Merlin the wizard (c. 1400). Image: Vintage News
Everyone knows the story of Merlin, the wizard genius behind Arthur’s reign. As the Vintage News reports, a chance discovery by historians at the University of Bristol added a new angle to the old tale: dragons.
The historians found a set of important 13th-century manuscripts hidden inside a younger book. The manuscript fragments contain extracts from a previously unknown version of the Vulgate Cycle, a set of Old French texts that tell the story of King Arthur.
The seven handwritten fragments of parchment tell a familiar story from the Vulgate Cycle, but with a number of key differences that may shed new light on the history of the Arthurian legend.
The Vulgate Cycle
King Arthur. Image: Vintage News
The story of King Arthur and his wizard Merlin was a popular medieval romance, most notably written down as Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory in the 15th century.
However, it is likely that Malory used another group of texts as his inspiration, otherwise known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. The Vulgate Cycle contains several slightly different renditions of the story of Arthur, and it is thought that this manuscript is from another version of the same tale.
The manuscripts discovered in Bristol relate the strange prophetic dreams of King Ban’s wife Elaine, and Merlin’s encounter with a woman named Viviane, with whom he falls in love. The events related are also known from other passages from the Vulgate Cycle, but the details of the story are somewhat different.
The fragments also describe a battle at Trebes in which Arthur, Merlin, Gawain and other knights fought against King Claudas. Merlin and Arthur are developing a strategy for the attack, and Merlin gives an impassioned speech to motivate the beleaguered troops.
He then leads the charge using the special dragon standard belonging to Sir Kay, which miraculously breathes real fire. Arthur’s forces are triumphant and the battle is won.
The Dragon Banner
The Dragon Banner as it appears on the “Outlaw King.” Image: Netflix
Interestingly enough, this tradition may be echoed in the dragon banner; England’s war flag during times of battle, which sports a scarlet red dragon on a black flag.
As described by Decider, while the dragon banner is raised, the codes of chivalry are ended and no quarter (i.e. mercy) will be given to the enemy nor anyone who shelters him. And while today, the word “chivalry” basically pertains to men holding doors open for women, back then, the codes of chivalry were the rules of proper conduct for knights, whether in battle or at home.
No matter how you look at it, Merlin sure was one scary dude…
I really hope Sir Kay was in the front line to use the fire attack. Not sure how careful Merlin was, so friendly fire spells could have been a problem.
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Always a problem when playing with fire!
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Interesting stuff. And scary with the fire!
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You gotta watch out for those fire spells, as Charles was just pointing out 🙂
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I love Arthurian legends. I didn’t know that about the Dragon Banner. Now I’m wondering if that’s associated with the Pendragon surname.
Great post, Nicholas.
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Those English, they sure do love their dragons, don’t they? The Welsh, too, come to think of it!
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Reblogged this on s a gibson.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Reblogged this on Diane Morrison.
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As a fan of the Arthurian mythos, I loved hearing about this new discovery.
Thanks for sharing this info, Nicholas.
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A pleasure! The original post has many more interesting info about it 🙂
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Thanks for sharing this. If you recall your Arthurian lore, you know that Merlyn was already associated with dragons. One of his first public appearances is when King Vortigern’s tower in Wales kept being knocked down overnight and Merlyn revealed that two fighting dragons were the ones responsible.
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Thank you, Deby! I’d forgotten about this until you and Sue reminded me 🙂
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Wow! Amazing to think of new source material on the Arthurian legends being discovered at this late date.
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I know, right? Makes you wonder what else we might discover in the future. Technology helps, too. Consider how damaged the fragments were; it would have been impossible to read them a couple of decades ago. Who knows what future tech may let us do?
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Exactly! There are always surprises ahead.
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