Merlin Emrys and Maxen.
This is all corroborated by the name of Merlin, which is in Welsh Myrᵭyn, and by its association with Carmarthen, in Welsh 'Caer Vyrᵭin,' 'Myrᵭin's Caer or Fortress.' On the other hand, it is a matter of no doubt that here Myrᵭin is the regular and correct form of the ancient Brythonic name of the place, namely, Moridûnon, which meant a sea-fort, and correctly described the spot, in that it is reached by the tides in the Towy. Thus we have Myrᵭin as the name of the enchanter and as that of the town, which is to be explained by an accident of Welsh, my conjecture being that the two names were distinguished, in an earlier stage of the language, by a difference of termination. We have only to take Moridûnon as given by Ptolemy,[1] and to suppose a derivative of a common form made from it, and we have Moridûnjos,[2] which might mean 'him of Moridûnon or the sea-fort.' Taken in reference to Carmarthen, it would explain the legend which makes the prophet a native, under peculiar circumstances, of that town; but taken in connection with his mythic home and prison, it suits his abode in Bardsey or the Armoric isle of Sein, where he was also believed to have been born;
- ↑ Geographia, ed. C. Müller (Paris, 1883), lib. ij. cap. 3, 12 (i. p. 101). As the name of another town south or east of the Severn sea, it reads in the Antonine Itinerary Moriduno and Mariduno, and Parthey prints Muriduno: see his ed. pp. 231, 234.
- ↑ As a parallel to Muridûnjos shortened into 'Myrᵭin,' I may mention the Gaulish τοουτιους (p. 46), which we have in Welsh in the epithet of Morgant Tud in the romance of Gereint and Enid (R. B. Mab. pp. 261, 286-7). Morgant was the great physician of Arthur's court; can tud have originally meant a public leech or the medicine man of the state?
