Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

THE SCOTTISH BOUDER. 201
•' Marvellous Merlin, that many men of tells,
' And Thomas's sayings comes all at once."
While I am upon the subject of these prophecies, may
1 be permitted to call the attention of antiquaries to
Merdwynn Wyllt, or Merlin the Wild, in whose name,
and by no means in that of Ambrose Merlin, the friend
of Arthur, the Scottish prophecies are issued. That this
personage resided at Drummelziar, and roamed, like a
second Nebuchadnezzar, the woods of Tweeddale, in
remorse for the death of his nephew, we learn from
Fordun. In the Scoiichronico7i, lib. 3, cap. 31, is an ac-
count of an interview betwixt St Kentigern and Merlin,
then in this distracted and miserable state. He is said
to have been called Lailokeiif from his mode of life. On
being commanded by the saint to give an account of
himself, he says, that the penance which he performs
was imposed on him by a voice from heaven, during a
bloody contest betwixt Lidel and Carwanolow, of which
battle he had been the cause. According to his own
prediction, he perished at once by wood, earth, and
water ; for, being pursued with stones by the rustics,
he fell from a rock into the river Tweed, and was trans-
fixed by a sharp stake, fixed there for the purpose of
extending a fishing-net
:
Slide perfossH.i, laj)ide pcrcussus, ct unda,
Hacc tria Mcrlinum fertiir inire ncccm.
Sicque ruit, merusquefiiit Ugnoqtie pcrpendi,
Et fecit vatcin per tenia pcricula veritm.