Monday, August 30, 2010

The Birth of Arthur

I have given much thought to the birth of Arthur and there are a couple of things that puzzle me.

1. Who was Ygain? What made her so desirable as to go to war over her?
2. Why was it necessary to take the baby Arthur and hide him until king Uther’s death?

All right – we left off with Merlin and his prophecies. One of his prophecies is that the sons of Constantine would come and destroy Vortigern. According to the annals, this is precisely what happened. The two boys who had been whisked away to the mainland, Aurelianus and Uther, returned with an army and chased Vortigern into south Wales, where they were able to trap him. Vortigern’s keep burned to the ground with him in it. Aurelianus, being the older of the two boys, became king.

Aurelianus was considered among the finest kings the Bretons had had. He was brave and good. He made it a point to rebuild all the churches in the land and keep the Saxons at bay. Sadly, he only reined for 10 years before he was assassinated. Upon his death, his brother Uther takes the throne.

Apparently, it’s at Uther’s coronation that he is introduced to the king of Cornwall and his wife Ygerna, or Ygrain. She is considered quite beautiful and desirable, insomuch that Uther is willing to go to war over her.

This, to me, this is déjà vu the Trojan War! As the story goes, Paris abducts Helen (later known as the face that launched a thousand ships) from Macedonia and takes her off to Troy. There is some indication that the Trojans and the Greeks have their cultural basis in the middle-east. So, was it really the face that launched a thousand ships, or was Helen a woman of land, wealth and royal connections? Paris hauling her off was marriage by abduction. By “marrying” her, he controlled her lands and trade routes and who knows what else! Now that makes sense to go to war over. In the end, the king of Macedonia gets Helen back, but then he’s murdered, if I remember right. The whole thing is just tragic.

Back to Breton. Uther goes to war against the king of Cornwall. However, for a long time he is unsuccessful in managing to get his hands of Ygrain. According to later stories, Uther has Merlin enchant him to look like the king of Cornwall. With this subterfuge, he is able to enter the castle and rape and abduct Ygrain. Meanwhile, the king of Cornwall is killed in battle. Uther gets his prize. He marries Ygrain.

If we accept that the Bretons held to Matrilinial rights of inheritance, Uther was simply trying to consolidate his right to rule by marrying a throne princess, a woman of land, wealth and royal connections. Uther had been raised on the mainland by his Roman relatives and had Roman ideas. He would know that to keep his crown he needed to marry a throne princess, but he would want an heir of his body to succeed after him.

Up to this point, Ygrain has anywhere from two to four daughters already. Each were eventually married off to kings. Or did the men become kings because they married these daughters. It’s a right puzzle, just because we don’t really know and I’m only reading between the lines.

This we know, Ygrain then gives birth to a baby boy, and almost immediately that boy is taken by Merlin and hidden so that no one knows where he is.

That brings us to point two. Why? According to some, this was done to preserve the boy against Saxons who would kill the baby. But surely Uther would have some resources to protect his children! And why is it that the boy is not brought forward until AFTER Uther’s death some 15 years later?

Here is my theory! Ygrain was indeed a throne princess, next in line after the sister of Aurelius and Uther. (The brothers would not be so readily accepted as kings without that matrilineal right to be king, either as the brothers of the Throne Princess, or as the husband of the Throne Princess.) But what if Ygrain was already with child by the king of Cornwall? Ah, now, that would put the child in danger. Uther would want a man child of his own to be king, but if Ygrain has already given birth to a boy, then yes, that would mean Uther would have no male heir to take the throne. So, Merlin hides the child, not from the Saxons, but from Uther. Ygrain, being royal and diplomatic, marries Uther, who is now, without question, king. However, he and Ygrain only succeed in having a daughter, Anne.

If you bring in the middle-eastern matrilineal rights of inheritance into the picture, then, for me, the birth and hiding of Arthur begins to make sense. At the death of Uther, the boy, aged 15, is brought forward. Both Merlin and Ygrain vouch for his rights. The boy is hailed battle commander and given the sword Excaliber. Thus begins the rein of Arthur.

It’s just a theory, but I like it.

Next: And so, who was Mordred?

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Prophecies of Merlin

In the book, “The Once and Future King,” Merlin the magician has a wonderful knowledge of the future because, it is said, he has lived life backwards. This is an interesting concept when you consider, by LDS doctrine, all great prophets have received the vision of all things past, present and future.

According to Norma Lorre Goodrich’s research, she states in her book, “Merlin,” published by Harper Perennial, 1988, “Not only was Merlin descended from royalty, but his mother was a nun,… As Son-of-the-Nun he was not only priestly, but high born, and would have been highly educated.’

As Ms. Goodrich grapples with Merlin’s identity, a few things become clear. His importance is based more on the identity of his mother than of his father. He has an enormous roll to play in establishing the royal house of his time and in directing its future course. He is Christian, as Arthur is Christian, and he has many prophecies attributed to him.

The Prophecy of Merlin as contained in The History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth is long and complicated. It’s also available in print if you want to look it up. To me, it doesn’t make much sense, but little is known of the history of the time and what we have was written down hundreds of years before it was finally preserved by Geoffrey of Monmouth. So no one knows what it could have originally said. However, the consensus seems to be that the Prophecy of Merlin is based on older, more Hebraic, or Old Testament forms of writing. That’s quite a claim, I know, but I find the following prophecy attributed to Merlin to be quite interesting.

“The noble cleric Merlin says: ‘For [it is] certain That Britons at the last shall have this land again.’”
(Chronicle, Peter de Langtoft and Robert of of Brunne, edited by Thomas Hearne, 1725, Vol 1, Chap XXII, p. 7.)

According to all historical chronicles of the British Isles, the Saxons eventually forced the Bretons to leave their lands and scatter to Brittany and Normandy in the north of France. But I like this hopeful prophecy, it is reminiscent of some other prophecies you may be aware of.

Judah, from the Holy Bible, has been promised she shall have Jerusalem again. The children of Lehi, from the Book of Mormon, have been promised they shall have their lands of inheritance in the New World again.

I just find that interesting.

Next: The birth of Arthur

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Rise of Merlin

What an enigma this man is. Druid? Priest? Noble? Base? Bastard? Magician? Wise? When the records are obscure, there is really very little that can be known for sure. We have two early records, “Nennius History of the Bretons” and “The History of Great Briton” by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey obviously takes much of his account of Merlin from Nennius, for they tell similar stories, but in the earlier “Nennius” the lad is called Ambrose. Geoffrey of Monmouth is the first to call him Merlin.

Merlin - the most famous magician of our western civilization.

Last time we left off with the usurpation of Vortigern to the kingship of the Bretons. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he had made himself quite unpopular. According to Nennius, the man was just plain disgusting. However, the most dastardly thing this king did was to invite a Germanic tribe to the island as mercenaries: the notorious Saxons. If you are of English parentage, then you are of the Anglo Saxon race. The Saxon’s were German and they were pagan and they were devastatingly greedy. Once they started coming to the island, they came and they came and they came.

This was the number-one reason Vortigern was so unpopular with the locals. Vortigern consults his twelve wise men, or magicians as to what to do about the situation. They direct him to find a certain mountain and build a citadel there to protect himself. Vortigern thinks this is a great idea, finds a suitable situation and calls the builders to start. They don’t get very far. They build a wall and the next day, it’s gone – vanished! Or it’s tumbled down. Whatever, they can’t get the walls to stay up. Vortigern consults his magicians again. Now they sound like true pagan magicians. They tell him they have to find a boy without a father, kill him and mix his blood in the mortar. Only this way will the walls stand. The king sends messengers throughout the land seeking a boy born with no father. A couple of the searchers comes to a town and hears two boys arguing. One of the boys says to the other, “O boy without a father, no good will ever happen to you!” The messengers find the mother and she confesses she doesn’t know who the father of the boy is, so he’s taken to the citadel with the plan to slay him and sprinkle his blood on the foundations.

A few interesting points here:

1. Vortigern has twelve wise men he consults with. This is interesting because Arthur’s Round Table knights number twelve and sometimes twenty-four depending on who you are reading.
2. The twelve wise men do not appear to be fighting men, but priests of some kind, counselors. In Vortigern’s case, they are obviously pagan.
3. In the book of Mormon, the wicked king Noah has twenty-four priests as his counselors. We also know that good king Mosiah had priests as his counselors.

This is an interesting pattern found on two separate continents. Why would you have priests as counselors? Because in those days governments were sacred and you ruled by the will of God. Therefore, you had to know God’s law. Priests were schooled in the law.

Our young Ambrose/Merlin is not cowed in the least by the shenanigans going on. He’s very direct in asking what’s going on and why. He then demands the wise men be brought to him. In very forceful language he tells them all that killing him will not solve the problem. In fact, there is a pool under the citadel and this is what is causing the problem. He goes on and gives very specific information about what is in the pool – two sleeping serpents, one white and one red – and what it all means. “I will now unfold to you the meaning of this mystery! The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon, but the white serpent is the dragon of the people who occupy several provinces and districts of Britain…however, our people shall rise and drive away the Saxon race.…”

According to Nennius, the young boy knows exactly who he is, his name is Ambrose and his father was a Roman Consul. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, his mother was the daughter of a king.

The origins of Merlin are most compelling to me. I think it is interesting that the wise men say the citadel can only be completed if:

1. They find a boy without a father.
2. Shed his blood.

Many of the great prophets of antiquity have had miracle births. Noah’s father had been injured and so, supposedly could father no child. But he fathered Noah. Isaac, the son of Abraham, was born to his parents in their extreme old age. It was twenty years before Rebekah finally gave birth to Esau and Jacob. Samuel’s mother was barren until she prayed before the door of the tabernacle. Zachariah and Elizabeth were old when John, known as the Baptist, was born. They all reflect the miracle birth of the Messiah.

This deepens the mystery of this greatest magician of all time. Was he really just a magician? Or was he something more? Mage is another word for Wise, which is another word for Sage. It was wise men from the east that bore gifts to the Christ child, and they are known as the Magi. O how twisted everything gets through the centuries of dust and decay.

Geoffrey of Monmouth picks up the narrative. He says, “I had not yet reached this point in my story when Merlin began to be talked about very much, and from all sorts of places people of my own generation kept urging me to publish his Prophecies.”


Next time: The Prophecies of Merlin