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Vita Merlini": Madness Or "Contemptus Mundi?" Author(S): NEIL THOMAS Source: Arthuriana, Vol

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Vita Merlini The Celtic Wild Man Tradition and Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Vita Merlini": Madness or "Contemptus Mundi?" Author(s): NEIL THOMAS Source: Arthuriana, Vol. 10, No. 1, ESSAYS ON MERLIN (SPRING 2000), pp. 27-42 Published by: Scriptorium Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27869519 . Accessed: 09/06/2014 19:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Scriptorium Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arthuriana. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.212.18.200 on Mon, 9 Jun 2014 19:08:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Celtic Wild Man Tradition and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini: Madness or Contemptus MundP. NEIL THOMAS The Merlin material in the Vita Merlini, seen in the tradition of the a Celtic saints' lives, shows how the image of Merlin, originally that of psychologicalcasualty of theBattle ofArfderyddd, is modified to take on more a man. the positive profile of Celtic holy (NT) was to a Merlin already perceived be problematic figure in twelfth T^hat centuryWales is shown by the testimony of Gerald ofWales. Gerald, the chronicler whose quasi-encyclopaedic Itinerarium Cambriae and Descriptio us so Cambriae afford much valuable information about the principality in to the reign of Henry II, put forward the following distinction in order as clarifywhat he clearly regarded the rather confused traditions concerning were Merlin which circulating in the twelfth century: There were two Merlins. The one called Ambrosius, who thus had two names, was was prophesied when Vortigern king. He the son of an incubus and he was discovered in Carmarthen, which means Merlins town, for it takes its name from the fact that he was found there.The second Merlin came from Scotland. He is called Celidonius, because he prophesied in theCaledonian once Forest.He isalso called Silvester,because when hewas fightinghe looked up into the air and saw a terriblemonster. He went mad as a resultand fled to the forestwhere he passed the remainder of his lifeas awild man of thewoods. This secondMerlin lived in the time ofArthur.1 s at In Gerald terms, Geoffrey of Monmouth used 'both' Merlins different course career. times in the of his literary In his History of theKings ofBritain (1138)2 Geoffrey culled from the Historia Brittonum? (once ascribed to Nennius) the story of the boy prophet, Ambrosius, and whilst he changed name to to same this Merlinus, he kept largely the story and range of political as prophecy that contained in the Nennian tradition. Merlin's role in the to a Historia is essentially give the enfances of Arthur supernatural as underpinning, when themagician metamorphoses Uther Pendragon into so the figure ofGorlois, Duke ofCornwall, that he may sleep with theCornish ARTHURIANA IO.I (2OOO) 27 This content downloaded from 130.212.18.200 on Mon, 9 Jun 2014 19:08:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 ARTHURIANA duke's wife and beget Arthur. Meanwhile, Merlin's famous eschatological prophecy that the end of the 'Boar' (vaticinatory code forArthur himself) would be shrouded inmystery (an apparent reference to themyth of Avalon and the 'once and future' king's return), firmly linked the figures of Arthur as a to and Merlin and established Merlin's status magical aide Arthur. In the on was some VitaMerlini,4 the other hand, which composed probably dozen years later than theHistoria, the 'second' Merlin steps forth and, despite to two Geoffrey's attempt reconcile the traditions by claiming thatMerlin on a new a new a more had lived into era, it is evident that figure with fresh, emotionally complex biography is here making his d?but. In the Vita, Merlinus flees to the woods afterwitnessing the horrors of battle and the were to tragic demise of three brothers who well known him.5 His sister to out a to Ganieda, married the Cumbrian king, Rodarchus, sends minstrel to court sweet a inveigle him back with music. The minstrel sings plangent woes not refrain detailing the suffered only by Ganieda but by the prophet's wife, Guendolena, and succeeds in his mission of making Merlin return; soon but the latter finds himself repelled by the company at court and, after an excursus intercalated vaticinatory inwhich he puts his prophetic powers to in evidence, he returns the Caledonian forest to live out his days. It is undoubtedly the image of the powerful magician found in theHistoria rather than the traumatized soldier of the Vita which found themost ready course response with posterity. In the ofMerlin's later, literary evolution the was narrators more stage in the woods typically omitted by interested in ready tales of themarvellous than in psychological exploration of character. to We may but speculate thatGeoffrey might have returned in the Vita the as a figure of Merlin?whom he had used instrumentally in theHistoria to to device help define the figure ofArthur?in order develop the biography a more of subtle character inwhom, possibly upon learning fresh traditions, he may have conceived a new interest. How he came upon the traditions upon which the Vita is based cannot be certain, but similarities with the Merlin in medieval story Welsh (the Myrddin Fragments)6 Scottish (the sources it Lailoken Fragments),7 and Irish (the saga of Suibhne)8 make sources were common probable that the Celtic?the opinion is that the a Merlin of the Vita is composite figure inspired by Celtic traditions involving 'wild men of thewoods.' to to Iwish below re-examine Geoffrey's relationship theCeltic analogues to in order address the subject of what independent contribution Geoffrey to common might have made the tradition; for often Geoffrey's Vita has an as a been viewed by older tradition of positivist scholarship simply reflex This content downloaded from 130.212.18.200 on Mon, 9 Jun 2014 19:08:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE CELTIC WILD MAN TRADITION 29 of a wider tradition with little individual character or merit of its own. My on will indicate that the contention own reading of the Vita, the other hand, some that it is of Parry, for instance, followed tacitly by modern scholars, to can a of only by reference this wider tradition that 'we explain number not he slurs over them'9 fails to things thatGeoffrey does make clear because address the subject of what independent contribution Geoffrey might have was a a wished to make to what patently rather fluid tradition rather than to fixed, 'canonical' literary corpus. In particular, I wish consider the with the traditions of possibility that Geoffrey's acquaintance indigenous Cambrian saints' livesmay have moved him to 'baptize' the ancient figure of as term thewild man with images of sanctity that might have been defined in the foundational centuries of the Celtic Church. First, what were the traditions with which Geoffrey might have become familiar and how might a to in they have inspired him towards work which is similar the analogues broad narrative structure yet rather different to them in itsmoral structure? in It is evident that the figure of theWild Man has arisen spontaneously a number of cultures of a far greater antiquity than that of the Celtic lands as can of the post-Roman period, be observed in traditions ranging from to Enkidu in the Epic ofGilgamesh the Biblical figure of Nebuchadnezzar. status a as The Wild Man can clearly claim the of 'mythic universal,' able, it to were, reinvent himself polygenetically.10 (In Old Irish for instance the to was a traumatized soldier who fled the woods apparently such familiar was as it phenomenon that he lexicalized gelt.)11There is, is generally agreed, sources 'no direct link between the tales preserved inCeltic and those found in eastern or Asiatic countries,'12 but what of the possible interrelations between theWelsh, Scottish, and Irish traditions and of Geoffrey's place within that larger context? Between theWelsh Myrddin fragments and the to a Scottish Lailoken fragments there looks be basic similarity in historical/ Man become legendary background in that theWild motif has here attached a to particular historical battle inDark Age Cumbria. A small corpus ofOld some Welsh lyricswritten down time after theNorman Conquest describes as a Myrddin military combatant of the sixth century inNorthern Britain, as a verses are not that is, hero of theOld North (YGogledd). These always on easy to interpret account of their linguistic obscurities and lacuna-ridden state, but the basic scenario has Myrddin lamenting the death of his former was lord, Gwenddolau, 'first of the kings of the north,' who slain by a Rhydderch Hael ('The Generous'). The latter has been identified with king of Dumbarton in Brythonic Scotland towards the end of the sixth This content downloaded from 130.212.18.200 on Mon, 9 Jun 2014 19:08:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 30 ARTHURIANA not so century. Gwenddolauis easily identifiable historically, although the Welsh Annals have the following entry for the year 573: The battle ofArfderydd (bellum Armterid) between the sons of Eliffer and Gwenddolau son of Ceidio; inwhich battle Gwenddolau fell;Merlin went mad.^ Ever since the time of Skene and Glennie,14 Arfderydd has been identified town near some to with the Cumbrian of Arthuret Longtown, eight nine not miles north of Carlisle and far from the present-day Scottish border, from which place itwould have been possible for the grief-stricken Merlin to take refuge in the Caledonian Forest (Coed Celyddon) in the southern lowlands of Scotland.
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