The ancient Welsh traditions repeatedly mention Ireland and Scotland, where sister nations were ruled by kings whose names appear to have been well known in Wales.

Today, Celtic languages are spoken only in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany. These peoples have preserved a rich heritage of ancient mythology, which supplements our data from archaeology and classical literature. Although several Celtic languages were spoken on the island of Britain in Roman days (Scottish, Pictish, Welsh, British, and perhaps others), the speakers’ religions seem to have had many features in common.

One of the most mysterious characters in Welsh and British myths is Merlin, the magician and prophet who was born of a spirit.  He sleeps, but he will wake up one day to save Britain from disaster.  He is, no doubt, an ancient god, but which one?  His name does not give us a clue.  In modern English, Merlin refers to a small falcon, so one might be tempted to seek comparison with the Egyptian sun-god, Horus, or the ancient Slavic sun-god Sokol; both gods are represented as falcons.  However, the word merlin is of Frankish origin.  The Welsh derivation of the word leads to the town of Carmarthen in Wales, which in Roman times was spelled Maridunum.  It does not seem likely, however, that Merlin’s name comes from the name of a town.  This writer believes that Merlin is one of the names of the god Mercury, or Hermes, the European god of magic and prophecy, identified with the Germanic god Woden or Odin.  Woden was associated with the forest, like Merlin, and also with the sea, which may partly explain the element mer or mari (a word for the sea) in Merlin’s name.  We know that Merlin, like Woden, could fly across the sea or walk on it.

Merlin is also associated with an even more mysterious Celtic goddess, Morgan le Fay, that is, the fairy Morgana, who can put a spell on people so that they see things that are not there.  Such a vision is called a fata morgana, from the Latin name of this goddess.  She must be identical with Margante, who in English versions of the Arthurian sagas is called the Lady of the Lake.  For the peoples of antiquity, lakes and oceans were associated with the Other World, the Land of the Dead, and thus Margante is the queen of Avalon or Avallach, the Nether World of Annwn.

According to some sources, she was Merlin’s sister; others say that she was Arthur’s sister.  Some sources assert she seduced Merlin in her secret cave on the coast, as Queen Dido did Aeneas in the Aeneid.  When King Arthur died, she came and carried his body to the shores of her lake.  He is asleep in Avalon to this day.  One day, when disaster threatens Britain, Arthur will rise again and defeat its enemies.  Merlin too will come back as his counselor and diviner.  He lives now in the forests of the north, and will die only when the last tree in Britain is cut down.