The Vita Merlini ‘Life of Merlin’ (the Antlered God and the Lord of Animals)
1 Comment | January 3, 2009 at 12:15 pm by mahud
Filed under Merlin, Cernunnos, Celtic Mythology, The Cosmic Mysteries
After encountering this reference to Vita Merlini, as told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, I decided to check it out. I was especially intrigued by the references that Merlin donned antler horns and that the myth also contained references to the Major Arcana, at least according to R. J. Stewart, quoted below:
In the twelfth-century Vita Merlini Merlin takes on the role of Lord of the Animals, wearing stag’s horns, summons a vast herd of stags and she-goats. Merlin is married to Guendoloena, a type of flower maiden. It suggests, along with other legendary evidence that the lord of animals and the lady of nature or flowers were originally a pair.
So he went about all the woods and groves and collected a herd of stags in a single line, and the deer and she-goats likewise, and he himself mounted a stag. And when day dawned he came quickly, driving the line before him to the place where Guendoloena was to be married. When he arrived Merlin forced the stags to stand patiently outside the gates while he cried aloud, ‘Guendoloena! Guendoloena! come! your gifts are awaiting you!’ Guendoloena came quickly, smiling and marvelling that the man was riding upon a stag and that it obeyed him, and that he could get together so large a number of animals and drive them before him just as a shepherd does the sheep that he is in the habit of driving to the pastures. (from the Vita Merlini, translated by J.J. Parry)
…Tarot trumps found in Vita Merlini (predating tarot cards by three centuries) including descriptions of images such as the empress, hanged man, wheel of fortune, the fool, and so on. in turn they are derived from bardic tradition preserving Celtic traditions of gods, goddesses and cosmology: the orthodox trumps of death as a skeleton and the devil do not appear. in their stead we have the celtic death goddess (also in the prophecies of merlin) and the lord of animals (merlin).
Stewart, R. J., 2006, ‘Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses’, p.113 (Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.)
After reading J.J. Parry’s translation, I was disappointed to find (unless I missed it) that nowhere is Merlin depicted as wearing stag antlers, although he is depicted as riding upon a stag, which partially correspondents with the iconography of the horned/antlered god riding upon a goat.
at Yzeures-sur-Creuse Cernunnos with his snake sits cross-legged on a goat.
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda Jane, 1992, ‘Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art’, p.94 (Routledge)
Although I agree that Merlin is certainly a Master of Animals, while also his temporary insanity which causes him to retreat to the woodlands, is reminiscent of the wildness of Enkidu in the Gilgamesh Epic:
He (Merlin) entered the wood and rejoiced to lie hidden under the ash trees; he marvelled at the wild beasts feeding on the grass of the glades; now he chased after them and again he flew past them; he lived on the roots of grasses and on the grass, on the fruit of the trees and on the mulberries of the thicket. He became a silvan man just as though devoted to the woods. For a whole summer after this, hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no one and forgetful of himself and of his kindred.
Vita Merlini
I was also disappointed by the lack of Tarot symbolism claimed by R. J. Stewart. The only possible Tarot reference that really stood out was that of the Hanged man. The incident of the ‘hanged man’ was prophesied by Merlin. The man’s fate is as as follows;
The young man pressed on and passed straight over the mountain, hunting for the stag among the rocks lying about. Meanwhile it happened, while his impetuosity was leading him on, that his horse slipped from a high rock and the man fell over a precipice into the river, but so that one of his feet caught in a tree, and the rest of his body was submerged in the stream. Thus he fell, and was drowned, and hung from a tree, and by his threefold death made the prophet a true one.
Vita Merlini
Other than that, I was unable to discern any other similarity to the symbolism to the Tarot.
However, I did learn some interesting mythic parallels, pertaining to my understanding of cosmogonic myth, which I incorporate into my Cernunnos mythos.
At one point Merlin sits down (Cernunnos style) beside a miraculous fountain, which I equate with the ambrosial waters of life and healing:
On the very summit of a certain mountain there was a fountain, surrounded on every side by hazel bushes and thick with shrubs. There Merlin had seated himself, and thence through all the woods he watched the wild animals running and playing. Thither the messenger climbed, and with silent step went on up the heights seeking the man. At last he saw the fountain and Merlin sitting on the grass behind it, and making his plaint in this manner
Vita Merlini
Also Taliesin makes an appearance, and appears to assume the role of cosmic master, revealing an impressive knowledge of the world, much like Yu the Great from Chinese mythology, who, to my mind, corresponds with The Magician of the Tarot (like Cernunnos himself):
Yu himself… …while journeying throughout the land… …took note of everything around him
Cernunnos’ Path: Learning How to Navigate Reality
Another mythic act was performed by Merlin after learning the mysterious identity of his wife’s beloved, who upon the day of their marriage, Merlin, tore the antlers from his stag (The Wound Motif) and hurling them at his wife’s betrothed, killed him:
The bridegroom stood watching from a lofty window and marvelling at the rider on his seat, and he laughed. But when the prophet saw him and understood who he was, at once he wrenched the horns from the stag he was riding and shook them and threw them at the man and completely smashed his head in, and killed him and drove out his life into the air. With a quick blow of his heels he set the stag flying and was on his way back to the woods.
Vita Merlini
Via comparison with other mythical weapons, the antlers correspond with the waning lunar crescent, which is blade of death precipitating the passage through the Liminal threshold before rebirth into new life. The seasonal loss and regrowth of the antlers are based on this lunar mystery of death and rebirth in seasonal terms, that ‘die’ during the winter and are ‘reborn’ during spring. Another lunar weapon of this type would be the Double-axe found in Minoan culture. The labyrinth being symbolic of the lunar-cosmic round, symbolised by the Ouroboros, where the entrance and exist of the labyrinth are unfied as both the beginning and end, the two paradoxically existing as one.
To the Labyrinth belonged its mistress or the Minotaur-or both. The connection between Ariadne on the face of the coin and the Labyrinth sign on the other is made clearer when the meander quaternion embraces a sickle moon…
…This view of the world became still more complete when astronomical signs were added beside the four meander patterns: one or two sickle moons-one waxing and one waning-and in the middle, inside the labyrinth, a star. “Minotaurus,” “the bull of Minos.” was not a true name. For the inhabitant of the labyrinth the names “Asterios” and “Asterion” have come down to us, both synonymous with aster, “star.” They also become the names of the first Cretan king, who received Europa, the beloved of the bull-formed Zeus. No Greek myth attaches to these names. No luminous aspect of the Minotaur was accepted by the Greeks outside of Knossos, but the Knossos coins bear witness to the star in the labyrinth, to the lunar nature of Ariadne…
Kerényi, Karl, 1996, ‘Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible Life’, p.105-6 (Princeton University Press)
Another interesting tale in the story appears to parallel the myth I recently mentioned in Lunar-Cosmic Dragon (and Dolphins) of Re-creation, as well as the earlier post The Theme of the Eighty Brothers:
After he had finished speaking a certain madman came to them, either by accident or led there by fate; he filled the grove and the air with a terrific clamour and like a wild boar he foamed at the mouth and threatened to attack them. They quickly captured him and made him sit down by them that his remarks might move them to laughter and jokes. When the prophet looked at him more attentively he recollected who he was and groaned from the bottom of his heart, saying, “This is not the way he used to look when we were in the bloom of our youth, for at that time he was a fair, strong knight and one distinguished by his nobility and his royal race. Him and many others I had with me in the days of my wealth, and I was thought fortunate in having so many good companions, and I was. It happened one time while we were hunting in the lofty mountains of Arwystli that we came to an oak which rose in the air with its broad branches. A fountain flowed there, surrounded on all sides by green grass, whose waters were suitable for human consumption; we were all thirsty and we sat down by it and drank greedily of its pure waters. Then we saw some fragrant apples lying on the tender grass of the familiar bank of the fountain. The man who saw them first quickly gathered them up and gave them to me, laughing at the unexpected gift. I distributed to my companions the apples he had given to me, and I went without any because the pile was not big enough. The others to whom the apples had been given laughed and called me generous, and eagerly attacked and devoured them and complained because there were so few of them. Without any delay a miserable sadness seized this man and all the others; they quickly lost their reason and like dogs bit and tore each other, and foamed at the mouth and rolled on the ground in a demented state.
Vita Merlini
Finally in the footnotes of J.J. Parry’s translation of Vita Merlini, there is an enigmatic verse (17), “In the Irish version of the story Eorann, wife of Suibhne, takes a new mate in much the same fashion as Guendoloena does here. In the same story we find Suibhne speaking of his herd of stags, to one of which he says,”
“Thou stag that comest lowing
to me across the glen,
pleasant is the place for seats
on the top of they antler-points.”Vita Merlini
Again this seems to be a reference to the seasonal-lunar-antlers and the arcane mystery that resides in the magical darkness that exists between the mystery of death and life.