<i>Merlin</i>


Merlin was the illegitimate son of a monastic Royal Princess of Dyfed. The lady's father, however, King Meurig ap Maredydd ap Rhain, is not found in the traditional pedigrees of this kingdom and was probably a sub-King of the region bordering on Ceredigion. Merlin's father, it is said, was an angel who had visited the Royal nun and left her with child. Merlin's enemies claimed his father was really an incubus, an evil spirit that has intercourse with sleeping women. The evil child was supposed to provide a counterweight to the good influence of Jesus Christ on earth. Merlin, fortunately, was baptized early on in his life, an event which is said to have negated the evil in his nature, but left his powers intact. The original story was presumably invented to save his mother from the scandal which would have occurred had her liaison with one Morfyn Frych (the Freckled), a minor Prince of the House of Coel, been made public knowledge.

Legend then tells us that after the Roman withdrawal from Britain and the usurpation of the throne from the rightful heirs, Vortigern was in flight from the Saxon breakout and went to Snowdonia, in Wales, in hopes of constructing a mountain fortress at Dinas Emrys where he might be safe. Unfortunately, the building kept collapsing and Vortigern's house wizards told him that a human sacrifice of a fatherless child would solve the problem. One small difficulty was that such children are rather hard to find. Fortunately for Vortigern's fortress, Merlin was known to have no human father and happened to be available.

Before the sacrifice could take place, Merlin used his great visionary powers and attributed the structural problem to a subterranean pool in which lived a red and a white dragon. The meaning of this, according to Merlin, was that the red dragon represented the Britons, and the white dragon, the Saxons. The dragons fought, with the white dragon having the best of it, at first, but then the red dragon drove the white one back. The meaning was clear. Merlin prophesied that Vortigern would be slain and followed on the throne by Ambrosius Aurelianus, then Uther, then a greater leader, Arthur. It would fall to him to push the Saxons back.

True to the prophecy, Vortigern was slain and Ambrosius took the throne. Later, Merlin appears to have inherited his grandfather's little kingdom, but abandoned his lands in favour of the more mysterious life for which he has become so well known. After 460 British nobles were massacred at a peace conference, as a result of Saxon trickery, Ambrosius consulted Merlin about erecting a suitable memorial to them. Merlin, along with Uther, led an expedition to Ireland to procure the stones of the Chorea Gigantum, the Giant's Ring. Merlin, by the use of his extraordinary powers, brought the stones back to a site, just west of Amesbury, and re-erected them around the mass grave of the British nobles. We now call this place Stonehenge.

After his death, Ambrosius was succeeded by his brother, Uther, who, during his pursuit of Gorlois and his irresistable wife, Ygerna (Igraine or Eigr in some texts), back to their lands in Cornwall, was aided by Merlin. As a result of a deception made possible by Merlin's powers, Uther was transformed into the image of Gorlois. He entered their castle, managed to fool Ygraine into thinking he was her husband, had his way with her and in the course of things, conceived a child, Arthur. Poor Gorlois, not knowing what was going on, went out to meet Uther in combat, but instead, was slain by Uther's troops.

After Arthur's birth, Merlin became the young boy's tutor, while he grew up with his foster-father, Sir Ector (alias Cynyr Ceinfarfog (the Fair Bearded)). In the defining moment of Arthur's career, Merlin arranged for the sword-in-the-stone contest by which the lad became king. Later, the magician met the mystic Lady of the Lake at the Fountain of Barenton (in Brittany) and persuaded her to present the King with the magical sword, Excalibur. In the romances, Merlin is the creator of the Round Table, and is closely involved in aiding and directing the events of the king and kingdom of Camelot. He is pictured by Geoffrey of Monmouth, at the end of Arthur's life, accompanying the wounded Arthur to the Isle of Avalon for the healing of his wounds. Others tell how having fallen deeply in love with the Lady of the Lake, he agreed to teach her all his mystical powers. She became so powerful that her magical skills outshone even Merlin's. Determined not to be enslaved by him, she imprisoned the old man in a glass tower, a cave or similarly suitable prison. Thus his absence from the Battle of Camlann was ultimately responsible for Arthur's demise.

His prison and/or burial place is said to be beneath Merlin's Mound at Marlborough College in Marlborough (Wiltshire), at Drumelzier in Tweeddale (Scotland), Bryn Myrddin (Merlin's Hill) near Carmarthen (Wales), Le Tombeau de Merlin (Merlin's Tomb) near Paimpont (Brittany) and Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) off the Lleyn Peninsula (Wales).

<i>Arthur Pendragon</i>
<b> TEAM CAPTAIN </b>


Some people believe that King Arthur is so inextricably tied up in Celtic Mythology that he must, in origin, have been, not a man at all, but a god.

Like so many other characters featured in the Mabinogion, Arthur in his earliest form, appears almost entirely mythical. He and his companions have superhuman strength and abilities, and consort with giants and other mythological creatures.

In the early Welsh poem "Preiddeu Annwfn", Arthur visits the Celtic Underworld, Annwfn, and his adventures closely parallel those of the cauldron-seeking god, Bran the Blessed. Even in Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain," and Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur," upon being fatally wounded in battle, Arthur is carried to the mystical Avalon, apparently the Underworld home of the Celtic god, Afallach. Many legends around the country attest to Arthur's immortality. He is said to be sleeping in one of numerous caves waiting to return and lead his people.

The name Arthur itself appears to derive from the Celtic word Art, meaning "bear". Could Arthur, like so many other Celtic gods, be merely a personification of the many reverred animals of the wild? Later to become humanized like Loucetios, one of several Celtic deities known to be able to transform themselves into birds or beasts of the forest. Many such gods had stellar associations and the constellation of Ursa Major or the Great Bear is sometimes known as Arthur's Wain even today.

Three Bear-gods are known from the Celtic world. Strangely, they acted as both champion of bear-hunters and protectors of the beast itself. The most celebrated was, perhaps, Artio, worshipped near Berne in Switzerland and around Trier in Germany; but she was actually a goddess. A male god, Artaios, was reverred in Beaucroissant in Isere, where he was identified with the Roman Mercury. In Britain there is scant evidence for the bear cult, though a number of small jet bear talismans from Yorkshire may have devotional associations. The god to which they probably relate, however, derives his name from the alternative bear word, matus (Gaulish) or math (Irish). Matunus appears to have had a shrine at Risingham, just north of Hadrian's Wall.

Some theorists claim Arthur was a late addition to the Celtic pantheon during a resurgence in pagan worship, or possibly a mythical hero, the offspring of a human and a bear. There is no evidence for either.

<i> Sir Galahallt </i>


Galahad's conception comes about when Elaine, daughter of the Grail King Pelles, uses magic to trick Lancelot into thinking she is Guinevere. They sleep together, but on discovering what has transpired, Lancelot abandons Elaine and returns to Arthur's court. Galahad is placed in the care of his great aunt, the abbess at a nunnery, and is raised there. According to the Quest del Saint Graal (part of the interconnected set of romances known as the Vulgate Cycle) "Galahad" had been Lancelot's original name, but it had been changed when he was a child. Merlin prophesies that Galahad would surpass his father in valor and be successful in his search for the Holy Grail. It is also interesting to note that Galahad's maternal grandfather Pelles is generally considered to be a descendent of Joseph of Arimathea's brother-in-law Bron (whose line was entrusted with the grail by Joseph).

Upon reaching adulthood, Galahad is reunited with his father Lancelot, who knights him. He is then brought to King Arthur's court at Camelot during Pentecost. Without realizing the danger he is putting himself in, Galahad walks over to the Round Table amidst the revelry and takes his seat at the Siege Perilous. This place had been kept vacant for the sole person who would accomplish the quest of the Holy Grail; for anyone else sitting there, it would prove to be immediately fatal. Sir Galahad survives the event, witnessed by King Arthur and his knights. The king then asks the young knight to perform a test which involves pulling a sword from a stone. This he accomplishes with ease, and King Arthur swiftly proclaims Sir Galahad to be the greatest knight in the world. He is promptly invited to join the Order of the Round Table, and after an ethereal vision of the Holy Grail, the quest to find the famous object is set.

In Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", Galahad's incredible prowess and fortune in the quest for the Holy Grail are traced back to his piety. According to the legend, only pure knights may achieve the Grail. While in a general sense, this "purity" refers to chastity, Galahad appears to have lived a sinless life, and so as a result, lives and thinks on a level entirely apart from the other knights of the legend. This quality is reflected in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Sir Galahad and its first four lines which state, "My good blade carves the casques of men,/My tough lance thrusteth sure,/My strength is as the strength of ten,/Because my heart is pure."

Despite, and perhaps because of his sinless nature, Galahad as a character seems inhuman. He defeats rival knights apparently without effort, speaks little to his fellow knights, and leads his companions to the Grail with a relentless determination. So of the three who undertake the quest for the Grail (Bors, Perceval, and Galahad), Galahad is the one who actually achieves it. When he does, he is taken up into heaven like the biblical patriarch Enoch or the prophet Elijah, leaving his companions behind.

<i> Robin Hood </i>


Robin is famous for his gallantry, robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. Anyone who knows of Robin has also heard the stories of his outlaw band. The names of Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Allan a Dale, Will Scarlet, Much the Miller and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham are as much a part of the legend as Robin Hood himself.

The stories of Robin portray him as a fearless outlaw leading his band of "merry men" (and women) against the tyranny of Prince John, The Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne. A brilliant archer, Robin lived a life of adventure - poaching the King's deer from the outlaws' retreat in Sherwood Forest.

Stories about the adventures of Robin have been told and retold for over six hundred years. In Robin's time, few people could read or write and consequently little was written down about the exploits of our hero. Instead, people learnt about Robin and his band through the ballad and song of wandering minstrels who weaved a patchwork of fact and fiction into the contemporary culture of the time.

<i>The Red Rider
Bramhall, Cheshire</i>


On a night of dreadful storm, when the howling gale shook the stout timbers of Bramhall Hall, the bell of the portal gate clanged furiously. Into the courtyard rode a horseman clad in crimson, mounted on a coal-black steed, whose eyes shone with an unearthly glare. In spite of the horseman's sinister appearance, the Knight of Bramhall Hall made him welcome, and gave him food and lodging for the night. By morning the storm and subsided, and the sun rose peacefully in the clear sky. But the red rider and his coal-black horse had vanished, and upon his bed the Knight of Bramhall lay dead.

<i>The Legend of the Wrekin
Wellington, Shropshire</i>


A Welsh Giant, bearing a grudge against the people of Shrewsbury, set out one day with a spadeful of earth to dam the Severn and thus drown the town. But he took the wrong road and, meeting a cobbler near Wellington, enquired of him the way. Now the cobbler, hearing the Giant's intention, decided he could not risk losing so many of his best customers. So he tumbled the boots and shoes from his bag. "I've come from Shrewsbury, and I've already worn out all these boots and shoes, so far away is it." In despair, the Giant dumped his spadeful of earth where he stood, and returned home. The Giant's load is the hill which people now call the Wrekin.

<i>The Cau'd Lad of Hylton
Hylton, County Durham</i>


One night the servants in a large house were disturbed by strange noises from the kitchen, and in the morning they found the room in a state of confusion. Those who knew said that it was the work of a goblin, so although the disturbance went on night after night, no-one wished to interfere. At last, however, the servants decided they could stand the inconvenience no longer. They laid a green cloak and hood before the fire, and kept watch. When the goblin appeared and caught sight of the gay apparel, he danced with delight. Wrapping the mantle around him, he pranced about the room - then disappeared. The servants were never again troubled by him.

<i>The Lambton Wyrm
Lambton, County Durham</i>


While fishing one Sunday morning, the young heir of Lambton caught a huge Wyrm. It was so repulsive in appearance that he threw the loathsome reptile into a near-by well, but it soon crept to a hiding place more suited to its ever-increasing size. Time rolled on. The heir of Lambton went to the wars and returned seven years later to find the countryside terrorized by the huge reptile. A sibyl told him how he might slay it - but he must swear to kill the first living thing he met on his return. The vow was taken, the Wyrm slain - alas! The first person he met was his own father. Kill him his son could not, and for nine generations the sibyl's curse lay upon the house.

<i>The Witch of Wookey
Wookey, Somerset</i>


Deep in the dark caverns of Wookey Hole dwelt at one time the Witch of Wookey - and dwells there still, if the gossips are to be trusted, though she, her pots and pans and horrid "familiars," are all turned to stone. A chagrined and disappointed woman, she used her merciless arts to blight girls' lives and keep them from the joys denied to herself. But she reckoned without a certain Holy Clerk of Glastonbury! With his Good Book he exorcised the Witch, and turned her to stone; he then cleansed from all evil the dreadful cavern.

<i>The Pedlar of Swaffham
Swaffham, Norfolk</i>


A pedlar of Swaffham once dreamed that if he went to London and stood upon London Bridge, he would hear good tidings. Eager to put his dream to the test, the pedlar made the journey, and stood for two or three days upon London Bridge, but without any result. At last a shopkeeper asked him his business and, being told of the dream, laughed heartily, for the night before he himself had dreamed that a treasure lay hidden behind a pedlar's house - and in Swaffham of all places! Almost beside himself with joy, the pedlar returned home, where in the place indicated he unearthed a great treasure.

<i>Wayland the Smith
Ashbury, Berkshire</i>


By an ancient trackway near Ashbury, in Berkshire, stands a very ancient cromlech called Wayland Smith's Cave. It is said that the smith had learned the secrets of his trade from those past masters in metal-working, the Mountain Dwarfs of Iceland. A passing traveller, distressed through his horse casting a shoe, had only to tether the beast near the cave, place a groat on the anvil, and withdraw from sight. Returning presently, he would find his steed rested and neatly shod, and the warm anvil bare.

St George is the patron saint of England and among the most famous of Christian figures. But of the man himself, nothing is certainly known. Our earliest source, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, tells of a soldier of noble birth who was put to death under Diocletian at Nicomedia on 23 April, 303, but makes no mention of his name, his country or his place of burial. According to the apocryphal Acts of St George current in various versions in the Eastern Church from the fifth century, George held the rank of tribune in the Roman army and was beheaded by Diocletian for protesting against the Emperor's persecution of Christians. George rapidly became venerated throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor and the defenceless and of the Christian faith.

George was probably first made well known in England by Arculpus and Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George, which recounted his visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England, were translated into Anglo-Saxon. Among churches dedicated to St George was one at Doncaster in 1061. George was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers after he was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. Many similar stories were transmitted to the West by Crusaders who had heard them from Byzantine troops, and were circulated further by the troubadours. When Richard 1 was campaigning in Palestine in 1191-92 he put the army under the protection of St George.

Because of his widespread following, particularly in the Near East, and the many miracles attributed to him, George became universally recognized as a saint sometime after 900. Originally, veneration as a saint was authorized by local bishops but, after a number of scandals, the Popes began in the twelfth century to take control of the procedure and to systematize it. A lesser holiday in honour of St George, to be kept on 23 April, was declared by the Synod of Oxford in 1222; and St George had become acknowledged as Patron Saint of England by the end of the fourteenth century. In 1415, the year of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele raised St George's Day to a great feast and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day. In 1778 the holiday reverted to a simple day of devotion for English Catholics.

The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward 111's campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a white background were ordered for the king's ship and uniforms in the same style for the men at arms. When Richard 11 invaded Scotland in 1385, every man was ordered to wear 'a signe (sic) of the arms of St George', both before and behind, whilst death was threatened against any of the enemy's soldiers 'who do bear the same crosse or token of Saint George, even if they be prisoners'.

The fame of St George throughout Europe was greatly increased by the publication of the Legenda Sanctorum (Readings on the Saints), later known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) by James of Voragine in 1265. The name 'golden legend' does not refer to St George but to the whole collection of stories, which were said to be worth their weight in gold. It was this book which popularized the legend of George and the Dragon. The legend may have been particularly well received in England because of a similar legend in Anglo-Saxon literature. St George became a stock figure in the secular miracle plays derived from pagan sources which continued to be performed at the beginning of spring. The origin of the legend remains obscure. It is first recorded in the late sixth century and may have been an allegory of the persecution of Diocletian, who was sometimes referred to as 'the dragon' in ancient texts. The story may also be a christianized version of the Greek legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued the virgin Andromeda from a sea monster at Arsuf or Jaffa, near Lydda (Diospolis), where the cult of St George grew up around the site of his supposed tomb.

<i>The Giant of Yewdale</i>

When the Giant, known as Great Will of the Tarns, came to live above Yewdale Head, he gained repute as a useful labourer. But one day, as Lady Eva le Flemming was walking with her maid Barabara through a coppice, the Giant sprang out upon them. Snatching up Barbara, as though she were an infant, he disappeared among the trees. Lady Eva raised the alarm, horsemen rode in hot pursuit and the Giant, enraged at being cornered, dashed his victim into the foaming torrent. Her lover plunged to her rescue nut both were drowned. It was small consolation to Lady Eva that the Giant was slain by his pursuers.

The much maligned Morgan Le Fay was, to a large extent, the invention of medieval romance writers such as Sir Thomas Malory. In his "Le Morte D'Arthur" Malory tells us that Morgan was one of the half-sisters of King Arthur, daughter of Ygerna and her first husband, Gorlois. The Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian tales tells how she became Guinevere's lady in waiting and fell in love with the King's nephew, Giomar. Guinevere, however, put an end to the romance and, as a result, Morgan eventually betrayed the Queen's affair with Lancelot to King Arthur. She even sent the Green Knight to Camelot in order to frighten Guinevere to death. Morgan herself took a fancy to Lancelot at one point and imprisoned him for some time before he was able to escape.

Chrétien descibes Morgan as a giver of healing ointments, but the lady is usually portrayed as a wicked enchantress who learned her initial mysterious skills from her corrupt education in an early Christian nunnery. Later, Merlin helped her to extend her magical powers. The story that she inticed King Arthur into an incestuous affair from which Mordred was born is, however, a misconception derived from the desire of modern authors to merge Morgan with her more sympathetic sister, (Anna-) Morgause.

Malory shows how Morgan hated Arthur for his purity and plotted with her lover, Sir Accolon, to steal both Excalibur and the British throne. Arthur met Accolon in combat without his magical sword, but the Lady of the Lake helped him retrieve it and win the battle. In return, Morgan stole Excalibur's scabbard and threw it into the nearest lake. She eventually escaped Arthur's wrath by transforming her entourage into stone.

Morgan retired to Gore (Gwyr) and then to her Castle of Tauroc (possibly in North Wales). The Royal court appears to have thought her dead until Arthur came across her residence while out hunting one day. The two were immediately reconciled. In late life she moved to the Isle of Avalon, and it was to here that she and her allies, the Queens of Northgalis (North Wales) and the Wastelands, took her wounded brother to be healed after the Battle of Camlann.

Malory makes Morgan the wife of King Urien Rheged, an historical mid to late 6th century King of what is now Cumberland and Westmorland in Northern Britain. Though technically this may have been just about possible, during this time period it is stretching credulity a little far. Morgan was an elder half-sister of King Arthur who fought at Mount Badon around 495-500 and traditionally died in 537. Urien was assassinated during a military campaign around 590. The earlier Vulgate Cycle, however, makes Morgan a generation younger, being the daughter of King Lot of Lothian (Gododdin). On the other hand, Welsh Tradition tells us that Urien's wife was Modron ferch Afallach, apparently a sister-in-law of King Maelgwn Gwynedd, and it may be that two ladies have become confused.

Alternatively, this latter identification may betray the lady's true origins as a Pagan Celtic Goddess. Modron was the name of the Celtic Mother-Goddess, often depicted in Romano-British times as having a triple personality. This may be seen in Arthurian tales through her association with the Queens of Northgalis (North Wales) and the Wastelands. The Lady of the Lake may have been another aspect of the lady. Modron's father, Afallach, was the titular God of the Celtic Otherworld, Avalon. Morgan is said to have lived here with her nine sisters, a not insignificant group similar to the Greek Muses. Some early sources actually refer to Morgan as "the Goddess," while her shape-shifting and healing aspects clearly indicate heavenly powers. She appears to have gradually degenerated into "Le Fay" - a fairy - who could fly through the air on enchanted wings: to this day, the Breton name for a water-nymph is a Morgan.

The lady's wicked character appears to have been the invention of the Cistercian monks who wrote the stories of the Vulgate Cycle. Influenced by memories of the ancient Irish Goddess, the Morrighan (Phantom Queen), another triple-aspect divinity representing life & death, sexuality and conflict, they painted poor pagan Morgan as black as they could. They believed it blasphemous for a healer to be neither male nor a member of a religious order and Morgan paid dearly for her reputation.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Ygerna or Igraine (Eigr in Welsh) was the Duchess of Cornwall, ravishing wife of Gorlois and mother of King Arthur. After the death of Gorlois, she married Uther Pendragon, who, under false pretenses and aided by Merlin's trickery, had slept with her, impregnated her with Arthur and had been responsible for her husband's death. Chretien de Troyes claims that after Uther's death, Ygerna retired to a palace she had had built for herself known as the Chastel des Merveilles or "Castle of Wonders".

She was the daughter of Amlawdd Wledig (the Imperator), a member of a younger branch of the Royal House of Dumnonia. He was probably a nobleman of Ergyng, though he has also been attached to the North of Britain and Brittany. His family are central to the Mabinogion story of "Culhwch and Olwen". As well as Arthur, various sources have attributed Ygerna with several children by her first marriage: daughters Elaine, (Anna) Morgause and, perhaps mistakenly, Morgan; sons Gormant and, mistakenly, Cador.