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

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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

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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

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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

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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. Similarly in the Scottish Lailoken tradition, the latter at as describes the location of the battle which he had lost his wits taking est place upon the plain lying between Lidel and Carwannok ('in campo qui inter Lidel et Carwannok'),15 that is, present-day Arthuret. a was a It is pity that the geographical site ofwhat clearly memorable and can so more highly significant battle be described with much precision than to as the historical facts pertaining it, but Sir John Lloyd noted, 'in the course so a of ages, thick legendary haze has gathered around the history of this famous encounter that one may not venture to saymore of it than that was a won over it triumph by Rhydderch Gweddoleu ap Ceidio.'16 It is a a once almost inevitable that such battle would have spawned extensive we now saga of which possess only fragments of later, heavily fictionalized a redactions. As with other poems of the heroic genre, it is likely that slim historical nucleus underlay the Lailoken/Merlin storywhich thereafterbecame a a can as embellished with number of accretions. Such process be imagined having taken place with the Irish analogue, Buile Suibhne (Sweeney's Frenzy) which narrates the aftermath of the later Battle ofMagh Rath (673) and the ill fortunes of Mad Sweeney, legendary king of DalnAraide who lost his reason in the course of that combat. As with theArthuret battle, few historical are to facts known about this combat.17 According the rather moralized traditions now extant, however, we are told that Suibhne before the battle a had assaulted saint of the Church, Ronan, who had been pleading the cause of peace, and also killed one of his clerics; so thatwhen he is seized by course as terrror and madness in the of battle, his derangement is described a curse being the result of which St. Ronan had imposed upon him:

Thereafter, when both battle-hosts had met, the vast army on both sides roared in themanner of a herd of stags so that they raised on high threemighty when Suibhne heard these cries with their sounds shouts. Now, great together

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and reverberationsin the clouds ofHeaven and in thevault of the firmament, he looked up,whereupon turbulence(?), and darkness and fury,and giddiness and frenzy,and flight,unsteadiness, restlessnessand unquiet filledhim, likewise disgust with every place inwhich he used to be and desire for every place not were which he had reached. His fingers palsied, his feet trembled, his heart beat quick, his senseswere overcome, his sightwas distorted, hisweapons fellnaked fromhis hands, so that throughRonans curse hewent, like any bird of the air, inmadness and imbecility. same to come The applies his later abortive attempt to back into society at from the wilderness, for that point Ronan, fearing that Sweeney might on continue to persecute Holy Church his return, unleashes upon him a terrible vision of headless bodies and trunkless heads which pursue him with a frightful clamour until he escapes from it into the clouds. We may possibly see ecclesiastical influence at work here, but in any case it is easy to agree with O'Keefe's suggestion that the original story attributed the madness to the horrors which he witnessed in the battle of Magh Rath, and that the introduction of St. Ronan and St. Moling (who gives absolution to the king a just before his death) may be later interpolation.19 A similar narrative pattern can an be discerned in the Lailoken fragments, where in interview with St. Kentigern held in his forest retreat, Lailoken confesses his sense of responsibility for the death of all those who fell in battle: at once course The madman checked his and answered (toKentigern), I am a Christian, though unworthy of so great a name. I suffermuch in this lonely am place, and formy sins I unworthy tomeet the punishment formy sins men. among For Iwas the cause of the slaughter of all thedead who fell in the to battle?so well known all citizens of this land?which took place in the plain lyingbetween Lidel and Carwannok. In thatfight the skybegan to split a above me, and I heard tremendous din, a voice from the sky saying tome, 'Lailochen, Lailochen, because you alone are responsible for the blood of all these dead men, you alone will bear the punishment for themisdeeds of all. For you will be given over to the angels of Satan, and until the day of your death you will have communion with the creaturesof thewood.' But when I a directed my gaze towards the voice I heard, I saw brightness too great for human senses to endure. I saw, too, numberless martial battalions in the heaven likeflashing lightning,holding in theirhands fiery lances and glitteringspears which they shookmost fiercelyat me. So Iwas tornout ofmy own selfand an me evil spirit seized and assigned me to thewild things of thewoods, as you see.20

a The sequel then tells of how Kentigern confers last-minute benediction upon Lailoken/Merlin before he meets his death at the hands of some shepherds of Prince Meldred. (This assassination depends on the semi

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independent story,Lailoken andMeldred, inwhich Meldred holds Lailoken a prisoner in his castle where Lailoken, seeing leaf in the hair ofMeldred's to an wife, reveals Meldred that his wife had committed adultery in arbor, as a for which revelation she plots his murder revenge.) too The Welsh material makes Myrddin responsible for the death of case innocent persons, in this that of the children of Gwendydd (in are not circumstances which made entirely clear) which he confesses in the to : Afallenau (Addresses theApple Tree)

Now me not not me Gwendydd loves and does greet am ?I hated by Gwasawg, the supporter of Rhydderch? I have killed her son and daughter. Death has taken everyone,why does itnot call me? For after Gwenddolau no lord honours me, Mirth me no woman visits delights not, me; was And in the battle ofArfderydd my torque of gold Though today I am not treasuredby one of the colour of swans

O Jesus!Would thatmy death had come Before I became guilty of thedeath of the son of Gwendydd.21

From all the versions cited above, Geoffrey ofMonmouth s VitaMerlini will seen to in one a be differ crucial respect?to the point of presenting reconceptualization of the basic data of the legend?namely, thatGeoffreys version does not not trammel Merlin with guilt for any wrong-doing. He is to witness obliged the infernal accusatory visions suffered by Lailoken and to Sweeney and also alluded by Gerald ofWales in his description of the 'Caledonian Merlin. Indeed, ifGerald with his mention of the terrible sky monster current had here the Welsh tradition, then Geoffrey must have excised itas to rex tacitly being opposed his conception of the iustus etpacificus is as a to not who described benign lawgiver his Demetian people (1. 22). It is guilt which harasses Merlinus but rather simple grief for the demise of the three an event mourns brothers, which he for threewhole days (1. 70). There can no or a be suggestion of retributive suffering of penitential dimension to a his sojourn in the woods. Nor is there any sense inwhich he is military on as exile because inGeoffrey's version he is the winning side the follower as rather than the opponent of Rodarchus (Rhydderch). Nor need he fear any hostility from his sister since?quite unlike the hostile scenario of the no Welsh Myrddin /Gwendydd relationship?there is question of his having been responsible for the death of her offspring. On the contrary, it is Rodarchus and Ganieda who, well-disposed towards Merlin, flatter, cajole

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 33 and bribe him back to court (11.225-37). There is also nothing of the loathing for the inhospitable forestwhich we encounter in theWelsh tradition.22 For afterMerlin has taken steps to create shelter for himself to deal with the cold to ofwinter thisVotary of thewoods'23 designs make the forest his permanent even abode, to the extent of viewing it inproto-Romantic terms as a sanctuary as it the men so from, were, all ways of vain and melancholy' That particular sentiment is demonstrated in the following passage where he declines the in to out scepter of kingship favour of being able live his days in peace:

(.) Rursus regnare recuso. Me Calidonis opes viridi sub frondemanentem d?lectant pocius quam quas fert India gemme, quam quod habere Tagus per littoradicitur aurum, quam segetes Sicule, quam dulcis Methidis uve, aut celse turres, aut cincte menibus urbes aut vestes. fraglascentes Tirio medicamine Res michi nulla placet que me divellere possit ex mea me amena. Calidone judice semper (11. 1280-88)

not (I will reign again. While I remain under the green leaves of Calidon, its richesshall be my delight?a greaterdelight than thegems that India or all the men is found or produces, gold say aliong the banks of the Tagus, the corn of or the of Methis?more Sicily, grapes pleasant pleasing than towers or cities or clothes redolent of scents. high wall-girt Tyrian Nothing can me can tear me ever to please so, nothing from Calidon, dear me, I feel.)

no to to In the Vita, then, Merlin has need scuttle away in order hang his an a head in shame. He is ?migr? rather than fugitive, having incurred the enmity neither of Holy Church nor of the victor at Arthuret. Indeed ifhe is at sense mad' all it is only in the special of being overwhelmed by the pity of at rate seems to all the slaughter?this any be at the core of his 'furor.'24 It is for instance significant that, from his post-bellum perspective, theminstrel's on playing his memories of his wife and sister in his song (which is of course in him to as a successful drawing back court) is described sentimental lapse on his part (Tristina mens rediit,' 1. 209), for the mind-set which would to at permit him be satisfied Court is precisely thatwhich he has been moved to on reject principle. It is also noteworthy thatwhen Merlin drinks at the newly discovered spring towards the end of thework and recovers his wits, this does not move him one whit from his 'furor' to take up his permanent abode in his arboreal observatory.

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a sense as In wider of course, Penelope Doob notes, it is the world that often decides to label uncomfortable truths 'mad' whereas 'the poem shows even forcefully that insanity is apparently preferable to the apparent rationality at an of sinners court.'25 But Merlin is never, inDoob's terminology, 'unholy to to a wild man' who has 'progress' be 'holywild man.' This mode of labelling might work for his Celtic confr?res, Lailoken and Sweeney, since their are to a biographies subject latterly last-minute 'saintly resolution' (Basil to Clarke) in the form of the viaticum administered each by St. Kentigern and St.Moling respectively.But Geoffrey's Merlin was, inDoob's terminology, a man a man not or holy wild from the start, that is, driven by guilt fear but a at a by disgust the homicidal effects of battle?contemptus mundi. This is motivation which, pace J.J. Parry and critics who have followed his line,26 sense we makes perfect in twentieth-century terms (as have had cause to witness with those notorious psychological casualties from theVietnam War to to who, feeling themselves have been 'beyond therapy,' also chose take to a more the backwoods). But it is also motivation which, significantly, is a perfectly conformable with the temper of Celtic spirituality.This is source, on I suggest, thatGeoffrey might have drawn for his second incarnation of theMerlin figure. In many respectsMerlin, with his eremitical urge and his love of nature, on were not takes aspects of the 'saints' of the Celtic Church, figures who as formally canonised but who may be 'defined historically ascetic clerics, or monks, anchorites, missionaries leaders in establishing Christian foundations in the fifth through the seventh centuries,'27 this being the sant commonly accepted meaning of (Taliesin), known widely inWelsh tradition (whatever his historical origins as a we might have been)30 poet, prophet and keeper of wisdom who had,

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are told, returned from a visit to Brittany conferring with Gildas, the historian who receives the sobriquet The Wise' both in Geoffrey (1. 688) and in Caradoc of Llancarfan s Vita Gildae}1 It was of course Gildas (c. 495-570) a who, representing tradition of Romano-British Christianity which regarded at as even the victory of the Britons the battle of Badon grievously marred by the usurpation of civil government by military leaders/32 had inveighed so to mightily against what he perceived be the corrupt society of his day in a tract to his De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, which is thought have given movement. a considerable impetus to the monastic In similar ascetic vein a theMerlin of the Vita embraces the self-denying ordinance of putting by to over crown and the opportunity rule warlike subjects' (1. 230?31), firmly to so to rejecting thematerial inducements do offered him by Rodarchus:

munera vates. Talia respondens spernebat 'Ista duces habeant sua quos confundit egestas nec sunt contenti modico set maxima captant. Hiis nemus et patulas Calidonis prefero quercus et montes celsos subtus virentia prata. Ilia michi non ista placent. Tu talia tecum rexRodarche feras.Mea me Calidonis habebk cunctis silva ferax nucibus quam prefero rebus. dl. 238-45)

in to (But the prophet rejected the presents these words: 'Let these things go as are not content lords hard-pressed by poverty, such with modest living covet but everything. But I put above these things the woodland and the at their spreading oaks of Calidon, the high hills, the green meadows foot? are not those for me, these things. Take back such things, King Rodarch. My nut-rich forest of Calidon shall have me; I desire it above all else.')

Meanwhile theMerlin of the vaticinatory passages, in his denunciations men a of his fellow for their dissensions and persecutions of the clergy, bears to clear similarity the tone of Gildas in his fulminations against religious backsliding:

O rabiem Britonum, quos copia diviciarum usque superveniens ultra quam debeat effert! Nolunt pace frui, stimulis agitanturHerinis. Civiles acies cognataque prelia miscent. Eccclesias Domini paciuntur habere ruinam sacros ad remota pontificesque regna repellunt. Cornubiensis apri conturbant queque nepotes. Insidias sibimet ponentes ense nephando, interimunt sese, nec regno jure potiri

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volunt diademate expectare regni rapto. (11.580-89)

(O the madness of the Britons! Their universal affluence leads them to excess. are not on. They satisfied with peace. A Fury goads them They war to engage in civil and family feuds. They allow the churches of the Lord to out go ruin, and drive the holy bishops into distant lands. The nephews of the Cornish Boar disrupt everything. They lay ambushes for each other one to cannot to and put another death with their evil swords: they wait succeed lawfully, but seize the crown.)

Merlin's linkswith Gildas viaTaliesin, moreover suggest a strong sense of are apostolic succession forwhich the saints' traditions noted?Gildas himself as had the Breton-born St. Illtud his mentor, the latter being described in as a most the Breton Lay ofSamson wise magician, having knowledge of the manner own future.'33 (He prophesies for instance the of his death and that a course of his disciples, such patterned' trait of foresight being of shared by Merlin himself.) are numerous There other suggestive parallels between Merlin's biography as narrated by Geoffrey and those contained in the vitae. For instance,when a Merlin, Taliesin and the second madman Maeldinus form group pledged are 'to despise the things of theworld' (11. 1457-58), and joined byMerlin's sister who also espouses the coenobitic life after the death of Rodarchus, are a they essentially forming monastic cell.34 This is somewhat reminiscent two of the tradition that ofGildas's brothers togetherwith their sisterPeteova, retreated to a remote area where they set up three separate oratories. Even can Merlin's desertion of his wife for the contemplative life be paralleled in the lives of Illtud and Gwynllyw, who both put by theirwives in their ascetic to zeal (notwithstanding the considerable distress their spouses caused by their actions). Meanwhile, Merlin's close relationship with wild animals (the a wolf and the stags) ismatched by St. Tydecho's domestication of wolf, by to the help afforded Teilo and Madoc by stags and ultimately, it has been rest on suggested, may (anterior) 'Celtic tradition with its antlered gods of a the Cernunnos type.'35 Finally, the Celtic saint often has very ambiguous comes relationship with secular power. He often himself of royal lineage, as a next like theMerlin of the Vita, but sanctified figure concerned with the must world, he shun secular power and the trappings of thisworld. Merlin's as to tussles with Rodarchus whether he should pull his weight in secular can society be compared with the biographies of Samson and Illtud who must retreats to resume be dragged back from their in order their or resposibilities in the community with that of St. Cadoc, who also refuses

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set his uncles demand that he aside his religion in order to take on his as rightful role king. It appears from the above thatGeoffrey ofMonmouth in his VitaMerlini must to to have had adapt recalcitrant material (which, judge from the as a or analogues, portrayed Merlin sinner in some sense other) so as to be able to write a vita in the technical sense of a saint's life, a genre which a not a clearly required protagonist of towering spiritual distinction: babbling outcast or a sanctus. social and sinner homo fatuus but rather homo This innovation clearly goes far beyond the 'saintly resolution' of the Lailoken to and Suibhne traditions and it is probable that Geoffrey sought lift his composition above the folkloric base of theWild Man tradition so as to as a new transform his inheritedmaterial intowhat emerges story, this literary a to transformation prompting revised estimate of Geoffrey's relationship source his probable material. once a note Kenneth Jackson sounded of caution about bringing the Irish too an Suibhne Geilt story into close apposition with theMyrddin/Lailoken tradition, stating T remain quite unconvinced that the legend of theWild to Man in Ireland has been proved be borrowed from the Lailoken-Myrddin story.'36The much-later date of the Battle ofMagh Rath and its location across to case the Irish Channel lend weight this caution, but the with the the northern Lailoken and south-western British Myrddin traditions must be different simply because relocalization of traditions from theOld North to was a common Wales feature of early British tradition when there existed that geographical continuum of Brythonic peoples which stretched from present-day Scotland down through Cumbria and Wales to Cornwall. a Admittedly such transferwould have been more difficult after 655 when areas Wales and other southern became separated from allies in the Old North after Penda, King ofMercia and his Brythonic allies were routed by of But Oswy, king Northumbria. whatever the politico-geographical problems a thatmight have stood in theway of smooth southerly relocalisation of the now Lailoken story, it is generally accepted that 'the historical and was geographical setting of theWelsh legends of Arfderydd and Myrddin must exclusively northern and it be assumed that these tales migrated southwards together with much other early material at some time between the sixth-century and theMiddle Ages.'37 This contention seems to be corroborated by Gerald ofWales's brief but lurid evocation of themonstrous vision a sky witnessed byMerlinus Celidonius, which bears striking similarity to saw the vision described in the Lailoken/Kentigern story.Gerald clearly as a themenacing vision being defining feature of the 'second' strand of the

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not terms Merlin legend since he describes it in simply of personal recollection a but of commonly accredited and known-about prerequisite of theMerlin we even a story. If then credit Geoffrey with roughly equivalent acquaintance as seems with twelfth-century mat?riel roulant Gerald, then it probable that his omission of such a salient narrative feature was deliberate. If such is the

case, then any simple genetic analysis of his work must remain insufficient. an termsas an Such approach is undoubtedly adequate ingeneral explanation an for the southern floruit of originally northern tradition, but Geoffrey's to literary ambitions appear have gone beyond themerely artisanal attempt to a to put popular tradition into Latin hexameters?the latter appearing be the sometimes undisclosed assumption which has underlain some previous to was approaches his work. Rather does it appear that he attempting to imbue the old material with a new ethical structure forwhich he may have found the basis in the Cambrian vita tradition. an Celtic hagiography, it has recently been remarked, often presents as ecclesiastical inversion of heroic tradition'38 and theMerlin story told by to rare Geoffrey of Monmouth appears offer something in the annals of heroic literature in the form of a critical reflection on the human toll exacted a to by thewarrior code and sharply critical response it taking the shape of a religious quietism and, especially in the closing stages of the poem, peculiarly to Celtic form of spirituality giving large scope the tutelage of natural forces.39 we If pass in review the various exemplars of the heroic genre in world literature from the Iliad to or the Old English Battle ofMaldon Old High German Lay ofHildebrand, then it is clear that the tragic homicides occurring case as in those epics is in each accepted being dictated by Fate (Gk.moira, must own OE Wyrd, OHG iv?wurt). Hildebrand kill his son, Hadubrand, son simply because, after the long exile of the father, and father have by on a chance found themselves opposing sides in battle. It is possible that similar situation may have occurred with theWelsh Myrddin and the children on at of Gwendydd, who may have found themselves opposing sides the Battle of Arfderydd. In the idiosyncratic way inwhich Geoffrey describes his protagonist's experience of battle, however, Merlin is able to learn from so a bloody experiences and place himself beyond the range of such future tragic possibility cropping up in his own life.He does this essentially by roundly execrating the 'malignant fate'which has rapt away his companions at arms (11.40-56), by choosing 'madness' rather than murder (that is, the to over chance offered him by Rodarchus again 'rule war-like subjects'? with all the casualties which that officewould inevitably entail) and, latterly, a a by espousing the eirenic regime of 'saint,' thus resolving classic moral

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dilemma of heroic poetry. That is, the pressures of war lead him to reassess and 'deconstruct' that heroic fatalism which has historically been the now profoundest article of belief forwarrior societies but which reveals itself to seer as a the disabused disingenuous rationalisation for the ineluctable slaughter of numberless future generations. The Vita Merlini can then be read as a creative and indeed constructive to source response Geoffrey's probable material in its heavily flagged war can most suggestion that the horrors of be opposed only by the radical as form of social dissent possible. Geoffrey's Merlin is, itwere, 'rescued' as a from the ancient traditions which portrayed the fugitive sinner and social outcast. He is not anathematized by Holy Church like Suibhne and no re has need for saintly absolution of his sins like Lailoken. Rather he treatment as a emerges, inGeoffrey's saint and natural sage whose spiritual acts as a eminence magnet to another legendary saint of the early Celtic new an not Church. Geoffrey's version of old literary theme teaches that it is 'mad' but rather natural to suffera traumatic reaction to battle, and that this can truth, ifacted on constructively and honestly, eventually lead the sufferer to a way of lifewhich is considerably less destructive of himself and of others a Vita not than that led by his princely peers. It is pity that Geoffrey's did as a achieve the same literary success theHistoria and that theme of such was more power not made of by writers after Geoffrey who might have on more placed the Galfridian contribution the map of posterity securely case. than is presently the

UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM

at Neil Thomas lectures inGerman and medieval European literature the University a of books on the romance of Durham (England). He is the author of number one on a and of the German heroic epic. He is presently using British Academy to a on to an award for leave of absence write book Diu Crone and organize international conference on Medieval and Renaissance responses toWar to be 2001. held in Durham Castle inApril

NOTES

? Gerald ofWales, The Journey throughWales IThe Description ofWales trans.Lewis Thorpe (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1978) pp. 192-93 {Journey). 2 On the date of theHistoria Regum Britanniae, see the introduction to the edition by Neil Wright, The Historia Regum Britannie ofGeoffrey ofMonmouth. I Bern, Burgerbibliothek,MS$6S{ Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1985) esp. pp. ix-xx. 3 Nennius, BritishHistory and theWelsh Annals, ed. and trans.John Morris (London, Phillimore, 1980).

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text are 4 The Latin and English translationscited fromBasil Clarke, Life ofMerlin/ VitaMerlini (Cardiff:University ofWales Press, 1973). I have also consulted the older edition of John JayParry, University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature X, no. 3 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1925). 5 It is possible that the ambiguous phrase 'tresque ducis fratres' (1. 34) denoted Merlins own brothers, or else that the three unnamed brotherswere those of Prince Peredur (1. 26). 6 See the translations inA.O.H. Jarman, 'TheWelsh Myrddin Poems,' in R.S. Loomis (cd.) Arthuriany Literature in theMiddle Ages (Oxford:Clarendon, 1959), pp. 20?30. 7 See Basil Clarke, Life ofMerlin/Vita Merlini, Appendix I: Lailoken A, Kentigern and Lailoken; Lailoken B, Meldred and Lailoken. 8 Buile SuibhnelThe Frenzy ofSuibhne, ed. and trans.J.G. O'Keefe (London: Nutt, 1913) as note 9 J.J.Parry, in 2, p. 15.Nikolai Tolstoy also writes in terms of Geoffrey an having omitted original aspect found in the Lailoken fragment' {The Quest for Merlin (London: Hamish Hamilton 1985) p. 80.) As will be demonstrated not to below, I do think it relevant to try assess Geoffrey against a putative narrative archetype. 10 R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in theMiddle Ages (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U.P., 1952); D. A. Wells, The Wild Man from theEpic ofGilgamesh toHartmann von Aues Iwein (Belfast:Queens University Publications, 1975). 11 to J.G. O'Keefe pointed the following passage concerning Irishmirabilia in the one Norse Speculum Regale (c. 1250): 'There is also thingwhich will seem very men are wonderful about who called gelt. It happens thatwhen two hosts meet are and arrayed in battle-array,and when the battle cry is raised loudly on both sides, that cowardly men runwild and lose theirwits from the dread and fear which seize them.And then they run into a wood away from other men, and live there likewild beasts, and shun themeeting ofmen likewild beasts' {Buile Suibhnef The Frenzy ofSuibhne, as in note 8, Introduction, pp. xxxiv, xxxv). 12 'The A.O.H. Jarman, Merlin legend and theWelsh tradition of prophecy' in The Arthur of theWelsh. The Arthurian legend inmedieval Welsh literature(Cardiff: University ofWales Press, 1991), pp. 117-45, citation p. 117. 13Nennius, BritishHistory andWe b hAnna b, ed. and trans. JohnMorris (London, Phillimore, 1980) p. 45, Latin textp. 85. 2 14William F. Skene, The FourAncient Books ofWales, vols. (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868),vol. 1,pp. 65-67; John S. StuartGlennie, Arthurian Localities. Their Historical Origin, Chief Country and Fingalian Relations, facsimile reprint of the 1869 edition (Felinfach: Llanerch Publishers 1994) pp. 68-70. 15 Basil Clarke,ed., Life ofMerlin/Vita Merlini, Appendix I: Lailoken A, Ken tigern and Lailoken; Lailoken B,Meldred and Lailoken (Lailoken A, p. 227). Cf. Skene: About nine miles north ofCarlisle, on thewestern bank of the riverEsk, are two small rising grounds or knolls, called theKnows of Arthuret, and still further north is a ravine, inwhich a stream called theCarwinelow falls into theEsk. On

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an the north side of that stream the ground rises till it reaches elevation a on terminating abruptly in cliffwhich overhangs the river Liddel, and the a enormous summit of this cliff is magnificent native stronghold,with earthen or ramparts, now called themoat of Liddel. Arthuret is theRoddwyd Adderyd, Pass ofArdderyd, forming the greatwestern pass leading from theRoman Wall into Scotland. Carwinelow isCaer Wendolew, or the city of Gwenddolew, so called from the adjacent stronghold; and here in 573was fought the great battle ofArderydd (Four Ancient Books, vol. 1,pp. 65-66). 16 JohnEdward Lloyd, A History ofWales, two volumes (London: Longmans, 1912) vol 1, pp. 166-67. Skene described Myrddin's lord Gwenddolau as being 'surrounded by bardic traditionwith every type and symbol of a semi-pagan saw as an cult' and theoccasion of thebattle being encounter between advancing Christianity and the departing paganism,' but this inference from largely late, fictional material has not been accepted by most modern scholars. The same objection applies toMolly Miller, who depends heavily on the evidence of the at Triads forher 'The Commanders Arthuret' inTransactions of theCumberland andWestmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society,vol. 75 (Keswick, 1975) pp. 96-118. 17 See O'Keefe's Introduction toBuile Suibhne (as in note 8). 18 J.G. O'Keefe Buile Suibhne, p. 15 (Irish original p. 14). 19 J.G. O'Keefe Buile Suibhne, Introduction, p. xxxxiv. 20 Kentigern andLailoken, trans.Basil Clarke, ed.,Appendix I (Lailoken A, p. 227). 21 A.O.H. Jarman, 'TheWelsh Myrddin Poems,' inR. S. Loomis (ed.), Arthurian Literature in theMiddle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959), pp. 20-30, translated 21. citation p. 22 For theWelsh Myrddin theCaledonian forest is a place of harsh military exile rather than a natural retreatfrom which he may derive wisdom, as is shown in verses these from theHoianau ('Greeings to the littlepig'): Little does RhydderchHael know tonightin his feast What I sleeplessness suffered last night; Snow to up my hips among the forest wolves, in Icicles my hair, spent ismy splendour. as (Cited from Jarman, in previous note, p. 22) 23 Cf. 1. 80: Silvesterhomo quasi silvis deditus esset.' 24 Tolstoy for instance writes that 'the delicate balance between insanity and in own prophetic genius Merlins character is particularly livelyand convincing' (p. 43). In any case, the notion ofmadness in thework is hardly unambiguous, not least because the Latin term can furor of have both the negative meaning of madness and also the positive connotation of 'commitment, principled enthusiasm,' forwhich semantic range theAeneid, Book IV may be cited,where a to resume 'piusAeneas' experiences 'furor' the path of duty (which inevitably brings about his desertion ofDido). Merlin has a similar (inevitable) conflict of so obligations that,when deterred by the throng ofmen at Court and described as 'iterumque furore repletus' (1. 223), this could well mean 'filledwith new

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furor (to return to the forest?rather than 'withnew fury'). 25 Penelope Doob, Nebuchadnezzar's Children. Conventions ofMadness inMiddle English Literature (New Haven: Yale U.P , 1974), p. 153. Itmay be recalled that theBattle ofArfderydd numbered among the 'Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain' in theTriads. See Trioedd YnysPrydein, edited by Rachel Bromwich (Cardiff:University ofWales Press, 1978,Triad 84, pp. 206-10. 26 'The madness ofMerlin, hardly intelligible here, is clear enough in the other versions where it comes as a for own punishment his misdeeds,' Parry, p. 119, note 7 to text 11. 63ff. 27 Elissa R. Henken, Traditions of theWelsh Saints (Cambridge,UK: D.S. Brewer, 1987), p. 3. 28 Elissa R. Henken, TheWelsh Saints. A Study inPatterned Lives (Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 22-23. as in 29 Henken, previous note, p. 24. 30 See Rachel Bromwich, Triodd YnysPrydein, p. 511and Toby D. Griffen,Names from theDawn ofBritish Legend (Felinfach: Llanerch, 1994), pp. 22-44. 31 Hugh Williams, trans.,Two Lives of Gildas, facsimile reprint of 1899 edition, Felinfach, Llanerch, 1990. 32 The Oxford Companion to theLiterature ofWales, ed. Meie Stephens (Oxford: Oxford U. P, 1986), p. 214. 33 Henken The Welsh Saints, p. 18. 34 Ganieda's words are: Felices igiturqui perstant corde piato /obsequiumque Deo faciunt mundumque relinquunt (11. 720-21). 35Henken, The Welsh Saints, p. 80. 36 'The sources for theLife of St. Kentigern,' inStudies in theEarly British Church, edd. Nora Chadwick, Kathleen Hughes, Christopher Brooke and Kenneth note Jackson (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P, 1958), pp. 273-356, citation p. 328,

37 Jarman, 1991, p. 123. 38 Jon B. Coe and Simon Young, The Celtic Sourcesfor theArthurian Legend, (Felinfach, Llanerch, i995)p. 14 39 Oliver Davies, Celtic Christianity in EarlyMedieval Wales. The Origins of the Welsh Spiritual Tradition, Cardiff, University ofWales U.P 1996, esp. pp. 7-27; Corinne Saunders, The Forest ofMedieval Romance (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer 1993) esp. pp. 116-19.

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