Tomb of St. Martin at Tours
In my various writings on the Welsh Myrddin (Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Merlin'), I frequently alluded to the fact that his name seems in several instances to have been replaced in the North by that of St. Martin. For the most part I was content with merely suggesting that the substitution took place because their names were superficially similar (they cannot be linguistically related). In this blog post I would like to explore in a bit more detail some interesting correspondences that become apparent when we compare the lives of Myrddin and Martin.
Chapter 4, Life of St. Martin:
Caeser accuses Martin of 'fear of the battle' when he refuses to serve any longer as a soldier. Many have seen in Myrddin's fleeing from the Arthuret battle a state of panic. In the Irish sources, such panic could be so severe as to cause death.
Chapter 5:
The real St Niniann lives for some time in Pictava, the old name for Poitiers based on the Gaulish tribal name, Pictones. As Martin dies in Candes, a place noted for its white stone, it is likely the story of his church being founded at Whithorn or Candida Casa/'White House' in Pictland (see the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle year entry 565 and Bede, Chapter 4) is a reflection of these place-names in France. Whithorn may owe its name to the saint who founded it (see The Innes Review vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2001, 1-28, Thomas Owen Clancy, The Real St Ninian, as well as
https://www.academia.edu/28873924/Six_degrees_of_whiteness_Finbarr_Finnian_Finnian_Ninian_Candida_Casa_and_Hwiterne and https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/chapel-finian/). I imagine Myrddin as Lailoken (from Welsh Llallogan) is associated with St. Kentigern at Molendinar Burn because St. Ninian's cemetery was located there. Kentigern (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/so-just-who-or-what-was-myrddinmerlin.html) is the Gwasawg who relentlessly pursues Myrddin. In reality, Myrddin does not appear to have ever been as far north as Strathclyde. His presence is Tweeddale is a relocation (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-grave-of-myrddinmerlin.html). And the Welsh mountain of Myrddin at Tinto (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/merlins-mountains-in-lowland-scotland.html) may be entirely due to the presence there of yet another Martin name. Other mountains associated with Myrddin/Merlin, like the Eildons, were sites of Lammas fairs, originally sacred to the god Lleu.
While we are on the subject of 'white' place-names, let us not forget that Myrddin's lord Gwenddolau means 'White dales', found preserved at Carwinley or Caer Gwenddolau. His sister was named Gwenddydd, 'White day.'
https://www.academia.edu/28873924/Six_degrees_of_whiteness_Finbarr_Finnian_Finnian_Ninian_Candida_Casa_and_Hwiterne and https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/chapel-finian/). I imagine Myrddin as Lailoken (from Welsh Llallogan) is associated with St. Kentigern at Molendinar Burn because St. Ninian's cemetery was located there. Kentigern (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/so-just-who-or-what-was-myrddinmerlin.html) is the Gwasawg who relentlessly pursues Myrddin. In reality, Myrddin does not appear to have ever been as far north as Strathclyde. His presence is Tweeddale is a relocation (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-grave-of-myrddinmerlin.html). And the Welsh mountain of Myrddin at Tinto (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/merlins-mountains-in-lowland-scotland.html) may be entirely due to the presence there of yet another Martin name. Other mountains associated with Myrddin/Merlin, like the Eildons, were sites of Lammas fairs, originally sacred to the god Lleu.
While we are on the subject of 'white' place-names, let us not forget that Myrddin's lord Gwenddolau means 'White dales', found preserved at Carwinley or Caer Gwenddolau. His sister was named Gwenddydd, 'White day.'
Chapter 10:
As the newly appointed bishop of Tours, Martin establishes his monastery in a secret spot next to a precipitous rock of a lofty mountain in a cell made of wood. His monks live in caves in the overhanging mountain. This is reminiscent of Myrddin's mountain in Caledonian Wood.
Chapter 11:
Very close to the monastery was an altar were some martyrs were said to have been buried together. Martin learns that this is a fake shrine worshiped by locals. The man who was buried there is a robber decapitated for his crimes. This is cleverly devised hagiographical code, for thieves were sacred to the god Mercury. In Gaul, Mercury is often associated with triple faces or heads and can be depicted holding a ram's head (itself the sacred animal symbolizing the god; see Miranda J. Green's Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend). Thus we can be fairly certain the monastery at the mountain took the place of a shrine dedicated to the god Mercury. The Romans appear to have identified the god Mercury with the Celtic Lugus. Myrddin evinces many characteristics of this particular divinity.
Very close to the monastery was an altar were some martyrs were said to have been buried together. Martin learns that this is a fake shrine worshiped by locals. The man who was buried there is a robber decapitated for his crimes. This is cleverly devised hagiographical code, for thieves were sacred to the god Mercury. In Gaul, Mercury is often associated with triple faces or heads and can be depicted holding a ram's head (itself the sacred animal symbolizing the god; see Miranda J. Green's Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend). Thus we can be fairly certain the monastery at the mountain took the place of a shrine dedicated to the god Mercury. The Romans appear to have identified the god Mercury with the Celtic Lugus. Myrddin evinces many characteristics of this particular divinity.
Only a short distance north of the Kirkmaiden near Monreith a statuette of Mercury was found (see https://canmore.org.uk/
The Welsh appear to have identified Mabon and Lleu, as both gods are placed in death at the same place in Gwynedd (Nantlle). The Rhinns and The Machars were within the tribal territory of the Novantae, wherein was situated the center of Mabon worship.
Chapter 13:
Martin survives an attempt to kill him with a falling pine, itself a sacred pagan tree attached to a shrine. We are reminded in this case of the tree or pole/stake upon which Myrddin either hung or was impaled.
Chapter 21:
Angels are regularly seen by Martin, and he converses with them. Myrddin has frequent communion with 'wild ones' and 'pale wanderers' in the Caledonian Wood, descriptions of Otherworld beings, specifically ghosts of the battle-slain.
Angels are regularly seen by Martin, and he converses with them. Myrddin has frequent communion with 'wild ones' and 'pale wanderers' in the Caledonian Wood, descriptions of Otherworld beings, specifically ghosts of the battle-slain.
St. Martin died in Candes on November 8. In Roman times, this was the day of the festival of the Mundus Patet, when ghosts were released from the Underworld (see http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals//JRS/2/Mundus*.html). November 8 falls only a week after the Celtic Samhain, a perilous time in which the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead was removed. In Irish story, sacred Irish kings and heroes died special sacrifical deaths on Samhain. The triple death motif is found in such myths, and this is the form of execution meted out to Myrddin by Meldred's shepherds.
The connection between Myrddin and Martin is odd, as Martinus means, literally, 'the little Mars.' We would expect, then, that Myrddin should be derived from a British deity who was identified with the Roman Mars. However, as I've pointed out above, there is good reason for supposing that St. Martin's monastery at the mountain near Tours had belonged to Mercury who was, in reality, the god Lugus. The saint replaced the pagan worship of the pan-Celtic deity, who had been subjected to the usual interpretatio Romana, with his own Christ. But as always happens in such cases, traces of the earlier deity were preserved within the new Christian overlay.
While I've floated various identifications for Myrddin, the best remains that he is either the god Lleu/Lugh/Lugus or an avatar of that god. Myrddin, 'phantom-man, is matched by Irish scal, 'man-phantom', a descriptor used for the god Lugh. In Irish, ferscal or scalfer had the meaning of 'phantom-man' or 'male phantom.'[1]. I've not been able to attach the name Myrddin to any other supernatural entity.
[1]
From the eDIL:
1 scál
Cite this: eDIL s.v. 1 scál or dil.ie/36295
Last Revised: 2013
See 2013 Version
n o, n. See Pedersen Vgl. Gr. i 76 , O'Brien, Ériu xi 89 f. , Celtica vi 118 . supernatural or superhuman being, phantom, giant, hero. Later also man, human being (espec. in B. na f.; see also banscál, ferscál): ascath .i. scāl, unde ascata .i. lāechda. Nō scālda ar ūathmaire an laoich amhail scāth, Corm. Y 21 . `sgal' láoch (scál, v.l.), Metr. Gl. 15 § 32 . `sgal' ┐ `arg' . . . | sen anmann na bhfer, 13 § 24 . sgal .i. fear, O'Cl. sgal .i. láoch, ib. scal .i. fear, Lec. Gl. M 101 . conaccatar a s.¤ fadeissin isin taig, ZCP xiii 373.7 (Baile in Scáil). nimda s.¤-sa ┐ nimda aurdrach . . . is de hsīl Ādaim [dom], 11 . scal find (of a hero), LL 311b15 , `ein leuchtendes Phantom', Ält. Ir. Dicht. ii 23 § 1 . C. . . . in s.¤ sciathach, LL 45a25 ( RC xxxvi 262 ). co faca in s.¤ . . . chuci, LU 8534 ( FB 39 ). immácomarnaic dó ┐ don s.¤ , 8547 ( FB 40 ). co n-acca ní: in s.¤ mór am' dóchumm `a mighty phantom', MacCongl. 71.15 . dom mac neimnech . . . scal fri scalaibh sgelmhaine sgal sgolaidhe, LL 385c33 ( Measgra Uí Chl. 206.43 ). gabais E. scot na scal | os chlaind N. co nefnar, LL 3b24 . marb I. i Scelc na s.¤ , 16a28 . cland in merscáil móir (i.e. Míl), ZCP xiii 364.2 . ? airddithir a scíath ri s.¤ | sithithir a lam ri lae, LL 44b29 = 380b38 .
In B. na f.: do [ḟ]racc (.i. do ben) a scáil (.i. a fir), LU 437 ( ACC 1 Comm ). ēccusc an scāil (.i. fer), ZCP v 484.1 .
In nn. loc.: a nGlinn in Scail, Tromd. Guaire 403.428 . Medb Maige in Scáil, TBC-LL¹ 3228 = TBC-I¹ 2409 .
Compds. ¤baile, alternative title of the text Baile in Scáil ( ZCP xiii 372 ff . ): ro scríbad issin s., LL 132a48 . ¤ḟer giant : co n-acca in scáilfer mór ina dochum, LU 8515 ( FB 37 ). co n-acamar in s. mór . . . chucaind aníar `a great hero', Ériu iv 138.24 .
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