Kings: M: Merlin

Gwion Bach (Little Innocent) Gwiawn Llygad Cath ap Gwreang Llanfair, Gwiawn ap Cynderwyn (Little Grain Son of Yeoman of the Eminent Church) Myrddin, Merddin, Merlin (Sea Fortress) Meirneal (Hawk) Trachmyr (Beyond the Sea) Teallsanach, Taliésin (Radiant Brow) Gwyllennhin (Wild One of the Woods) Thomas of Rymour (Holy Twin) Anglicus, Nant Gwynant, Nant Gwrtheyn, Ambrosius (Blood of the Gods) Primary Chief Bard am I to Elffin, And my original country was the region of the summer stars; Idno and Henin called me Myrddin, At length every king will call me Taliesin. I was with my Lord in the highest sphere, On the fall of Lucifer into the depths of hell; I have borne a banner before Alexander; I know the names of the stars from north to south; I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributor; I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain; I conveyed the divine Spirit to the level of the Vale of Hebron; I was in the Court of Don before the birth of Gwydion; I was instructor to Eli and Enoch; I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crozier; I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech; I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God; I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrhod; I have been chief director of the work of the tower of Nimrod; I am a wonder whose origins are not known; I have been in Asia with Noah in the Ark, I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; I have been in India when Rome was built, I am now come here to the remnant of Troy; I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass; I strengthened Moses through the waters of the Jordan; I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene; I have obtained the Awen from the cauldron of Ceridwen; I have been Bard of the Harp to Lleon of Lochlin; I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynfelyn, For a year and a day in stocks and fetters, I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin, I have been fostered in the land of the Deity, I have been teacher to all intelligences, I am able to instruct the whole universe; I shall be until the day of doom upon the face of the Earth, And it is not known whether my body be flesh or fish. Then I was for nine months In the womb of the hag Ceridwen; I was originally little Gwion, At length I am Taliesin.	(pron. GOO-ee-on, MUHR-din, MUHR-lihn, tahl-YES-in) As the baby Gwion Bach: Little Innocent the moon goddess Ceridwen: White Grain had him stir her Coire fhíos: Cauldron of Knowledge with the blind man Morda: Sea God for a year and a day. Three drops of the cauldron liquor fly out and burn his finger. When he touches the burned finger to his mouth he gains the powers of prophecy, inspiration and shapeshifting. The cauldron splits in two. Gwion flees in the shape of a hare and Cerridwen pursues him as a greyhound. He turns into a fish, and she a brown otter; he is a bird and she is a hawk. He then turnes into a grain of wheat and she a black hen with ruddy claws and parting comb swallows him. After nine months [or nine nights] he is reborn from her womb. She cannot kill him because of his great beauty so she puts him in a leather bag on May Eve and throws him into the sea. He is discovered by the god Elphin: Pure Element at An Talla Dearg: The Red Hall, Bal Cluit: Town of the Lame One a.k.a Dùn Breatann: Fortress of the White Cow & named Taliésin: Radiant Brow. Three receptacles of transformation: the cauldron, the womb, and the leather bag from which he emerges as Radiant Brow. Gwion is immediately able to compose perfect verse by virtue of the Awen: River Knowledge received from Ceridwen’s cauldron. He falls in love at age 15 with Gwawr-Guinevere: White Goddess and they share dreams and forest paths. He is wounded by an arrow and is nursed back to health by her. Ceridwen explains to Gwion that he must travel to Amorica: Great Sea Place, the Celtic Kingdom of Brittany in France, for his Druid training. He must wait a year for his Druid training and has sex with Ygerne who gives birth to Mogaine at Tintagel. After his Druid training which lasts a 19 year star-cycle he is trapped in a hawthorn tree by the goddess Vivian and has sex with her on Midsummer’s Eve in the Forest of Brocéliande. Their son is Lleminawg-Lancelot: Fair Foundling. Taliésin goes on to achieve fame as Primary Chief Bard of Britain. He writes Cad Goddeu: Husk of the Trees which explains the brewing of a supreme intoxicating clover-mead from the cauldron of five trees. He searchs for the magic red sea-snake’s egg called Glain Naddair: Adder Jewel-Stone, believed to have been created by covens of copulating serpents on Midsummer’s Eve and credited with protective and healing properties. As he ages he is called Merlin; old as oak roots who can catch the wind and weave it into poems and see the future [in Vitae Merlini he announces the death of King Arthur]. He is tall, gaunt, long bearded and black eyed with a grey coat. The Dynion Hysbys: Wise Men say he is fatherless. He lives in Coed Celyddon: Caledonian Forest. He was jailed in the prison of the goddess Arianrhod: Silver Wheel of the Stars, went mad at Arfderydd trapped in a tower of air and existed only as a shadow. He then was buried alive under a stone, sealed in a stone vault, and trapped in a glass tower. He found Arthur: Golden Bear on the shore of the sea and in the Once and Future King he transforms Arthur and himself into fish, squirrels & then birds to learn the principles of kingship. He then constructs the Round Table. He has a Cwrwg Gwydrin: Glass Boat, is consort of the goddess Elen: Radiance, guards the Thirteen Treasures of Britain invisible treasures concealed from Saxons and harmful people on the invisible glass tower of Ynys Enlli: Bardsey Island with 9 companions. As a seer at Dinas Emrys: Nine Place he prophecied his triple death: by beating, impalement and drowning in the river Tweed by shepherds. Other stories of the druidic triple death as: falling from a cliff, his feet caught, and hanging head-down in the water, so that he dies by falling, hanging and drowning at Drumelzier, Tweedale: the junction of Pausayl (Willow) River and Tweed River documented by the Scottish seer Thomas the Rhymer. Vivian eats blackberries by Merlin’s tomb at Brocèliande, France. Merlin sleeps in a crystal cave and when Arthur returns He will bring out the true throne and crown him. Caer-fyrddin: Carmarthen, Dyfed named after Him contains Bryn Myrddin: Merlin’s Hill, and the ruins of Dynevor Castle where He is said to commune with the faeries. His wishig well is at Alderley Edge, Cheshire. Caer Taliésin is at Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland. The Caers are crystal palaces that shine like the sun. (71, 75, 79, 83, 93, 171, 256) Godeu, with Lieu and Gwydion, They changed the forms of the elementary trees and sedges. The trees and grasses, hurried to the fight: the alders led the van, the willows and quickens came late, the birch took long in arraying himself; t he elm stood firm in the centre of the battle, and would not yield a foot; heaven and earth trembled before the advance of the oak-tree, that stout door-keeper against an enemy; the heroic holly and the hawthorn defended themselves with their spikes; the heather kept off the enemy on every side, and the broom was well to the front, but the fern was plundered, and the furze did not do well; the stout, lofty pine, the intruding pear-tree, the gloomy ash, the bashful chestnut-tree, the prosperous beech, the long-enduring poplar, the scarce plum-tree, the shelter-seeking privet and woodbine, the wild, foreign laburnum; the bean, bearing in its shade an army of phantoms; rose-bush, raspberry, ivy, cherry-tree, & medlar- all took their parts. (275)
Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr (Brave Director)	(pron. GLEH-OO-LOO-UHD) God & porter in the court of Arthur. He is one of the nine avatars of the god Gwion Bach Chief of the Bards of the West. (73, 75, 83)
Gwrbothu Hên ap Darowen (Old) Grynn (Grunter) Uther Pendragon, Utherchair (Hornskin) Merlin pointed to the fallen stones which lay all around. ‘What lies beneath the wall? Dig deeper into the earth, King Vortigern, and you shall find it. ‘Water lies beneath the stone,’ said Merlin. ‘In this pool live two dragons, a red and a white. Every night they fight and the earth shakes and thus the wall falls down. Drain away the water and you shall see the dragons.’ –Arthur, King of Britain: Hero-Tales from the British Isles	(pron. GOOR-bothuh, OOTH-er) He is the Grail King, King of Avalon, who can take the form of a red dragon. His two brothers are Gwion Bach: Little Innocent & Amris: Master of the Nine. Father of the god Celtchair: Rainement & Menn. His nephew [other stories say son] is Arthur: Golden Bear Merlin gives Uther the love of Igraine: Lady in exchange for his first-born son Arthur, given in a golden robe. Merlin takes Arthur to be brought up by Ector. (58, 75, 89, 203)
Pennpingyon, Pen Pighon (Head) Aurelius Ambrosius, Amhyr, Amhir, Amris, Emrys (Master of the Nine)	Welsh god and porter for the court of Ysbaddaden the giant. He goes upon his head to save his feet, neither towards the sky nor towards the earth. Aurelius is the brother of Uther and ruler of Britain before Uther. He tells Merlin to send for the giant’s healing stones from Ireland. He is buried below the circle or dance of the giants. Caer Emrys: Palace of the Nine is called the Ambrosial City and is the Lair of the Red Dragon. It is a Palace created by Amaethon: Laborer with pillars of marble and fountains of crystal-clear water, surrounded by inner gardens verdant with plants. One portal is Forthangall, Scotland. Another is Dinas Emrys in the valley of Nant Gwynant, a mile north-east of Beddgelert, North Wales. Bran’s White Dragons, the Earth Guardians, are polarly located below the city. (75, 223, 245, 256)
Llaes Cymyn (Trailing Kindness) Llasar Llaes Gyngwyd (Blue Enamel Flame)	(pron. LHA-SAHR) Welsh God of Death who owns a magic cauldron into which warriors who are slain are cast but who come forth alive. The god Mallolwych got him drunk and tried to burn him alive inside a house. He broke through the wall with the cauldron of regeneration and escaped with the goddess Cymidei into the Irish sea and sailed to Wales in the cauldron. (52).
Gogigwc, Gogyvwich (Expansion, Extension)	(pron. GOHG-IHG-OOK) Welsh god and porter in the court of Ysbaddaden the giant. (75)
Gwrdinal ap Ebrei, Gwrddywall, Gwrdnei (Green)	(pron. GOOR-dihn-ahl) Welsh god with cat’s eyes, who could see as well by night as by day. (75, 93)
Drem ap Dremidydd (Sight Divine Son of Vision)	Welsh god who has such keen vision he can see a gnat from miles away. He saw from Celliwig in Cornwall as far as Pen Blathaon in Scotland when a fly would rise in the morning with the sun. (71, 75)
Clust ap Clustveinad (Sound Divine Son of Hearer)	Welsh god who has such fine hearing that he can hear an ant rise fifty miles away. Seen with Afflawn. (75)

[French Ministry of Education Site: Centre national de documentation pédagogique]