Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
surviving Welsh manuscripts but his true identity remains unknown. Depicted as a giant
with superhuman strength, a dwarf king who rode a goat and as a Celtic god, it is most
likely he was a 5th- or 6th-century cavalry leader who led early Britons against Saxon in-
vaders. By the 9th century, Arthur was famous as a fighter throughout the British Isles and
in the centuries that followed, other writers - most recently and perhaps most famously
the Victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson - climbed on the bandwagon, weaving in love
stor- ies, Christian symbolism and medieval pageantry to create the romance that sur-
rounds Arthur today.
Few of Wales ancient myths and legends were written down and consequently many were lost.
The
Mabinogion
(Tales of Hero's Youth), a translation of two remarkable 14th-century folk-tale compendiums, re-
mains the key source of Welsh legends.
Merlin the Magician
This great Welsh wizard is probably modelled upon Myrddin Emrys (Ambrosius), a 6th-
century holy man who became famous for his prophecies. It was probably Geoffrey of
Monmouth who changed Myrddin's name to Merlin and presented him as the wise, wizar-
dly advisor to Arthur's father King Uther Pendragon. One of Merlin's seminal acts was to
disguise Uther as Duke Gorlois, allowing him to spend the night with the duke's wife,
Ygerna, who duly conceived Arthur. Merlin also predicted that Uther's true heir would
draw a sword from a stone and acquired the sword Excalibur from a Lady of the Lake.
Merlin's own end appears to have come courtesy of this same lady when she trapped the
wizard in a cave on Bryn Myrddin (Merlin's Hill), east of Carmarthenshire, where wind-
carried groans and clanking chains are part of local lore even today.
