Merlin

The Scottish Borders is rich in folklore, with accounts of the work of wizards, faeries and prophets.

These tales have a place here not just because they are fun but because behind the legends are real and remarkable people who had considerable impact on the events of their time: Merlin (who lived in the 6th century), Scot the Wizard (13th century) and Thomas the Rhymour (13th century).

In that earlier period, when belief in mystical and unseen powers was strong, some mortals were credited with supernatural ability. It was also believed that the vast tract of wilderness, beyond the pockets of human habitation, was the province of supernatural beings.

Belief in this other world was nurtured by tales of abduction by faeries to account for unexplained disappearance. Ballads also played their part, telling of half-human monsters inhabiting dark waters.

The Caledonian Forest (The Wood of Caledon) which at one time stretched as far down as North Tweeddale, probably hid many a mystery.  No doubt the scenery contributed too - glimpses of spirit forms in those inaccessible places high in the hills as the shimmering sunlight played tricks on the eyes and the light of the full moon lit up illicit activities.

Into this world, in the 6th century, came Merlin, bard of the pagan British tribes and wizard.  After surviving a disastrous battle in which his comrades and his patron, the leader of the Britons, were slain, he fled into the nearby Wood of Caledon.  Full of remorse, he remained in the wilds of Tweeddale for the remainder of his life.

There he gained his reputation as a wizard; it was believed that he could control the powers of nature, assume any shape that he chose and foresee the future.  With such a reputation, it is not surprising that he met his death at the hands of local people who must have feared his powers - he was stoned by them and met his end falling on a stake in the Powsail Burn. His grave is claimed to be near that burn - at Drumelzier where it joins the Tweed.

Some five hundred years later that grave was the subject of a prophecy by Thomas the Rhymour foretelling that the burial site would flood when Scotland and England had a single monarch:


That burial ground did flood. The date was 25th July, 1603, the day on which James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England.  (It is said that the burn had not before, and has not since, flooded at this point).

© 1996 Douglas Gregor