"Scotland's Merlin" by Tim Clarkson

Clarkson, an "independent researcher and historian", claims that the figure of Merlin, the wizard in the Arthurian legends, may in part have been based upon a man called Lailoken.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote Historia Regum Britanniae, the best-selling (there are still over 200 extant manuscripts of this work written c 1136), work which popularised the legends of King Arthur and introduced 'Merlin' to the Arthurian court, also wrote a later work Vita Merlini in which the subject of the biography was involved in a battle, on the side led by Peredur K of Gwynedd, allied with Rodarch, k of Cambrians against Guennolous, K of Scottish forces. He went bonkers following the battle, seeking solitude in the forest. When discovered he was made captive by Rodarch. Here he noticed that the King’s wife had a leaf in her hair and correctly deduced that she had been committing adultery. This got him returned to the forest. Geoffrey also says that Merlin came from Carmarthen.

The Black Book of Carmarthen, compiled c1250, includes poems by a first person narrato called Myrddin) without trappings of Arthuriana but mentioning a battle in which he fought at Arfderydd in northern Britain and subsequent flight in madness to Coed Celyddon; the forest of Celyddon. One of his prophecies concerns a battle fought in 1198 and therefore it can be concluded that the poem was composed after that.

So the hypothesis is that there was a chap called Myrddyn whose name Gdeoffrey changed to Merlin possibly to avoid the Norman-French connotation of 'merde' = 'shit'.

These tales about Myrddin/ Merlin seem to echo tales about a chap called Lailoken who fought in a battle fought in a plain between Lidel and Carwannock and then fled into the wilderness. Lailoken foresees a threefold death in which he is stoned by shepherds, falls into a river and is impaled on a stake which keeps his head below water so he drowns. Another theme is that he sees that the King’s wife has a leaf in her hair and correctly deduces she has been committing adultery.

The battle of Ardferydd which is mentioned three times by 'Merlin' in the Black Book of Carmarthen was a historical battle fought in 573. The battlefield has been identified (though this is still under dispute) as near the modern Carwinley, a hamlet at the confluence of the rivers Esk and Liddel.

Rhydderch Hael aka Roderc was a historical character associated with Alt Clut - the Rock of Clyde = Dun Breatann = Fortress of the Britons = Dumbarton. He had a palace at Pernech = Partick where dwells a madman called Laloecen.

So there seems a sufficient number of similarities to dismiss the possibility of coincidence and accept that thesis that Merlin and Lailoken are the same character.

Coincidentally, there is another 'wild man' of the same period, in the Irish chronicles, called Suibhne (pronounced Sweeney). He too went mad and vanished into the woods, wandering naked following a battle. He literally flew from the battlefield. At one point he went to Britain and met another wild man of the woods called Alladhan (is this Lailoken?). The poetry romance that tells this story was used as the basis for some of the poems allegedly spoken by Mad King Sweeney, a character in Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds; ‘Swim-Two-Birds is the English version of the name of a ford in the River Shannon that Sweeney allegedly visited.

Like many of the books of this genre, this is liberally padded and the final conclusion has to be that there is too little evidence to be certain whether the tale told is true or false. However, there was sufficient evidence for me to accept the thesis. And I enjoyed the read: the material i much better organised than many similar books and ther author avoids preposterous claims. 

August 2026; 136 pages and three appendices

Published in 2016 by John Donald

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

"How UFOs Conquered the World" by David Clarke

 If the title suggests a pulp scifi story, the subtitle "The History of a Modern Myth" gives the game away. This is a comprehensive debunking of the UFO phenomena by a one-time believer who is now a sceptical investigative journalist with a PhD in folklore. He shows that 95% of UFO stories can be explained as observations of birds, Venus, and car headlights, some are outright hoaxes, and the most outlandish such as alien abductions may be explained by waking dreams and sleep paralysis. Most of the details are derived from folklore, myth or science fiction stories. The 5% that are not yet explained are not distinguishable from the 95% that already have been. UFO stories are believed by those who want to believe them and are not susceptible to scientific analysis for the simple reason that UFOlogists don't accept scientific methods such as the application of Ockham's razor. 

This is a well-written and very comprehensive book. It delves into: 

• folklore ("‘sky sailors’ were captured by angry French peasants in the ninth century, they were questioned by the Carolingian Bishop Agobard. Presumably fluent in French, they told him they came from a ‘a certain region called Magonia, out of which ships come and sail upon the clouds’"; Introduction) and fairytales (“Kidnapping and interbreeding with Homo Sapiens to produce hybrids was a common motif of the abduction syndrome but it had precedents in folklore. The fairy myths of Wales, Ireland and other countries of the Celtic fringe were replete with similar stories. In these the little folk were elusive creatures, much like the aliens, and were similarly interested in procreation. They travelled in hosts through the sky and occasionally kidnapped humans and took them to fairyland.”; Ch 8), 
• the post-war days of flying saucers with the classic 'sightings', and the Roswell incident,
• the links between ufology and new age religion and the founding of the Aetherius society
• the links between the descriptions of 'saucers' and aliens and science fiction
• the belief that governments have evidence which they are hushing up and the 'Men in Black'
• alien abduction and sleep paralysis

But in the end it concludes that believers believe because they want to believe. In ufology “the scientific method is nearly always sacrificed to wish-fulfilment.” (254) and that ufology is not qualitatively different from any other religion: “If we laugh at people who believe in cosmic masters or sinister greys ... than where should that laughter stop? Is it only antiquity and strength in numbers that insulate the major faiths of the modern world from the same joke?” (Ch 7)

Selected quotes:

• “You  can measure a circle by beginning anywhere.” (Introduction)
• “Why would aliens redesign the appearance of their craft to conform to a mistake made by a journalist?” (Ch 1)
• “The ‘weight of numbers’ argument could not be used to support the existence of UFOs when the IFOs outnumbered them by a ratio of nine to one.” (Ch 2)
• “certain special places attracted UFOs in a similar fashion to the way stately homes attracted ghosts. The idea of a small community under siege from alien forces was already a science fiction staple.” (Ch 3)
• “The more they repeated their stories the more they tended to exaggerate.” (Ch 3)
• "They talked about scientists being closed-minded. But for them, being open-minded meant being prepared to accept anything as evidence. Even if it was inconsistent, self-contradictory or demonstrably wrong.” (Ch 3)
• “Every type of UFO evidence, from complex photographs to alien abductions, secret government documents and stories told by high-ranking military officials about extreterrstrial cadavers hidden in air force hangars, has at some point been unveiled as being invented.” (Ch 4)
• “Being open-minded actually means being sceptical. ... One of the definitions of a sceptic is an inquirer who has not yet arrived at definitive conclusions.” (Ch 4)
• “Even if in a court of law eyewitness testimony is a high form of evidence, in the court of science it is the lowest form of evidence you could possibly put forth.” (Ch 5)
• “I had learnt long ago that sincerity was not a reliable guide to honesty.” (Ch 8)
• “A fundamental theme of the stories told by experiencers [of alien abductions] ... human beings in conflict with creatures that possess virtually supernatural powers ...aliens are essentially indistinguishable from the gods of old.” (Ch 9)
• “Aliens might exist therefore UFOs must be extraterrestrial craft. This is faulty logic.” (Ch 10)
• “The test of a good scientific theory: it includes specific, testable predictions ... For it to be testable it must be falsifiable ... any theory that involves supernatural forces cannot be disproved.” (Ch 10)
• “People say seeing is believing ... All the evidence suggests the opposite is the truth. In plain fact, we see what we believe.” (279)

A sympathetic debunking of the UFO myth. February 2022; 279 pages

Also on UFOs and reviewed in this blog:

• The 37th Parallel by Ben Mezrich

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God #