o most of the accounts of Merlin’s end is the assertion that he did not die, but continues to live in a walking dream to this day. If Merlin did exist, he was very likely a Welsh bard and soothsayer. The Welsh legends of Merlin characterize him as poet and musician. It is also likely that he was a druid. The druids were a Celtic priest-cast in England, So great was the reverence, fear an respect of the common people, that a druid walking between two warring armies could halt the battle. Eventually the druids degenerated into little more than a society of Celtic poets. The modern belief is that the wisdom of Merlin stemmed, not from some supernatural coupling between a demon and a women, but from long years of training as a druid. Druids were famed for their ability to create poetry spontaneously to suit ant occasion, and for the superhuman memories. The fable that Merlin was the child of a demon form hell is a slander of the church. It was most likely based on an older Celtic legend that Merlin was the product between a god and a woman. In one later version of the tale, Merlin’s father is supposed to have been a glorious supernatural being who appeared to his mother in her dreams. It was a common Celtic belief that magicians were the product of unions between sprits and mortal women. the same belief was held by the ancient Greeks regarding their heroes such as Hercules, but instead of magic powers these Greek heroes were gifted with warrior skills. Girls born from such sorcery was considered by the Greek to be unmanly or dishonorable. the Celts had no such prejudices against magic. When all the stories concerning Merlin’s supernatural birth and miraculous powers are stripped away, it seems as though a druid named Merlin (or a similar name) did live around the fifth century in Wales, and did serve as the soothsayer and advisor to a local Celtic king. more than this cannot be said. If Merlin was a real man and not simply...
