VORTIGER'S TOWER: FOOTNOTES
1 reden, rode.
5 fell, cruel; hente, seized; yaf, gave.
6 wape, weep; myssey, revile.
7 cleped, called; wrecche, wretch.
12 ageyn, towards.
15 wiste, knew
16 moste, must.
18 preve hem, test them.
19 disese, injury.
21 abaissed, abashed.
23 be forsworn, break their promise.
24 herberewe, lodge.
29 alyght, dismounted.
32 gabbe, lie.
33 lesynge, falsehood.
36 fadom, fathom.
40 letted, prevented.
44-45 trowed that that, believed that which.
48 foundement, foundation.
50 heer, here.
52 bourdinge, playing.
57 evereche, every one; lever, rather.
59 wote, knows; talent, intentions [to slay him].
68 yove, given.
69 wende, thought; siker, certain.
71 sef, except.
74 selve, same.
76 moche, great; travayle, toil; leyser, leisure.
86 ycleped, called; maister, religious instructor.
90 Tho, Then.
91 fer, distant.
92 me hoveth, it behooves me.
95 comaunde, commend.
96 witholde, restrain.
99 yede, went.
101 carl, churl, peasant.
102 shone, shoes; clowte, mend.
108 wyte, know; sewed, pursued.
116 abasshed, amazed.
118 her, their.
119 beere, bier.
123 Ye se, Do you see.
126 wethet, know.
136 her felishep, their company.
137 reden, rode.
144 juyse, justice.
146 hardely, boldly.
150 ne wolde, had not wished.
154 wetith, know.
155 devynour, diviner.
158 apertly, openly.
160 will2, wish.
161 thereas, where.
168 lever a be, rather have been; aventure, uncertainty.
169 waraunte, protect.
170 salued, hailed.
173 do seche me, saught me.
174 sle, be slain.
180 thideras, where.
189 fole, fool.
191 fonde, found; sorte, divinations.
192 do, caused.
200 make, tell.
201 lesynge, lie.
209 reade, red.
210 fele, feel; peyseth, weighs (presses).
211 bruyt, turmoil.
213 plegges be quyte, pledges be fully paid.
227 goteres, gutters, drains.
229 felen togeder, collide.
245 do thee to wete, want you to know.
246 tokenynge, meaning.
252 semed, thought.
253 plegges be quyte, promises be kept.
254 Tho, Then.
256 the peple semed, it seemed to the people; reade, red.
257 brente, burned.
267 reame, realm.
268 suerté, promise.
269 sorted, made divinations.
273 made yow semblance, showed you.
274 for, because of.
278 respited, saved.
281 entermete, practice; will, wish.
283 delyvered, saved.
288 with, provided that.
289 conne me no magré, bear me no grudge.
304 kylde, killed.
305 shewe semblaunce, make it seem.
312 do thee to wite, caused you to know.
318 warante, protection.
320 see, sea.
321 heir, their; dedist, caused.
VORTIGER'S TOWER: NOTES
[Fols. 8r (line 11)-13v (line 33)].
For the events surrounding Vortiger's rise to power and his ill-fated attempt to build an impregnable citadel, the author of the PM adapts materials from several earlier sources, sometimes altering them in significant ways. His handling of the story of King Constantine and his three sons appears somewhat muddled, at least in comparison with the accounts found in Geoffrey of Monmouth (Thorpe, pp. 150-69) and Wace (lines 7491-7710), where the three sons are named Constans, Aurelius Ambrosius, and Uterpendragon. In the PM King Constantine is called Constans, and his sons are identified as Moyne, Pendragon, and Uter. Later on in the PM an explanation is offered for the conflation of the names Uter and Pendragon.
The story of Vortiger's tower is found in Nennius's Historia Brittonum (sections 40, 42, 47, 48). Nennius's account includes the wisemen's suggestion that the foundation of the tower will not hold unless it is sprinkled with the blood of a fatherless boy; and it also describes the pair of dragons whose struggles prevent the tower from standing. In Nennius, however, the fatherless boy is not specifically identified as being Merlin. The versions of the story contained in Geoffrey and Wace more closely parallel the one in the PM, but major differences remain.
67 this werke that I have begonne. Blase is referring to the book that Merlin has commissioned him to write, in which he will record all the things that Merlin periodically tells him, events that will lead up to and include the Grail story. It should be noted that neither Geoffrey nor Wace includes the figure of the holy Hermit named Blase (or Blaise or Blasy). References to a hermit that Merlin occasionally visits do occur in Layamon's Brut, but the author of the PM appears not to have known Layamon's work.
101 a carl that hadde bought a payre of stronge shone. Two minor incidents of a prophetic kind occur on the road as Merlin and his companions make their way to Vortiger. In the first incident Merlin laughs when he sees a man with a new pair of shoes, for he knows the man will die before he can wear them. In the second, Merlin laughs when he sees a priest chanting before a funeral procession, because he knows the dead child is the priest's own son, though the weeping husband does not know it. Somewhat analogous incidents occur in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (lines 490-532), a work which the author of the Prose Merlin probably did not know. It is more likely that he was familiar with stories of this kind from popular oral tradition.
208 two dragons. The fighting dragons, one red and one white, originate in Nennius and occur also in Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace. It should also be noted that the pseudo-historical tale from the Mabinogion, "Lludd and Llevelys," provides an explanation of how the dragons came to be buried in the ground in the place where Vortiger wishes to build his tower. The relationship between the tale in the Mabinogion and the accounts in Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace is unclear.
280 swere never to entermete of that arte. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace have nothing to sayconcerning the fate of Vortiger's wisemen, whose flawed acts of divination had placed Merlin's life in jeopardy. But here Merlin has them renounce their practicing of the black arts, confess themselves, and
receive penance. Thus Merlin is presented as being compassionate towards the very ones who had plotted his death.
285 the significaunce of the two dragons. The meaning attributed to the two dragons here departs significantly from that proposed by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Wace omitted any interpretation). Whereas Geoffrey has the red dragon representing the British nation and the white dragon representing the Saxons,
here the red dragon betokens Vortiger and the white dragon stands for the surviving sons of Constans.