Merlin, the name of an ancient British prophet and magician, who is supposed to have flourished during the decline of the native British power in its contest with the Saxon invaders. The prophetic child Ambrosius first mentioned by Nennius in his Historia Britonum was confounded with Ambrosius Aurelianus, the conqueror of Vortigern, and subsequently the resulting Merlin Emerys or Ambrosius was confounded with the Merlin called Silvestrius or Caledonius. It is as the subject of one of the cycle of Arthurian romances that Merlin's name has survived. The Cambrian Merlin is said by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Britonum and Vita Merlini, to have lived in the 5th century, to have sprung from the intercourse of a demon with a Welsh princess, to have been rescued from his malignant destiny by baptism, and to have displayed the possession of miraculous powers from infancy. The adventures of Merlin were taken, with additions from Armorican and other sources, from the Latin of Geoffrey, and made popular in the French language by Robert Wace and Robert de Borron. Henry Lonelich's English verse translation is in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The analysis of the romance of Merlin in Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances was made from the MS. in Lincoln's Inn Library. There is a MS. in the Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh, and one in Bishop Percy's folio MS. (printed in 1867). The prose romance is longer and more important than the metrical one. Merlin, Roman en Prose du XIIIe Siècle, was published by the Société des Anciens Textes Français in 1886, and the Early English Text Society published under the editorship of the present writer in 1865-69 Merlin, or the Early History of King Arthur about 1450-60, printed from the MS. in the Cambridge University Library. Merlin is frequently alluded to by our older poets, especially by Spenser, and his story occupies a prominent position in Tennyson's Idylls of the King. A collection of prophecies attributed to Merlin appeared in French (Paris, 1498), in English (Lond. 1529 and 1533), and in Latin (Venice, 1554); and their existence is traceable at least as far back as the middle of the 14th century. The Strathclyde, or—if we may be allowed an expression which anticipates history—the Scottish Merlin, called Merlin the Wyllt, or Merlin Caledonius, is placed in the 6th century, and appears as a contemporary of St Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow. His grave is still shown at Drummelzier on the Tweed, where, in attempting to escape across the river from a band of hostile rustics, he was impaled on a hidden stake. A metrical life of him in Latin, extending to more than 1500 lines, professedly based on Armoric materials, and incorrectly ascribed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was published by the Roxburghe Club in 1833. His prophecies—published at Edinburgh in 1615—contain those ascribed to the Welsh Merlin.