Yguerne had already three or four daughters, famous in the Arthurian legends as mothers of the knights Gawain, Gravain, Ywain, and others.  One of the king’s councilors, Ulfin, revealed the king’s passion to Yguerne, and she told her husband.  Indignant at the insult offered him, Gorlois promptly left court, locked his wife up in the impregnable fortress of Tintagel, and, gathering together an army, began to fight against Uther Pendragon.

The day before the battle, Merlin changed Uther into the form of Gorlois, and himself and Ulfin into those of the squires of the Duke of Cornwall.  Thus disguised, the three went to Tintagel, where Yguerne threw the gates open at their call and received Uther as her husband, without suspecting the deception practiced upon her.

[Sidenote:  Birth of Arthur.] On the morrow the battle took place.  Gorlois was slain.  Shortly after, Uther married Yguerne, who never suspected that the child which was soon born, and which Uther immediately confided to Merlin, was not a son of Gorlois.  Arthur, the child who had thus come into the world, was intrusted to the care of Sir Hector, who brought him up with his own son, Sir Kay, little suspecting his royal descent.  This child grew up rapidly, and when but fifteen years of age was handsome, accomplished, and dearly loved by all around him.

    “He was fair, and well agre [agreeable],
    And was a thild [child] of gret noblay. 
    He was curteys, faire and gent,
    And wight [brave], and hardi, veramen [truly]. 
    Curteyslich [courteously] and fair he spac [spake]. 
    With him was none evil lack [fault].” 
                        ELLIS, Merlin.

When Uther died without leaving any heir, there was an interregnum, for Merlin had promised that the true king should be revealed by a miracle.  This prophecy was duly fulfilled, as will be shown hereafter.  Merlin became the royal adviser as soon as Arthur ascended the throne, helped him win signal victories over twelve kings, and in the course of a single night conveyed armies over from France to help him.

As Merlin could assume any shape he pleased, Arthur often used him as messenger; and one of the romances relates that the magician, in the guise of a stag, once went to Rome to bear the king’s challenge to Julius Caesar (not the conqueror of Gaul but the mythical father of Oberon) to single combat.  Merlin was also renowned for the good advice which he gave, not only to Vortigern and Uther Pendragon, but also to Arthur, and for his numerous predictions concerning the glorious future of England, all of which, if we are to believe tradition, have been fulfilled.

    “O goodly River! near unto thy sacred spring
    Prophetic Merlin sate, when to the British King
    The changes long to come, auspiciously he told.” 
                                   DRAYTON, Polyolbion.

[Sidenote:  Palace at Camelot.] Merlin also won great renown as a builder and architect.  Besides the construction of Stonehenge, and of the castle for Uther Pendragon, he is said to have built Arthur’s beautiful palace at Camelot.  He also devised sundry magic fountains, which are mentioned in other mediaeval romances.  One of these is referred to by Spenser in the “Faerie Queene,” and another by Ariosto in his “Orlando Furioso.”