Book 1

## **Of the Wild Man of the Forest**

A fire lit the great hall at the foot of the great residential tower into which the servant led the gaunt old man dressed in dirty greens and grays.The man warmed himself at the flames and gratefully accepted a small bowl of warm broth as an older, darkly dressed woman approached him from the wooden ballustrade above the hall. "Do you bring news of my brother?" the man looked up."You are Vindodia, wife of Rudioargos?" "His widow.My husband passed away some time ago.Forgive the unseemly reception,rest,strengthen yourselves,but I am very eager to hear from my brother.Forgive me again,I don't even know your name..." "I am grateful for every bit of Christian charity I can find! Your apology is unnecessary, and yes, your brother lives.I met him in the Caledonian woods near Perthia, where I lived with him for some time.... Centigernus of Collrost is my name." The man finished his meager meal and Vindodia asked a servant to bring the hungry guest more and prepare quarters for him. "Have thanks.I have wandered long and yet seem little fatigued.Now let me report: I was in old Curia by the river Clota and had been searching for Merlinus for a long time.I wandered aimlessly through the wilderness and asked every farmer , hunter or shepherd I met if he knew anything about Merlinus the Wild , and everyone I met knew to tell me this or that but not the place where he could be found.I met animals and was always on the guard of wild boar , bears or wolves , but only the birds seemed to accompany me and many a time I saw a mighty stag in the distance. I was ready to abandon my search and return to the safety of human settlements when I saw Merlinus, and the sight of him horrified me, because at the edge of the path I was treading seemed to startle out of nowhere a large pile of wild birds that must have been resting on something that I could recognize only on closer inspection as a human. It was an old man, it seemed, almost naked, clad only by dirt and what may have been his wild body hair. At first I thought he was dead, but he began to stir and seemed to laugh at me or mock me. He behaved in every way like an animal, even imitating the sounds of the birds, and it took many patient words before I could coax human sounds from him. A little bit of bread and cheese from my provisions, and a small cup of wine that I put on the ground finally lured him to approach me a little more, but like a wild animal he growled and barked at me and unexpectedly darted into the thick of the forest, where I could not find him. I often returned to that place and waited with something I had brought from Perthia, and usually he appeared after a while and one day got used to my visits and alms.At first timidly, but then surprisingly soon we began to communicate with simple words, even if Merlinus often seemed to laugh at me, I think he soon found pleasure in my company.But I must now, in turn, ask you something!" "As glad as I am to hear that my brother is alive, I am concerned about his condition, how can I help you?" "Forgive me, but I am surprised that you seem to be a woman who is nigh thirty or more years younger than I am, certainly not more than about forty years, I think? For Merlin called you his twin sister, and he seemed even to me, who I am an old man, like an ancient one of indeterminable age, one of those rare supercentenarians of whom one hears but never sees." "Yes, it may seem strange to you, but it does not surprise me.My brother aged early, far faster than I, and even as a child he talked like one of the old, speaking of distant, long-ago things as if he remembered them.As a young man he seemed like a middle-aged man, as a middle-aged man mature, as a mature man already like an old man." "Then what he told me shocks me even more! For we often sat together and he began to tell me many things, he told me of times when my father Ivovenus, whom Merlin claimed to have known, was still a young man, and even of things before even his birth.He told me of the time of the Romans and of ancient kings whose names I knew only from songs or the gossip of the people, or whose names were even completely foreign to me." Vindodia was silent for a long time, but finally she spoke up, "Will you tell me what my brother had to say? I invite you to stay here in Ovania as my guest for as long as you like." Centigernus rose, "This I will do, but I will put what Merlin told me into a language more similar to that of men and more orderly than those little coherent sentences and his laughter of a madman by which he told me his story, for what I have to report shall be written down, since, if what he said is the truth, he was once a great man and shall be remembered as such, in memory but also as a warning, addressed to the people of our time and our descendants in future generations..."

## The Conception of Merlin

I am Merlinus-Aliogenos.Merlinus son of Medocius of Caledonia, but once I was Merlin son of Moricantus, but my true father was an ancient spirit known to men by many names, you know him as Lucifer. I imagine that the inhabitants of the underworld must have held council, for the old religion was dying and new gods had come and demanded to be worshipped by man and to forget the old gods, but who was this Christian god who had begotten the god-man Jesus Christ who had brought this new faith to mankind? Not a few of the old Gods suspected one of their own to hide behind the new name, was it Saturn, Father-Time? Was it Wodan, Allfather in one of his numerous disguises? Was it the highest and greatest Jupiter who now sought sole power? One of his sons, Apollo or Dionysus who wanted to overthrow the father? Or even the old sky god Caelus who had returned to snatch his kingdom from his grandchildren? So they quarreled terribly among themselves when Lucifer came forth, the old father of the queen Hellia, son of Eostre, the goddess of sunrise, mocking the quarreling gods in their eternal disagreement. If the new god had created a man-son for himself and now the peoples of the earth were falling away from the old gods... why not do the same and create a man-son to fight his work and to strengthen the old religion again? One had done these things before, but never all-together and entrusted with such a task. And so it came that an old spirit was chosen to be reborn as a man and I was created to be the new chosen Anti-christ. Lucifer had already chosen a tool... In Britannia at that time there lived a young girl named Optima, a daughter of the Silurian king Mauricus, whose soul was particularly kind-hearted and pure. Lucifer had already afflicted her family earlier, because Mauricus had been a very Christian and pious man and so my father hit him with all the misfortune that was possible for him. His small kingdom, Ariconia which lay around the town of Tovius was overrun by the Demetii, my grandfather had to flee with his family into exile to Ceilobriga in Leucodunum, with only a few belongings and goods and even these Lucifer made perish by plague.he tormented my grandfather himself with nightly demons until he fell victim to madness.

In their distress, Mauricus's family sought help from a famous man named Placidus, once a disciple of the Druid order, but now a devout baptized man and head of a house of pious people in the city of Moridunum. But all attempts by Placidus to banish Lucifer's demons from Mauricus's body failed. Mauricus strangled his young son, the innocent Cadugaunus, in his sleep, and when his daughter Aurelia became pregnant out of wedlock, he buried her alive. Mauricus's surviving daughters Honoria and Optima fled from their mad father and lived in poverty and wandering until they came to Moridunum, where they found shelter in the Christian community of the wise man Placidus. The men of this community called themselves "the solitary Ones" and the women "Brides of Christ" they dressed themselves in the garments of the poor and prayed and cared for those in need. My mother Optima lived in this community and decided to become a bride of Christ herself, but my aunt Honoria could not find peace there. Then she was found by an older woman named Gersovelia who took her in and made her her pupil. With sweet words and false friendship she educated her to become a "Meretrix", a professional harlot and common woman who slept with wealthy men for money and served them with her body at riotous feasts. There she finally met Moricantus, the illegitimate son of King Viriatus of Eboracum, who led a lawless and unchristian life there with similar-minded companions and lived with her new comrades in prosperity and oblivion just for the moment. By this time Lucifer had long since taken possession of Moricantus and was driving the group to ever new misdeeds and dangerous feats.One evening, as I remember it was winter, they decided to break into the hostel of the Brides of Christ in a drunken stupor and search for Optima, under the pretext that her sister was looking for her help.Oh I know their names! They were Honoria and the prostitutes Telaria and Palatra and Moricantus and the pimp Oitoradus, whom Moricantus stabbed in a fight that night! I will not describe in detail what else happened that night, but I know that my mother Optima fled out into the snow and the dark woods and wanted to die, but she was not destined to do so. Placidus found her and took her to his hermitage and nursed her back to health, and after some time it turned out that she was expecting a child, me, the unfortunate fruit of Moricantus and through him the fruit of Lucifer.

## On the search for the father

My mother Optima, however, was not a weak child.after lying injured and ill for a long time, the solitary ones soon found out that she was with child.not knowing what her future or mine would be, she decided to find her tormentor and assert her rights as a freeborn woman against him. Soon she searched the streets of Moridunum, but found no trace of Moricantus, who she however did find was Colonnus, a wandering bard who had often visited her family in Tovius and later Leucodunum when she was a child. Colonnus was an illegitimate son of Mauricus, who as a bastard had been denied the succession of Ariconia and thus had been given by his father to the bard school of Glevum. She urged that distant half-brother, almost a stranger, to take her along on her journey and search for the father of her child. She stole away from the house of St. Peter and urged Colonnus to follow the traces of Moricantus, from Moridunum to Isca and Uriconium, to the court of King Vortigern and to Tamium, but nowhere did they find Moricantus, who at that time had already completely succumbed to madness and was lonely waiting for his death, locked away by his own shame-filled family in the high tower of Eburacum. On the way to the old homeland Leucodunum near Londinium, however, my mother was visited by my true father in a dream who sent her running with the wind, leaving the streets as if out of her mind, to the plain of Sorbiodunum where the ancient giant's dance stood, which people fearfully avoided. There Lucifer appeared to her, in various shapes and forms, sometimes as a huge giant, sometimes as an old hermit, sometimes as a handsome young man fancily dressed, sometimes in the form of her tormentor Moricantus, sometimes as her half-brother Colonnus. He put her in fear, then he sought to win her trust with kindness and care, finally he promised her to acknowledge his child and to always take good care of both their lives and began to tell her the story of his tribe. He spoke of the creation of the world and the wanderings of ancient demon tribes in a time before time or the arrival of the first mortal men, of clans of primeval giants to whose kings he and his siblings rose until they became tyrants, of how they built the Giant's Dance of magical rock to heal those who were injured and killed in the mighty wars of the elements and to show their children the way to the ancient demon fortresses, the mighty cities beyond the stars. I, their child, was destined to be one of those ancient ones returned, to lead the lesser human children, put the new gods in their place and show the people their way to the stars. In that hour, my mother surrendered, first to deceive Lucifer and escape his greater power, promising herself later to seek forgiveness from God and advice and help from Placidus, to be baptized a Christian and thwart Lucifer's plan, as she told herself and did so when she returned to Moridunum with Colonnus, but her old faith had already inevitably died and from that day on she often looked up at the stars by night.

## Merlin and the Judge

And thus I was born, on a rainy and stormy night, in the forbidden hour, about ten days before the autumnal equinox, when lightning struck Moridunum and many houses of the city caught fire and several people died. I was a misshapen, ugly monstrosity, a bloodstained, pathetic creature, hairy all over, and the brides of Christ wanted me to be killed, abandon me in the wilderness and leave my life to the judgment of the Lord, but Placidus found me, baptized me by the second name of my grandfather, Merlinus, and brought me back to my mother, and freed from dried blood and hair, I now seemed to be a normal human child, and baptized, none of the solitary ones dared to lay hands on me. I grew up in the house of St. Peter and since the brides of Christ used to take in many young girls and also cared for fatherless children, no one paid special attention to me in my early days until I took my first steps earlier and spoke sooner than children usually do and my words and looks did not seem to be those of a young child but rather those of an old man, rich in years. So we began to talk and although Placidus forbade it, at some point the word about the unfortunate sinister brat from the house of St. Peter traveled out into the neighborhood, into the cities quarters and eventually I was soon in almost everyone's gossip in the entire city. Placidus, my mother and also my uncle Colonnus defended me the best they could, but the pious people of Moridunum looked at me with fear and soon with open hatred, and it was not long before they urged the praetor of the city to take care of me. The praetor, who was also the court judge of the king of Venedotia, one of his relatives and twelve advising druids, was at that time a man named Mattius, a serious and conscientious man who did not care to indulge the superstitions of the common people and who only reluctantly set out to get hold of me and convene a court. When the court met, however, the fury of the mob was overwhelming, and in spite of the suffering defense which Diakonos Placidus gave me, Mattius was soon inclined to accede to the urging of the people for the sake of municipal peace. I looked into his heart and now took the floor myself to the royal judge and described in dark words that many a fatherless child could very well be of noble and high descent and that cleverness and eloquence were nothing idolatrous but only distinguished those of high birth from the common people, how much Christ our Lord had praised the children and purity of their souls, and that in the case of many a high lord in office and honor his parentage could be quite uncertain in spite of his good name, and that not every child of a known father with a good name was actually certainly the child of that very father. If Mattius had not been personally averse to me so far, now his face darkened and in his heart he decided to condemn me and to give in to the will of the people. He offered himself a break until the verdict and soon withdrew, ostensibly to consult about the legality of the death sentence on a child. Soon, however, he was called out, for an old man of his retinue named Antrius, a Christian priest, had been found dead, apparently drowned in the dark waters of the Tamesa, that great river which divided Moridunum. Mattius, to whom Antrius had always been a good friend and mentor, was shaken and troubled, and now it happened that Mattius' old mother Salvina asked to speak to her son. She approached Mattius and confessed to him with tears that the priest Antrius had not been a good man and had once used her in her youth and had done violence to her, but that now as an adult man he should learn the truth that Antrius had been his true father and that after his death the lie she had always told her son must be exposed. Mattius soon appeared before the crowd and with sharp words condemned the superstition of the people, invoked the Christian faith and proclaimed that the king of Venedotia could never be a Herod but a pious follower of Christ our Lord. I was only an exceptionally clever child, in whom there was nothing unusual or even diabolical, except for a presumably noble descent, for which neither I nor my young mother were to be condemned, but rather we were to be treated with forgiveness and charity, as befitted good Christian men and faithful citizens of the king and placed me under the personal protection of his family. That day I was allowed to go free and the people left me in peace, even if they avoided me and no longer spoke open about me.I had found in Mattius a powerful ally and protector, but knew that my unspoken deal was that the knowledge of his true parentage must never be known, about which both our looks had agreed clearly and without words.I, however, was also clearly aware whose power it had been that had driven Antrius to suicide and Salvia's decision to break her silence.

## Lucifer in the Stones

So I grew up and grew older, and I cannot say, on the whole, that my childhood was an unhappy one, for my mother took great care of me and protected me from evil voices within the small community of the solitary ones, and even if most of our housemates now shunned me and rarely spoke to me, my wise teacher Placidus was always there for me and quenched my immense thirst for knowledge. Soon I was able to read and write, and not only Latin and Brythonic, but also Greek I quickly learned and began to speak the language of the Hebrews as if it had always been my own and in a short time surpassed even my teacher Placidus. Also my uncle Colonnus often visited us, taught me to sing, to play the six-sided crotta and told me the history and legends of our ancestors. In those days my teacher Placidus' thoughts were often far from us, in his old homeland of Northern Suambria, which was then ruled by Anmedocius, a Britannic king whose family was related by marriage to the Saxones, and many of that tribe then settled there, bringing their native gods with them. It burned in Placidus' soul to preach there and to bring the Christian message to the people, and so one day I spoke to him to go and take me with him, for I felt that I was becoming a burden to my poor mother and would not have a safe and happy life in Moridunum for a long time. Fortunately, after a conversation with my mother, he was convinced and so we started the journey.

Also in northern Suambria, where we settled in Portus Felix, I did not make friends, but I soon learned to restrain myself and not to frighten people unnecessarily with words unusual for a child.Placidus began to build up a small community and I read the few writings that the poor pious people possessed as far as Placidus was able to intercede for me and especially the sacred Scriptures of the Hebrews. Above all, the story of the creation of man enchanted me so much that one day I took a lump of clay and formed it into a human-like figure, I kneaded ground bones of two whales with it and human fingernails, then I took material from the figure and formed a second figure, made the first male, and the second female and then fused both into a new one which I carved the words of creation on the forehead and indeed. . the little creature moved and looked at me and I hoped for the first time in my life to have created a new friend of my own, which I christened Cavarcantos. When I did this, for the first time my father spoke to me openly and understandably, first in a low whisper, then in a voice, clearly understandable, but I was still unclear about his intentions and I did not know who was calling me when I was sitting alone in our barren room in the parish hall. At that time my teacher Placidus also became seriously ill and rolled around in a fever, he had gotten into a serious quarrel with a Saxon named Osmund, for he was a powerful man, a pagan priest and sorcerer and one of the king's advisors at that time, and the enmity and his pursuitss weighed heavily on his heart. One night I came to his bedside and thought I saw a tall, wild-looking, hairy man who was scourging Placidus in his sleep, but was himself in chains. I took his hand from Placidus' chest with a sure heart, looked him in the eye and asked him why he was harming my dear friend, when the wild man began to shed gentle tears and I loosened his chains with a mere thought, whereupon he took the form of a hart and fled from our house. Often after that a white stag came back near our lodging, became tame and I followed him into the nearby woods where we romped and played with Cavarcantos and amused ourselves with stories and riddles. One of those stories that my new companion, who called himself Biliodelvos, told me was about an old king, a mighty one among the gods, who had condemned himself for a grave crime and sold himself into slavery, becoming a lowly ghost and servant and in the end a maltreated servant of power-hungry mortal men. I knew that this was the true story of the origin of Bioliodelvos, which he told me, and now he also spoke of my father, with whom he was acquainted from ancient times, and warned me that he was a deceitful, cruel and jealous spirit, but that I could not deny my father forever. So it came about that I gave into Lucifer's calls and ran away from home, following his voice which always led me safely through the whole country, and which told me which road or path was free of danger and where I could easily find food. The call brought me to a deserted plain where a great circle of stones had been erected, the legendary Giant's Dance of Sorbiodunum, where my father first appeared in form, taking on many shapes and faces, then appearing as a powerful commander or emperor, then as persons I knew, also as a traveling minstrel, and then imitating the features of my uncle Colonnus. He began to tell of the history of our people and of me as I had once lived, ages ago, as a chieftain and mighty builder, it had been I myself who had built the Giant's Dance to heal those who were gravely wounded after mighty battles between Old Gods and earth-born giants. My memory returned, a mighty one among the first people who had lived on this island of ours, I had been, and the Giant's Dance, giants themselves, members of my tribe, sons of Mother Earth, whom my father had snatched from her lap, soon the giants awoke and danced again, an ancient circle-dance , and my father and I in their midst. My father had wanted to make my task clear to me, and before my eyes I saw my future, a great king and priest, lord of men and the world.But in my mind I began to form other images and our giant cousins became stones again.The circle became a house, and my friend Cavarcantos connected its stone pillars to walls of wood, covered its roof with thatch, and provided the great house with a mighty gate. I went outside, locked it with a copper key that I had made, and let my father behind. Now the giant dance was just a circle of stones again, my father was trapped and beside me sat my friends Biliodelvos and Cavarcantos. I took Cavarcantos back into my small leather pouch, put the key on my walking staff, then transformed the staff into the antlers of one mighty stag, merged with Biliodelvos for the first time and ran free as a pale white hart on the vast plain of Sorbiodunum.

## Of Vortigerns Tower and the two Dragons

At that time, Britannia was ruled by a powerful man named Vortigern son of Vitalis. A descendant of a Cambrian noble family and the son of a Christian episcopus, he had earned his prominent position not with the sword but with wisdom, cunning and skill. When the Romans handed Britannia over to the Britanni themselves and the Episcopus of Londinium summoned the heads of the civitates to the legislative assembly, it was he on whose advice the heads of the great families, in order to keep tup peace among themselves, elected a High King according to the oldest custom, a pious man without claims to power named Constans, who was the son of Constantinus III, one of the last Western Roman emperors, whom Vortigern himself had visited in his secluded Christian community and convinced to ascend to the new important office. At the same time Vortigern's own rise had begun, first lord of the blossoming valley of Glevensia, then soon the neighboring tribal territories of Ventia and Tigernleuc, and soon large parts of Siluria, he gathered petty kings, local princes and clan chiefs around him, for he was a skillful and shrewd man and Britannia was at that time beset by raids of Picti and Scoti as well as threatened from the Saxon coast and across the sea by Saxonian invaders from Germania. With great cunning he attracted some of the Hibernian chieftains who had settled western Cambria to his side, divided the southern Picts with clever alliances and territorial promises, and won over parts of those Saxones already settled in Britannia as allies against their own countrymen, as chief advisor, he was able to unite the heads of the Britannic civitates as far as possible under Constans and thus forge a powerful alliance which allowed the Britanni to defend themselves even without the support of Rome and many princes gained personal power, soon rising to princes and petty kings. After the murder of the old High King by enemy assassins, he himself became his successor and tried to defend the Britannic alliance, which was threatened on all sides. But Vortigern was also a haughty and vain man. He had married Sevira, a daughter of the deceased Western Roman emperor Magnus Maximus, and sought to make Britannia militarily strong with the help of the Saxones, but the mostly pagan faith of the Saxones made him enemies among the Christian and Roman-friendly lords as far as the mainland of Gallia, and his allies from Germania also pursued their own plans. At that time, prophecy and superstition dominated Britannia, christian mostly in name only, and in all of his steps the people thought to envision omens. If the king won and was able to pacify another civitas and fend off an enemy, the people cheered him, but if he lost a battle or a petty king left the confederation, the prophets of doom murmured about curses and damnation.

In this difficult situation, Vortigern built a great fortress on Erirosia, the Eagle Mountain on the borders of Venedotia, as a symbol of power to ward off Hibernian pirates and impress his allies, but this time the signs seemed to have turned against him, for the walls of his fortress collapsed regularly and soon there began to be whispers among the people that the fortress construction was cursed and that the favor of God had turned against the High King. Vortigern, in his wisdom, now ruled in name, but for his counsel he had gathered around him twelve of the wisest and most learned men, men who came from the school of the ancient Druids and were versed in many a science. Those twelve profoundly learned men now met, as they were wont to, in the sacred grove of Diviniocella to deliberate, for the favor of the people and their superstitious chiefs threatened to slip away from the High King at the slightest sign of weakness. In their distress, the twelve sages remembered the old customs of their forefathers, for although they were Christians by law, they were all still deeply acquainted with the knowledge of their pagan teachers. It must have been the spirits of the mountain and of the earth themselves who demanded homage and tribute from the king, and one of them, Iorcoramus by name, came forward and said that the supreme sacrifice which would satisfy the mountain must be a fatherless child, not of human blood, since one must not abandon a very human being to the old gods. Mattius, the advisor from Moridunum, remained silent, but his cousin Eleaus had heard of the rumors about that inhuman boy from his city, and so the Twelve quickly agreed that the appearance of that inhuman child must also be a sign, and that it had undoubtedly only appeared for this purpose. Thus informed, the High King chose among his followers two trustworthy men, Lamogenus the Gaul and Rudiorix the Briton, to find the demonic child. The knights set out on their journey, but among the solitary ones they did not find a child to whom the description applied. Mattius the Praetor showed them two other fatherless boys who had recently been taken in by the brides of Christ, and thought that one of them would probably be the boy they were looking for. Satisfied, the servants of the Twelve returned to the royal court, only the two knights Lamogenus and Rudiorix were dissatisfied and continued to ask around among the townsfolk, and so they actually found out that the child had left the house of St. Peter in Moridunum with the Episcopus of the solitary ones to an unknown destination. Unwilling to return to their master with an unfulfilled task, they wandered through the countryside, inquiring about the Christian preacher and his eerie boy, hearing this and that, and were almost ready to give up the search until they met a Hibernian knight named Rigardwos, who had been a guest of Placidus in Portus Felix for a short period, and thus unwillingly put them on my trail. There they found an impertinent noble-born boy named Dinabutius, son of the chief Osmund, who scoffed at a cursed and fatherless bastard and directed them to our little community. When they appeared on the threshold of our house, I freely placed myself in their care and began the journey to Erirosia, where I met my mother Optima, whom the king's servants had already brought to his court. In their presence were also two other little boys unbeknowst to me when the high king arrived with his twelve advisors and entered ignorantly, asking the eldest child his name. In his place I stepped forward and presented to the king what my mind saw, the boy was not a fatherless child, which his servants, since I had not been found, had chosen in my place, he and his young brother were in truth Ambrosius and Uter, the two youngest sons of Constantinus, the younger brother of High King Constans, and in dark words I announced to the High King that I knew that I saw that not a Pictish rebel but a hired Saxon assassin had put aside his predecessor in office and also at whose behest. I spoke more, also, without saying it, that I knew who were in truth father and mother of Vortigern's grandson and second son Catigern and if the High King had been uncertain so far whether he should follow the advice of the Druids or not, then in this moment his death sentence had fallen on me.The druid Maugantius came forward and questioned my mother about the circumstances of my conception and birth and announced that it was true and that spirits, called Dusii, existed which could take possession of humans and impregnate human women, without doubt I was a being of the other world and not a human soul. I was brought to the mountain by the druids on the appointed day at the predetermined time and the preparations for my death were being made when I laughed out loud and spoke to Vortigern one more time and told him this story:

Long ago, when the old gods still walked the earth in human-like form, there lived two brothers named Vroicos and Rictos, who were giants and mighty sorcerers, and because of their high standing were entrusted with tending the magical pigs of the gods. This position was held in high esteem at all times and each of the two was praised by all for his wisdom, knowledge, strength and beauty, but there were some among the gods who thought that Vroicos was the more powerful and stronger of the two, while others declared that without a doubt Rictos was much stronger and more beautiful. Great love reigned among both brothers, but the voices that always spoke to one and praised the other, or to the second and praised the first, soon grew louder and louder, and whispers turned into mockery and scorn, and so both brothers came into conflict and changed from friends to bitter rivals and finally enemies. In many shapes and forms they fought each other first as sea creatures until the earth was almost swallowed up by floods, as great birds of prey until storms threatened to tear the sky apart, as mighty warriors drenching the world with blood, as mighty deer until almost all the forests were bare and empty, as two terrible spirit beings who threw the incorporeal world of the gods into chaos and finally as two immense dragons whose fire threatened to destroy everything. Now, as both the deities and their creation was in dire need, two gods joined forces, the Britannic god Nodons and the Gaulish god Lugobelinos brewed a magical beer in a huge magic cauldron whose smell the dragons could not resist, they feasted on the cauldron, exhausted from the battle, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Nodons and Lugobelinos did not hesitate any further, but created a large cave in the underworld where they put the dragons to sleep and built a mountain on top of it, circling about in innthe sgape of great eagles always on guard , the one that people later called Erirosia. I told the king that the battle between two powerful peoples had awakened the dragons, and I made an image rise from the depths in which the two demonic horned worms wrestled with each other, and the ground of the fortress we had begun to build shook under our feet. One of the twelve druids, Proximus by name, stepped forward and declared everything to be a mirage and a witchcraft trick, when he was struck dead by a falling stone. I said that the dragons had chosen sides, the red dragon the Britanni people and his brother the Saxones people, and would both take possession of their tribes and drive them into a terrible war until they devoured each other, which would last until the Day of Judgment, since both forces were equal. Vortigern promised to unite both peoples in peace and to atone for his past sins, first releasing the boys Ambrosius and Uter and promising to name the new castle Ambrosiodunum and to bequeath it to the elder of the two nephews of the man whom he had so wickedly misled. He also promised to give the Saxons their rights and to reconcile both dragons with both peoples.

The earth calmed down and soon the castle was built and seemed strong and powerful.The peoples of the island gave Vortigern their favor again and their rulers listened to his words and seemed favorable to him. In those days my mother and I, and with us the boys Ambrosius and Uter, lived in peace and prosperity at Vortigern's court in Viroconium in Tigernleuc, and I entertained the king with many a magical spectacle and foretold him many things, but I already knew that Vortigern's fate could no longer be changed, for in his immeasurable greed for power he had set his mind on controlling both dragons with my help and using them for his own purposes.

## Merlin and the Gleam

We spent a few years at Vortigern's court and I often entertained the king with magic feats, even the boys Ambrosius and Uter seemed to be safe at first, but Vortigern played a double game and again sought the proximity of the Saxon kings. He sought to control both dragons and for this reason married himself once more, this time to the Saxon Hródhwyn, a daughter of their king Hengist, who was well versed in the art of sorcery and the mixing of potions and poisons, as she was a student of my old enemy Osmund. Through my uncle Colonnus, I was able to establish contact with two of my cousins, Idhoelus and Morigenius, who had found refuge on the mainland where men from Cambria and Cornovia, under the leadership of Budicius, a grandson of Cunomoriodocus, had founded a small realm called Britannia Minor in Aremorica, in northwestern Gallia. Now Budicius was related to the family of Constantinus, Ambrosius and Uter's father and so I was sure that the brothers could expect safe accommodation there. Cavarcantos, my earthen friend and servant, who at that time had already grown to great stature, brought us safely out of Vortigern's fortress one night, and with the help of my faithful spirit Biliodelvos we all escaped the hunters by safe routes, Only my mother asked to stay behind in Britain and so I found a place for her with the solitary Ones in Portus Alaunus before I embarked, supported by my cousins Idhoelus and Morigenius, with the boys Ambrosius and Uter from Portus Alaunus to Aremorica where we were hospitably received at the court of Budicius in Darioritum who took both of us into his family. I now spent my days partly at the court of Venetia, where I devoted myself to my studies of the classical philosophers and also taught Ambrosius and Uter, as far as my young age and my lack of experience in such matters allowed me to do so, and partly I roamed the kingdoms of Aremorica, which were called Venetia, Cornugallia, Domnonia, Namnetia, Pennoarbitus and Castra Pagus after the countries of origin of their founding fathers. There I was often accompanied by another young man of the same age, whom we had met on the crossing, named Mailodunus, who wanted to become a man of the Church and with whom I for the first time formed bonds of friendship with a human being, and how much different it was to walk, argue, laugh and philosophize with someone of the same age, than with an ancient spirit like Biliodelvos or the faithful but mute Cavarcantos, who now mostly remained in my leather pouch, and also my excursions with Biliodelvoss in deer form became rarer, although I was also soon known in Aremorica as the wandering magical youth of King Budicius' court and many people came to me asking for signs, miracles or help with difficult things. One of those encounters at that time was to prove to be possibly the most fatal of my life, for since those days I have always wondered how I could have acted differently and whether the course of the world and my life might not have turned out happier had I not made that decision in my youthful confusion.

In those days wild wolf packs haunted the forests of Brisca and Darunantus and together with Mailodunus I supported my cousins Idhoelus and Morigenius in the hunt and smoked out the unusually large and vicious animals in their dens. The peasants of that area reported of a mysterious virgin who was often seen with the wolves in the moonlight and even sang to the moon and took wolf form. I went alone to Brisca and swore to find the werewolf and banish her from her form. On one of these walks in the woods I met Gleivia. Gleivia, shining light she seemed to be and light filled me when she spoke to me and looked at me.Her father Esuvius was a Gaul, once a retainer of the Duke of Vangionia, who had retreated to the island of Uliarus off Aremorica's coast and her mother Sulevia had been a pagan woman from Britannia.Still her family worshipped the old gods and especially Diana-Sirona at whose holy lake Gleivia kissed me for the first time. Gleivia! I swam across the lake in the moonlight and for the first time a human being seemed not to see my ugliness, not my small, hunched figure, not my hairy face.... I told Gleivia about the knowledge of the Christians and Hebrews I had grown up with, about the classical writers and philosophers, and sang her the old songs of the Britons that my uncle Colonnus had taught me. Gleivia knew such songs too! Oh, she was a disciple of the Senae, an ancient sisterhood of wise women, related to the Druids, who now lived openly as a Christian community but still preserved the ancient knowledge within. She learned from me and I from her, and our bodies enjoyed each other and the springtime of Brisca, and we both came to know each other more than I thought was ever possible between two people. Like me, Gleivia had been hunting, but she sought revenge on a warlock and his retinue who had killed members of her family, cruelly visiting them in their homes, burning mothers and newborn children alive, by the moon Gleivia had sworn to let the soul of that warlock leave his body and i shared her vow! How blind we both were...

It was not until that night at the Lake of Diana when I got out of the water and saw Gleivia singing in the moonlight until I understood. Wolves howled, not far from us, and I told Gleivia i was to protect her, but only a mild smile was her answer, not to fear her family and a pack led by a big black wolf joined peacefully at her feet and the werewolf licked my hand like a faithful dog that of his master, me who had smoked out the werewolf dens and burned his mates and children, me who was the one Gleivia was hunting. I had to confess to her and she understood and there was still no hatred between us who came from two different worlds, only sadness and despair over the mistakes and sins both our families had committed and over the thoughtless vows of revenge we had both imposed on each other. We reconciled and soon I myself took the form of a wolf and together we jaded through the woods, and when it pleased us Biliodelvos transformed us into a stag and a hind and we ran swiftly from Gleivia's hungry kinsmen.In the mirror of the lake of Diana Gleivia took my form and I hers and even so we loved each other and thought we had outwitted our oaths. At that time we swore to become husband and wife and to bind ourselves forever. Gleivia's father, who lived in a tower on Uliarus, disdained me as a work-shy, feral airhead, but he was no match for my powers and so he grew bitter over the study of his writings. The Senae were equally unkind to me, for according to their wishes Gleivia was to become one of the nine sisters who guarded the sacred island of Aballon, and that place and its secret Gleivia had revealed to me when we merged our knowledge. Aballon was a place that did not belong to the world of mortal men, our ancestors had known that this world is only a mirror of another world, and every thing that happens in this world manifests itself there in another form and vice versa, just as the feathers with which the Senae beyond covered the temple of Fortuna-Karnuntina appeared in our world as the words of poets. From certain sacred ancient places one could enter Aballon, and the nine sisters knew the ancient words and actions to invoke Barrovindos, the ferryman of Aballon, who could take a person to the other side. With the knowledge from my mind Gleivia had learned how I had built the stone hall from the giant's dance of Sorbiodunum and surprised me in Aballon with a shining hall which she called "Rosuanda", the great "Desire", there I should live together with her after our marriage, unconcerned about suffering or death, but I was not ready, was still too young to leave the world of mortals, thought me important tasks were ahead, even if I was not clear what kind. So I hesitated to run away with her into the other world, away from both our destinies and to be free according to our own law and did not see coming what had long been announced on the horizon in images and omens for which I was blind in my love. Three whole years had passed and the enemies had long taken up the trail of the werewolves. Since pre-Christian times, the Senae had taken the form of animals and lived on the mainland both as humans and at times as transformed beings, taking human lovers and giving birth to children who succeeded them, controlling weather and storms for the benefit of the peasants, but as parts of nature also sharing in the essence of the wilderness, and it had been part of the sacrifice to the old deities for fertility and good harvests to give cattle to the Senae to tear, an old deal that people had once made with the deities when they had left this world to them and had withdrawn completely into the other. But with the advent of the new gods, the old customs had been forgotten and suppressed, the last old people who had remembered the pact with the Senae had long since died, and the new Christian world knew no place for sorceresses and werewolves.

Already the people, following my footsteps, were moving against Esuvius' tower and it was my own cousins and Mailodunus who led the army. Gleivia's father fought with his axe and the priests brought all the animals to sacrifice for blessings in battle until there were no more animals and the Senae fled into the woods. At that moment I joined Gleivia's and my with magic in my mind and summoned from heaven Meldios, my kinsman from my father's clan, the spirit of lightning to turn the tide of battle. He entered between the combatants and I was able to save Gleivia's life, but her father lay dead and the tower of Uliarus was in flames.Never could Gleivia forgive me for this. There was no place left in this world for her, nor could I ever be together with her in Aballon after this.She joined in anger forever with Meldios and I sent them both to the sky world.Thus Gleivia became an immortal sky light, often I saw her on the horizon, as it were near and infinitely far, and often I went to meet her, but I knew I would not find her again in this life. In endless despair I withdrew from my cousins and also from my friend Mailodunus, gave them the illusion of a battle won and wandered back into the woods, looked into the lake of Diana-Sirona and entered the now empty wolf dens in which I lay with Gleivia.But empty? No! I heard what I thought were the sounds of wolf cubs or deer calves and found there in Gleivia's den two newborn human children. Tears came down my face as I took the children in my arms, no doubt my offspring, born without my knowledge of Gleivia as a she-wolf or a doe, whom i had taken the mother and to whom I was still too young to be a good father. I named the girl Inogena and gave her to the Nine Sisters, hoping for reconciliation between Aballon and myself. I named the boy Antumnocus and gave him to the Christians, referring to the Solitary Ones and my teacher Placidus, so that Gleivia and my offspring would share in both worlds. Then I went down to the beach and walked along the sea for a long time until I found the ship of an old Phoenician merchant named Ahinadab, who had often been a guest of Gleivia's father and also of my cousins, and there I asked him to take me with him on his voyage, leaving my fate to the sea.

## Merlin in Rome

Although the passage in Ahinadab's ship was calm, I was tormented by nightmares and dark visions. When I was awake I tried to follow Gleivia's glow on the horizon, when I was lying down I was sick and nauseous, boiling in the sweat of my own body. I was pursued by a long white snake which turned into the dragon of Babylon, a bound mighty wolf tore itself loose to devour the world with a bloody mouth, three chalices appeared to me which merged into one and changed, a stone, a jewel on a crown, a bowl, a mighty cauldron drawn with the images of ancient deities. When we docked in Massalia, in southern Gaul, I was completely lost in madness, but thanks to the charity of some fellow travelers, I found shelter in the house of an old, pious man named Cartaphilus, where I was cared for. In Cartaphilus' house, travelers and Christian dignitaries came together, far beyond the borders of Massalia or the Seven Dioceses. Now, in a strange whim, Fortuna had appointed three Christian envoys to be my traveling and hosting companions, Grunnitus, an elderly man of distant Germanic descent, and his companions Sixtus, a middle-aged man from Ravenna, and a Pannonian boy named Claudiurnus. Grunnitus and Sixtus, who were Christian Episcopes, helped Carthaphilus care for me and convinced him that I was obviously haunted by evil spirits. According to a rite familiar to the Roman community, Sixtus, imitating the words and deeds of Jesus with the help of the Holy Scriptures, tried to expel my plague spirits, but Grunnitus pursued strange other plans and handed me a golden chalice filled with black blood, and for a short time I looked into his jet-black soul. I saw Grunnitus with a richly dressed man in whose features I recognized my father, I saw a tower in a crowded city, and under it dungeons in which young women were locked up and abused, I saw angels who changed their shape to nightmares, three wolves in battle and a group of rough fishermen who pulled ashore a monstrous fish. But when I thought of Sixtus, I saw him ascend the holy chair of the Patriarch of Rome while I looked Claudiurnus in the eye and the boy transformed before my inner being into an anciently dressed man in the second half of his life. Then Claudiurnus poured the goblet before the black blood touched my lips and spoke well to Grunnitus that I should be accepted by him. So I was brought to a wealthy country house near Neapolis where Claudiurnus, although still a child, led the prosperous and independent life of a patrician. The boy thought he had found in me a kindred spirit, and as I revived and my mind brightened, I realized that Claudiurnus was an old spirit trapped in the body of a young boy. He soon introduced himself to me as Virgilius, once a powerful poet and follower of the old gods, descendant of druids, who after his death long ago had found eternal life in the souls of his male descendants, and had fallen in love with me. However, I sought no more than Virgilius' friendship, but found only a self-depraved, wicked and vicious spirit. Nevertheless, I soon became his disciple and accompanied the boy Claudiurnus on his travels through the Western Roman Empire, for he was a respected advisor and builder in the service of the emperor's mother Galla Placida. It was the case that the emperor Valentinian was only thirteen years old and the affairs of the empire were largely run by his mother Galla as regent, Galla's power was only secured by two powerful generals named Bonifatius and Flavius Felix and the powerful episcope of Rome named Chrysologos, while in the general Aetius a powerful rival was found, who at that time fought the Visogothae in Gallia and the Baugades in Raetia. To all of them Claudiurnus introduced me and I recognized in the features of Flavius, Boniface and Aetius those wolves of my dreams. Although I had to resist Virgilius' advances, I must admit that I enjoyed many of our days together. I was young and Claudiurnus was a rich heir who reveled in luxury, and Virgilius' spirit was young at heart and rapturous. Not a few magical experiments kept us busy, even though Biliodelvos always warned me not to reveal too much of my secrets to Virgilius and instead to trace the origin of his own power.So we worked together on a magical wine cask and an oil well, but above all I enjoyed learning his knowledge of architecture and road construction, for example, we renewed together the old amphitheater of Verona. But I saw how the workers and slaves of the empire did superhuman things and their bodies broke because of the heavy exhaustion and they were set replaced by new ones who soon joined in the drudgery without grumbling. Through Biliodelvo's eyes I recognized the army of demons which entered the bodies of the men and rode them to death during the hardest work. I waited to act until something happened that I could not prevent despite all my visions, in a dream I saw the servants of Babylon drowning the Patriarch of Rome, Caelestinus, in the bath, undoubtedly by a witchcraft spell from afar, because Caelestinus died the same night, but he seemed to have died in his bed in his sleep, even if his mouth poured large amounts of water. Undoubtedly Virgilius was involved in the deed and so was Flavius Felix, for both wanted to elevate Grunnitus to the next patriarch. Their next target was the great war hero Boniface, who was able to defeat his opponent Aetius, but soon died of an undiscovered battle wound. When Claudiurnus was urgently summoned to Rome, he sent me to Neapolis to fetch from his library a book he needed, but he did not realize that I knew the language of the ancient Hebrews, and so I discovered Virgilius' secret: not a long-forgotten druidic spell was the source of his power, but a pact with an ancient mischievous fish-shaped deity and its magic book, the Tablet of Zebulun, a long-forgotten Mesopotamian script! I broke the tablet and gave the trapped spirits their freedom, whereupon they left the bodies of the road builders, who collapsed from lack of strength, but lived. Galla Placida and Grunnitus raged full of wrath and had me led in chains before an assembly of Christian dignitaries led by Sixtus and Chrysologos in Rome where I was accused of witchcraft, heresy and the devil's pact, But strengthened by my faith and the assistance of my guardian spirit, neither water nor trial by fire could harm me, and so they finally had Claudiurnus brought before the assembly to bear false witness against me, but now it was I who spoke the words of Jesus of Capernaum and Gerasa and expelled Virgilius' selfish spirit from Claudiurnus' body. The freed boy now spoke against Grunnitus and together we let rise the vision of how he and his brotherhood of devil-fishermen had once fallen into my father's nets and of the innocent daughters of Rome who were held by them and Aetius as captives in their tower for cruel purposes. In fact, the dispatched soldiers found the missing girls and freed them, breaking the spell against Flavius Felix's opponents, and also on the battlefield, fortune turned and the formerly demon-possessed soldiers of Favius Felix were defeated by the troops of Aetius, who were favored by Fortuna and the Matronae, Aetius won the battle of Ravenna and Flavius Felix and his wife Padusia, as well as Episcope Grunnitus, were executed. Soon after, Galla Placida ruled in name only and Aetius became the new true ruler of Ravenna and Western Rome. Sixtus succeeded Celestine as patriarch. He showed himself to be a friend of the Pelagians, the followers of my teacher Placidus, and later sent St. Patricius to Hibernia to convert the pagan Scots and Ivernians. But I was fed up with court intrigues and the crowded cities of the Italic peninsula, I brought the young Claudiurnus to the island of Sicilia where he could now live freely and merged again with my old friend Biliodelvos and together we ran as a white stag towards the forests of Dacia, following Gleivia's sky lights.

## Merlin and Grisandis

Following Gleivia's rays, I wandered as a white deer through the forests of Thracia to Asia, living among the ancient fauns and satyrs, the spirits of the wilderness, and seeing the foolish and dishonest actions of men. I saw devils waiting for the souls of hanged men who had stolen only a few coins for their families, I saw children being buried with their believed fathers crying in the crowd and saw children being baptized whose fathers were in fact the priests reading the mass, I saw families starving while under their huts pots of gold were buried, spoils of past battles... and Ahinadab's ship stranded on the Asiatic coast, where angels waited for the spirits of the drowned to lead them to the realms beyond. Years may have passed, time meant little to me when I followed Gleivia's splendor, but I now felt for the first time something that had been unknown to me before... I felt age for the first time in my life when I had a strange encounter, for one morning I found tents of people in my woods, magnificent as I had never seen them before, and for the first time again curiosity got hold of me. I wandered through the camp of those lapsed into deep sleep by Gleivia's splendor, and found in one tent a fancily dressed man tormented by bad dreams.... and it must have been the three mothers of fate or Fortuna who had destined me to that place, for the mighty and yet so tormented man was none other than Thedososius, Emperor of the eastern empire, who was suffering from severe grief, for his son Arcadius and his daughter Flaccilla had died, his daughter Licinia and granddaughter Eudocia had been stolen by the Vandals.... I wanted to understand him, the most powerful man and lord of half the known world, and it was pity for that great man that made me wake him up from his heavy sleep, but my magic also made his guards come to him and so I soon pushed open the gates of the camp in the shape of a stag and fled back into the woods without having achieved anything.But the emperor had the legendary white stag searched for after that morning.

The most powerful hunters of the empire scoured the forests of Asia and Thracia in search of me, but none could even approach me, none except a young Germanic named Grisandis, who was the most skillful at following my trail. Curious to know what this young man was all about, I soon approached him in human form at his camp. He took me for a wild man from the woods and asked me many questions about the much-praised white stag, which I answered laughingly but always truthfully, and I also learned a lot about Grisandis, who was willing to share his meager meal with the starving forest man out of mercy. Raised as the child of the Vandal Duke Mahthaimo of Suaris, in truth the son of King Geiserici, driven from his homeland by a jealous nobleman named Fraulucias, taken in at the Emperor's court in Bycantium and there ... working as a stable maid, because, and this astonished me deeply, Grisandis had the body of a youth, but the soul of a young girl and had adopted the habit of wearing a woman's clothes and living as a woman among women. What a strange coincidence of Fortuna, I wondered, but the destinies that the gods give to people are sometimes unusual and often inscrutable. And Grisandis had already experienced much injustice in his, or her, young life. Grisandis had to flee from the imperial court, because the sister of the emperor, Pulcheria, had accused the empress Athenais of having a lover in her quarters, and when they searched the quarters of her servants, they found Grisandis living as a young woman named Aiweinafleta and suspected him of having approached the empress illegally. Now Grisandis had returned to his roots as a hunter to clear his reputation with the emperor by a great deed, because the lord of the Eastern Empire had promised great rewards and fulfillment of the greatest wishes to the one who would bring the white stag, and all Grisandis could hope for now was survival as a tolerated, possibly even wealthy, but in any case free eunuch. He had endured much on his hunt, had visited the centaurs and Silenes, had even encountered a dragon or a great serpent spirit, and in the end had found a wandering fairy who had sent him unerringly on my trail, always following the morning glow! Who could this fairy be? A friend, or an enemy? One of the nine sisters of Aballon, or even my beloved Gleivia? I was curious, but found no answers at Grisandis... Nevertheless, I devised a plan to help this pure soul...

I had Carvacantos plant and water a Phrygian apple tree, and with Biliodelvo's strength had it grow rapidly until it bore a single, particularly large and beautiful fruit. I took the form of a Lykian merchant and gave the apple to the emperor one morning when he was on his way to his chapel to pray, the emperor insisted on paying me 150 solidi - most of which I donated to the poor.

Then I went back into the woods and let Grisandis pose me as a white stag.three times he walked around me against the sun's course to banish the forest spirit in stag form - what a foolish plan, Gleivia could not have been that fairy, rather a still unknown enemy! Nevertheless, I tamed myself and followed Grisandis, who brought me before the Emperor Theodosius, where I changed back into a human before the eyes of the court. The Caesar himself held back his bodyguards, because he recognized in me the man he thought he had seen in his dream and asked me to explain it to him. He had seen a wild man who laughed three times, at a hunter, at beggars who asked for alms in front of a temple, at a servant who beat his master three times with a whip during a mass. I had to laugh three times too, because these were things I had seen during my last walk among men. And it had been bitter and sad laughter when I had seen the beggars, because it had been them who had stood on buried pots full of gold! And it had been bitter laughter because the gold was hidden under the squire's feet, and there were three blows, as the Lord had been one of the soldiers who had once hidden the treasure there and now repented for his three sins: Greed, murder and cowardice, because although the people were hungry and he knew what he had done, he did not want to admit it and share the gold.

The emperor sent for the man and he confessed the crime, while the loot was recovered and alms were given to the poor. The third laugh, I explained, had been at Grisandis, because he had been mistaken for a man who had been lying in wait for the empress, when in fact he was a woman who had wanted to give help. Grisandis was examined and, to his own amazement, his wish to be a woman was fulfilled and he was released and given a place at the court of the Emperor, who soon became more than just friends with Aiweinafleda. But who was it then that was seen in the Empress's chambers? I asked Theodosius to look for the golden Phrygian apple, but in fact the empress confessed to have eaten it, but in truth the apple was found with Theodosius' best friend and advisor Paulinus, who had received it as a gift from the empress and was thus recognized as the true secret lover.

I now prophesied that Theodosius' daughter and granddaughter would live, and Licinia would be freed but Eudocia would marry Hunaricis, the son of Geisericis, and become the mother of the future Vandal king.

Paulinus was executed, Athenaia the empress went into exile to Hierosylima and I decided to join her, but left a Hebrew inscription at the imperial court, because I hoped to be sought and found in Hierosylima by a very specific person....

## Merlin in the Holy Land

When I came to Hierosylima I was disillusioned.I had met the most powerful men in the world, one an immature child, the other but a mediocre man.I had seen the emissaries of the kingdom of God torn between men of honorable purpose and fishermen of the devil. In the holy land of Palaestina Prima I hoped to find answers and a new path.

In Hierosylima, at that time, Flavius Florentinus, the prefect of the diocese of Oriens, had gathered wise men and scholars from all over the world, and I discussed with many wise men the works of Plato and Aristotle, the teachings of the natural philosophers, the Pythagoreans and Stoics, talked with learned pagans as well as with Christians and Jews. But this world was far away from a rule of the philosophers or a Res Publica and nobody with whom I spoke anymore pursued such thoughts.

One morning Florentinus joined us, strangely agitated, and reported a disturbing dream: Florentinus was lying in his chamber holding his wife Hersilia in his arms when two flying snakes appeared on the horizon, two-headed, ugly and fire-breathing, setting the prefect's palace ablaze. One snake grabbed him with claws while the second one took Hersilia and dragged them both to the palace roof where they tore off their arms and legs and eight smaller snakes appeared, which took the limbs and carried them to the temple of Diana, where the people of the city had fled for safety, tore the limbs there, burned the bodies and the temple to ashes and scattered the ashes far and wide over the land where no city was left.

I recognized the truth in Florentinus' dream and before me spread the vision of a new faith and of four foreign-faith kings, neighbors of the Oriens, who would conquer the land and the children of its children after eight generations would be slain and their children would renounce the old faith and become knights of the new faith, respected and revered in all neighboring countries. Florentinus, who had once been a learned pagan, was baptized and became a devout Christian, but I, confused and bewildered, left the praefect's palace and wandered long and hard through the holy land. I went to Nazará and to the Lake Kineret, to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane and finally came to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre where a man addressed me in whom I recognized my innkeeper in Massalia, Cartaphilus.This is what he said to me:

"He who seeks me shall find me, so it was written on the stone in Bycanthium.I realized the secret truth: Merlin and the stag are one! And yet you are not the man I expected, although you are quite similar to him in many ways, as far as I can see and remember. Once I knew a young man, Jehoshua Ben-Josef by name, the nephew of my friend Joseph of Ramatha the tin merchant and Sadducee and son of Joseph Ben-Jojakim the builder and his wife Miriam. He was an exceptional child and became an equally exceptional young man. But he caused unrest among the people, questioned the words of the priests, and was eventually crucified, accused of inciting the people to revolt. And it was I who, out of fear and anger of the priests, testified falsely against him when I was in Roman service, and it was I who refused him rest when he carried the cross to the Mount of Olives and wanted to rest at my door. And nothing in my life have I ever regretted more. I was not there when he died, but in my workshop making shoes and like a prediction or a curse it is that until today I make my shoes with which I can not stay longer than a few decades in one place, since I do not age since that day.Only late I found the truth in Jehoshua's words, let me baptize by a man named Ananias. My friend Joseph of Ramatha forgave me and I accompanied him on his travels.He built the tombs under this basilica.He stayed in prison for forty years until he was freed under Vespasian when Jehoshua appeared in a vision or physically and caused his release.First he went to Saráka where he founded a Christian community. Later he went to Britannia where he had already stayed on his earlier travels as a tin merchant and had built a synagogue of simple wattle and daub in which he was supported by his patrons the Britannian kings Abellios and Genillos who had converted to Judaism, which was continued after his death by his son Joseph and his protégés Petreus and Simeon. I was called Ahasverus in Sáraka, Mailocunos among the Britons, Buttadeus I was called by my enemies, Cartaphilus I was called by Jehoshua, but my true or original name was Mathataias.But who are you now?"

Who was I? Not Christ the Son of God.Just an imitation, begotten by a lowly servant, son of a fallen father who threw his inheritance and destiny to the wind and became as much an aimless wanderer as Mathathaias.And again I remembered my vision, the stone, the cauldron, the cup.... I saw the vision manifest before me. Christ had been in Britain, he had accompanied Joseph as a boy and had helped in the construction of the synagogue, when he thrust his thorny staff into the ground, he performed the miracle of making it blossom, as a sign for the Britannians, who planted it there and venerated it as a sacred tree, symbol of the world.What did he bring from Britain? What kept Joseph alive in the dungeon for forty years? What was it that Matathaias knew about, and whose image remained obscure to me?"

For a long time Matathaias thought and looked at me enigmatically.Then he told me about that green stone, a gift from the Britanni to Joseph when they became Jews. A sacred cauldron of their ancient deities had been melted down by King Abellios, and Genillos had poured from it a copper chalice, at the bottom of which had lain the ancient Green Stone. When Jehoshua died, a Roman named Longinus pierced him with his spear.Joseph caught the remains of his sweat and blood in Jehoshua's chalice.He also took possession of the spear later, but he hid the chalice in a secret place.Doves had brought him manna so that he kept his strength. So it was a stone, and a chalice, and a cauldron, and they were one. And I recognized the green stone, for such my father had worn on his forehead, only a single one had missed. I could see that it had been broken out of his crown when he fell from the sky...it had fallen into the hands of lesser pagan deities who had used its powers for magical work.But where was the chalice with the stone now? I realized that Joseph had brought it back to his synagogue in Britannia.In Joseph's tomb in Glewotinco's castle, the chalice had been placed with him, and Mailocunos had prophesied that the island people would never lack rain and sky dew.An entrance to the ancient underworld had once been there, and when Joseph's thorn staff was implanted, a fountain of blood sprang from the earth.

But if Jesus' blood had cleansed the sacred stone and raised it to a pure and holy object, then my father too could one day be cleansed and redeemed.Then my destiny was no longer fixed.Then the new faith, future faith could one day come and become the religion of real philosopher kings, guided by wise men with my vision and knowledge.The stone in the chalice could conquer hunger and death and lead mankind into a new age and the kingdom of God would ultimately appear.

Mankind was not yet mature, nor were the most powerful men in the world ordinary weaklings. But one day such a philosopher-king might appear and establish a new, a true Rome. I decided to return to Britannia and make this task mine. I had found my destiny, I would create that man myself and form him according to my knowledge and will...

## epilogue

The young man who had written down Centigernu's tale looked up questioningly.

"His words end here Vindodia, but I want to return to Perthia and meet him again".

"Stay a little while first and fortify yourself for the journey to old Curia... but I will not conceal from you ,that I thirst to know more of my brother, Oh Centigernus son of Ivovenus!"

"He also spoke more, but his words were dark and mysterious..." he turned to the young man " It is good that you have noted my words, Tolimaros, I will return as soon as I have learned more and that too shall be written down by you and preserved for posterity."

Tomorrow he would set off again and leave Ovania, then he would again roam the Caledonian forests, to Old Curia on the Clota River and to Perthia, hoping to come across a white stag....

## Gazetteer

Aballon - an island of the Other World

Other World - the dimension of spirits and gods, also the land of Celtic deceased people

Aremorica - landscape in the northwest of Gaul in today's Brittany and Normandy

Ariconia - Silurian sub-kingdom, home of Mauricus

Babylon - ancient royal reixh inMesopotamia, also the earthly empire of the anti-Christian powers

Bagaudes - armed peasants and shepherds in Gallia and Hispania

Brisca - forest in Britannia Minor

Bycantium - the Eastern Roman Empire, also its capital city, today's Istanbul

Cambria - today's Wales and Cumbria

Flowering Valley - today's Cotswolds

Britannia - former Roman province, later independent great kingdom in present-day Britain.

Britannia Minor - Britannic colony innGallia,,today's Brittany

Caledonian forests - landscape in today's Scotland, especially the rainforest and the rocky, barren areas of the Highlands

Castra Pagus - British colony in Brittany

Clota - river and fjord in western Pictenland.the southern border of the Caledonian forests

Collrost - a Pictish village, today's Culross in Fife

Cornugallia - - small kingdom in Brittany , today's Cornuaille

Cornovua - kingdom in southwestern Britain, roughly today's Cornwall

Curia - a village in Damnonia, near today's Hamilton on the river Clyde

Dacia - former roman province in about today's Romania

Darioritum - town in the Aremorica, today's Vannes

Darunantus - forest in Britannia Minor, probably near today's Nantes

Demetae - tribe in today's Dyfed in Wales

Diviniocella - a sacred grove, probably near today's Wroxeter

Domnonia - - small kingdom in Brittany

Eboracum - city in Britannia ,today's York

Erirosia - mountain and region innCambria, today's Eryr in Wales

Gallia - former Roman province in today's France

Germania - former Roman province in parts of today's Germany, eastern France and surrounding areas

Gethsemane - a garden on the Mount of the Elders in present-day Jerusalem

Palaestina Prima - former Eastern Roman region, included present-day Israel

Glevensia - Cambrian petty kingdom, region of the Blooming Valley and Ariconia, around the city of Glevum

Glevum - today's Gloucester

Hibernia - today's Ireland

Hierosylima - today's Jerusalem

Isca - city in Cambria, in today's Wales, today's Caerleon on Usk

Kineret - today's Sea of Galilee

Leucodunum - village near Londinium, exile home of the family of Mauricus, today's Leighton-Buzzard

Londinium - former city in Britannia, today's London

Lykia - landscape in the southwest of Asia Minor, today's Turkey

Massalia - today's Masseille

Moridunum - homeland of Merlin, today's Carmarthen in Wales

Northern Suambria - the later Northumberland

Namnetia - - petty kingdom in Brittany , today's Pays Nantais

Nazará - today's Nazareth

Neapolis - today's Naples in Italy

Oriens - Eastern Roman diocese which included parts of Egypt and the Near East

Ovania - main settlement of Damnonia and home of Vindodia, today's Govan near Glasgow in Scotland

Pannonia - former Roman province. Included parts of present-day Austria and Hungary.

Pennoarbitus - British colony in Brittany.

Perthia - Pictish village and gau in the Caledonian Forest, present-day Perth.

Phrygia - a region in west-central Asia Minor in present-day Turkey.

Picti - tribal confederation in present-day Scotland.

Portus Alaunus - possibly, today's Porthallow in Cornwall

Portus Felix - former Roman city, in today's east riding, Yorkshire

Ramatha -probably today's Rantis in the West Bank

Raetia - Roman province in the northern foothills of the Alps

Ravenna - former capital of the Western Roman Empire

Giant Dance - possibly today's Stonehenge

Rome - the former Roman Empire, also especially its former capital city

Saráka - Arabian petty kingdom on the Sinai Peninsula

Saxon Coast - a chain of heavily fortified military camps and naval stations along the south and southeast coast of Britain and on the Channel and Atlantic coasts of Gaul

Saxones - Germanic tribal confederation, forerunners of the Anglo-Saxons

Scoti - Irish invaders in present-day Britain

Seven dioceses -

Siluria - petty kingdom in today's southeast Wales

Sorbiodunum - probablynold Sarum in wiltshire

Tamesas - today's river Towy in Carmarthen

Tamium - former roman fort, possibly near today's Cardiff

Thracia - former roman province and land sap on the eastern balkan peninsula

Tigernleuc - petty kingdom, today's Powys in Wales

Tovius - town in today's South Wales, probably today's Tovey

Uliarus - today's Île d'Oléron

Uriconium - former Roman city in Cambria, capital of Vortigern, near today's Wroxeter

Vangionia - germanic tribal reixh, probably the area around today's Worms

Venedotia - Cambrian kingdom in present-day Wales, origin dea present-day Gwynned.

Venetia - petty kingdom in Brittany

Ventia - Cambrian petty kingdom, today's Gwent

Verona -

Viroconium - today's Wroxeter

## Directory of persons

Abellios - Britannic king, patron of Joseph of Ramathas who converted to Judaism, relative of Genillo.

Aetius - Western Roman general, opponent of Galla Placida, Boniface and Flavius Felix

Aminadab - Phoenician seafarer and trader

Ambrosius - Cambrian prince, son of Constantine and brother of Uter

Ananias - follower of Jehoshua ben-Josef, baptized Mathataias

Anmedocius - king of northern Suambria

Antrius - Christian priest from Moridunum.secretly father of Mattius

Antumnocus - son of Merlinus and Gleivia, twin brother Inogenas

Arcadius - son of Theodosius, brother of Flaccilla and Licinia

Athenaia - wife of Theodosius, mistress of Paulinus, wife of the Caesars of Ostroma

Aurelia - Silurian princess.daughter of Mauricus and sister of Cadugaunus, Colonus, Honoria and Optima.Merlin's aunt, murdered by her father.

Barrovindos - the ferryman of Aballon.

Biliodelvos - ancient deer god, friend and familiar of Merlinus, enemy of Lucifer.

Boniface - western Roman general, ally of Flavius Felix and Galla Placida, opponent of Aetius

Budicius - grandson of Cunomoriodocus, petty king of Britannia Minor in Gaul and relative of Constantinus

Cadugaunus - son of Mauricus, brother of Aurelia, Honoria, Optima and Colonus - Merlin's uncle, strangled in madness by his father Mauricus.

Caelestinus - patriarch of Rome, murdered by the devil fishermen.

Catigern - grandson, in truth son of Vortigern

Cavarcantos - Merlinus' golem

Centigernus - Christian preacher. Tells the story of Merlin-Aliogenos

Chrysologos - The powerful episcope of Rome

Claudiurnus -boy and magician from Pannonia, possessed by the spirit of Virgilius

Colonnus -silurian bard, illegitimate son of Mauricus and half-brother of Aurelia, Cadugaunus, Honoria and Optima.Merlinus' uncle and teacher

Constans - son of Constantinus, Britannic nobleman and high king, murdered by Vortigern

Constantinus - son Constantinus III, brother of Constans and father of Ambrosius and Uter

Constantinus III - Western Roman emperor and counter-emperor, father of Constans

Cunomoriodocus - grandfather of Budicius, founder of Britannia Minor and relative of Constantinus

Diana-Sirona - Gallo-Roman goddess

Eleaus - druid and advisor of Vortigern

Esuvius - Gallic druid and magician, husband of Sulevia, father of Gleivia

Eudocia - granddaughter of Theodosius, daughter of Licinia

Flaccilla - daughter of Theodosius, sister of Arcadius and Licinia

Flavius Felix - western Roman general, ally of Flavius Felix and Galla Placida, opponent of Aetius and supporter of the devil fishermen

Flavius Florentinus - prefect of Palaestina Prima and Eastern Roman diocese of Oriens

Fortuna-Carnuntina - Gallo-Roman goddess

Fraulucia - Vandal nobleman, opponent of Mahthaimo and Grisandis

Galla Placida - mother of Caesar Valentinian

Geisericis - king of the Vandals, in reality father of Grisandis

Genillos - Britannic king, patron of Joseph of Ramatis who converted to Judaism, relative of Abellios

Gleivia - Gallic sorceress, daughter of Esuvius and Sulevia, mistress of Merlinus, mother of Inogena and Antumnocus

Glewotincos - Britannic prince, ancestor of Glewotinci

Hersilia - eastern Roman noblewoman, wife of Flavius Florentinus

Grisandis - Vandal hunter, son of Mahthaimo illegitimate son of Geisericis, lives as wife Aiweinafleta

Grunnitus - Christian episcope, of Germanic descent, member of the Devil Fishermen and ally of Flavius Felix.

Honoria - Silurian princess, later prostitute. Daughter of Mauricus, sister of Aurelia, Cadugaunus, Colonus and Optima.Merlin's aunt.

Hródhwyn - sorceress and princess of Saxones, pupil of Osmund, daughter of Hengist and wife of Vortigern.

Hunaricis - Vandal prince, son of Geisaricis, half-brother of Grisandis

Idhoelus - cousin of Merlinus in Britannia Minor in Gaul

Inogena - daughter of Merlinus and Gleivias, twin sister of Antumnocus

Iorcoramus - druid and advisor to Vortigern

Ivovenus - Britannic nobleman and knight, father of Cerntigernus

Jehoshua ben-Josef - Jewish preacher, prophet and son of God

Joseph ben-Jojakim - Jewish builder and father of Jehoshua ben-Josef

Joseph of Ramatha - Jewish tin merchant, uncle of Jehoshua ben-Joseph

Josepheus - son and successor of Joseph of Ramatha

Lamogenus - Gallic knight and servant of Vortigern

Longinus - Roman legionary who pierced Yehoshua ben-Josef's hip with his spear

Lucifer - ancient god and demon, son of Eostre, father of Hellia and spiritual father of Merlinus.

Lugobelinus - Celtic god

Mailodunus - Britannic youth, friend of Merlinus

Magnus Maximus - Western Roman emperor and counter-emperor

Mahtaimo - Vandal duke, alleged father of Grisandis,

Mathataios - true name of cartaphilus, Jewish shoemaker and Roman servant, opponent of Jehoshua Ben-Josef, later his follower and innkeeper in Massalia

Mattius - druid, advisor of Virtigern and judge of Moridunum, son of Antrius and Salvina.

Maugantius - druid and advisor of Virtigern

Mauricus - Silurian king.father of Aurelia, Cadugaunus, Honoria, Optima and Colonus.Merlinus' grandfather.

Medocios - Pictish prince, father of Merlin-Aliogenos and Vindonia.

Meldios - Gallic god of lightning and relative of Lucifer.

Merlinus - Silurian prince and magician, son of Optima and Moricantus

Merlin-Aliogenus -pictic prince and madman, son of Medocios, twin brother of Vindonia and reincarnation of Merlinus

Miriam - Jewish woman, wife of Joseph ben-Jojakim and mother of Jehoshua ben-Josef

Moricantus - British prince, son of Viriatus and father of Merlinus

Morigenius - cousin of Merlinus in Britannia Minor in Gaul

Nodons - Celtic god

Oitoradus - pimp from Moridunum

Optima - Silurian princess, daughter of Mauricus, sister of Aurelia, Cadugaunus and Honoria, half-sister of Colonus.Merlinus' mother.

Osmund - pagan priest and magician of the Saxones, servant of King Anmedocius.

Padusia - wife of Flavius Felix

Palatra - prostitute from Moridunum, friend of Honoria

Patricius - Britannic slave and preacher, converted the Hibernians to Christianity

Paulinus - friend and advisor of Theodosius, lover of the Empress Athenaia

Petreus - protégé and successor of Joseph of Ramatha

Placidus - Britannic Christian preacher and former druid.Merlinus' teacher.

Proximus - Druid and advisor to Vortigern.

Pulcheria - sister of Theodosius

Rictos - Celtic god and dragon

Rigardwos - Hibernian knight, acquaintance of Placidus

Rudioargos - Pictish nobleman and husband of Vindonia, twin sister of Merlin-Aliogenos

Rudiorix - Britannic knight and servant of Vortigern

Salvina - noblewoman from Moridunum, mother of Mattius

Sevira - wife of Vortigern and daughter of Magnus Maximus

Simeon - protégé and successor of Joseph of Ramatha

Sixtus - Christian episcope from Ravenna, later Patriarch of Rome

Telaria - prostitute from Moridunum, friend of Honoria

Theodosius - Caesar of Eastern Rome

Uter - Cambrian prince, son of Constantine and brother of Ambrosius

Valentinian - Western Roman Caesar, son of Galla Placida

Vespasian - Western Roman Caesar, freed Joseph from Ramatha

Vindonia - Pictish noblewoman, wife of Rudioargos and twin sister of Merlin-Aliogenos

Virgilius - Roman poet and magician, possessed the body of Claudiurnus

Viriatus - king of Eburacum, father of Moricantus

Vitalis - Britannic nobleman, father of Vortigern

Vortigern -silurian nobleman, son of Vitalis , husband of Sevira, father of Catigern High King of Britannia

Vroicos - Celtic god and dragon

Zebulun - Semitic sorcerer and demon

## **Author´s Note**

In this small booklet I wanted to collect the legends of Merlin's youth and childhood and retell them. Of course, most of the material is not new but was written before me by numerous other authors and further processed. Above all, the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Vita Merlini" and Robert de Boron's "Merlin" to mention, more from Merlin's younger years I took William Shakespeare / William Rowley's "The Birth of Merlin, or The Childe Hath Found His Father", John Dryden's "King Arthur; or, the British Worthy" the "Les Croniques Admirables du Puissant Roy Gargantua as well as Tennyson's Idylls, John Toland, John Veitch, Charles Godfrey Leland, George Parker Bidder, and the Italian Merlin tradition as represented by Paolino Pieri's "La Storia di Merlino", Bonamente Aliprandi and Manfredo Bonnelli. A great help was the "Arthurian Name dictionary" by Christopher Bruce, without which this work would have been unthinkable. It was a great pleasure to search through the old texts, to bring them into a chronology, to arrange them and to retell them, trying to restore the late antique and early medieval context of the "historical Merlin" and at the same time to take into account the magic of the "supernatural Merlin". If this did not always succeed to the fullest satisfaction so please forgive me this, too contradictory was often the source situation, just as one may forgive me possible anachronisms and historical inaccuracies please.