Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/168

152 versions of the story. So a distinction of persons has been sometimes made, according to which there was a prophet Merlin and a prince Emrys: even this was not found sufficient, for some have subdivided Merlin into three, to wit, Merlin Ambrosius, Merlin Caledonius, and Merlin Sylvaticus. In order to approach the original conception our course is clear: we must give all the attributes of Emrys and the Merlins to one Merlin Emrys; but this is only theoretically clear, as the process is disturbed by the historical element introduced in the person of Aurelius Ambrosius, who may possibly be regarded as in a sense responsible for some of the chief difficulties in our way, looked at from a mythological point of view. We should, however, not be far wrong in treating Merlin Emrys as an adumbration of a personage who was at once a king a id warrior, a great magician and prophet, in a word a Zeus of Brythonic paganism.

But if Merlin Emrys be a Brythonic Zeus, then Vortigern ought to be a Brythonic Cronus; and this is, to say the least of it, in harmony with the evidence of Vortigern's name, which means a supreme lord or over-king, corresponding to the position of Cronus before he was driven from power. The Mac Óc is represented as the Dagda's son, which cannot be paralleled by any of the accounts of Merlin Emrys' birth; but this may be one of the results of the disturbing influence of the historical element. On a third point we are more fortunate: the Dagda and Cronus, supplanted by their respective sons, go to preside over the departed; and the parallel extends to Vortigern. For, when leaving