The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts. Rodney Castleden

MAGICIANS

      The Druids, ovates, and bards were in some ways part of the public religious cult, because they formed colleges or fraternities. But there were others who were on the fringes: the magicians or sorcerers. These were secret dealers in rituals and beliefs that had come down from remote times and had little to do with mainstream Celtic religion.

      The underground cult of magic was scarcely visible to travelers and other outsiders. There were probably many magicians and sorcerers living far from the oppida (See Oppidum), far from the mainstream cult centers, out in the countryside, where they trafficked in cures and magic charms.

MALO

      St. Malo or Maclovius was a native of Gwent and a cousin of Samson. He was a pupil of Brendan of Clonfert at Nantcarvan. He was ordained by Brendan and sailed with him and a crew of 95 in a single ship on a seven-year voyage to the Island of Yma. On the way he encountered an island that looked as if it was made of glass—it was an iceberg. He reached Yma and found a bush that sounds like acanthus. He celebrated mass on the back of a whale. Then he returned home to plant his bush at Nantcarvan.

      On a second voyage, he failed to find Yma but reached the Orkneys and other northern isles.

      On yet another voyage, Malo left Nantcarvan for Brittany, revived a corpse, and celebrated mass in the presence of Conomorus, King of Dumnonie.

      After many more travels and adventures, he died in 599 or 604.

      MANDUBRACIUS

      See Cassivellaunus, Catuvellauni.

      MAUCENNUS

      Maucennus of Rosnat was the abbot of Ninian’s monastery, which was at Whithorn in south-west Scotland. Maucennus and Mugentius are the only two named abbots of Rosnat: one in the late fifth century, and the other in the sixth. Maucennus was referred to as a great teacher (librarius) from the far north, and who lived three days’ journey from the home of Samson’s parents in Demetia. The balance of evidence points to Maucennus being the abbot of Whithorn, which was also known as Rosnat.

      MEDB OF CONNAUGHT

      See Chariots; Myths: The Ulster Cycle; Religion: Coligny Calendar, Mother Goddess; Symbols: Magic.

      MEDRAUT

      See Arthur.

      MELOR

      See Religion: Headhunting.

      MELWAS

      A Dark Age king of Somerset. Later tradition associates him with Glastonbury Tor.

      MERCHIAUN

      King of Rheged in the early sixth century.

      MERCHIAUN VESANUS

      “Merchiaun the Wild” was King of Glevissig (Glamorgan) in the early sixth century. He may have been given his nickname to distinguish him from his contemporary namesake: the much more important King Merchiaun of Rheged.

      Mark Conomorus, the south Dumnonian king, was a son of Merchiaun the Wild; he was exiled to the Breton kingdom of Dumnonie.

      MERLIN

      The wizard who was King Arthur’s legendary mentor.

      It is generally and understandably assumed that Merlin never existed, and he was to an extent an invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but the character was based on a collection of old poems, riddles, and triads preserved in Wales but relating to a real sixth-century Celtic bard, or carminator, called Myrddin, the Celtic form of Martin, who lived in the north close to Hadrian’s Wall. The aristocratic Norman-French readers for whom Geoffrey was writing would have pronounced Myrddin Merdin, and probably sniggered at a name so close to merde (= excrement). The Latin form of Myrddin, Merdinus, was no better—merda means “excrement” too, so Geoffrey had little choice but to change it. He chose Merlin.

      In the Dark Ages, kings regularly employed bards to compose praise poems, occasional pieces on great victories or disastrous defeats, and funeral odes. The bards memorized their compositions for recitation in the feast halls (See Food and Feasting, Memory). A major role of the bard of the war-band was to entertain the warriors, often with stirring tales of their own great deeds. The impression given by the surviving fragments of Dark Age Celtic poetry is of ceaseless warfare, feasting, drinking, boasting, and showing off. Occasionally, bards confronted warriors with uncomfortable truths, perhaps to shame them into trying harder. In Rheged arise, Taliesin writes, “Not too well did they fight around their king [Urien]: to lie would be wrong.”

      Taliesin served at least three and possibly four kings in succession—Cynan of Powys, Urien of Rheged, Gwallawg of Elmet, and Owain of Rheged—and seems always to have had the greater cause of the British—the Cymry, as they called one another—at heart, even if that meant deserting white-haired Urien for the younger Gwallawg. This element of unpredictability is one distinctive trait of the legendary Merlin.

      We have no direct evidence of Arthur’s bard, but he too would have had such a figure to sing of his exploits: in part to entertain and in part to condition his companions and warriors to see his as the greatest cause and inspire their unswerving loyalty.

      Yet Arthur’s Merlin has been portrayed by tradition as more than a bard. He is a magus. It is often assumed that this