The prophecies of Merlin

The Prophecies of Merlin were circulating on their own before Geoffrey's History was finished, and he inserted them into it as a self-contained book. They are written in the dense animal-heraldry of political prophecy: kingdoms are beasts, kings are boars and lions and dragons, and events are foretold in terms specific enough to be impressive and vague enough to be safe.

The line that matters for Arthur is this: the Boar of Cornwall shall bring succour and shall trample their necks beneath his feet.

That is the whole of Arthur in the prophecies — a boar from Cornwall who will relieve the Britons and trample their enemies. It is not a character. It is a warrant.

And that is what these prophecies are for. Geoffrey is writing for a Norman court in the 1130s that had a considerable interest in the idea that the island's rightful, ancient, legitimate rulers were somebody other than the Saxons they had recently conquered. A prophecy that has already come true is the strongest form of legitimation available, because it makes the present arrangement look like the fulfilment of something arranged long ago.

Foreknowledge, in Geoffrey, works. It is a tool, it is used, and it produces the intended effect.

It is worth holding that next to what Malory does with the same gift three centuries later — where Merlin knows everything, tells everyone, and watches it all happen exactly as foretold. Between the two lies the entire difference between prophecy as a political instrument and prophecy as a tragedy.