. From Geoffrey and other sources was built up till. French prose romance of Merlin (thirteenth century). Versions of this romance were made in Italian, Spanish, German. and English; and parts of it were embodied in Ma lory's -torte (1485). A collection of prophecies at tributed to him appeared in French (Paris, 149s), in English (London, 1529 and 1533), and in Latin (Venice, 1554) ; and their existence is traceable as far back as the thirteenth century.
Besides this Cambrian Merlin (Merlin Ambrosius) there is the Strathclyde Merlin, called Merlin the Wyllt, or Merlin Caledonius. Ile is supposed to have lived in the sixth century, a contemporary of Saint Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow. This grave is still shown at Drummelzier on the Tweed, where, in attempting to eseape across the river from a band of hostile rustics, lie was im paled on a hidden stake. A metrical life of him, extending to more than 1500 lines, professedly based on Armoric materials, and incorrectly as cribed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was published by the Roxburghe Club in 1833. His prophecies, published at Edinburgh in 1615, contain those ascribed to the Cambrian Merlin. Consult: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Histo•ia Realm l?ritan nig', edited by A. Schulz (Halle, 1854) ; lier lin, roman en prose du sb'cic, ed. by Paris and Ulrich, Fsocii-l6 des Aneiens Textes I Paris, 1886) ; 3/criin, or the Early history of King Arthur: A Prose Romance (about 1450-60), ed. by Wheatley, Early English Text Society (London, 1865-99) ; Malory, Morte d'Arthur; and Tennyson, Idylls of the King.