Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.1100-c. 1155) wrote 3 books, Prophetiae Merlini (“Prophecies of Merlin”), Historia Regum Britanniae (“History of the Kings of Britain”), and Vita Merlini (“Life of Merlin”), which would become the basis for the vast majority of future writings about Merlin, King Arthur, Camelot, and the rest of Arthurian legend. But Geoffrey was writing 500 to 700 years after the fact! Where did he get his stories? We know that Geoffrey had access to older material that is now lost but his account of events doesn’t coincide with the older material which we do have. It would appear that Geoffrey based his stories on the stories of one Myrddin Wyllt (Myrddin is properly pronounced “mar-thin” with a slightly rolled “r”) and mixed in stories about Ambrosius Aurelianus, Myrddin Emrys, Taliesin, and possibly others if not his own imagination. We cannot be certain why Geoffrey would have taken the rather peculiar step of Latinizing Myrddin as Merlini rather than the more sensible, and proper, Merdinus but it is possible that he was trying to avoid a resemblance to the French word “merde” meaning shit.
Luckily we do have other works and stories which can be used to deconstruct Geoffrey’s creation. Primary of these are the welsh triads; old welsh poems whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating a point of likeness. For example: “Three things not easily restrained, the flow of a torrent, the flight of an arrow, and the tongue of a fool.” We can also look at works such as Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (An Ecclesiastical History of the English People) written by a monk named Bede about 731 as well as the Historia Brittonum (the “History of the Britons”) a historical work composed around 830 and traditionally ascribed to a welsh monk named Nennius. The only writings we have that date to the actual period of Arthur and Merlin are De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (“On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain”) written by a cleric named Gildas who was born about 500 and died in either 569 or 570 and the letters of St. Patrick (c. 390-460). Neither Gildas nor Patrick ever mentions Merlin or Arthur but Patrick probably lived before those events and Gildas does mention Ambrosius Aurelianus. Both people, however, are important in that they show the political situation in Britain at the time and it is important that we understand the position the Britons were in when Myrddin came to them.
I would like you to imagine being born in the year 395 in the city of Eboracum (modern day York). Your father is a Romano-Celt who works supporting the garrison there in some way. Your family is well off-upper middle class-and although you must put up with the roman soldiers calling you a “Briton” (the term “Briton” was used by the Romans as a derisive racial slur, much like the terms jap or wop today) yours is a comfortable childhood. Your father, however, worries. He has seen the garrison shrink over time as the soldiers become disenfranchised with roman authority. In the past your father has seen usurpers to the imperial throne rise in Britannia and march on Rome, taking much of the needed garrison with them. By the time you are seven (402) matters have gotten much worse: new coins-which had been rare all your life-stop coming to Britain. Rumors are that the soldiers are not getting paid, at least not regularly. Your father, as well, has trouble getting his pay. In your twelfth year (407) the soldiers of Britain choose Constantine III to become emperor. He gathers the garrison and crosses to the continent, intent on staking his claim, only to quickly be dispatched by the emperor Honorius. Those soldiers that return don’t seem the same, they’re beaten somehow. The next three years it is difficult for you to understand what is going on. In Eboracum, capital of Britannia Inferior, life continues as it has for as long as you’ve known. Eboracum doesn’t need a full legion to protect it. Just to the north is Hadrian’s Wall, whose defense keeps the Picts at bay, and Eboracum itself is a massive fortress the very sight of which would give any “barbarian” raiding party pause. But your father tries to explain that it is not the same in the rest of roman Britain. To the south and south-east is the Saxon shore, the Romans built forts there over 100 years ago to stop Saxon raids, but now the forts are woefully undermanned and the Saxons raid regularly. To the west the Irish are even worse, their pirates regularly raid shipping, taking goods and slaves. A 15 year old boy, by the name of Patrick, is one such British noble, no less, to be taken as a slave back to Eire. He would later escape, at the age of 22, go to Rome, train to be a Christian missionary, and return to Eire to convert the pagans (Patrick said that the Irish were good people who just needed the word of Christ). The Irish are so bold that they have even attempted to hold ground, and settle, on the western coast of roman Britain. The Romans, of course, removed them.
In your 15th year (410) your whole life falls apart. Honorius, needing soldiers to defend the northern frontier of continental Rome, recalls the last of the garrison, sending word to both the legates (leaders of the legions) and to the British town leaders. To the British he gives this advice-“look to your own defenses”. The legions are gone from Britain, forever! Eboracum is without its garrison and, more importantly, so is Hadrian’s Wall. The Picts quickly notice the lack of defenses and pour over the wall, they take everything they can carry, and what they can’t carry, they destroy. Eboracum, itself, is safe. The fortifications are more than the Picts are willing to deal with, whether manned by Roman or Briton. But how long can a single fortified town last? With the Picts destroying the farmland all around and neither provision nor word arriving from the south? Your family has a choice. You can stay, safe from the Picts, and risk starvation when provisions run out, or strike south, avoiding the Picts in hope of reaching “greener pastures”. You choose the latter and the trip south is a harrowing one. The Picts seem to be everywhere but eventually you arrive in Verulamium (modern day St. Albans) far to the south, just north of Londinium (London). But here too life is not safe; the “Saxons” (the Britons used the term Saxon generically to represent many Germanic tribes including the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians, and others) raid almost daily. There appears to be nowhere on earth that is safe. You look towards the civilian administrators for leadership and protection. Someone has to do something; someone has to make some sort of stand against the barbarians, come up with some plan. Someone does; a man by the name of Vortigern.
Gildas calls Vortigern an unlucky usurper (“infaustus tyranno”) and a man who lacked good judgment. Bede mostly echoes Gildas but adds that he was “king of all the Britons”. Bede also gives us a date for Vortigerns rise to power-446, although this date has become suspect since the late 20th century. The Historia Brittonum takes an extremely bleak view of Vortigern. In it Vortigern is accused of incest, oath-breaking, treason, love of a pagan woman, and several lesser vices like pride. The Historia Brittonum also gives us a date for when Vortigern came to power-425; this date seems more likely than Bedes and suggests the possibility of an older underlying chronicle. Finally, the Historia also connects Vortigern with Glevum (modern day Gloucester) giving his possible home town. What did Vortigern do to deserve such a poor legacy?
In hindsight it is easy to blame Vortigern for the Britons later problems, after all what he really did was “sell his soul to the devil” or, more accurately, to two devils. The names of these devils were Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon leaders and brothers. Vortigern invited these two to settle on the “east coast of Britain”, giving them land, provisions and “monthly allotments”. In return the Saxons were expected to fight for the Britons against the Picts and, I presume, the “Saxons” and Irish. In Vortigerns defense, this probably seemed like a good deal at the time and was likely quite successful at first. The Britons would have had a great deal of unused land, as many people would have been, um, removed let’s say, by the “barbarians” and once the Britons were safe to do so they were quite capable of producing excess goods to pay the Saxons. The problem may be that Vortigerns plan was too successful. Let’s go back to our earlier scenario.
You and your family arrive in Verulamium in 415, let’s say, and this is where you decide to make a new life for yourselves as farmers. You’re now 20 years old and if you haven’t started your own family yet you would soon after claiming a piece of land and settling down, but there is good reason why there’s land to be had. Your life is a constant battle for survival against the Saxon raiders, although the proximity of both Verulamium and Londinium would help, it is likely that the Britons here, in the heart of Britannia, would have set up some sort of military patrol although it would have been far from ideal. By 425 you would be a parent and your children have lived thus far knowing only war and death (people complain today about how much death and crime their children see on TV, imagine if they grew up with it literally outside their front door) and you want a better life for them, something similar to what you had in Eboracum. So when you are told that a group of city leaders, led by a man named Vortigern, want to hire some Saxons as protection that seems fine to you, as long as it keeps your family safe.
The Saxon “settlers” would seem odd to you, they are pagans where your family was converted to Christianity several generations ago, for one thing. Also, they speak a completely foreign language with no desire to learn the romano-celtic language of the Britons. It is believed that the Britons had stopped using Roman currency somewhere around 430, therefore, if you do trade with the Saxons it must be done on the barter system. In spite of the problems that any personal dealings with the Saxons would have had, the Saxons do their job and life becomes more peaceful, at least in your corner of Britain. Soon other Britons start arriving from the north and north-west looking for the Saxons protection. Then other civic leaders come to Vortigern, asking for the protection of his Saxon army and in return they are willing to proclaim him king. Needless to say, Vortigern is all for this! But Hengist and Horsa have other ideas; they tell Vortigern that if they are to protect the whole island then they need to bring more of their countrymen and that means they need more land, more provisions, and an increase to their monthly allotments. Now, suddenly, the Saxons are encroaching on land which the Britons are using, even a section of your own property is appropriated to make room for the newcomers. One day you are invited to a town meeting in Verulamium where the key speaker is no less than Vortigerns son, Vortimer. Vortimer has a very different view of the Saxons than his father and he stirs resentment against them, telling you that the Britons can defend their own and the Saxons need to be pushed back to the sea.
We can’t be positive under what circumstances Vortimer took power from his father but we do know that he gathered the Britons in opposition to the Saxon settlers and fought four battles against them, ultimately pushing them back to the Isle of Thanet. To you and the rest of the Britons he would have been a hero and savior. In the third of these battles both Horsa and Vortimers brother, Catigern, are slain. After the Saxons are pushed to the Isle of Thanet Vortimer, on his death bed, tells his followers to bury him at the place where the Saxons first landed in Britain as a totem against further invasion. With his death Vortigern returns to power, ignores his sons final request and tries to deal with the Saxons again as he did before. Hengist, however, appears to have lost all interest in peacefully immigrating to Britain and instead goes on the offensive, possibly pushing the Britons as far as modern Wales and Cornwall.
Your land would now be under the control of the invaders, but this does not appear to have meant that you lost it. Archeological evidence suggests that many Britons continued to live in the cities and on their land; they would just have had new leaders although many Britons did flee to the continent, most notably to the areas now called Normandy and Brittany in France. Vortigern, however, retreated from the Saxons into Wales were he chose the ancient, pre-roman, hill fort of Dinas Emrys (Welsh for “fortress of Ambrosius”) as his royal retreat. It is at this point that the first of those people whom Geoffrey of Monmouth would include as part of the Merlin legend enters the picture.
Here arrives Ambrosius Aurelianus.
