Page "Merlin" Paragraph 8

Geoffrey's Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlin's background.

When he included the prophet in his next work, Historia Regum Britanniae, he supplemented the characterisation by attributing to him stories about Aurelius Ambrosius, taken from Nennius ' Historia Brittonum.

According to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower.

The tower always collapsed before completion, and his wise men told him the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father.

Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child, but when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who destroyed the tower by fighting.

Geoffrey retells this story in Historia Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child the name of the prophetic bard, Merlin.

He keeps this new figure separate from Aurelius Ambrosius, and to disguise his changing of Nennius, he simply states that Ambrosius was another name for Merlin.

He goes on to add new episodes that tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors.