To
get you started....
The Testament of Merlin - by Théophile Briant
translated by Gareth Knight
The
one-eyed story teller began, while polishing his sword:
“In
olden days things were not like they are now. Men and the gods knew each other.
Men spoke with the gods, and knew their language. Animals also spoke, even the
fish. I’m telling you the honest truth.”
“In
olden days objects chose their owner. They were good servants to him, but not
for others. One day, during the famous battle of Mag Tured, Ogma found the
sword of Tethra, king of the Fomorians. Ogma drew the sword and cleaned it.
Then the sword told her all that she had done since her birth. That was what
swords did, when someone took it from its scabbard.”
The
blacksmith showed the sword, whose steel shone in the night.
Today
this sword is dumb. But I know its history.”
“How can
you know it?” asked Ronan, the Seneschal’s squire.
“It
speaks to me when I’m sleeping. It’s a very old sword that I keep in reserve on
the orders of Merlin, the bard with the golden neck torque.”
“Keep it
for who?”
“That’s
a secret.”
This
evocative story follows the life and work of Merlin as founder of the Round
Table Fellowship, the return of Excalibur to the Lake, the safe conduct of
Arthur to Avalon, the liaison with Viviane and the Faery powers in the Forest
of Broceliande, the resuscitation of the disciple Adragante in the Cauldron of
Keridwen, the remarkable sequence of initiations for the young knight, the tradition
of the ‘threefold death’ of Merlin at the hands of some shepherds at Drumelzier on the Scottish borders and his
subsequent apotheosis.
Much of
this is of great contemporary relevance in the current confrontation of
Christian and Neo-Pagan dynamics – the religion of Divine Love and the religion
of Ancestral Wisdom. The question being
– are they so irreconcilable as is sometimes thought?
Told by
Théophile Briant , editor for twenty years of the remarkable journal Le Goëland (The Seagull),and a great enthusiast and patron of all things Breton,
Celtic and esoteric . Recently discovered by Gareth Knight, translated from the French, and published by Skylight Press.
ISBN 978-1-910098-02-8 £11.99 $18.99
Skylight Press 2017
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