83459348539

to Wales and take possession of England.
The mythology surrounding the arrival of the Saxons was completely transformed in later
centuries, but for Geoffrey of Monmouth it began through an act of treachery and betrayal. It is
against this background that the greatest hero of the History, Arthur, makes his appearance. The
wretched Vortigern retreats to the Welsh hills, but his attempts to build himself a fortress are
frustrated by the collapse of each day’s work during the following night. He is told by his court
bards that only by mixing the blood of a child with no father into the mortar will this nightly
collapse be avoided. His men are despatched to all parts of Wales to discover such a boy; in
Carmarthen they find one and bring him, with his mother, to Vortigern. But this is no ordinary boy:
it is Merlin. He challenges Vortigern’s bards as to why they think it necessary to sacrifice him to
build the castle. What is it, he demands, that lies beneath the site to make it unstable? They cannot
answer. Using his own magic powers to see into the ground, he tells Vortigern that if he excavates
the soil beneath the castle site he will discover a subterranean pool. Vortigern’s men dig down and,
sure enough, there is the lake. Drain the pool, Merlin prophesies, and you will find two hollow
stones, each containing a sleeping dragon. The pool is drained and the dragons, one red, one white,
awake and begin to fight. At first the White Dragon prevails but is eventually overcome by the Red
Dragon. The White Dragon symbolizes the Saxons, the Red Dragon the Britons. The message is
clear. Fight back against the treacherous Saxons and you will prevail. Even today the Red Dragon,
and all it stands for, is prominent on the Welsh flag and other national emblems – a direct legacy
from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The ultimate victory of the Britons over the Saxon invaders is a recurring theme throughout the
History and no character symbolizes this resistance more than King Arthur. But his birth is not
without its own dark side. If Vortigern’s infatuation with Rowena sowed the seeds of his downfall
and the invasion of the Saxons, it was infatuation that led to Arthur’s birth.
Merlin, who is by now living by his uncannily accurate prophecies, foretells that Uther, the
younger of Constantine’s two surviving sons, will become the next King of the Britons. Returning
from exile in Brittany (and landing at Totnes – always a good start), Uther and his brother beat back
the Saxons, killing both Vortigern and Hengist in the process. But the elder of the two is poisoned,
again as prophesied, and on his death a comet appears, at the head of which is a ball of fire
resembling a dragon. Merlin, conveniently on hand, interprets this as a sign that the younger brother
must be crowned king. Thus Uther becomes Uther Pendragon, Uther of the Dragon’s Head, and
King of the Britons at the same time.
At Uther Pendragon’s coronation and victory celebration in London arrive Gorlais, Earl of
Cornwall, and his wife Eigr, the most beautiful woman in Britain. That is when the infatuation
begins. Tired of the attention that his wife is getting from Uther, Gorlais takes her from the palace
and sets out home for Cornwall and his newly built castle at Tintagel among the high sea cliffs.
Uther commands that Gorlais return to London at once and when he refuses Uther follows him to
Tintagel. The only entrance to the castle is over a narrow and easily defended causeway, along
which only one man can pass at a time. Uther appeals to Merlin for help and Merlin transforms him
into Eigr’s husband, in which disguise he enters both the castle and her bed, where Arthur is
conceived. That same night, Uther’s soldiers capture and kill the real Gorlais.
In Arthur, Geoffrey’s History has constructed the most enduring of British mythical heroes.
With scant reliable historical material to go on – or, it must be said, to get in the way of a good