Merlin
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Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a prophet and a magician, along with several other main roles. The familiar depiction of Merlin, based o
The Enchanter Merlin, Howard Pyle's illustration for The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)
A male merle, the bird whose name may have inspired that of Merlin
The young Merlin reading his prophecies to King Vortigern in an illustration for Geoffrey of Monmouth's Prophetiae Merlini (British Library MS Cotton Claudius B VII f.224, c. 1250).
Dinas Emrys, allegedly the royal retreat of High-King Vortigern when he fled into Wales to escape the Saxons. Archaeological excavations revealed that the location was occupied to some extent in the late Roman period until the 12th century.
Ambrosius Aurelianus
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Ambrosius Aurelianus was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas. He also appeared independently in the legends
Merlin
…presented Merlin as a prophet and royal advisor to Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. Geoffrey seems to have combined earlier Welsh tales of Myrddin and Emrys (Ambrosius), two legendary Briton prophets with no connection to Arthur, to form the composite figure that he called Merlinus Ambrosius. His rendering of the…
Illustration of Emrys Wledig from a 15th-century manuscript of Brut y Brenhinedd (the Historia Regum Britanniae translated into Welsh)