Merlin and Stonehenge

At first glance, Merlin could not have built Stonehenge. Most scientists guess that Merlin was born near the fifth century CE. Most of the great monuments at Stonehenge were placed there at least 2,000 years earlier.

The Saracen stones, for which Stonehenge is most famous, came from the Marlborough Downs.

However, a respected legend insists that Merlin placed the blue stones at Stonehenge, which are also an important part of the circle.

According to this legend, Vortigern wanted to create a memorial to the warriors who lost their lives to Hengist.

In Geoffrey's Life of Merlin Ambrosius, the stones originally formed the Giant's Ring or Giant's Dance, in Ireland.

At the request of Uther Pendragon (King Arthur's father), Merlin brought these stones "in a whirl-wind one night out of Ireland."

Merlin placed one blue stone on top of each grave at Stonehenge. Today, more than 20 of these stones remain.

Allowing for Geoffrey's flair for storytelling, we may assume that his legend is built upon the stones arriving in huge boats from the west.

Some archaelogical and geological research supports this tale except for the time period involved. Analysis suggests that the stones arrived at about 2000 BCE.

These blue stones appear to be from Wales, far from Stonehenge. The nearest possible quarry is in southwestern Wales, in the Preseli Mountains between Carn Meini and Foel Trigarn.

But why did Geoffrey say they were from Ireland?

It is possible that, at the time of Merlin, the westernmost areas of Wales were under Irish rule. Or perhaps Geoffrey (or an earlier storyteller) combined the arrival of the stones from the west, plus the massive number of standing stones in Ireland, and concluded that the blue stones were Irish.

However, we next have the problem of the time period. The stones appear to have been placed approximately 2500 years before Merlin was assisting Uther Pendragon.

This is not an impossible problem, if we dismiss the connection with Vortigern, and simply focus on Merlin's role in Stonehenge.

As mentioned in the previous article, there are many questions about the birth of Merlin, called Myrrdin before Geoffrey's text.

In fact, in one of the earliest records of Wales, The White Book of Rhydderch (which is one of the sources for the Mabinogion), the first name of Britain (the island) "before it was taken or settled," was Myrrdin's Precinct.

This increases the number of questions we have about Merlin. For example, was Merlin an eternal figure, alive in at 2000 BCE when the blue stones of Stonehenge were placed? Is "Merlin" a job description, not an actual name? Is Merlin someone who has lived many lifetimes, each time assuming the name Myrrdin, or Merlin?

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