Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/167

Rh that he, like Zeus, figures in love adventures, and Irish literature contains many allusions to him, some of which remain unexplained, such as one which speaks of the four kisses of Aengus of the Brugh of the Boyne, that were converted by him into 'birds which haunted the youths of Erinn.' The counterpart of Aengus in Welsh is to be found, I think, in Myrᵭin, better known in English as Merlin, and in Ambrosius called in Welsh Emrys or Emrys Wledig, that is to say Prince Emrys or Ambrose the Gwledig. In Nennius' Historia Brittonum we find him brought as a child before old king Vortigern in the neighbourhood of Snowdon, where he was trying to build a great fortress for himself and his household. Emrys then gave his name as Ambrosius, and, though a mere child, he confounded Vortigern's magicians and frightened the old king to leave him the fortress, together with all the western portion of the island. The former was thenceforth called Dinas Emrys, the Town of Ambrosius, a name still borne by a hill-spur near Beᵭgelert in Carnarvonshire. Now this Ambrosius is otherwise identified with the king Emrys, who was brother to Uthr, or Uther as he is called in English: the former is called in Latin Aurelius Ambrosius, in whom we seem to have a historical man, while the latter is to be identified with the god of the Wonderful Head mentioned in the last lecture (pp. 94—97). But the Emrys whom Nennius brings before Vortigern is the Myrᵭin or Merlin of other