The life of Merlin or Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmoth

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The Following extract is from a book  by Francis Lot titled 'The Island of Avalon', which sets out the evidence that Henry Blois used Geoffrey of Monmouth as a nom de plume.

Henry Blois and the Vita Merlini

Tatlock, for whom I have the utmost respect,[1] and has penetrated HRB to elucidate its construction, would be embarrassed by the blindness he suffered from not seeing Henry Blois as the author of the Merlin prophecies…. when he tells us that it is impossible to believe that ‘Geoffrey’ wrote all the prophecies. If Tatlock had not suffered this blind spot, nearly every argument put forward to show that some prophecies were written by a separate individual other than Geoffrey would bolster the case for Henry Blois as the author of VM, HRB and the Merlin prophecies therein and the set  of prophecies purportedly written by John of Cornwall. Whoever wrote these also wrote the Merlin prophecies in HRB  as I discussed in the chapter on John of Cornwall.

 It is doubtful anyone will fully understand all the prophecies of Merlin in HRB, but Tatlock is misguided where he says it is hard to believe the prophecies ever had any intelligible meaning for anyone.[2]  They were most certainly written by Henry Blois just as VM is written by him; and for the most part they certainly had meaning originally. For consistency, many of Merlin’s prophecies are repeated from Vulgate HRB into VM, but there are many additions. Once we understand the prophecies were written by Henry, we can then see why many of the prophecies themselves (supposed to have come from a sixth century Merlin), substantiate parts of the pseudo-history comprising HRB, which, supposedly ‘Geoffrey’ wrote. The reason we may never fully understand every prophecy is that they have undergone editorial changes by Henry in the final HRB in the Vulgate version published in 1155.  These were followed by new prophecies by Merlin in VM and other prophecies by Taliesin found in VM. Ganieda’s introduction into VM helped substantiate Merlin’s vaticinatory reliability.

As Henry Blois changed the sense to some prophecies and added to the original set (which we may suppose Abbot Suger had); it becomes difficult to divine the sense or purport on occasion and to whom the prophecy refers; yet at other times it is crystal clear that the prophecies speak of events which are wholly translatable to Henry’s world view and interests, especially being the author of the Primary Historia, the First Variant and Vulgate HRB. It would be foolish of anyone to presume to attempt to unveil the meaning of each prophecy as some prophecies have purposefully been squewed at a later date to hide Henry’s authorship when he has previously been less guarded. There seems to be a defining reason for writing the VM with several prophecies seemingly repeated from HRB. Not only has Henry Blois squewed some prophecies from HRB in VM by Merlin himself, but he has added two more sets of prophecies which see clearly on other subjects not touched by Merlin, through Taliesin and Ganieda. However, I feel that the whole of VM has a half-hearted approach in layout and purpose by comparison with the well-structured HRB. So, we should try to find out why Henry went to the trouble of producing the seemingly uninspired VM.

Henry wishes to demonstrate or corroborate that the updated prophecies in HRB (which differed from those known by contemporaries to have existed in the earlier libellus Merlini) were in fact written or understood to have existed (in another work) by the now dead ‘Geoffrey’…. and so Henry Blois wrote the VM. After 1155 skeptics of the prophecies antiquity were trying to discover who had added seditious prophecies to the originals.[3] This is why many of the prophecies in VM are changed in purport from the Vulgate HRB’s new updated set (making some a lot less specific). In effect by writing VM, Henry not only locates Merlin in antiquity (not accomplished in HRB), but has him surrounded and interacting with sixth century contemporaries; but most importantly the seditious prophecy which encourages the Celts to unite to re-establish the crown of Brutus is found in VM as well…. which puts its composition in between 1155-1158. Therefore if ‘Geoffrey’ is now known to be dead then those trying to find the person who added the most recent prophecy are non-plussed because there it is in another of ‘Geoffrey’s’ works…. which, since he died in 1154, could not (as the logic goes) have been added to thwart Henry II. This same argument applies to the ‘Sixth’ in Ireland prophecy also. Gerald of Wales relates that the VM Merlin is clearer and comments on the modern insertions he detects in the prophecies saying that ‘not all these prophecies are probable, nor all fabulous’, but Gerald says King Henry II wants to read a copy. So the idea that the VM was instigated to counter the argument that someone was inciting sedition is not so silly if Henry II wanted to check to see if the prophecies were the same as found in Vulgate HRB or the Libellus Merlini.

The Vita Merlini is written in classical Latin hexameters and considering what is achieved in converting prose source material from Isidore into this form of poem, it is a remarkable achievement. It has been paid little attention by commentators. Tatlock[4] believes the VM was written in 1154. I can say with certainty it was not written until after 1155 because of the reference to the 19 years of Stephen’s reign.

The VM begins with a dedication much like the HRB. Where VM is dedicated to Robert de Chesney, most HRB copies are dedicated to Robert of Gloucester. These two (along with Alexander) were detested by Henry Blois and therefore allaying any suspicion that either work might have been composed by him. Both works offer their dedicatees the humble offer of being corrected. In the Vita: I am preparing to sing the madness of the prophetic bard, and a humorous poem on Merlin; pray correct the song.

In the HRB:

Robert, Duke of Gloucester, show favour in such wise that it may be so corrected by thy guidance and counsel as that it may be held to have sprung, not from the poor little fountain of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but rather from thine own deep sea of knowledge, and to savour of thy salt.

Let me state for the record categorically that no dedicatee ever received a copy of HRB or VM from Geoffrey of Monmouth. Modern scholars have derived their entire analysis of dating based on these late insertions of the dedicatees names into Vulgate HRB which were neither present in the Primary Historia found at Bec or the First Variant version constructed in 1144. All dedications were added to the Vulgate HRB after their deaths.[5] The converse applies to the VM. The difference is that when the VM circulated Robert de Chesney was alive until 1166. Unfortunately and by a huge coincidence ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’ aka the ‘Bishop of Asaph’ had been consigned to death by Henry Blois. This anomaly in Henry Blois’ methodology may explain the lack of copies which were propagated. It may even be the case that the dedication to Robert was added by Henry after Robert de Chesney’s death just as he had done with all[6] the dedicatees in the copies of Vulgate HRB.  Most commentators date the VM to 1154 as they assume Geoffrey died in 1154-5. The ploy of Henry Blois by appearing to ask correction is so that the reader is duped into thinking that he is humbly appealing to a contemporary patron or dedicatee.

Henry Blois makes a pretence in both HRB and VM as if his dedicatees were patrons of his work, but due to his ability in both cases to propel his work into the public domain, this is just part of his smoke and mirrors routine whereby Henry Blois appears to be a cleric ‘Geoffrey’ trying to advance his position. Henry Blois is so clever at this that he gives the appearance (in the dedication of VM) of seeming dissatisfied with the acknowledgement he received from Alexander and hopes for better with Robert de Chesney. He makes out that his last dedicatee in Lincoln (Alexander) did not recognise him by reward. Writing the VM after 1155, Henry predates his work to c.1148-9 by the use of the word ‘just’ regarding his fictional relationship with his fictitious patron Robert de Chesney: whom you have just succeeded, promoted to an honour that you deserve…  The reason for doing this was to show the continued patronage of the bishops of Lincoln. Alexander did not commission the translation of the prophecies of Merlin simply because they are all made up by Henry Blois. The dedications found in Vulgate HRB were written after the death of the dedicatees and as I have stated, did not exist in the Primary Historia found at Bec (where no prophecies were even included in that first edition) or the First Variant.

No-one had ever met or seen Geoffrey of Monmouth and although Henry Blois had consigned him to death in 1154-5, it is clear that the tone and compositional content of VM was authored in Henry’s time at Clugny between 1155-58. Henry authored VM while in a state of depression at his sudden loss of power, status and wealth.

The word ‘just’ implies Robert is recently installed. Therefore, many commentators have assumed the Vita was written in 1148.  This point will be addressed when I cover the backdating of the HRB. For the moment the dedication has little bearing on our investigation. The false air of humility for the most part ensured for the contemporary reader that it ‘had been’ a commissioned work.

Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, had no regard for Robert. Henry had tried to secure the bishopric of Lincoln for one of his nephews but was thwarted by the pope and others. The pope agreed with the Lincoln chapter in their election and appointed Robert de Chesney as bishop. Chesney employed Foliot as a clerk at Lincoln. It is Gilbert Foliot's letters which give some background to Chesney's[7] election, showing that King Stephen of England and his brother Henry of Blois, attempted to secure Lincoln for one of their relatives.  The candidates put forward by Stephen and Henry were Henry de Sully, abbot of Frécamp, Gervase, abbot of Westminster, and Hugh, abbot of St Benet of Hulme.  Henry de Sully was the son of William, Count of Chartres…. Stephen and Henry Blois’ eldest brother. William, as oldest, had not received his birthright as the eldest son to the comptal throne. He was considered too aggressive and mentally incompetent.[8] Another candidate put forward for the bishopric of Lincoln was Gervase, the illegitimate son of King Stephen and his mistress, Damette.  The third proposed candidate was Hugh, abbot of St Benet of Hulme. He was the illegitimate son of Stephen and Henry's brother Theobald II, Count of Champagne.

Henry Blois in VM makes a pretence flattering Robert de Chesney calling him a leader and a teacher in the world… promoted to an honour that you deserve… and the clergy and the people all were seeking it for you. This is contrary to Henry’s real feelings. Henry betrays himself as author with his constant reference to muses: were all to sing with my mouth and all the Muses were to accompany me, and betrays too much knowledge of their provenance established in Greek literature later on in the Vita. He again refers to muses on his personal epitaph on the Meusan plates. It is as if Henry believes he is inspired by muses. Again, to Alexander in the dedication to the prophecies of Merlin in HRB: Howbeit, since it so pleased you that Geoffrey of Monmouth should sound his pipe in these vaticinations, eschew thou not to show favour unto his minstrelsies, and if so be that he carol out of time or tune do thou with the ferule of thine own muses.

Henry Blois in VM then launches into the body and purpose of the text: Well then, after many years had passed under many Kings, Merlin the Briton was held famous in the world.  He was a King and prophet; to the proud people of the South Welsh he gave laws, and to the chieftains he prophesied the future. Reassuring his reader, Henry picks up the same Merlin that the HRB had made famous. But in VM he now consciously attempts to locate him by the historical cross referencing of bardic literature rather than the mythical un-defined and fabricated Merlin of HRB. (See note 2). This is the first time we hear that Merlin is a King.

Merlin had come to the war with Peredur and so had Rhydderch, King of the Cumbrians.  Merlin is found lamenting as the battle took place around him: O dubious lot of mankind! as blood flowed all around. Henry assumes Cambri (Cymry), (now applied to the Welsh), was formerly used of the Britons just as he does in the HRB and has them making war on Gwenddoleu and routing the Scots.

 Next in VM we find Merlin refusing food and filling the air with so many and so great complaints, new fury seized him and he departed secretly, and fled to the woods not wishing to be seen as he fled…

Henry Blois had departed secretly from England and he (like Merlin) hides himself away at Clugny hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no one and forgetful of himself and of his kindred.  At Clugny, Henry reflects back on the years of his brother’s reign and reflects on how God has brought him from the most powerful man in Britain to be in self imposed exile. It is 1156 and Henry II is on the throne and King Henry II has confiscated six of Henry’s castles and virtually made him powerless. Henry Blois fled across the channel without permission just as Merlin reflects in VM. Christ, God of heaven, what shall I do?  In what part of the world can I stay, since I see nothing here I can live on…. Here once there stood nineteen apple trees bearing apples every year; now they are not standing.  Who has taken them away from me? 

The 19 trees which are now not standing are the years that his brother was King, (fruitful years), but now he is dead. King Stephen reigned for 19 years from 1135-1154. Henry introduces the apples here as they are part of his design in the translocation of ‘Avalon’, the island he had named in the HRB. Henry’s methodology in the creation of what became known as the ‘Matter of Britain’ is the creation of a ‘conflatory’ soup of detail where icons are subconsciously and hazily cross referenced. Through this confusion, allowance is given for the appearance of inaccuracy through the ages.  A connection of apples and the county of Somerset leave no doubt in the readers mind that the Avalon of HRB is synonymous with an Insula Pomorum through Barinthus.

Henry further opines in the persona of Merlin and sees that it is the will of God that he has been brought low so quickly from such lofty office. He cannot hide from the fact that many blame his interference for much of the cause of the Anarchy: Now I see them - now I do not!  Thus the fates fight against me and for me, since they both permit and forbid me to see.  Now I lack the apples and everything else.  The trees stand without leaves, without fruit; I am afflicted by both circumstances since I cannot cover myself with the leaves or eat the fruit. 

Henry, now at Clugny with Peter the Venerable his mentor (who he refers to as a ‘Wolf in old age’), marvels that Clugny, the greatest of all religious houses is in financial trouble. He has to bail out the establishment and feed 400 monks out of his own personal wealth. Peter had secreted and moved Henry’s wealth abroad after attending the last council of King Henry II’s court held at Winchester in September 1155.  It was at this court they had discussed invading Ireland. Peter the Venerable in old age had found himself unable to turn around the decline at Clugny and Henry Blois relays this as if conversing with a wolf in the wood metaphorically:  You, O wolf, dear companion, accustomed to roam with me through the secluded paths of the woods and meadows, now can scarcely get across fields; hard hunger has weakened both you and me.  You lived in these woods before I did and age has whitened your hairs first.  You have nothing to put into your mouth and do not know how to get anything, at which I marvel, since the wood abounds in so many goats and other wild beasts that you might catch.  Perhaps that detestable old age of yours has taken away your strength and prevented your following the chase.  Now, as the only thing left to you, you fill the air with howlings, and stretched out on the ground you extend your wasted limbs.”

As with some split personalities, Henry Blois was shy and suffered from bouts of depression and certainly this must have been the case in 1155. The impetus for much of the updating of the Merlin prophecies which we shall see is designed to unseat Henry II.  Henry now sets the scene of the madman Merlin being overheard by a traveller in the glades of the Calidonian[9] forest: Now this traveller was met by a man from the court of Rhydderch, King of the Cumbrians, who was married to Ganieda and happy in his beautiful wife.  She was sister to Merlin and, grieving over the fate of her brother, she had sent her retainers to the woods and the distant fields to bring him back. 

Merlin is found lamenting in a long naturist soliloquy. The traveller sent to bring him back to his sister then sings in the hope of soothing his madness by music on the cither about Guendoloena. O the dire groanings of mournful Guendoloena!  O the wretched tears of weeping Guendoloena!  I grieve for wretched dying Guendoloena!  There was not among the Welsh a woman more beautiful than she… for she does not know where the prince has gone, or whether he is alive or dead; and

Ganieda weeps with her, and without consolation grieves for her lost brother…. so great is the grief that consumes them both.  Not otherwise did Sidonian Dido[10] grieve when the ships had weighed anchor and Aeneas was in haste to depart; so most wretched Phyllis groaned and wept when Demophon did not come back at the appointed time; thus Briseis wept for the absent Achilles.[11]

Merlin’s madness is gradually assuaged by the music and he became mindful of himself, and he recalled what he used to be, and he wondered at his madness and he hated it.  He then asked to be led to the court of King Rhydderch.  Gaineda his sister was there at court and he was reunited with his wife Guendoloena.

Henry Blois’ artifice throughout the Vita Merlini is to express his views using Merlin as a voice piece. He also does this in the same way through Ganieda and Taliesin.  Henry Blois includes in the VM what can be termed as ‘padding’. Amongst this, the real reasons for writing the Vita are revealed.

I have no wish to bore the reader by traipsing through the VM, but it lays the groundwork which shows Henry’s authorial subtlety. As the narration of the Vita continues, Merlin points out his sister’s affair to the King by correctly predicting the calamitous death of someone. His sister tries to hide her infidelity by ridiculing Merlin’s prediction in the hope of proving her innocence against the accusation of the affair.  Merlin goes back to the woods; he unselfishly frees his wife Guendoloena from his marriage bond, and then for some unknown reason decides to kill her suitor. Henry’s sources for what can only be called narrative filler are from Irish, Welsh, and Scottish sources.

After these distractions Henry Blois again gets down to the real business behind his construction of the VM and remembers he is Merlin in the sixth century and he is now on: the top of a lofty mountain the prophet was regarding the courses of the stars, speaking to himself out in the open air.  “What does this ray of Mars mean?  Does its fresh redness mean that one King is dead and that there shall be another?  So I see it, for Constantine has died and his nephew Conan, through an evil fate and the murder of his uncle, has taken the crown and is King.

Henry reminds us of the Merlin from the HRB; and we are now in the reign of Aurelius Conan, which according to the HRB began about two years after the voyage of Arthur to Avalon and lasted for about two years putting us around 542.[12] Henry Blois pays little account to dating, more an overall chronology as seen in the HRB.  The Battle of Arderydd where Henry Blois has set the stage for Merlin at the beginning of the poem, was fought about 577. However, Henry’s aim is to anchor the Merlin of the HRB to the Welsh Rhydderch so that he can set his narrative in a contemporaneous era. The narrative is only secondary to his main purpose. Henry’s purpose is to manipulate events by his audience believing the prophecies of Merlin come true, both from the HRB and the VM.

Henry of Blois posing as Geoffrey of Monmouth just uses the backdrop of Merlin in the woods and the characters he involves, to set a stage ready for his polemic. The disjointed appearance of the VM is caused by inconsequential situation and narrative which sets up his main speakers, Ganieda, Merlin and Taliesin, which all speak to Henry Blois’ agenda. 

We now find Merlin in the woods again in a house and his sister is supplying him food. Then wandering about the house Merlin would look at the stars while he prophesied (for example the following), which he knew were going to come to pass as Bede and Gildas had related.

 “O madness of the Britons whom a plenitude, always excessive, of riches exalts more than is seemly. They do not wish to enjoy peace but are stirred up by the Fury’s goad.  They engage in civil wars and battles between relatives, and permit the church of the Lord to fall into ruin; the holy bishops they drive into remote lands.

This sentiment exactly is reiterated in the HRB by ‘Geoffrey’ rather than through the supposed words of Merlin.

The nephews of the Boar of Cornwall cast everything into confusion, and setting snares for each other engage in a mutual slaughter with their wicked swords.  They do not wish to wait to get possession of the Kingdom lawfully, but seize the crown. 

This could not be more precise as a description of Henry Blois and his brother Stephen. However, this reference to the Boar of Cornwall, which his audience associates with Arthur, betrays Henry Blois’ real affiliations and motivations as he sees himself and his brother as part of the heritage of ancient Britons from Brittany who emigrated during the 6^th century when the Saxons encroached on Dumnonia. We start to understand why Henry Blois (as Geoffrey) has such a positive attitude toward Brittany[13] throughout the HRB. Contrarily, we can understand why he holds the Welsh in such low regard as they revolted against his brother Stephen. Yet, commentators have been puzzled by this believing ‘Geoffrey’ was Welsh and from Monmouth. Henry’s hate of the (contemporary) Welsh witnessed in HRB is plainly seen in GS and stems from his time in 1136 in Southern Wales.

The fourth[14] from them shall be more cruel and more harsh still; him shall a wolf from the sea conquer in fight and shall drive defeated beyond the Severn through the realms of the barbarians.

Until one understands Henry changing the purport of previous prophecies it is impossible to make head nor tail as he changes Icons. Originally the sea Wolf was the Danes. The description in this case of the sea wolf is in reference to the Empress Matidla’s return to England. The prophecy specifically relates to her brother Robert of Gloucester who accompanies her across the Channel to land near Arundel.  Robert of Gloucester had left Arundel immediately to rally forces from Bristol before King Stephen had arrived. It was rumoured that Henry Blois had made a pact with Robert of Gloucester to install Matilda and oust his brother from the throne. It was clear that, in the latter part of 1138, his Brother was deliberately snubbing him for the election of Archbishop of Canterbury. But this is specifically skirted over (strangely enough) by the author of the GS. His meeting with Robert of Gloucester is mentioned in cursory manner in GS simply because it was undeniable. Many afterward knew the meeting had taken place. However, as the reader will realise, the gist of the GS always maintains that Henry had only ‘appeared’ to change allegiance and the author of GS portrays a position whereby Henry constantly supported Stephen. The GS maintains the view…. what may have seemed a change of allegiance outwardly…. was in appearance only. The GS storyline maintains that events dictated a change of allegiance, as a more propitious course of action at that moment in time. Henry would have us believe in GS that he was always loyal to Stephen. This meeting of Robert and Henry suggests otherwise.

However, since the episode where Bishop Roger of Salisbury was abused and more specifically church rights of Canon law were broken…. Henry Blois, who was already disappointed with his brother in other previous disputes, not so much plays both sides, but has had enough of the discord which prevailed throughout the country through his own actions installing his brother on the throne. Henry had definitively been thwarted and the Archbishopric had been bestowed on Theobald of Bec.

However, through the machinations of Henry Blois, who had met Robert of Gloucester secretly, a full on battle was avoided for the present. Henry Blois met Robert on the road while Robert of Gloucester was intent with helping his sister at Arundel. Henry Blois dissuaded Robert from an attack on his brother’s forces which were presently besieging Matilda at Arundel. Henry Blois in his own words[15] from the GS:  as though he had not caught up with the Earl, came to the King with a large body of cavalry.

Henry had manipulated events so that his brother King Stephen would not have to besiege Arundel or witness a staged full on battle. Henry had cleverly come up with the plan of escorting Matilda to her brother’s castle in Bristol. In a way, Matilda’s and Robert’s plans were temporarily defused and they were then both in Bristol (by the Severn).

Now back to the following prophecy in the VM which is fairly complicated:  This latter shall besiege Cirencester with a blockade and with sparrows, and shall overthrow its walls to their very bases.

The obvious inference is that ‘the latter’ is the fourth just spoken of i.e. Stephen.

At Cirencester in 1141 the Empress and Robert, Earl of Gloucester built a ‘motte and bailey’ castle near the Abbey church[16] and in 1142 Stephen found it virtually undefended and attacked.  He captured the inhabitants and Castle with the rampart and stockade and burnt it to its foundation. According to William of Malmesbury,[17] Stephen must have come looking for the Empress who had just escaped the besieged castle at Oxford, but she was thereafter at Wallingford. Stephen might have heard of the amassing of the Empress’s troops there, but they had recently moved off and thus it was easy to capture and destroy. However, Henry as ‘Geoffrey’ in VM has another objective in mind. He wishes to squew and confirm the words of Merlin found in HRB which appeared in Henry’s first edition Libellus Merlini (written while Stephen was alive). This reference to Cirencester was squewed in VM to conform (corroborate) with the Battle of Cirencester spoken of by Bede which was fought in 628. ‘Geoffrey’s’ original allusion to Cirencester is that Gormund made war upon Careticus, and after many battles betwixt them, drove him fleeing from city unto city until he forced him into Cirencester and did there beleaguer him. Both Gormundus the African and Isembardus the Frank, allied to the Saxons, carry out the siege. Gormundus the African is wholly an invention by ‘Geoffrey’ as he tries to concoct history along the lines of history found in the insular annals by employing fictional characters.

 The later Wace version of HRB has tinder-carrying sparrows which is also found in Brut Tysilio which as we shall see later has had Henry Blois’ hand upon it; seen clearly in the references to Walter and reference to Caradoc of Llancarfan. Wace adds that Cirencester was, after that event, called Sparrow-chester. There appears to be no etymology that will explain Sparewenchestre except like so many other instances ‘Geoffrey’ loves his etymology and will create a story round it.  Gaimar[18] gives a slightly longer account, making Cerdic (as below) the leader of the besieging force, but also we shall see from Gaimar’s epilogue that Henry Blois has definitely had his hand in this publication also. The reference in VM is the fire that Henry saw at Cirencester with his brother. We know he was there as the detail is good in the GS. Tatlock has pursued the source of most of Geoffrey’s fabrications and it appears nearly every fabrication or embellished episode has a definable source of inspiration; but these events and the names seem to be taken from the Chanson de Geste Gormont et Isembard and are ‘melanged’ with Guthrum's occupation of Cirencester in the year 879, mentioned in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC). Coincidentally, Seginus Dux of the Allobroges, Henry’s family’s own territorial people around Blois appear in the Chanson which ante-dates ‘Geoffrey’ and he probably associated the name with Sewinus archbishop of Sens…. again, in Blois lands.

Before Cerdic could conquer

Much from the Britons.

Then was Cirencester besieged.

But by the negligence of the Britons

It was set on fire by sparrows,

Which carried fire and sulphur into the town.

And set light to many houses.

And the besiegers who were outside

Made an assault with great courage.

Then was this city conquered. (Gaimar)

In VM we find more detail concerning Robert of Gloucester: He shall seek the Gauls in his ship, but shall die beneath the weapon of a King.

Robert went to France to get aid from Matilda's husband, Geoffrey IV of Anjou, and returned to England with the Empress’ very young son Henry, (later to be King Henry II).  Robert of Gloucester died at Bristol Castle, where he had previously imprisoned King Stephen. Gervase of Canterbury places Robert's death in 1146 and this date is corroborated by the Annals of Winchester. The Annals of Margan Abbey, has October 31, 1147, and the date John of Hexham gives is 1148. However, Henry Blois seems to understand more about Robert of Gloucester’s death than historians portray. No chronicler attests how Robert died, but we shall see further evidence here in the VM that Henry assumes his audience is apprised of the same information he has…. and hence his allusion to the ‘weapon of a King’.

Once we understand Geoffrey of Monmouth’s, (Henry of Blois’) ploy of mixing his own recent prophecies, updating them, and sometimes changing the sense from the previous prophecies and weaving his inventions around the first set of prophecies so that Merlin appears to relate to certain topics consistently; we can then understand in the later Vulgate HRB and VM prophecies that the sense has been changed.  Commentators on the VM (like San-Marte)[19] naïvely believed the prophecies portend events further than 1158. Some try to unlock the meaning of the prophecies believing they are consistent and actually did predict events from the sixth century. This is plain nonsense! Henry Blois in his construction of the prophecies uses the artifice of splicing what is known history and interlacing it with his own knowledge of recent events which are also couched as prophecy from that same ancient era when Merlin is supposed to have prophesied. Henry, on occasion refers back to his own fabricated pseudo-history in the HRB which establishes further both Merlin’s prophetic powers and HRB’s historicity as credible for those that are gullible. Henry confirms known historical events which add to the aura of prescience and here in VM makes the effort to attach Merlin’s prophecies to Welsh and northern bardic tradition.  Once the authorship of the VM is established and once this mechanism is perceived, it is easier to pick out which mode of deception Henry is using.  Where the unravelling of the sense of the prophecy becomes easier is when we understand the concerns and interests which Henry has been involved with.

The reason for the mix of anachronistic events is to seem more like biblical prophecies which have no strict chronology but ‘see’ through time indiscriminately. Part of Henry’s devise here is to give the air of antiquity; as if Merlin’s Prophecies were all foreseen back in the dark ages. Much of the archaic content which Henry employs can be understood by his audience historically as seemingly accurate; especially when considered in conjunction with the false history as presented HRB. These are events which already have passed, but which Merlin supposedly predicted correctly and have verifiably come to fruition or can be understood historically. The overall effect of a mystical prophet foretelling of events that his audience can directly relate to (some of which is set on a contemporaneous stage of recent history), is testament to Henry’s illusory brilliance.

Rhydderch shall die, after whom long discord shall hold the Scots and the Cumbrians for a long time until Cumbria shall be granted to his growing tusk. The Welsh shall attack the men of Gwent, and afterwards those of Cornwall and no law shall restrain them. Wales shall rejoice in the shedding of blood; O people always hateful to God, why do you rejoice in bloodshed?[20]  Wales shall compel brothers to fight and to condemn their own relatives to a wicked death.  The troops of the Scots shall often cross the Humber and, putting aside all sentiment, shall kill those who oppose them.

Henry’s complaint against the Southern Welsh, the Northern Welsh, the Scottish and the Cornish is that they always fought amongst themselves. In various places in the HRB and Vita, Henry (as Geoffrey) bemoans this tribal hate as the main cause for the depletion of the Briton’s power before the Saxons and Danes arrived. Henry sees these old Britons, (more properly the Celts), clearly as relatives with the Bretons because of the exodus. What has confused most commentators with ‘Geoffrey’s’ seemingly contradictory stance (regarding the Welsh especially), is that Henry personally hates the Welsh of his present day, but understands that they constitute part of what he sees as a ‘once ancient independent Christian culture’ prior to the Saxon invasion and prior to Augustine’s arrival. Henry Blois as a Norman is fully cognisant of the early establishment of Christianity in Britain, being concerned with this issue from his earliest days at Glastonbury, as we shall get to when covering DA.

As I have implied already, Henry Blois tries to manipulate events against Henry II by rousing sentiments of these old Britons as a collective, through his prophecies. This takes place after his self-imposed exile between 1155- 1157. However, the above prophecy is pure skimble-skamble based on what Henry knows of British history from ASC, Bede and Gildas.

 Not with impunity, however, for the leader shall be killed; he shall have the name of a horse[21] and because of that fact shall be fierce.  His heir shall be expelled and shall depart from our territories.  Scots, sheathe your swords which you bare too readily; your strength shall be unequal to that of our fierce people.

Henry was no fan of the Scots either and especially King David as we shall clearly witness when I cover the GS. Anyway, not wishing to bore the reader, it is worth looking at these prophecies as some are more current than the latest version of prophecies which constitute those found in Vulgate HRB. 

The city of Dumbarton[22] shall be destroyed and no King shall repair it for an age until the Scot shall be subdued in war.

Carlisle, spoiled of its shepherd, shall lie vacant until the sceptre of the Lion shall restore its pastoral staff. 

 Carlisle was destroyed by the Northmen and restored by William Rufus.  In 1133 Henry Ist, the “Lion of Justice” of the Prophecies, re-established its bishopric.  Æthelwulf (1133-1155), an Englishman, who Henry Ist had established at Carlisle in 1102 died in 1156. It was a recent event at the time of writing of the VM and Henry either knew the Bishop personally or had news of his death by a traveller en route to Rome. It is most likely the sense of ‘the spoiling of its shepherd,’[23] but Carlisle has its relevance because Henry is portraying that Merlin is predicting about things in the north as Henry has now located him there in VM. Especially, this would have relevance to Henry’s audience of VM as this now is the most recent event to have come to fruition by Merlin the seer all the way back in antiquity. Our Merlin has a remarkable focus on events just prior to and including the Anarchy and to the time when Henry is writing (the year after the nineteen years of his brother’s reign). 

Segontium and its towers and mighty palaces shall lament in ruins until the Welsh return to their former domains. 

The ruins of the old Roman station of Segontium are on the hill above the modern city of Carnarvon. It was situated on higher ground to the east giving a good view of the Menai Straits. There was a ‘motte and bailey’ castle in the area in Henry’s day, but it is doubtful Henry made it this far north in 1136 to have knowledge of the location personally. However, having read the Roman annals, Henry Blois would know Segontium was founded by Agricola in 77 or 78 AD after he had conquered the Ordovices in North Wales. The reason for naming Segontium is it implies Merlin knew the place by that name; thus giving the illusion of antiquity for the VM prophecies. More importantly, Merlin is again seen to be prophesying about things further north than the Merlin Ambrosius of Vulgate HRB. ‘Geoffrey’ ever faithful to his illusion of the prophecies coming from a Brythonic Merlin, proposes a location with Roman ruins so his audience would be fooled into thinking the prophecies so old that even the old name was current when the prophecies were told.  The Earl of Chester, Hugh d'Avranches, gained Norman control of north Wales in 1088 by building three castles; one at Caernarfon. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes and so Merlin is acquitted again with the powers of accurate prophecy.

 Porchester[24] shall see its broken walls in its harbour until a rich man with the tooth of a wolf shall restore it. 

The city of Richborough shall lie spread out on the shore of its harbour and a man from Flanders shall re-establish it with his crested ship.[25] 

The fifth from him shall rebuild the walls of St David’s and shall bring back to her the pall lost for many years.[26]

The prophecy here changes in time as Henry Blois harks directly back to the narrative of HRB confirming material derived from the British annals (from which the HRB was constructed) and concerning the emigration to Brittany at the advent of the Saxon encroachment. 

 The City of the Legions shall fall into thy bosom, O Severn (Sabrina), and shall lose her citizens for a long time, and these the Bear in the Lamb shall restore to her when he shall come.[27]

 Saxon Kings shall expel the citizens and shall hold cities, country, and houses for a long time.  From among them thrice three dragons shall wear the crown.  Two hundred monks shall perish in Leicester[28]and the Saxon shall drive out her ruler and leave vacant her walls.  He who first among the Angles shall wear the diadem of Brutus[29]shall repair the city laid waste by slaughter.  A fierce people shall forbid the sacrament of confirmation throughout the country, and in the house of God shall place images of the gods. 

This last section of VM prophecies is set out to appear to conform to known events on the Saxon arrival and the eradication of the British church. ‘Rome’, in the next prophecy, refers to Augustine of Canterbury who became Archbishop. Henry Blois however, by stating he is bringing God ‘back’ establishes the fact that he was not the founder of the Church of the Britons and this fact would not be lost on Papal authorities regarding Henry’s application for metropolitan for Winchester. Therefore, Henry’s intended polemic is that primacy should not be held by Canterbury when both Winchester (by the accounts in HRB) and Glastonbury by the accounts in GR3 and DA (and Caradoc) clearly were established before Canterbury (even though fictionally by Henry’s interpolations).

 Afterward Rome shall bring God back through the medium of a monk and a holy priest shall sprinkle the buildings with water and shall restore them again and shall place shepherds in them.  Thereafter many of them shall obey the commands of the divine law and shall enjoy heaven by right.  An impious people full of poison shall violate that settlement and shall violently mix together right and wrong.[30]  They shall sell their sons and their kinsmen into the furthest countries beyond the sea and shall incur the wrath of the Thunderer.[31]  O wretched crime! that man whom the founder of the world created with liberty, deeming him worthy of heaven, should be sold like an cow and be dragged away with a rope. You miserable man, you who turned traitor to your master when first you came to the throne; you shall yield to God.[32]  The Danes shall come upon [you] with their fleet and after subduing the people shall reign for a short time and shall then be defeated and retire.  Two shall rule over them whom the serpent forgetful of his treaty shall strike with the sting in his tail instead of with the garland of his sceptre.[33]

This section of the prophecies would seem to be Merlin referring to historical events in the Saxon and Dane era which Henry Blois’ audience would naturally accept as historic events, especially the Danes coming in ships. It is however, dispersed with allusions to recent events which they can also recognise. We see here Henry Blois’ mechanism of employing prophecy so it appears as genuine like biblical prophecy operates i.e. the prophet sees across time and picks out events from different eras as they appear to him. 

In the next section, Henry refers to Neustrians[34] as if he has no connection with them and to inappropriate behaviour of the Bishops in his time. 

 Then the Normans, sailing over the water in their wooden ships, bearing their faces in front and in back, shall fiercely attack the Angles with their iron tunics and their fierce swords, and shall destroy them and possess the field.[35] They shall subjugate many realms to themselves and shall rule foreign peoples for a time until the fury, flying all about, shall scatter her poison over them.[36]  Then peace and faith and all virtue shall depart, and on all sides throughout the country the citizens shall engage in battles.[37]  Man shall betray man and no one shall be found a friend.[38]  The husband, despising his wife, shall draw near to harlots, and the wife, despising her husband, shall marry whom she desires.[39]  There shall be no honour kept for the church and the order shall perish.  Then shall bishops bear arms, and armed camps shall be built.  Men shall build towers and walls in holy ground, and they shall give to the soldiers what should belong to the needy.  Carried away by riches they shall run along on the path of worldly things and shall take from God what the holy bishop shall forbid.[40]  Three shall wear the diadem after whom shall be the favour of the newcomers.  A fourth shall be in authority whom awkward piety shall injure until he shall be clothed in his father, so that girded with boar’s teeth he shall cross the shadow of the helmeted man.[41] Four shall be anointed, seeking in turn the highest things, and two shall succeed who shall so wear the diadem that they shall induce the Gauls to make war on them.[42]  The sixth shall overthrow the Irish and their walls, and pious and prudent shall renew the people and the cities.[43] 

When he has made these predictions, Henry Blois, as far as he can into the present, reminds his reader that they are from the same source as those prophecies of Merlin found in the HRB and the libellus Merlini. However, not only has Henry Blois updated prophecies in the Vulgate HRB, but now he has come up with new prophecies. Some which are designed to have us believe that Merlin is connected to the north and others which have insights into the anarchy which were not in the original updated prophecies found in Vulgate HRB.

All these things I formerly predicted more at length to Vortigern in explaining to him the mystic war of the two dragons when we sat on the banks of the drained pool.

It is silly to think that the composer of VM is any different from the author of HRB and most commentators assume ‘Geoffrey’ is the author of VM, but there are those who think VM was written by another author other than ‘Geoffrey’. The most important device which locates Avalon at Glastonbury is found in VM as Henry Blois now informs us it is called Insula Pomorum. It is also silly to believe that the prophecies were written by any other than Henry Blois. We just have to understand that ‘Geoffrey’ is Henry Blois.

Henry Blois convinces his audience these prophecies were made while sat next to Vortigern. His gambit of remixing some of the prophecies found in the Vulgate HRB and the Libellus Merlini  are so that the prophecies of Merlin in the Vulgate HRB and those found in the VM are convincingly contemporaneous i.e. they are consistent and came from Merlin…. who ‘Geoffrey’ had originally founded upon Nennius’ boy Ambrosius.[44] Suspicion must have been much more acute as the updated Vulgate prophecies were published in 1155 and seen to have additions which were not in the Libellus Merlini.  William of Newburgh angrily protests against them and the historicity of HRB. William of Newburgh who wrote around 1190 had problems with ‘Geoffrey’ challenging the authenticity of the Arthurian legends. ‘Geoffrey’s’ pseudo-history did not concur with Gildas. William of Newburgh wrote: It is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from Vortigern onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others, either from an inordinate love of lying, or for the sake of pleasing the Britons.

He also says: only a person ignorant of ancient history would have any doubt how shamelessly and impudently he lies in almost everything. William of Newburgh comments again: But in our own days, instead of this practice, a writer has emerged who, in order to expiate the faults of these Britons, weaves the most ridiculous figments of imagination around them, extolling them with the most impudent vanity above the virtues of the Macedonians and the Romans. This man is called Geoffrey, and his other name is Arthur, because he has taken up the fables about Arthur from the old, British figments, has added to them himself, and has cloaked them with the honourable name of history by presenting them with the ornaments of the Latin tongue....

Since these events agree with the historical truth set forth by the Venerable Bede, all the things which that man took care to write about Arthur and either his predecessors after Vortigern or his successors, can be seen to have been partly concocted by himself and partly by others, either because of a frenzied passion for lying or in order to please the Britons, most of whom are known to be so primitive that they are said still to be awaiting the return of Arthur, and will not suffer themselves to hear that he is dead....

For how could the old historians, to whom it was a matter of great concern that nothing worthy of memory should be omitted from what was written, who indeed are known to have committed to memory quite unimportant things, how could they have passed over in silence so incomparable a man, whose deeds were notable above all others? How, I ask, could they have suppressed with silence Arthur and his acts, this king of the Britons who was nobler than Alexander the Great.....

With even greater daring he has published the fallacious prophecies of a certain Merlin, to which he has in any event added many things himself, and has translated them into Latin, [thus offering them] as if they were authentic prophecies, resting on immutable truth....[45]

There was suspicion on the prophecies also. Abbot Suger had commented on several prophecies before 1150 and the impression of early provenance provided by the interpolation of Merlin prophecies into Orderic’s work has given scholarship the illusion of early transmission of those found in Vulgate. The illusion of a continuous unadulterated set of prophecies is also aided by the back dating of Vulgate HRB through its dedications, but there is less evidence of suspicion on the prophecies themselves (recorded) than that of the dubious historicity of the main body of HRB. The publication of John of Cornwall’s set of Merlin prophecies BY Henry Blois greatly aids the illusion that the prophecies were originally of Brythonic origin. William Newburgh’s comments about historians like Bede: who indeed are known to have committed to memory quite unimportant things, how could they have passed over in silence so incomparable a man, whose deeds were notable above all others?...  should be enough to point out that not everyone was gullible.  We should be very wary of Nennius’ testimony because we can see blatantly that Henry Blois actively promotes Nennius as Gildas’ work…. but I shall cover this shortly.

Henry reveals too much contemporary information in the VM prophecies. His vanity got the better of him specifically alluding to himself in the prophecies. However, because modern commentators believe ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’ died in 1155, they believe it is the reason behind the Vita having had so much less exposure. The real reason for its apparent lack of readership is that because of its lack of historicity (and the fact it was in metered rhyme) it did not get copied as much in the monastic system .i.e. it was not considered important enough to be copied as extensively as ‘Geoffrey’s’ HRB.[46]  

The veracity of Merlin’s prophecies is often given credence by scholars asking: How could any prediction of the ‘sixth’ invading Ireland be a fraud since the invasion was not accomplished until 1171? It is coincidental that this is the year of Henry Blois’ death. It has been this particular prediction which alludes to an event after ‘Geoffrey’s’ supposed death, which has for the most part provided the aura of prescience and substantiated Merlin’s credibility as a prophet. For the less gullible commentator, Henry’s knowledge of the Winchester court discussion about invading Ireland subtracts from any predictive ability ascribed to Merlin. Merlin’s predictive ability has especially been given credence by the insertion/interpolation of the passage concerning some Merlin prophecies into Orderic which also refers to the ‘sixth’ invading Ireland. Some commentators date the interpolated chapter on Merlin’s prophecies in Orderic to 1136 or thereabout. Given the nature of the prophecies it is not only preposterous but naive to think that the sixth King i.e. Henry II, could be predicted to invade Ireland from this early date.[47]

At this point in VM, it is as if Henry Blois has just remembered why he is writing the Vita and suddenly ends these prophecies from Merlin and returns to the narrative storyline of the mad Merlin. Henry closes this prophetic section by introducing Gildas and names Taliesin and records Taliesin’s recent instruction under Gildas, which immediately provides contemporaneity for Merlin with Gildas and Taliesin.

But you, dear sister, go home to see the King dying and bid Taliesin come, as I wish to talk over many things with him; for he has recently come from the land of Brittany where he learned sweet philosophy of Gildas the Wise[48].”

Ganieda returned home and found that Taliesin had returned and the prince was dead and the servants were sad.  She fell down lamenting among her friends.

Gildas becomes highly relevant in Part II of the book when we consider Henry Blois’ hand in the manipulation of Glastonbury material in GR3 and DA.

We now hear Ganieda speaking about the death of the King. With only slight variation, it is as if Henry Blois were doing the same internal lamenting for his brother and using Ganieda as mouthpiece. It is couched as a poetical and thoughtful tribute to her husband Rhydderch. As I have made plain earlier, Henry Blois has lost his power, his castles and his brother.  The vision of his future when he wrote the original Libellus Merlini prophecies has now been played out.  Henry Blois continues on until, (still speaking through Ganieda), he laments leaving all his nephews which he had fought so hard to elevate into positions of power in England and laments leaving his walls of Winchester and clothes himself in the monk’s mantle as he is, in his present state at Clugny.

Therefore I leave you, ye nobles, ye lofty walls, household gods, sweet sons, and all the things of the world.  In company with my brother I shall dwell in the woods and shall worship God with a joyful heart, clothed in a black mantle.”

Henry Blois is setting up his next astonishing piece, by bringing Taliesin and Merlin together with the most cursory introduction: Meanwhile Taliesin had come to see Merlin the prophet who had sent for him to find out what wind or rain storm was coming up, for both together were drawing near and the clouds were thickening.  He drew the following illustrations under the guidance of Minerva[49] his associate.

Henry Blois uses his scholastic knowledge of previous writers through the ‘voice piece’ of Taliesin to propagate the propaganda for his new vision concerning Glastonbury. He has based much of the setting of the VM on records from the Book of Taliesin who is also contemporaneous with Rydderch, so they provide the anchor of contemporaneity with Merlin. He has also extracted ideas from Irish[50] and Scottish sources.  Some of the information in Taliesin’s speech in VM has been traced back to men such as Pliny, Solinus, Martianus Capella, Pomponius Mela and Rabanus Maurus.  Henry Blois posing as Geoffrey of Monmouth through extracts taken from Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae[51] now speaks as if in the words of Taliesin. However, he starts this long nature episode reverting to Aristotle: Out of nothing the Creator of the world produced four [elements][52]

Henry then follows on with a lengthy piece on origins and discussions on various topics concerning stars, dragons and fish etc. Just as Isidore of Seville covers a variety of naturist topics; so does ‘Geoffrey’. Isidore also leads into his discourse on Islands much the same way as Geoffrey of Monmouth does starting with Britain: Of these [islands] Britain is said to be the foremost and best, producing in its fruitfulness every single thing. 

He then proceeds by describing the various British blessings found in the country culminating with the pleasing baths found in the city of Bath. Henry’s aim is to refer back to the HRB before launching into his next piece which names Bladud from the HRB. In the HRB, Bladud is the founder of Bath. We can actually witness Henry’s mind at work here. He is enabling himself to establish as fact in the Vita, the connection between Bladud and Badon and as we know the earliest mention of the Battle of Badon is in Gildas' De Excidio Britanniae where Ambrosius Aurelianus organized a British resistance. But, as we know, Geoffrey does his best to conflate Ambrosius with Arthur (or even Merlin) and Nennius has Badon as the place of King Arthur’s last battle. But, Geoffrey’s Camlann is also brought into the salad of confusion from the Annales Cambriae where Arthur and Mordred fell (AC mentions Medraut, but it does not specify that he and Arthur fought on opposite sides), as Henry Blois has Mordred in Cornwall purely because Henry knows the topography[53] and of the river Camel.[54] His main intention in VM is to conflate Badon (where Arthur’s battle took place) with Avalon. As the reader will understand shortly, the purport behind Henry’s very clever design is to set up Arthur’s last known location, the Island of Avalon of HRB fame as being synonymous with Glastonbury.  So let us see in this next extract from the HRB, why Bladud’s name is important to Henry and why this contrivance is essential to his overall plan for the future of Glastonbury.

Next succeeded Bladud his son, in whose hands the Kingdom remained for twenty years. He builded the city of Kaerbadon, that is now called Bath, and fashioned hot baths therein, meet for the needs of men, the which he placed under the guardianship of the deity Minerva, in whose temple he set fires that could not be quenched, that never turned into ashes, but as they began to fail became as it were round balls of stone.[55]

Returning back to the VM we can now see where he is guiding his contemporary audience and every reader of the HRB and the Vita Merlini since 1157.

Besides all these it has fountains healthful because of their hot waters which nourish the sick and provide pleasing baths, which quickly send people away cured with their sickness driven out.  So Bladud established them when he held the sceptre of the Kingdom and he gave them the name of his consort Alaron.[56] 

Immediately he has named this ‘Alaron’[57] which he has now established as being the same as where we find Bladud, (who we know was the founder of Badon, where Arthur’s battle took place); after one line on the healing powers found in this Alaron he does his trickiest bit of sophistry and conflation, he calls the same place an Island and to confuse us further he says it is near Thanet.[58]

Our ocean also divides the Orkneys from us.  These are divided into thirty three islands by the sundering flood; twenty lack cultivation and the others are cultivated.  Thule receives its name “furthest” from the sun, because of the solstice which the summer sun makes there, turning its rays and shining no further, and taking away the day, so that always throughout the long night the air is full of shadows, and making a bridge congealed by the benumbing cold, which prevents the passage of ships.

I have shown in appendix 15 why Henry Blois has a peculiar concern regarding the island of Thanet.  The above material is taken from Pytheas’ account through Diodorus or other ancient chroniclers who comments of Pytheas’ travels. Even though the special status afforded by Thanet as being near to Henry’s primary purpose (a conflation with Avalon), Isidore of Seville also talks of the same list of Islands and many others beside in the Mediterranean. Isidore provides the basis of material for ‘Geoffrey’s Islands in VM. The ensuing Island material is derived from Isidore’s XIV.vi, De insulis (“concerning islands”) but it becomes apparent why there is a change in order from his list of Islands.

Vita Merlini                                                      Isidore’s Etymologia

1. Thanatos                                                                    Thanet

2. The Orkneys                                                                Ultima Thule

3. Thule                                                                          Orkneys

4. Ireland                                                                        Ireland

5. Gades                                                                          Gades

6. The Hesperides                                                             The Fortunate Isles

7. The Gorgades                                                               The Gorgades

8. Argire & Crisse                                                              The Hesperides

9. Ceylon                                                                         Chryse and Argyre

10. Tiles

11. The Fortunate Islands

Rather than reveal his real intention, Henry Blois has decided to set up his intended objective, (that of exchanging the Avalon of HRB to be synonymous with the ‘Island of Apples’) in amongst what appears to be Taliesin pronouncing upon the subject of ‘Islands’ just after the obvious intended conflation of Alaron with Badon. Henry Blois already has another project planned in the manuscript which was the forerunner of Perlesvaus, where unfortunately, he cannot change the name Insula Avallonis (for reasons that will be explained shortly).  The fact that Arthur was taken to Insula Pomorum shows to the gullible that it must equate to the Avalon in HRB. The logic of such an assumption is because the island now appears to be located in Somerset because Arthur had appeared at Glastonbury in the concocted life of Gildas.  Posterity has been led to a conclusion to which Henry directed us in that: Insula Pomorum must be Glastonbury. In 1191 when the leaden cross was unearthed Glastonbury was unequivocally associated with Avalon but the interpolator of DA has made this association long before the discovery. It is only modern scholars erroneous chronology which assumes Avalon’s association with Glastonbury was made after the disinterment.

A Welsh ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’ has little to gain in associating Arthur with Glastonbury. Henry Blois not only is responsible for the connection of Arthur to Glastonbury made by impersonating Caradoc, but he is also responsible for the naming of Avalon and the invention of the character of the Chivalric Arthur. He is responsible for Arthur’s association to Glastonbury found in DA and is responsible for creating Arthur’s grave between the pyramids. It is hardly surprising that as ‘Geoffrey’ in VM, Henry persuades his audience that the apple country of Somerset possesses an Island which is known as Insula Pomorum where Arthur is known to have been taken by Barinthus. The only assumption one can draw and to which the reader has been led in VM is that Glastonbury must be the same location as Avalon with all the other evidences which corroborate such a conclusion found in DA. Henry Blois has achieved his goal and posterity and scholarship is none the wiser even today. It will become apparent also that Henry Blois, amongst other works of anonymity, is the author of the initial Perlesvaus. The VM continues on with Taliesin pronouncing on the Islands:

 The most outstanding island after our own is said to be Ireland with its happy fertility.  It is larger and produces no bees, and no birds except rarely, and it does not permit snakes to breed in it.  Whence it happens that if earth or a stone is carried away from there and added to any other place it drives away snakes and bees.

 Isidores work describes Ireland: Ireland (Scotia), also known as Hibernia, is an island next to Britannia, narrower in its expanse of land but more fertile in its site. It extends from southwest to north. It’s near parts stretch towards Iberia (Hiberia) and the Cantabrian Ocean (i.e. the Bay of Biscay), whence it is called Hibernia; but it is called Scotia, because it has been colonized by tribes of the Scoti. There no snakes are found, birds are scarce, and there are no bees, so that if someone were to sprinkle dust or pebbles brought from there among beehives in some other place, the swarms would desert the honeycombs.

 Isidore is not certain about who the inhabitants are and conflates the Scottish to Irish, but knows its proportion and position. ‘Geoffrey’ (Henry Blois) knows where Ireland and Scotland are, so he does not pretend to be ignorant, which obviously Isidore is.[59]

The island of Gades lies next to Herculean Gades, and there grows there a tree from whose bark a gum drips out of which gems are made, breaking all laws.

Isedore’s version of Gades: Cadiz (Gadis) is an island located at the edge of the province of Baetica. It separates Europe from Africa. The Pillars of Hercules can be seen there, and from there the current of the Ocean flows into the entrance of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is divided from the mainland by a distance of six hundred (Roman) feet. When the Tyrians, who had come from the Red Sea, occupied it, they called it in their language Gadir that is, “enclosed,” because it is enclosed on all sides by the sea. This island produces a palm-like tree whose sap, when mixed with glass, produces the precious stone called ceraunius.

 It is a coincidence that Pytheas mentions this substance as floating. One would assume it is Amber[60] since it comes from tree sap. It is here that Geoffrey of Monmouth changes the order found in Isidore because Isidore follows with the Fortunate Isles. But ‘Geoffrey’ keeps this until the end of Taliesin’s discourse, so that it seemingly grafts into the main point of re-naming Avalon. However, ‘Geoffrey’ continues with Hesperides:

The Hesperides are said to contain a watchful dragon who, men say, guards the golden apples under the leaves.

 

Isidores Hesperides[61] are: The isles of the Hesperides are so called after the city of Hesperis, which was located within the borders of Mauretania. They are situated beyond the Gorgades, at the Atlantic shore, in the most remote bays of the sea. Stories tell of an ever-watchful dragon guarding golden apples in their gardens. There, it is said, is a channel from the sea that is so twisted, with winding banks, that when seen from afar it looks like the coils of a serpent.

On Isidore’s Hesperides we find Golden apples not as Geoffrey later attests they are on the Fortunate isles from where he derives his Insula Pomorum. ‘Geoffrey’s’ artifice is revealed when he would rather attach his ‘apple’ scenario to an Island described adjectively (fortunate) rather than overcoming some previous nomenclature like Hesperides. We can witness the conflation with the enchanted orchard of the classical Hesperides which is eventually doubly conflated with Glastonbury later on by Henry through ‘Isle de Voirre’ or Isle of Glass. I will cover this conflation later through Henry’s ingenious etymological conversion of Ineswitrin to Ynes Gutrin which gives the Glass Island which Caradoc (Henry Blois) first introduces in Life of Gildas. It is also though Henry Blois and his relationship with Marie and Alex, Eleanor of Aquitaine and their relation to Chrétien de Troyes where we meet Maheloas as lord of the Isle de Voirre which relates to Caradoc’s Melvas and his Urbs Vitrea.

The Gorgades are inhabited by women with goats’ bodies who are said to surpass hares in the swiftness of their running.

Isidore’s Gorgades are described thus: The Gorgades are islands of the Ocean opposite the promontory that is called Hesperian Ceras, inhabited by the Gorgons, women with swift wings and a rough and hairy body; the islands take their name from them. They are separated from the mainland by a passage of two days’ sailing.

Argyre and Chryse [62] bear, it is said, gold and silver just as Corinth does common stones. 

Isidores Argyre and Chryse are: are islands situated in the Indian Ocean, so rich in metal that many people maintain these islands have a surface of gold and silver; whence their names are derived.

Celon blooms pleasantly because of its fruitful soil, for it produces two crops in a single year; twice it is summer, twice spring, twice men gather grapes and other fruits, and it is also most pleasing because of its shining gems. Tiles produces flowers and fruits in an eternal spring, green throughout the seasons.

Celon and Tiles are Geoffrey’s addition and not found in Isidore’s account on the Islands in the Sea.

 The island of apples which men call “The Fortunate Isle”[63] gets its name from the fact that it produces all things of itself; the fields there have no need of the ploughs of the farmers and all cultivation is lacking except what nature provides.  Of its own accord it produces grain and grapes, and apple trees grow in its woods from the close-clipped grass.  The ground of its own accord produces everything instead of merely grass, and people live there a hundred years or more.

Isidore’s Fortunate Islas are described as: The Fortunate Isles (Fortunatarum insulae) signify by their name that they produce all kinds of good things, as if they were happy and blessed with an abundance of fruit. Indeed, well-suited by their nature, they produce fruit from very precious trees; the ridges of their hills are spontaneously covered with grapevines; instead of weeds, harvest crops and garden herbs are common there. Hence, the mistake of pagans and the poems by worldly poets, who believed that these isles were Paradise because of the fertility of their soil. They are situated in the Ocean, against the left side of Mauretania, closest to where the sun sets, and they are separated from each other by the intervening sea.

We can see that Henry (‘Geoffrey’) has made Isidore’s Islands singular; and now conflated it with the apples of the Hesperides to suit his goal in the translocation of a nebulous Avalon in HRB to be located at Glastonbury. The implications of this are huge at this date of 1157.[64]  At this point in VM Henry now leaves Isidore and a versification of his work which he employed for his own ends.

In the HRB we hear of Avalon twice; once where Arthur is …girt with Caliburn, best of swords, that was forged within the Isle of Avalon.[65] The second is where the renowned King Arthur himself was wounded deadly, and was borne thence unto the island of Avalon for the healing of his wounds.[66]

We were not introduced to Morgen or her sisters[67] in the HRB, but one assumes that ‘Geoffrey’s’ reason for their inclusion in VM was to give a valid reason why his hero of the HRB was taken to Avalon, i.e. she can cure the sick and his wounds. Of course the nine sorceress priestesses of Pomponius Mela’s island of Sena are to be conflated with the nine maidens on Insula Pomorum in VM and of course again, in Henry’s interpolation into DA.  To add to Henry’s salad of conflation in DA, Avalloc just happens to have daughters and supplies the eponym for Avalon just to complete the confusion.[68] In this instance alone we can witness Henry’s brilliance which started out innocently by randomly picking a name from a Burgundian town just as he had selected the environs of Autun for Arthur’s fictitious continental battle.  To not recognize that the conversion of a completely fictitious island to which a fictitious chivalric Arthur was taken to, (to what is nowadays understood to be a real location of Avalon) is to underestimate the brilliance of Henry’s subtle method of translocation. The translocation also bears witness to the evolvement of Henry’s propagandist thought processes where Arthur was firstly associated with Glastonbury in the Life of Gildas. Henry had initially posited Ineswitrin as synonymous with Glastonbury in life of Gildas because by doing so it established the 601 charter’s credibility. At that time Henry wished Glastonbury to be recognized as Ineswitrin. By the end of the evolution of his propaganda Henry has effectually converted Ineswitrin at Glastonbury into Avalon at Glastonbury.

Even though ‘Geoffrey’ in VM places Taliesin at the scene of Arthur’s arrival, it is irrelevant since we can clearly see Taliesin’s inclusion in the narrative is because Henry Blois utilises material derived from Taliesin which comprises some of the VM.

There nine sisters rule by a pleasing set of laws those who come to them from our country. She who is first of them is more skilled in the healing art, and excels her sisters in the beauty of her person.  Morgen is her name, and she has learned what useful properties all the herbs contain, so that she can cure sick bodies.  She also knows an art by which to change her shape, and to cleave the air on new wings like Daedalus; when she wishes she is at Brest, Chartres, or Pavia[69]and when she will she slips down from the air onto your shores.  And men say that she has taught mathematics to her sisters, Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thitis; Thitis best known for her cither.  Thither after the battle of Camlan[70] we took the wounded Arthur, guided by Barinthus [71]to whom the waters and the stars of heaven were well known.  With him steering the ship we arrived there with the prince,[72] and Morgen received us with fitting honour, and in her chamber she placed the King on a golden bed and with her own hand she uncovered his honourable wound and gazed at it for a long time.  At length she said that health could be restored to him if he stayed with her for a long time and made use of her healing art.  Rejoicing, therefore, we entrusted the King to her and returning spread our sails to the favouring winds.”

Henry Blois, not forgetting that Merlin is supposedly speaking prior to the Saxon invasions, makes recorded British history into predictions that appear to have come true.

 Merlin said in answer, “Dear friend, since that time how much the Kingdom has endured from the violated oath, so that what it once was it no longer is!  For by an evil fate the nobles are roused up and turned against each other’s vitals, and they upset everything so that the abundance of riches has fled from the country and all goodness has departed, and the desolated citizens leave their walls empty.  Upon them shall come the Saxon people, fierce in war, who shall again cruelly overthrow us and our cities, and shall violate God’s law and his temples.  For He shall certainly permit this destruction to come upon us because of our crimes, that He may correct the foolish.” 

Taliesin then postulates by means of prophecy the expectation of the Britons. Henry Blois using the voice of Taliesin pretends to state ‘the hope of Arthur’s return’ into a current hope of the 6^th century. I would not be surprised if Henry Blois left the prophecy open so that at some future date it might apply to him; especially as he would be returning by ship if some mishap were to happen to Henry II. In any case, the meaning reiterates the same feeling current at the time, to which William of Malmesbury referred. It also conveys the same sentiment as that found in the prophecies of HRB; of a lost noble nation needing to be returned to its former peace. The return of an Arthurian figure, a saviour, might be more in line with what Henry Blois is trying to propose.

Merlin had scarcely finished when Taliesin exclaimed, “Then the people should send someone to tell the chief to come back in a swift ship if he has recovered his strength, that he may drive off the enemy with his accustomed vigour and re-establish the citizens in their former peace.

Henry Blois then cuts Taliesin short with an unequivocal prediction through the mouth of Merlin. Merlin speaks with powerful authority as he did in the HRB prophecies. He contradicts Taliesin’s generalised hope and sets about telling us what will transpire which his audience (having read HRB) knows has already taken place historically. This in effect confirms Merlin’s accuracy in the prediction about the Britons being enslaved for many years.

“No,” said Merlin, “not thus shall this people depart when once they have fixed their claws on our shores.  For at first they shall enslave our Kingdom and our people and our cities, and shall dominate them with their forces for many years.  Nevertheless three [73]from among our people shall resist with much courage and shall kill many, and in the end shall overcome them.  But they shall not continue thus, for it is the will of the highest Judge that the Britons shall through weakness lose their noble Kingdom for a long time, until Conan[74]shall come in his chariot from Brittany, and Cadwalader[75] the venerated leader of the Welsh, who shall join together Scots and Cumbrians, Cornishmen and men of Brittany[76] in a firm league, and shall return to their people their lost crown, expelling the enemy and renewing the times of Brutus, and shall deal with the cities in accordance with their consecrated laws.  And the Kings shall begin again to conquer remote peoples and to subjugate their own realms to themselves in mighty conflict.”  “No one shall then be alive of those who are now living,” said Taliesin, “nor do I think that any one has seen so many savage battles between fellow citizens as you have.” 

We now have Henry’s true desire of unseating Henry II confirmed in actual speech by Merlin rather than found in a list of other prophecies. It is hard to grasp to which three Henry is relating to because Henry has morphed the prophecies since he published the initial Libellus Merlini to which his friend abbot Suger refers. Maybe originally the three were Constans Uther and Ambrosius[77] against the Saxons. Maybe it is a case of Henry squewing the number three of the Kings used to indicate William the conqueror, William Rufus and Henry Ist, but it is not clear. What is clear is that the prophecy’s main purport, whether originally relating to the Saxon era (as is indicated by an initial resurgence and then an eventual subjugation of the Britons) is that the end of the subjugation comes through Conan and Cadwallader both coincidentally fighting against Henry II in 1155. So here we have a clear indication that Henry Blois is trying to rouse the indigenous Celts through prophecy. Henry Blois writing as Geoffrey has made it clear that if the Bretons (with Conan) and the Welsh (with Cadwallader), along with the Scots and Cornish rise up against the invaders (specifically the Angevin Henry II), they will once again retain the crown of Brutus.  I hope the reader can get an insight into how manipulative the real Henry Blois actually was. Not only did he invent the story of Brutus in HRB, he is now predicting that the fictitious crown would return to the indigenous Britons.

All these things Merlin recapped for our benefit to run according to the history as it was understood, so that we and ‘Geoffrey’s’ Anglo-Norman readers were amazed at Merlin’s accuracy. Merlin, speaking in the sixth century, comes out with a prediction, remarkably up to date by coincidently naming two people[78] on the current political landscape. Henry Blois affects sedition through a fraudulent prophecy of Merlin inciting Conan and Cadwallader to rebel against Henry II; prompting them to join in firm league, to subjugate their own realm to themselves.[79] In John of Cornwall’s rendition of the prophecies of Merlin (also fabricated by Henry Blois) it becomes evident that Henry sees himself as the natural replacement of Henry II once the rebellion has succeeded.

The last statement of Taliesin’s in the passage above underlines that Henry Blois’ conception of Merlin is as someone who lives through the ages[80] and has witnessed these battles fought between the Britons themselves, the idiocy of which he laments constantly in that their power is reduced which has allowed the foreigners to dominate them. He has seen the various foreigners through the ages and the chaos they bring, and the sentiment of Merlin can be understood as: ‘Oh, if only the Celts, the Britons of a bygone age would stop fighting amongst themselves they would not have been invaded down through the ages’. 

Merlin said, "Indeed, that is the truth. For I have lived long and seen much; our own folk turning on one another, and the chaos the barbarian brings.

The brief exchange acts as a conversational narrative conjunction before Henry Blois launches into the next lot of text, the object of which again is to endorse the historiography of the HRB.

“And I remember the crime when Constans was betrayed and the small brothers Uther and Ambrosius fled across the water.[81] At once wars began in the Kingdom which now lacked a leader, for Vortigern of Gwent, the consul, was leading his troops against all the nations so that he might have the leadership of them, and was inflicting a wretched death upon the harmless peasants.  At length with sudden violence he seized the crown after putting to death many of the nobles and he subdued the whole Kingdom to himself.  But those who were allied to the brothers by blood relationship, offended at this, began to set fire to all the cities of the ill-fated prince and to perturb his Kingdom with savage soldiery, and they would not permit him to possess it in peace.  Disquieted therefore since he could not withstand the rebellious people, he prepared to invite to the war men from far away with whose aid he might be able to meet his enemies.  Soon there came from divers parts of the world warlike bands whom he received with honour.  The Saxon people, in fact, arriving in their curved keels had come to serve him with their helmeted soldiery.  They were led by two courageous brothers, Horsus and Hengist,[82] who afterwards with wicked treachery harmed the people and the cities.  For after this, by serving the King with industry, they won him over to themselves and seeing the people moved by a quarrel that touched them closely they were able to subjugate the King; then turning their ferocious arms upon the people they broke faith and killed the princes by a premeditated fraud while they were sitting with them after calling them together to make peace and a treaty with them, and the prince they drove over the top of the snowy mountain. 

Henry Blois in this last section confirms his HRB’s historiography, whereas, before, it was written in the form of historical record in the body of HRB, it is now re-iterated here in the VM as a future awaiting…. predicted by the prophet whose vaticinations undoubtedly have materialised as history for Henry’s audience. If the reader needs any help understanding this; this was revealed to Vortigern at the same time as the original prophecies in the HRB.

These are the things I had begun to prophesy to him would happen to the Kingdom. 

Henry Blois then goes on to relate that Vortigern had tried to repel the Saxons he had initially invited to Britain until he was betrayed by Rowena Hengist’s sister who he was infatuated with and who poisoned him. Rowena recalls her brother back to Briton. Henry never forgets to put himself in character as Merlin, supposedly speaking as an ancient Briton and of ‘our’ army.

This therefore he did, for he came with such force against our army that he took booty from everybody until he was loaded with it, and he thoroughly destroyed by fire the houses throughout the country.

We then hear a complete contradiction in the story line where, (while these events were happening), Vortigern, now alive again, is defeated by the returning Britons from Brittany. The only reason I suspect for doing this is to locate Vortigern’s tower (for the narratives sake) in Wales so that he is differentiated from the good Britons who returned from Brittany[83] and associated with the savages (in Henry’s mind) that now inhabit Wales. This is entirely consistent with ‘Geoffrey’s’ sentiments. By doing this, Henry allows himself his own personal views on the Welsh and offers by way of explanation the reason he is derogatory toward them. 

“While these things were happening Uther and Ambrosius were in Breton territory with King Biducus and they had already girded on their swords and were proved fit for war, and had associated with themselves troops from all directions so that they might seek their native land and put to flight the people who were busy wasting their patrimony.  So they gave their boats to the wind and the sea, and landed for the protection of their subjects; they drove Vortigern through the regions of Wales and shut him up in his tower and burned both him and it.  Then they turned their swords upon the Angles and many times when they met them they defeated them, and on the other hand they were often defeated by them.  At length in a hand to hand conflict our men with great effort attacked the enemy and defeated them decisively, and killed Hengist, and by the will of Christ triumphed.

This episode is aligned with the pseudo-history concocted in HRB but has nothing to do with the inciting to rebellion of the Celts found in the prophecies.

After these things had been done, the Kingdom and its crown were with the approval of clergy and laity given to Ambrosius….

Henry Blois always conscious of the role of Church in the state mentions its relationship far too much throughout the VM and HRB which betrays his own sentiments of the Cluniac, Gregorian reformation he had high hopes of achieving when he installed his brother Stephen on the throne. Henry carries forward with the story line repeating and setting in order the events for the most part recorded in the HRB. The point of recapping of all this to Taliesin is fairly pointless except for reasons of corroborating the historiography of the HRB and by padding out the text. That is until he arrives at his real objective which is to splice in new prophecies as if told contemporaneously with those found in the Vulgate HRB.

Ambrosius dies and his younger brother Uther takes to fighting battles over by the Humber. He is then succeeded by his son Arthur who is still a boy and ‘Therefore after seeking the advice of clergy and laity he sent to Hoel, King of Brittany, and asked him to come to his aid with a swift fleet, for they were united by ties of blood and friendship’……whom at length conquered his enemies the Saxons and forced to return to their own country, and he calmed his own Kingdom by the moderation of his laws. He also subdued the Scots and Irish and subjugated the Norwegians far away across the broad seas, and the Danes whom he had visited with his hated fleet.

 He conquered the people of the Gauls after killing Frollo to whom the Roman power had given the care of that country; the Romans, too, who were seeking to make war on his country, he fought against and conquered, and killed the Procurator Hiberius Lucius who was then a colleague of Legnis the general, and who by the command of the Senate had come to bring the territories of the Gauls under their power. [84] (Vita Merlini)

Henry has no option but to invent fictional Roman names because of the existence of the Roman annals. Merlin is now re-iterating and corroborating the fictions as presented in HRB. Henry had already tried to infer that Britons had overtaken Rome, but one cannot have a fictional battle at the valley of Siesia without a commander which could be conflated by his name with a real Roman in the annals.  However, Henry has neatly brought us to the juncture in the HRB where Arthur has to return from France to take on Mordred.

Meanwhile the faithless and foolish custodian Modred had commenced to subdue our Kingdom to himself, and was making unlawful love to the King’s wife.  For the King, desiring, as men say, to go across the water to attack the enemy, had entrusted the queen and the Kingdom to him.  But when the report of such a great evil came to his ears, he put aside his interest in the wars and, returning home, landed with many thousand men and fought with his nephew and drove him flying across the water.  There the traitor, after collecting Saxons from all sides, began to battle with his lord, but he fell, betrayed by the unholy people confiding in whom he had undertaken such big things.  How great was the slaughter of men and the grief of women whose sons fell in that battle!

In the Vulgate HRB we have Arthur being delivered to an Island called Avalon. We can witness Henry leading from an island Alaron through pointless text lifted from Isidore to introduce us to the Fortunate Isle (singular) which is also known as Insula Pomorum. Arthur was to receive medical care there. However, the readership of VM now has the confirmation of his trip to Avalon backed up by Taliesin, who accompanied Arthur to Insula Pomorum, but it is now not just an Island, but a court of the maidens.

After it the King, mortally wounded, left his Kingdom and, sailing across the water with you as you have related, came to the court of the maidens.

The problem for Henry Blois is that Arthur is taken to Avalon in First Variant and Henry has fabricated the name from a Burgundian town and probabaly from the similarity of place name where [85]his father was killed i.e the Battle of Ascalon. The Island Ineswitrin is the real inspiration for his mystical isle as presented by Melkin in his prophecy and to which Henry Blois has changed the name to Avalon (in the prophecy also related by JG). Only Henry knows that it equates with the same location in which Melkin has said Joseph of Arimathea is buried and had called Ineswitrin…. but Henry Blois has no idea where Ineswitrin exists (except that it is in the old Dumnonia).  Melkin’s prophecy was the inspiration for his fictitious island he has called Avalon on which he has conveyed Arthur according to the tale in HRB and (by Barinthus) in VM. Now, this small shift of definition I just bring to the attention of the reader because Arthur is now at the palace of the nymphs or court of maidens. It is plain that it is Henry who has interpolated the piffle about Avalloc and his daughters in DA, but what I am trying to demonstrate is that Henry does not care what allusions or conflations he makes; his aim (or post 1158 agenda) is to have the reader of DA, VM and HRB all understand that Glastonbury was once known as Avalon. He accomplished his mission because when Gerald of Wales spoke of Avalon he understood that it was the old name for Glastonbury. Gerald was not convinced solely by the leaden cross which was unearthed in front of him. He had already read HRB, VM, and most importantly, the interpolated DA (as I shall cover shortly). 

However, moving on to the conclusion of this section of VM which is in essence a recap of HRB (cleverly, more convincingly confirmed by Henry posing as ‘Geoffrey’ in the contemporaneous words of Merlin):

Each of the two sons of Modred, desiring to conquer the Kingdom for himself, began to wage war and each in turn slew those who were near of kin to him.  Then Duke Constantine, nephew of the King, rose up fiercely against them and ravaged the people and the cities, and after having killed both of them by a cruel death ruled over the people and assumed the crown.  But he did not continue in peace since Conan[86] his relative waged dire war on him and ravaged everything and killed the King and seized for himself those lands which he now governs weakly and without a plan.

We now enter a phase where Henry remembers that he is still the narrator of a story concerning the madness of Merlin with his friend Taliesin. After the praising of God, Henry now introduces a spring which miraculously will heal his madness. Not the most original of ideas but enough to hold and delight his readers and puts the storyline in context after the whole recap of the faux history in HRB. ….and all his madness departed and the sense which had long remained torpid in him revived, and he remained what he had once been - sane and intact with his reason restored. 

Merlin then continues on in soliloquy professing to understand the movement of the heavens and the workings of animals etc. before ending with the fact that due to the water he is now normal again: For now I have the water which hitherto I lacked, and by drinking of it my brains have been made whole.  But whence comes this virtue, O dear companion, that this new fountain breaks out thus, and makes me myself again who up to now was as though insane and beside myself?

At this point in the text we are told ‘Taliesin answers’ but in effect does not. He instead enters into a lengthy monologue lifted again from Isidore’s XIII, Xiii. De diversitate aquarum, (concerning the diversity of bodies of water).  

The point of which this monologue serves is to relate back to the healing of the fountain which has cured Merlin of his madness where we hear amongst other such marvels for example that of: another fountain, called Cicero’s, which flows in Italy, which cures the eyes of all injuries.   And also of: The land of Boeotia is said to have two fountains; the one makes the drinker forgetful, the other makes them remember.[87]

Merlin then commences his own lengthy monologue; its main constituents sourced from Isidore’s XII.vii, De avibus (concerning Birds). This goes on for some time but is also not relevant to our discussion but it commences with: Merlin presently said to them, “The Creator of the world gave to the birds as to many other things their proper nature, as I have learned by living in the woods for many days.

Then Henry introduces another character into the storyline with the intent of carrying out a clever bit of subliminal contortion on the part of the reader; in the hope conflation is caused in his readers minds. He introduces us to a man named Maeldinus who, with the story line in VM, is associated with apples and would naturally lead any future investigator that enquires into his name to make the obvious conflation Henry has led us to. It is a conflation between insula Pomorum and Insula Avallonis. It is not by coincidence a certain Melchinus in his prophecy (found at Glastonbury) refers of the island of Avalon; especially now that Henry has substituted the original name of Iniswitrin to Insula Avallonis on the prophecy. I propose throughout this work that Melchinus’ prophecy is the inspiration behind Henry naming Avalon as an island.

The Melkin prophecy (originally about Ineswitrin) is Henry’s template for the place Arthur is taken after his fight with Mordred. Considering Melkin’s prophecy speaks of an undiscovered sepulchre it would not be silly to suggest Henry’s notion of planting Arthur’s body in the graveyard at Glastonbury is derived from Melkin’s prophecy which in effect refers to Joseph’s undiscovered tomb. Nor would it be too difficult to work out that Melkin’s duo fassula are the template for Henry’s Grail. In progression I will show that the Melkin prophecy existed at the time Henry Blois was alive and he was responsible for the change of name on the prophecy from Ineswitrin to Avalon. It seems propitious therefore that a certain Maeldinus is introduced as a character in VM which suggests to readers also that his name is associated with Insula Pomorum and therefore Avalon. 

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.  Finally, they went away like wolves filling the vacant air with howlings.  These apples I thought were intended for me and not for them, and later I found out that they were.  At that time there was in that district a woman who had formerly been infatuated with me, and had satisfied her love for me during many years.  After I had spurned her and had refused to cohabit with her she was suddenly seized with an evil desire to do me harm, and when with all her plotting she could not find any means of approach, she placed the gifts smeared with poison by the fountain to which I was going to return, planning by this device to injure me if I should chance to find the apples on the grass and eat them.  But my good fortune kept me from them, as I have just said.  I pray you, make this man drink of the healthful waters of this new fountain so that, if by chance he get back his health, he may know himself and may, while his life lasts, labour with me in these glades in service to God.”  This, therefore, the leaders did, and the man who had come there raging drank the water, recovered, and, cured at once recognized his friends. Then Merlin said, “You must now go on in the service of God who restored you as you now see yourself, you who for so many years lived in the desert like a wild beast, going about without a sense of shame.  Now that you have recovered your reason, do not shun the bushes or the green glades which you inhabited while you were mad, but stay with me that you may strive to make up in service to God for the days that the force of madness took from you.  From now on all things shall be in common between you and me in this service so long as either lives.”  At this Maeldinus (for that was the man’s name) said, “Reverend father, I do not refuse to do this, for I shall joyfully stay in the woods with you, and shall worship God with my whole mind, while that spirit, for which I shall render thanks to your ministry, governs my trembling limbs.”  “And I shall make a third with you, and shall despise the things of the world,” said Taliesin.  “I have spent enough time living in vain, and now is the time to restore me to myself under your leadership.  But you, lords, go away and defend your cities; it is not fitting that you should disturb beyond measure our quiet with your talk.  You have applauded my friend enough.”

At this point in the story it looks as if Henry Blois was finding it tedious to pad out a storyline in which the main point was to implant polemic and uphold the pseudo-history of HRB. It is here that Henry decides to have one more dabble in Prophecy before an abrupt end to the work, as the three men Merlin, Taliesin and Maeldinus[88] send their audience away and remain in the wood along with Merlin’s sister Ganieda. The next set of prophecies Henry Blois wishes to impose on the reader are supposedly spoken by Ganieda, who, incredibly sees into the future from the sixth century, so much that is relevant to her reading audience in the twelfth century, who have just lived through the Anarchy. Even to a Norman audience her prophecies must stretch credibility; to believe that the one occasion Ganieda is found prophesying, amazingly, the content of the prophetic vision pertains to the era in which the book which contained her vaticinations was published.

The chieftains departed. The three remained, with Ganieda, the prophet’s sister, making a fourth, she who at length had assumed and was leading a seemly life after the death of the King who so recently had ruled so many people by the laws he administered.  Now with her brother there was nothing more pleasant to her than the woods.  She too was at times elevated by the spirit so that she often prophesied to her friends concerning the future of the Kingdom.  Thus on a certain day when she stood in her brother’s hall and saw the windows of the house shining with the sun she uttered these doubtful words from her doubtful breast.

Ganieda starts with the three defining moments of the Anarchy, the seizing of Roger of Salisbury and Alexander of Lincoln at Oxford, the siege at Winchester and the battle of Lincoln.  If truth were told, the Anarchy probably would not have taken place if Henry had not manipulated the crown onto his brother’s head. The events are so highly relevant to him, it is doubtful that there was anyone who would be more concerned with such issues. Again, the content exposes Henry Blois as the author.

 I see the city of Oxford filled with helmeted men, and the holy men and the holy bishops bound in fetters by the advice of the Council,[89] and men shall admire the shepherd’s tower reared on high, and he shall be forced to open it to no purpose and to his own injury.[90]  I see Lincoln walled in by savage soldiery and two men shut up in it, one of whom escapes to return with a savage tribe and their chief to the walls to conquer the cruel soldiers after capturing their leader.[91]  O what a shame it is that the stars should capture the sun, under whom they sink down, compelled neither by force nor by war![92]  I see two moons in the air near Winchester [93]and two lions acting with too great ferocity,[94] and one man looking at two and another at the same number, and preparing for battle and standing opposed.[95]  The others rise up and attack the fourth[96] fiercely and savagely but not one of them prevails, for he stands firm and moves his shield and fights back with his weapons and as victor straightway defeats his triple enemy.  Two of them he drives across the frozen regions of the north while he gives to the third the mercy that he asks, so that the stars flee through all portions of the fields.[97]  The Boar of Brittany, protected by an aged oak, takes away the moon, brandishing swords behind her back.[98]  I see two stars engaging in combat with wild beasts beneath the hill of Urien where the people of Gwent and those of Deira met in the reign of the great Coel[99] O with what sweat the men drip and with what blood the ground while wounds are being given to the foreigners![100]  One star collides with the other and falls into the shadow, hiding its light from the renewed light.[101] Alas what dire famine shall come, so that the north shall inflame her vitals and empty them of the strength of her people.[102]It begins with the Welsh and goes through the chief parts of the Kingdom, and forces the wretched people to cross the water.[103] The calves accustomed to live on the milk of the Scottish cows that are dying from the pestilence shall flee.[104]  Normans depart and cease to bear weapons through our native realm with your cruel soldiery.  There is nothing left with which to feed your greed for you have consumed everything that creative nature has produced in her happy fertility.  Christ, aid thy people! Restrain the lions and give to the country quiet peace and the cessation of wars.”

The word Neustrians is employed for Normans so that an air of antiquity is maintained. Here, unlike in the original Libellus Merlini where the Normans were saviours, we now fully understand that Henry II is on the throne and Henry’s only hope of return to England is to rouse the Celts to rebellion by castigating the Normans.[105] Henry Blois does not betray his Norman heritage; just as he averts all suspicion of authorship of the Gesta Stephani by being on occasion derogatory about himself. The stratagems employed to divert suspicion of authorship in the various works in the course of this exposé are varied and ingenious. Henry Blois writing as ‘Geoffrey’ in the VM, speaking as Ganieda and Merlin or Taliesin feigns British nationality:

1. The war-lord Horsa and many others met their deaths at the hands of our men.

2. She promptly sent word overseas to her brother to come back with sufficiently large forces to overcome our warrior people.

3. Our men made a great effort in an attack

4. And they conquered by the sword all the territories of our native land that lie beyond the Humber.

5. During this time the faithless and foolhardy guardian of our realm

6. Your power will not prove a match for our fierce nation.

Berating the Normans has the same effect. The confirmation of that which I have maintained about Henry employing the prophecies to rouse all the Celts to come together is laid bare here. The VM was written at the time between 1155 and 1158 when Henry is trying a desperate ploy to retain power. No Norman or Anglo-Norman, especially a cleric in Oxford, would have the audacity to write that the ‘Normans should depart and cease to bear weapons through our native realm with your cruel soldiery’. It is no wonder Gerald relates that King Henry wanted to obtain a copy of VM. If the reader is still not convinced that Henry Blois is the author of these prophecies and the instigator of these updated prophecies which incite rebellion, he should read the version supposedly put out by John of Cornwall (which I cover in Chapter 30). This version puts Henry as the seventh king and Henry Blois vainly sees himself as an ‘adopted son’ firmly on the throne in England. 

However, no Norman could deny only a few years after Stephen’s death that the entire country was depleted. Henry’s audience would understand that it was indeed an accurate prediction by Ganieda. Henry’s last devise is to appeal to Christ (as if it were a Briton speaking) through Ganieda that peace may come.

Ganieda having seen so many tumultuous events which apply to the reign of Stephen, six hundred years in her future, may have tested the whole of VM’s credibility. However, Henry’s vanity had Ganieda see things which concerned Henry directly. It is not by coincidence that historical records of events to which Ganieda alludes and which provides the explanation of all of Ganieda’s prophecies are covered in detail in GS (again authored by Henry Blois). Deflection and secrecy of authorship was vital, especially when we consider the consequences if the Bishop of Winchester was discovered in such a deception and of the invention of Merlin.  

She did not stop with this and her companions wondered at her, and her brother, who soon came to her, spoke approvingly with friendly words in this manner, “Sister, does the spirit wish you to foretell future things, since he has closed up my mouth and my book?  Therefore this task is given to you; rejoice in it, and under my favour devoted to him speak everything.

‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’ speaking through Merlin then goes on to convince his readers that Ganieda spoke of future events by the spirit and contrives the rhetorical question referring to his book of the prophecies of Merlin. Such a device verifies the credibility of such a book for the naïve and gullible of his reading audience (even to modern scholars). I think Henry realises that some of his audience may pay little respect to prophecies from a woman no one has heard of before. So, the great Merlin adds his stamp of authority explaining (so that we might understand how it is that we are blessed with Ganieda’s insight) and the reason Merlin’s mouth has been ‘shut’. This indeed must be because (in reality) Merlin’s initial book (libellus Merlini)) was already published and it had already been squewed from its original to the updated prophecies found in the Vulgate HRB. Such prophecies as the Dumbarton and Carlisle prophecies were added here in VM and it would seem odd for more newly invented prophecies to turn up that had not previously been mentioned. Henry could not help himself in referring to the major parts of the Anarchy which Merlin had somehow missed and so they were seen by Ganieda instead.

The Close to VM is rather a dull and an odd circumambulation of logic on which to end an extraordinary invention.

I have brought this song to an end.  Therefore, ye Britons, give a wreath to Geoffrey of Monmouth.  He is indeed yours for once he sang of your battles and those of your chiefs, and he wrote a book called “The Deeds of the Britons” which are celebrated throughout the world.

Whether ‘Geoffrey’ wrote this with his original or not is only contested on the point that the colophon exists in one manuscript. However, it acts as a confirmation that the two works of HRB and VM are by the same supposed author who, (even though this VM has only recently been published circa late 1156 to 1157) is now dead and supposedly died in 1154. Tongue in cheek, Henry Blois suggests a memorial to a person that never lived. More importantly it gives the illusion that all these prophecies were written before Henry II came to the throne.

Henry Blois lived until 1171, so there is the possibility of later additions by Henry.  However considering Henry’s recall to England, by Theobald of Bec, the terminus post quem fits the recently received news at Clugny. This is the news of a July battle at Coleshill. A battle in which Henry II was victorious and remained alive and therefore Henry Blois’ wish of insurrection was doubtful to come true; hence, the sudden termination of the VM with these events and a return to Winchester and the King’s Court.

There may only be one objection to an 1157 completion date which Tatlock discusses,[106] based upon assumptions made by Delisle,[107] but these should be dismissed. Tatlock gives a completion date not much after 1148. The discrepancy arises in a comment on the differentiation between Merlinus Ambrosius and Merlinus Caledonius or Silvester. The assertion for a date prior to 1157 is based upon two library catalogue descriptions of Geoffrey’s HRB one copied from the other[108] in Normandy, where we read… Libri XII, in quorum septimo continentur prophetiae Mellini, non Silvestris, sed alterius, id est Mellini Ambrosii.  The comment on the two Merlin’s is derived from Bec library, but Crick[109] informs us, the Leiden manuscript was catalogued in 1160, so I can see no reason to assume a date prior to 1157 given that ‘Geoffrey’ did not die in 1154-5. Tatlock seems to assume the Leyden MS, which has the VM prefixing the whole volume (containing much besides the HRB), who assigns an early HRB date (basing his premise purely upon the dedication), proposes as said…. ‘not much after 1148’ for the Vita.  He dates the second of the library cataloguing ‘between early 1152 and 1154’ and the first even earlier.  No previous proposition should prevent us here maintaining a completion date for the Vita Merlini as late as Aug- Sept 1157; and the terminus post quem of Chambers, Faral, Parry and Bruce is inconsequential based mainly upon the 13 December 1148 election date of Robert de Chesney to Lincoln and its supposedly recent transpiration made to appear by reason of the word ’just’.  Dedications as a form of dating in both HRB and VM have no bearing on the date of the work as commentators such as Crick need to understand before teaching another generation of scholars incorrectly.[110]

We can rely on Ganieda’s prophecy of the two kings meeting at Wallingford to set a date of at least 1153. That is, if it had not been shown that the ‘sixth in Ireland’ prophecy could only have occurred later than 1155. If we take the later suppositions of sedition and Coleshill…. we can get a date as late as 1157; nearly ten years after Tatlock’s date. This too is based on Henry Blois’ propaganda (book of Llandaff) which provided the date of the Bishop of Asaph’s death along with the conclusion drawn about De Chesney’s recent election in 1148

Henry’s dedication to Robert de Chesney was just another form of ruse to hide Henry’s identity by choosing and flattering those who he had little respect for. It was also made to keep up the illusion that the bishop’s of Lincoln were his patrons. Not even Robert de Chesney could deny that his predecessor might have commissioned the prophecies from Geoffrey and that Geoffrey had taken it upon himself to write VM for his own further advancement appealing to a patron of the same diocese. There was no request involved, and  of course, if De Chesney did see VM, he would assume that Geoffrey died before he could present it. Henry Blois did not need their patronage and the entire dedicatory tone was a stratagem meant to mislead. The dedication could of course have been added after De Chesney’s death.

The first definitive assertion of differentiation between the two Merlins’ is by Gerald de Barri in Itinerarium Cambriae written in 1188-91 long after Crick’s 1160 date for cataloguing the Leiden MS. However, 1160 is still two years subsequent to Henry’s move back to Winchester from Clugny. Even though Henry Blois was patron to Gerald,[111] Gerald never suspected Henry Blois as the author of HRB. Gerald, happy to quote Merlin, had not much good to say about ‘Geoffrey’.  To my mind, (disregarding the possibility of Henry’s vaticinatory ability), the whole paragraph toward the end has to have been written after the event of Coleshill. Such a flimsy detail regarding the death of Geoffrey in 1155 seems immaterial since his persona is a fabrication anyway.

Taliesin was a sixth century poet and bard whose work has partially survived in Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Celtic British Kings would of course interest ’Geoffrey’ and provide a contemporaneous companion and bouncing board in the VM for Merlin. Taliesin’s work dated from a few poems to the sixth century praises King Urien of Rheged and his son Owain mab Urien, and several of the poems imply that he also served as the court bard to King Brochfael Ysgithrog of Powys and his successor Cynan Garwyn, either before or during his time at Urien's court. Some of the events to which his poems refer, such as the Battle of Arfderydd may be the source for historical annals as he seems to have been at the battle. His name is directly linked with the Y Gododdin from which we have the poetic account previously mentioned and he is also mentioned in Nennius’s Historia Brittonum. Strangely, it would seem that this second Merlin Sylvestris is modelled upon Taliesin as even Taliesin’s parentage like Merlin’s was suspect. Although not an incubus, Taliesin was adopted as a child by Elffin, the son of Gwyddno Garanhir, but also more to the point, he has a possible connection to the original Melkin, (Meldred, Melvas, Maelgwn, all Kings) as Taliesin prophesied the death of Maelgwn from the Yellow Plague.  Taliesin also became companion of Bran the Blessed and King Arthur which sounds suspect as a late addition. But in the life of St Cadoc we hear ‘in those days, a certain King, of the name of Maelgon, reigned over all Britain’ which I am sure was ‘Geoffrey’s’ reason for the inclusion of Maeldanus as a contemporary with Taliesin and Merlin in VM. The triple death divination and a prophetic madman called Lailoken befriended by St Kentigern of Glasgow (d.603) certainly associates more closely with a Calidonian Merlin.

The reasons for reconstituting Merlin in the Vita Merlini is because in HRB ‘Geoffrey’ had put no flesh on Merlin’s bones. His prophecies were the substance of Merlin. Later in this exposé we will see Henry’s ingenuity to explain how it is that Robert de Boron possesses certain knowledge i.e. of Joseph and the Grail where Merlin is posited (just as he is the VM), as a type of reappearing time traveller through the ages. To make Merlin seem more real, Henry needed to give him location at a point in time with the added reality of interactive contemporaries who existed in history in the era projected by ‘Geoffrey’. 

Henry Blois does clearly expose his authorship of the Vita in many places, but even in the HRB he betrays his own sentiments too often: ‘the disaster they had suffered in the loss of the Kingdom, they sent as legate Constantius the senator,…a wise man and a hardy, who had wrought more than any other to magnify the power of the commonweal’. Henry just happens to be a legate also and it should be no shock that ‘Constantius took unto himself the crown of the Kingdom and therewithal the daughter of Coel unto wife. Her name was Helena, and all the damsels of the Kingdom did she surpass in beauty, nor was none other anywhere to be found that was held more cunning of skill in instruments of music nor better learned in the liberal arts’. We will see that Henry Blois’ prospect of a marriage to a nun is in John of Cornwall’s rendition of the prophecies.

As Tatlock points out[112] ‘one must be wary of assuming that every authentic legendary or historical Briton name here reflects in the attached narrative authentic tradition. Invented narrative attached to authentic names belonging to the same period concerned or other periods, is so common in the HRB as to be fairly called its formula’.

As I have mentioned, it seems that Henry employs a metaphor, interchanging the woods for Clugny as opposed to the material world at court he had been part of; full of double dealings, deceit and lies.  He had been greatly concerned with affairs in the Anarchy, during the years his brother was in power. It is not silly to suggest that the innocence of the cloister boy returning home was like rediscovering inner peace. Clugny was the woods, the forest of Calidon, and a place to heal ones conscience from the madness he had endured in England and this is reflected in the opening to VM (especially with the 19 years coinciding with his brother’s reign). I might suggest that some who were religiously instructed from an early age undergo a self-realisation of past misdemeanours and account this religious experience as a form of madness within themselves. This may be part of the reason for its inclusion as part of the storyline in the Vita.

 Although not suggested by its manuscript tradition, it would seem from the later references to the VM that it was popular, but I believe the reason for its lesser dissemination as opposed to that of the HRB is that Henry did not propagate copies throughout the monastic system on the continent…. probably because it was less acceptable in verse. It had much less history and was designed to be read aloud at court. Therefore, it was not reproduced and distributed on the scale of the HRB. HRB’s distribution was simply achieved by handing it out to grandees and abbeys in the course of Henry’s travels; innocuously secreting its authorship, by presenting it as an interesting and inoffensive work by a non-descript cleric called Gaufridus Artur or after his supposed elevation to bishop and then his subsequent death…. the Vulgate was widely understood as having been written by Geoffrey of Monmouth (as in the text….rather than Gaufridus as stated in Primary Historia).

The Vita Merlini in general can be seen to be derived from various sources, but it has a disconnected style compared with the unique condensation and organised construction of the HRB. The Vita is no less contrived but its structure is haltering; as if Geoffrey after a long focus has to realign his plot to make sure that the points for which the Vita was produced are made. The overall effect is in a less flowing structure than the HRB, (but to have versified some of Isidore’s work is already a feat).  Maybe this is acceptable to Henry, who, throughout the matter of fact HRB, presented it as believable History.  Henry adjusted his sights and agenda and in his first word says: I am preparing to sing the madness of the prophetic bard, and a humorous poem on Merlin. He in fact carries out certain intended facets which in effect help to align his propaganda concerning a partly fictional history which was to become known as the Matter of Britain.

---

[1] If indeed one of the many hundreds of scholars over the past hundred and fifty years had indeed entertained the possibility of Henry’s authorship we might be able to assign the title scholar to any one of them. However the myopia which persists in the scholastic community is like a genetic disease passed down, where no-one can see the wood for the trees. This is more testament to Henry Blois’ brilliance than their lack of it.

[2] Tatlock. P.416

[3] This argument is also given credence by the fact that the colophon of HRB, which, in effect adds a confirmation that the dedicatees were alive at the time the prophecies were added…. is an addition to the Vulgate to counter the argument that the dedicatees were not found in the First Variant version and were added subsequently. The colophon speaks to William of Malmesbury and in effect pre-dates the Vulgate to at least 1143.

[4] Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini. J. S. P. Tatlock. Speculum Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1943), pp. 265-287

[5] There may be an original dedication to Robert of Gloucester in a First Variant version but this also would have post-dated 1147.

[6] This even applies to the Count of Meulan

[7] In about 1160 Chesney became embroiled in a dispute with St Albans Abbey in the diocese of Lincoln, over his right as bishop to supervise the abbey. The dispute was eventually settled when the abbey granted Chesney land in return for his relinquishing any right to oversee St Albans a dispute Henry was involved in.

[8] There was an incident where he threatened to kill Bishop Ivo of Chartres over a jurisdictional dispute and his mother Adela conferred the inheritance to Theobald II, the second eldest son.

[9] Jocelyn's life of Kentigern is Scottish in theme and also has a madman.

[10] Sidonian Dido here with solemn state, did Juno's temple build. Virgil’s Aenid, book 1

[11] Henry Blois was familiar with the Heroides of Ovid.

[12] As we shall discuss further on in the Vera Historia Arthur supposedly reigned for 39 years and died in his fortieth year. HRB states that Arthur died in 542 and also says that Arthur acceded the throne at the age of 15. We can calculate therefore that according to Henry Blois (the writer of HRB and the Vera Historia) that Arthur must have been born in 486 acceded to the throne in 503 and died 39 years later in 542.

[13] See appendix 18

[14]  The Fourth is in reference to the fourth in line from William the Conqueror. The Conqueror was followed by William Rufus and then by Henry II, making King Stephen the fourth.

[15] The Gesta Stephani is part apologia for Henry Blois’ own tarnished reputation as a manipulator. It is also a sentimental memorial to his dead brother, and part genuine history. The details are too specific on occasion for GS not to have been written by Henry Blois himself even though it appears otherwise.  He conceals himself by employing devices to deflect suspicion of his authorship.

[16] Walker, David. "Gloucestershire Castles," in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1991, Vol. 109.

[17] William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, 523

[18] Historie des Engles, 11. 855

[19] San Marte, Die Sagen von Merlin, Halle1853

[20] Henry, from his own experience at Kidwelly in Wales looks on the Welsh as savages as is clearly expressed in GS and accounts for the contradictions in HRB. Originally the pseudo-history written by Henry was destined for Matilda and his Uncle. It was intended to be presented as a history where the Welsh were rough warriors. This then became hard to compliment the idea of a Chivalric (highly civilised) Arthur from Wales; hence the contradictions. 

[21] See appendix 1.5

[22] See Appendix 2

[23] I do not think this has any relevance to Henry II being knighted at Carlisle.

[24] See appendix 3

[25] See appendix 4

[26] See appendix 5

[27] See appendix 6

[28] See appendix 7

[29] See appendix 8

[30] The Danes and the Dane law

[31]  Perhaps Geoffrey’s reference to the Viking Thunder God Thor, yet in two cases in HRB it seems to refer to God.

[32]  See appendix 11

[33] This refers to Matilda and Stephen ruling at the same time. He also was forgetful of his oath to the church and Henry himself. Instead of being able to rule with ‘garlanded sceptre’, Stephen is stung as if from a serpent’s tail. Henry makes plain in the Gesta Stephani it is God’s judgement against Stephen for wrongs against the church.

[34] See appendix 32

[35] The faces front and back is difficult to unravel but the allusion is to the Norman Conquest and more specifically the battle of Hastings.

[36] The Norman subjection of wales and Scotland the subsequent power feuds of continentals.

[37] This directly relates to the Anarchy.

[38]  To convey the mistrust that prevailed throughout the country during the Anarchy is the aim of the prophecy.  This could be a personal reference to Henry’s own snubs from Stephen and the changes of allegiance, ‘no one keeping their word’.

[39] See appendix 9

[40] See appendix 10

[41] See appendix 12

[42] See appendix 13

[43] See appendix 14

[44] See Appendix 36.

[45] William Newburgh Historia regum anglicarum.

[46] It seems fairly certain that the initial distribution and copying was carried out by Henry Blois as he travelled.

[47] The passage in Orderic which establishes credibility for the existence of the prophecies for ‘scholars’ by its appropriate insertion and clever reference to ‘time’ is quite obviously an interpolation and will be covered shortly. Crick, appears to be duped into believing the existence of a body of prophecies by stating Orderic Vitalis, first known reader of Geoffrey’s Merlinian prophecies, understood their function immediately. In the same analysis she states: the Prophecies of Merlin, the core of Geoffrey’s own Historia, was arguably Geoffrey’s own creation. How then is it possible to predict the Sixth in Ireland if it is Geoffrey’s work and yet supposedly written prior to Henry I death (or even Orderic’s) unless ‘Geoffrey’ is an actual prophet. The evident solution is that it is an interpolation by Henry Blois into Orderic, as he is the inventor of both Merlin and Geoffrey. Henry Blois dupes posterity by inserting an entire section concerning the Merlin prophecies which were originally in the early Libellus Merlini with one added prophecy (the sixth in Ireland) qualifying their existence in the time of Henry I by stating (in the Orderic interpolation): up to the times of Henry I and Gruffudd, who still,” uncertain of their lot, await the future events” that are ordained for them. I realise that to become a scholar one must spend a lot of time in dusty libraries and not much on the street. But one does not even have to be ‘street wise’ to recognise the obvious guile and intended insinuation in Henry’s interpolation.  The interpolation in Orderic must have taken place post 1155.

[48]  The Life of Gildas by the Monk of Rhuys tells that after Gildas settled in Brittany people began to flock to him to entrust their sons for their instruction to his superintendence and teaching.

[49] Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and defense also mentioned in the prologue of John of Cornwall’s prophecies

[50] See Appendix 16

[51] Adam of Damerham witnesses that Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae sive Origines was donated to Glastonbury abbey by Henry Blois

[52] Aristotle Metaphysics

[53]It becomes plain that Henry knows Cornwall, but this only becomes evident when we cover John of Cornwall’s prophecies.

[54] From the Annales Cambriae,  Camblanus becomes Geoffrey’s Camlann. However, more probably Colchester was called Camulodunum and Henry changed the location having visited Cornwall and Tintagel. Henry Blois knows the river Camel is four miles distant from Tintagel and on it stands Camelford. Henry Blois has conveniently used conflation for his own end and located the battle in Cornwall,

[55] HRB II, x

[56] The account of Bladud is found in the HRB, II, x. 

 [57] Geoffrey’s purposeful confusion of Avalon, the Vaus d'Avaron, used by Robert de Boron (3123, 3221) and the ‘grant valee’ in the Perlesvaus' description of Avalon, obviously represent the same locality.

[58] See Appendix 15

[59] Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636) served as Archbishop of Seville and Geoffrey surely knew his source would be discovered, however the source for Geoffrey’s purposes is contemporaneous enough.

[60] Herodotus in book 3 says ‘I cannot speak with certainty nor am I acquainted with the islands called the Cassiterides from which tin is brought to us….it is never the less, certain that both our tin and our amber are brought from these extremely remote regions, in the western extremities of Europe’.

[61] According to the Sicilian Greek poet Stesichorus, and the Greek geographer Strabo, in his book Geographika (volume III), the garden of the Hesperides is located in Tartessos, a location placed in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Since they are beyond the Gorgades which one must assume are the Canaries it would seem the Hesperides may be the Cape Verde Islands as Isidore states: Islands (insula) are so called because they are ‘in salt water’

[62] Pliny refers to Chryse as an Island and was on the Medieval mappaemundi as an Island. Mention of Argyre is made in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea as the last part of the inhabited world toward the east. However in Pliny’s Natural History he mentions a Land of Gold via a peninsula. Pomponius Mela, says two lands lay to the east of India one Argyre was said to boast soil of Gold and Chryse was said to have soil of Silver. ‘In the vicinity of Tamus is the Island of Argyre, in the vicinity of the Ganges, that of Chryse’.

[63] See Appendix 17

[64] Scholars have contrived an a priori which assumes the name Avalon has no association with Glastonbury until Arthur’s disinterment when the leaden cross is found.

[65] HRB IX, iv

[66] HRB XI, ii

[67] It will be discussed later on in the chapter on Vera Historia de morte Arthuri, Henry’s later addition of this lore to HRB where Morgen is also mentioned.

[68] We should remember that the DA interpolations which associate Avalon with Glastonbury existed in DA long before the unearthing of the Arthur in 1189-91.

[69] Pavia is presumably Paris; Brest and Chartres also places more relevant to Henry Blois than a Welsh Geoffrey of Monmouth.

[70] Geoffrey’s reference to the battle of Camlann is made to accord with an entry in the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, recording the battle in the year 537 which mentions Mordred (Medraut). ‘The Strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) perished’.

[71] There seems little doubt that the Navigatio Brendani is the source; the early eleventh century account of the voyage of St. Brendan. Followed by the Norman poem (ed. Fr. Michel), Voyages Merveille de St. Brendan (Paris 1878), where a certain ‘Barintz’ does the same (II. 75,101) and this version would certainly be known by Henry Blois as it was written for his uncle’s Queen Adeliza. Barint in the St Brendan legend starts the saint off on his voyage by telling him of a marvellous isle.

[72] ‘Geoffrey’ has based Arthur’s arrival at Avalon after the battle of Camlan. ‘Geoffrey’s’ artifice is clearly revealed in setting up the association of ‘Alaron’ with his various Island material which leads into his Fortunate Isle scenario.  ‘Geoffrey’s’ statement in the HRB where Arthur ‘wounded deadly, and was borne thence unto the island of Avalon for the healing of his wounds, where he gave up the crown of Britain unto his kinsman Constantine’ assumes that giving up his crown, he died there at Avalon and was never seen again. It is this same assumption that facilitated any credence given to the fabricated find of Arthur’s remains at Glastonbury in 1191.  As we know, initially in Primary Historia, Arthur is not taken to Avalon…. otherwise this would have been mentioned by Huntingdon. In First Variant Henry Blois omits the ambiguous word letaliter ‘mortally wounded’, so a clear progression in storyline is witnessed. Ultimately to where a grave is manufactured by Henry Blois to coincide with Arthur having died at Avalon.

[73] The three Geoffrey refers to may be Cadvan, Cadwallo, and Cadwallader, on the basis of Book XII of the HRB.

[74] See appendix18

[75] See appendix 19

[76] See appendix 20

[77]Ambrosius’ name is employed in HRB to conflate with Gildas and Bede as he is the resistance leader conflated with Arthur by ‘Geoffrey’.

[78] Not Cynan and Caduallo or Caedwalla

[79] We can see the same seditious prophecy in Vulgate HRB: Cadwallader shall call unto Conan, and shall receive Albany to his fellowship. Then shall there be slaughter of the foreigners: then shall the rivers run blood: then shall gush forth the fountains of Armorica and shall be crowned with the diadem of Brutus. Cambria shall be filled with gladness and the oaks of Cornwall shall wax green. The island shall be called by the name of Brutus and the name given by foreigners shall be done away. Here again, we are told the he-goat from the castle of Venus with a silver beard will succeed and there will then be peace in his time. It does not take too much imagination to see who this might refer to.

[80] The same is posited by Robert de Boron who obtained his sense of Merlin from Henry Blois.

[81] HRB, VI, v-xix.

[82] See appendix 1.5

[83] HRB XII, xix: And, as barbarism crept in, they were no longer called Britons but Welsh, a word derived either from Gualo, one of their Dukes, or from Guales. Also we can see Henry’s hatred of the Welsh of his era: But the Welsh, degenerating from the nobility of the Britons, never afterwards recovered the sovereignty of the island…

[84] See Appendix 31

[85] Henry ‘s Father died May 19, 1102 in Ramla, Holy Land at the Battle of Ascalon.This may have some Freudian bearing on the choice of name in chosing the Burgundian town’s name.

[86] The original Duke of Brittany not the contemporary Conan Earl of Richmond c. 1138–1171.

[87] Similar non-sense was in the prophecy about the fountains at Winchester in the HRB prophecies.

[88] The fact that there is a King Melvas at Glastonbury and a Maheloas, a great baron, lord of the Isle of Voirre in Chrétien’s ‘Erec’ and here a Maeldanus (of royal race) all attached to Glastonbury, all having emanated from Melkin or the Maeldanus in the Life of Cadoc (on which Henry based his life of Gildas) just indicates Henry’s ability to conflate sources.

[89] See appendix 21

[90] See appendix 22

[91] See appendix 23

[92] See appendix 26

[93] On 14 September, 1141, Queen Matilda and Empress Matilda, ‘the two moons’ brought their rival forces to the rout of Winchester. See also appendix 22

[94] Duke Henry the future King Henry II and Stephen are the two lions, and the one man looking at two and another man looking at two are Henry Blois and Theobald of Bec already mentioned at the ’Ford of the Staff’ (Wallingford). Henry Blois and Theobald of Bec are the peacemakers as neither side (situated each side of the river), wanted to fight. As Henry equates himself with Cicero he would know: A bad peace is always better than a good war.

[95] The one man is Henry Blois looking at the two. The two are the Queen Matilda, Stephen’s wife and the Empress Matilda. ‘Another’ is Robert of Gloucester looking at the two also, preparing for battle.

[96] William the Conqueror was accounted the first, William II, was the third son of William the conqueror of England, called William Rufus. He was the second. The third was Henry Ist and the fourth was King Stephen the brother of Henry Blois. Orderic Vitalis… crowned on the eighteenth of the calends of January being the fourth King of the Norman race

[97] See appendix 25

[98] See appendix 24

[99] See appendix 27

[100] See appendix 28

[101] See appendix 29

[102] See appendix 30

[103] ‘In the same week, a like good fortune smiled on King Stephen in another part of the Kingdom. For the earl of Albemarle and Roger de Mowbray had an engagement with the King of Scotland,' and having put to the sword a multitude of the Scots, avenged the cruel slaughter which these people had made of the English without any respect for the Christian religion. The Scots, it appears, fearing the sword which threatened them, fled towards the water, and rushing into the river Tweed where there was no ford, in their attempt to escape death, met it by drowning.' After the war had continued for a length of time between the two Kings, and it had been accompanied by great atrocities on the one side and on the other, to the general loss, envoys were sent by divine inspiration, to treat of peace between the two Kings, now weary of pillage and slaughter, as well as of continual anxiety and toil; and thus their alliance was renewed’.

[104]See appendix 30. Also, a poem in Canu Taliesin entitled The Battle of Gwen Ystrat: “The men of Catraeth arise with the day around a battle-victorious, cattle-rich sovereign this is Uryen by name, the most senior leader."

[105] We should also note that Henry’s importance in determining events is evidenced in a self-written epitaph on the Meusan plates: lest England groan for it, since on him (Henry Blois) it depends for peace or war, agitation or rest.

[106] Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini 272

[107] Bibl. Ecc. Des Chartres, LXXI, 506-509, and in Faral II 20-22.

[108]  Crick’s 76&92 MSS

[109] The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth IV. Dissemination and reception in later middle ages Prof. Julia C. Crick, 204

[110] The most balanced scholar in his approach to Geoffrey’s work is Prof. O. J. Padel: What is certain is Geoffrey’s subtlety and the complexity of his work: the gravest error that we students can commit is to underestimate it. The more one learns about his work, the more one feels that Geoffrey was always one step ahead of his twentieth-century readers: anything that we may establish, by dint of hard work and detailed scholarship, is open to revision by some future discovery.

[111] David Knowles. Saints and Scholars. P 55. It is largely due to Gerald’s record, who only knew Henry in his later life after his return from Clugny in 1158, which has secured Henry’s reputation in posterity as a revered elder statesman of the church giving generous patronage and wise council to such as King Henry II and Becket alike.

[112] Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini 269

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