The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights | Page 6

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 sepulchre of
the knights and barons, as they stood in the mountains of Ireland.
Then was the monument called "Stonehenge," which 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, Gorloïs, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Igerna, who was the most
famous beauty in all Britain. And soon thereafter, Gorloïs 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 arts 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.