“To him

Great light from God gave sight of all things dim,
And wisdom of all wondrous things, to say
What root should bear what fruit of night or day;
And sovereign speech and counsel above man: 
Wherefore his youth like age was wise and wan,
And his age sorrowful and fain to sleep.” 

          
                                            SWINBURNE, Tristram of Lyonesse.

The child thus baptized soon gave the first proof of his marvelous power; for, when his mother embraced him and declared that she must soon die, he comforted her by speaking aloud and promising to prove her innocent of all crime.  The trial took place soon after this occurrence, and although Merlin was but a few days old, he sat up boldly in his mother’s lap and spoke so forcibly to the judges that he soon secured her acquittal.  Once when he was five years old, while playing in the street, he saw the messengers of Vortigern.  Warned by his prophetic instinct that they were seeking him, he ran to meet them, and offered to accompany them to the king.  On the way thither he saw a youth buying shoes, and laughed aloud.  When questioned concerning the cause of his mirth, he predicted that the youth would die within a few hours.

    “Then said Merlin, ’See ye nought
    That young man, that hath shoon bought,
    And strong leather to do hem clout [patch],
    And grease to smear hem all about? 
    He weeneth to live hem to wear: 
    But, by my soul, I dare well swear,
    His wretched life he shall for-let [lose],
    Ere he come to his own gate.’”
                         ELLIS, Merlin.

[Sidenote:  Merlin as a prophet.] A few more predictions of an equally uncanny and unpleasant nature firmly established his reputation as a prophet even before he reached court.  There he boldly told the king that the astrologers, wishing to destroy the demon’s offspring, who was wiser than they, had demanded his blood under pretext that the walls of Salisbury would stand were it only shed.  When asked why the walls continually fell during the night, Merlin attributed it to the nightly conflict of a red and a white dragon concealed underground.  In obedience to his instructions, search was made for these monsters, and the assembled court soon saw a frightful struggle between them.  This battle finally resulted in the death of the red dragon and the triumph of the white.

    “With long tailis, fele [many] fold,
    And found right as Merlin told. 
    That one dragon was red as fire,
    With eyen bright, as basin clear;
    His tail was great and nothing small;
    His body was a rood withal. 
    His shaft may no man tell;
    He looked as a fiend from hell. 
    The white dragon lay him by,
    Stern of look, and griesly. 
    His mouth and throat yawned wide;
    The fire brast [burst] out on ilka [each] side. 
    His tail was ragged as a fiend,
    And, upon his tail’s end,
    There was y-shaped a griesly head,
    To fight with the dragon red.” 
                          ELLIS, Merlin.