Chapter 1

King Vortigern the usurper sat upon his throne in London, when,
suddenly, upon a certain day, ran in a breathless messenger, and cried
aloud--

"Arise, Lord King, for the enemy is come; even Ambrosius and Uther, upon
whose throne thou sittest--and full twenty thousand with them--and they
have sworn by a great oath, Lord, to slay thee, ere this year be done;
and even now they march towards thee as the north wind of winter for
bitterness and haste."

At those words Vortigern's face grew white as ashes, and, rising in
confusion and disorder, he sent for all the best artificers and
craftsmen and mechanics, and commanded them vehemently to go and build
him straightway in the furthest west of his lands a great and strong
castle, where he might fly for refuge and escape the vengeance of his
master's sons--"and, moreover," cried he, "let the work be done within a
hundred days from now, or I will surely spare no life amongst you all."

Then all the host of craftsmen, fearing for their lives, found out a
proper site whereon to build the tower, and eagerly began to lay in the
foundations. But no sooner were the walls raised up above the ground
than all their work was overwhelmed and broken down by night invisibly,
no man perceiving how, or by whom, or what. And the same thing happening
again, and yet again, all the workmen, full of terror, sought out the
king, and threw themselves upon their faces before him, beseeching him
to interfere and help them or to deliver them from their dreadful work.

Filled with mixed rage and fear, the king called for the astrologers and
wizards, and took counsel with them what these things might be, and how
to overcome them. The wizards worked their spells and incantations, and
in the end declared that nothing but the blood of a youth born without
mortal father, smeared on the foundations of the castle, could avail to
make it stand. Messengers were therefore sent forthwith through all the
land to find, if it were possible, such a child. And, as some of them
went down a certain village street, they saw a band of lads fighting and
quarreling, and heard them shout at one--"Avaunt, thou imp!--avaunt! Son
of no mortal man! go, find thy father, and leave us in peace."

At that the messengers looked steadfastly on the lad, and asked who he
was. One said his name was Merlin; another, that his birth and parentage
were known by no man; a third, that the foul fiend alone was his father.
Hearing the things, the officers seized Merlin, and carried him before
the king by force.

But no sooner was he brought to him than he asked in a loud voice, for
what cause he was thus dragged there?

"My magicians," answered Vortigern, "told me to seek out a man that had
no human father, and to sprinkle my castle with his blood, that it may
stand."

"Order those magicians," said Merlin, "to come before me, and I will
convict them of a lie."

The king was astonished at his words, but commanded the magicians to
come and sit down before Merlin, who cried to them--

"Because ye know not what it is that hinders the foundation of the
castle, ye have advised my blood for a cement to it, as if that would
avail; but tell me now rather what there is below that ground, for
something there is surely underneath that will not suffer the tower to
stand?"

The wizards at these words began to fear, and made no answer. Then said
Merlin to the king--

"I pray, Lord, that workmen may be ordered to dig deep down into the
ground till they shall come to a great pool of water."

This then was done, and the pool discovered far beneath the surface of
the ground.

Then, turning again to the magicians, Merlin said, "Tell me now, false
sycophants, what there is underneath that pool?"--but they were silent.
Then said he to the king, "Command this pool to be drained, and at the
bottom shall be found two dragons, great and huge, which now are
sleeping, but which at night awake and fight and tear each other. At
their great struggle all the ground shakes and trembles, and so casts
down thy towers, which, therefore, never yet could find secure
foundations."

The king was amazed at these words, but commanded the pool to be
forthwith drained; and surely at the bottom of it did they presently
discover the two dragons, fast asleep, as Merlin had declared.

But Vortigern sat upon the brink of the pool till night to see what else
would happen.

Then those two dragons, one of which was white, the other red, rose up
and came near one another, and began a sore fight, and cast forth fire
with their breath. But the white dragon had the advantage, and chased
the other to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight,
turned back upon his foe, and renewed the combat, and forced him to
retire in turn. But in the end the red dragon was worsted, and the white
dragon disappeared no man knew where.

When their battle was done, the king desired Merlin to tell him what it
meant. Whereat he, bursting into tears, cried out this prophecy, which
first foretold the coming of King Arthur.

"Woe to the red dragon, which figureth the British nation, for his
banishment cometh quickly; his lurking-holes shall be seized by the
white dragon--the Saxon whom thou, O king, hast called to the land. The
mountains shall be leveled as the valleys, and the rivers of the valleys
shall run blood; cities shall be burned, and churches laid in ruins;
till at length the oppressed shall turn for a season and prevail against
the strangers. For a Boar of Cornwall shall arise and rend them, and
trample their necks beneath his feet. The island shall be subject to his
power, and he shall take the forests of Gaul. The house of Romulus shall
dread him--all the world shall fear him--and his end shall no man know;
he shall be immortal in the mouths of the people, and his works shall be
food to those that tell them.

"But as for thee, O Vortigern, flee thou the sons of Constantine, for
they shall burn thee in thy tower. For thine own ruin wast thou traitor
to their father, and didst bring the Saxon heathens to the land.
Aurelius and Uther are even now upon thee to revenge their father's
murder; and the brood of the white dragon shall waste thy country, and
shall lick thy blood. Find out some refuge, if thou wilt! but who may
escape the doom of God?"

The king heard all this, trembling greatly; and, convicted of his sins,
said nothing in reply. Only he hasted the builders of his tower by day
and night, and rested not till he had fled thereto.

In the meantime, Aurelius, the rightful king, was hailed with joy by the
Britons, who flocked to his standard, and prayed to be led against the
Saxons. But he, till he had first killed Vortigern, would begin no other
war. He marched therefore to Cambria, and came before the tower which
the usurper had built. Then, crying out to all his knights, "Avenge ye
on him who hath ruined Britain and slain my father and your king!" he
rushed with many thousands at the castle walls. But, being driven back
again and yet again, at length he thought of fire, and ordered blazing
brands to be cast into the building from all sides. These, finding soon
a proper fuel, ceased not to rage till, spreading to a mighty
conflagration, they burned down the tower, and Vortigern within it.

Then did Aurelius turn his strength against Hengist and the Saxons, and,
defeating them in many places, weakened their power for a long season,
so that the land had peace.

Anon the king, making journeys to and fro, restoring ruined churches
and, creating order, came to the monastery near Salisbury, where all
those British knights lay buried who had been slain there by the
treachery of Hengist. For when in former times Hengist had made a solemn
truce with Vortigern, to meet in peace and settle terms, whereby himself
and all his Saxons should depart from Britain, the Saxon soldiers
carried every one of them beneath his garment a long dagger, and, at a
given signal, fell upon the Britons, and slew them, to the number of
nearly five hundred.

The sight of the place where the dead lay moved Aurelius to great
sorrow, and he cast about in his mind how to make a worthy tomb over so
many noble martyrs, who had died there for their country.

When he had in vain consulted many craftsmen and builders, he sent, by
the advice of the archbishop, for Merlin, and asked him what to do. "If
you would honor the burying-place of these men," said Merlin, "with an
everlasting monument, send for the Giants' Dance which is in Killaraus,
a mountain; in Ireland; for there is a structure of stone there which
none of this age could raise without a perfect knowledge of the arts.
They are stones of a vast size and wondrous nature, and if they can be
placed here as they are there, round this spot of ground, they will
stand for ever."

At these words of Merlin, Aurelius burst into laughter, and said, "How
is it possible to remove such vast stones from so great a distance, as
if Britain, also, had no stones fit for the work?"

"I pray the king," said Merlin, "to forbear vain laughter; what I have
said is true, for those stones are mystical and have healing virtues.
The giants of old brought them from the furthest coast of Africa, and
placed them in Ireland while they lived in that country: and their
design was to make baths in them, for use in time of grievous illness.
For if they washed the stones and put the sick into the water, it
certainly healed them, as also it did them that were wounded in battle;
and there is no stone among them but hath the same virtue still."

When the Britons heard this, they resolved to send for the stones, and
to make war upon the people of Ireland if they offered to withhold them.
So, when they had chosen Uther the king's brother for their chief, they
set sail, to the number of 15,000 men, and came to Ireland. There
Gillomanius, the king, withstood them fiercely, and not till after a
great battle could they approach the Giants' Dance, the sight of which
filled them with joy and admiration. But when they sought to move the
stones, the strength of all the army was in vain, until Merlin,
laughing at their failures, contrived machines of wondrous cunning,
which took them down with ease, and placed them in the ships.

When they had brought the whole to Salisbury, Aurelius, with the crown
upon his head, kept for four days the feast of Pentecost with royal
pomp; and in the midst of all the clergy and the people, Merlin raised
up the stones, and set them round the sepulcher of the knights and
barons, as they stood in the mountains of Ireland.

Then was the monument called "Stonehenge," and stands, as all men know,
upon the plain of Salisbury to this very day.

Soon thereafter it befell that Aurelius was slain by poison at
Winchester, and was himself buried within the Giants' Dance.

At the same time came forth a comet of amazing size and brightness,
darting out a beam, at the end whereof was a cloud of fire shaped like a
dragon, from whose mouth went out two rays, one stretching over Gaul,
the other ending in seven lesser rays over the Irish sea.

At the appearance of this star a great dread fell upon the people, and
Uther, marching into Cambria against the son of Vortigern, himself was
very troubled to learn what it might mean. Then Merlin, being called
before him, cried with a loud voice: "O mighty loss! O stricken Britain!
Alas! the great prince is gone from us. Aurelius Ambrosius is dead,
whose death will be ours also, unless God help us. Haste, therefore,
noble Uther, to destroy the enemy; the victory shall be thine, and thou
shalt be king of all Britain. For the star with the fiery dragon
signifies thyself; and the ray over Gaul portends that thou shalt have a
son, most mighty, whom all those kingdoms shall obey which the ray
covers."

Thus, for the second time, did Merlin foretell the coming of King
Arthur. And Uther, when he was made king, remembered Merlin's words, and
caused two dragons to be made in gold, in likeness of the dragon he had
seen in the star. One of these he gave to Winchester Cathedral, and had
the other carried into all his wars before him, whence he was ever after
called Uther Pendragon, or the dragon's head.

Now, when Uther Pendragon had passed through all the land, and settled
it--and even voyaged into all the countries of the Scots, and tamed the
fierceness of that rebel people--he came to London, and ministered
justice there. And it befell at a certain great banquet and high feast
which the king made at Easter-tide, there came, with many other earls
and barons, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Igerna, who was the
most famous beauty in all Britain. And soon thereafter, Gorlois being
slain in battle, Uther determined to make Igerna his own wife. But in
order to do this, and enable him to come to her--for she was shut up in
the high castle of Tintagil, on the furthest coast of Cornwall--the king
sent for Merlin, to take counsel with him and to pray his help. This,
therefore, Merlin promised him on one condition--namely, that the king
should give him up the first son born of the marriage. For Merlin by
his art foreknew that this firstborn should be the long-wished prince,
King Arthur.

When Uther, therefore, was at length happily wedded, Merlin came to the
castle on a certain day, and said, "Sir, thou must now provide thee for
the nourishing of thy child."

And the king, nothing doubting, said, "Be it as thou wilt."

"I know a lord of thine in this land," said Merlin, "who is a man both
true and faithful; let him have the nourishing of the child. His name is
Sir Ector, and he hath fair possessions both in England and in Wales.
When, therefore, the child is born, let him be delivered unto me,
unchristened, at yonder postern-gate, and I will bestow him in the care
of this good knight."

So when the child was born, the king bid two knights and two ladies to
take it, bound in rich cloth of gold, and deliver it to a poor man whom
they should discover at the postern-gate. And the child being delivered
thus to Merlin, who himself took the guise of a poor man, was carried by
him to a holy priest and christened by the name of Arthur, and then was
taken to Sir Ector's house, and nourished at Sir Ector's wife's own
breasts. And in the same house he remained privily for many years, no
man soever knowing where he was, save Merlin and the king.

Anon it befell that the king was seized by a lingering distemper, and
the Saxon heathens, taking their occasion, came back from over sea, and
swarmed upon the land, wasting it with fire and sword. When Uther heard
thereof, he fell into a greater rage than his weakness could bear, and
commanded all his nobles to come before him, that he might upbraid them
for their cowardice. And when he had sharply and hotly rebuked them, he
swore that he himself, nigh unto death although he lay, would lead them
forth against the enemy. Then causing a horse-litter to be made, in
which he might be carried--for he was too faint and weak to ride--he
went up with all his army swiftly against the Saxons.

But they, when they heard that Uther was coming in a litter, disdained
to fight him, saying it would be shame for brave men to fight with one
half dead. So they retired into their city; and, as it were in scorn of
danger, left the gates wide open. But Uther straightway commanding his
men to assault the town, they did so without loss of time, and had
already reached the gates, when the Saxons, repenting too late of their
haughty pride, rushed forth to the defense. The battle raged till night,
and was begun again next day; but at last, their leaders, Octa and Eosa,
being slain, the Saxons turned their backs and fled, leaving the Britons
a full triumph.

The king at this felt so great joy, that, whereas before he could scarce
raise himself without help, he now sat upright in his litter by himself,
and said, with a laughing and merry face, "They called me the half-dead
king, and so indeed I was; but victory to me half dead is better than
defeat and the best health. For to die with honor is far better than to
live disgraced."

But the Saxons, although thus defeated, were ready still for war. Uther
would have pursued them; but his illness had by now so grown, that his
knights and barons kept him from the adventure. Whereat the enemy took
courage, and left nothing undone to destroy the land; until, descending
to the vilest treachery, they resolved to kill the king by poison.

To this end, as he lay sick at Verulum, they sent and poisoned
stealthily a spring of clear water, whence he was wont to drink daily;
and so, on the very next day, he was taken with the pains of death, as
were also a hundred others after him, before the villainy was
discovered, and heaps of earth thrown over the well.

The knights and barons, full of sorrow, now took counsel together, and
came to Merlin for his help to learn the king's will before he died, for
he was by this time speechless. "Sirs, there is no remedy," said Merlin,
"and God's will must be done; but be ye all to-morrow before him, for
God will make him speak before he die."

So on the morrow all the barons, with Merlin, stood round the bedside of
the king; and Merlin said aloud to Uther, "Lord, shall thy son Arthur be
the king of all this realm after thy days?"

Then Uther Pendragon turned him about, and said, in the hearing of them
all, "God's blessing and mine be upon him. I bid him pray for my soul,
and also that he claim my crown, or forfeit all my blessing;" and with
those words he died.

Then came together all the bishops and the clergy, and great multitudes
of people, and bewailed the king; and carrying his body to the convent
of Ambrius, they buried it close by his brother's grave, within the
"Giants' Dance."