Avalon



He died without issue, king Vortigern,

And his captains’ hearts did burn,

To replace him at Cirencester,

And in the land hate did fester,

The ferry went out seldom,

From lonely Avalon,

For the wise shut themselves in,

For no part in the wars that were to begin.



I was a young acolyte on that hill,

Old now, I stay there still,

I will die soon and enter some new region,

While the country takes up the new religion,

As my mentor Lughdon said to me,

We cannot compete with Christianity,

In the towers amongst the marshes he taught what he knew,

Lughdon was the master, and unknown to few.



He taught that Lady Dana came from the south,

And set up the stones we see about,

He taught that his namesake came from the east,

Like the rising sun, he brought plenty and feast,

Lugh and Dana begat a holy race,

That is gone now but its ways we trace,

Cunobelin arrived from islands in the north,

And destroyed the high people and set us forth.

Rome came, but now it is gone,

And we have reached the time of Vortgern.



Hengist was leader of the Eastermen,

And champion to the king,

By the death of the king he had passed his finest hour,

He had protected us from the northern tribes,

For when the Romans left, they left no power,

The Eastermen had come from across the sea,

And still they are coming, to be free,

And when Hengist goes they will have no guides,

Britons can no longer hide.

　

Hengist proclaimed a competition for the kingship,

Whoever shall have is sword, shall have it,

With the last of his strength he drew it with a flurry,

And plunged it into a great stone at Avesbury,

Excalibur was the greatest sword,

The captain who retrieved it would be lord,

But none of the competitors could defeat its rocky embrace,

Even the mighty Pendragons lost face,

And so we remained kingless until one could come,

And the country dissolved with the rising sun.



My quest as Merlin had begun,

To find a righteous one,

Who would unite the island for goddess Bretana,

Or for the Christian god and our saviour,

The Pendragon brothers nominated their eldest,

Uther, lord of Dorse, who proclaimed himself best,

Though the Dorsets were avaricious in the extreme,

For Uther coveted the Cornish queen,

Koel of Rheged stood against,

For while Uther fought the Cornovi,

The land of the mountains and the lakes took up the role of defence.



As I sat by the shore of the lake,

Wasting time, watching ducks and drake,

Lord Uther came to me,

He had been told that it was I he should see,

The men of the christ-god said it was wrong,

That he should be set on this woman to whom he did not belong,

But he explained it was a burning in his heart,

And that he would not live if he should forever be apart,

From Igerna of Cornwall who he so adored,

Yet it was the source of all strife going on,

And he sought the advice of Avalon.



To truly embrace law you must break it first,

That is the crux of its relations with the chaos,

So, I told Uther that he would have his queen,

And that their issue would be a son, but he could not be seen,

The boy would be left to my protection,

For he would represent a uniting of families, and a nation,

And so I marched with Uther under the white dragon,

For another clash with Cornwall had begun,

And as their red dragon banners entered the fray,

Uther and I slipped away.

　

I knew of this Igerna, for she had written to Lughdon,

In poetic latin, of lives coming undone,

She was trapped in Tintagael, and could not be free,

For she had always been attracted towards fantasy,

‘Tell her you are her true husband,

And that she can make you be,

She can bless us all with security,’

So while Gorlois, lord of the Cornovi,

Was in Dorse causing strife,

Uther crept into his castle,

To please his wife.



Nine months later I arrived for the child,

Waves clashed on the rocks, for Tintagael is never mild,

Igerna was crying but gave the boy to me,

‘I will be forgiven so long as he is not with me,’

Then a lass of a year or so sat on her knee,

‘Whatever his destiny, keep him well for me,

Uther did free me, of what I’m unsure,

Care for the boy, his name is Arthur.’



Time passed, and I stayed where I did belong,

I brought up Arthur at Avalon,

We watched the birds and talked of trees,

In the village, he played at being Achilles,

I taught him all I had heard from Lughdon,

And also of the god who had killed the son,

That this had saved us all, according to some,

And then a little girl did come,

I knew of her origins, and worried some,

But it had to be a secret, what will be done will be done.

She was Morgaine, and her love for Arthur had begun.



After his Tintagael deed,

That he never did concede,

Uther made peace with Cornwall,

And supported Koel in the land of the wall,

But the Eastermen would not join to this band,

For there were ever more of them and they needed land,

Land that none were prepared to give,

Their god Wodin told them to fight to live,

Again Uther came to confer,

Looking tired and a lot older,

He bought a monkish Irisher,

We argued, but then after,

Decided on new competitions for Excalibur.

　

It was too early for Arthur to go forward,

But he entered the quest for the sword,

After all the great men had tried and failed,

He drew that sword stuck fast in rock,

And after several moments of shock,

This young lad was hailed,

As the British king,

And it was a difficult thing,

For the Pendragons, Cornovi,

Rhegeds and Cambri,

At first did not believe the fact,

And did not know how to act,

But then Uther got on his knees

And the rest followed, finally pleased.



Soon Arthur came to me,

What he should do, he could not see,

He wanted Morgaine for his queen,

He wanted peace as there once had been,

But how would this come about?

Could he do it, full of doubt?

I said nothing of his love supreme,

I could not earn his wrath over a queen,

But I suggested how peace could commence,

Through a mighty alliance,

‘Gather the British lords all about you,

And the Eastermen will finally join, they will have too,

Certainly this may involve war,

But it is one that we can win, and what life calls for.’



So the king rode about afar,

With his friend Gawain who was his squire,

Arthur was lord of Dorse and Cornwall,

Galahad Pendragon would back him till his fall,

Most Christian Percival of the Cambri,

Swore an oath of complete loyalty,

Kay, the son of old king Koel,

Was suspicious on the whole,

But after Arthur proved his worth at Rheged,

Kay and Koel were also pledged,

But the Eastermen they would not join,

They threatened and fought and purloined,

There must be a great battle for the final union,

And then after, the king must have a son,

I fretted at Avalon,

Was it a good thing I had done?

　

Arthur and his allies rose an army,

The Eastermen knew it and gird their own free,

They met at Baden hill, on the plain,

The hill built by Dana, so that Bretana would live again,

Captains of Engs and Saxons conceded defeat,

It was decided that leaders of Britain, they should meet,

Horsa and Cynric came to the king,

To bargain, and let co-operation begin,

Lincoln was given over and vassals sworn in,

The Eastermen told Arthur that he could lead them.



It was the beginning of times going well,

At least as far as anyone could tell,

The alliance was so great,

That the northern tribes could see their fate,

And the followers of the dead dread Cunobelin,

Without a blow, threw their hats in,

Swore oaths to Arthur, as the king,

United Britain was a mighty thing,

Cirencester was lowly infected,

So glorious Camelot was erected,

Arthur held council as the leader of equals,

And after the war, was loved by the people,

Galahad, Kay, Percival, and Gawain got his will,

They sat at the round table,

Along with Horsa of Engs and Cynric of West Saxons,

Patrick of Ireland led the Christian faction,

Avalon was open to it, and thronged with cow parsley,

And at the round table, there was occasionally me.



Morgaine gave birth to a beautiful son,

I hoped it would not be wrong in the long run,

The infant Mordred was presented at Avalon,

And before Patrick the holy Christian,

Lancelot came to the royal court,

With news that Aedilus had fought,

The terrible Hun, and defeated them,

And Bretons in Gaul stood tall in the sun.

　

The first sign of things turning,

Was when Lancelot reported a terrible burning,

In the mind of Aedilus the Roman squire,

To win back Brettony for the empire,

There was a meeting at Camelot of the knights,

Where it was decided, eventually, that the British must fight,

For although the Bretons had fled the island with Rome,

Wherever a Briton went must be home,

And they could be made part of the union,

For God, Lugh, for Lady Bretana, and God’s son.

As it was my want, I stayed at Avalon,

While for the knights, a slow end began.



Some months later Arthur and Lancelot came back,

With news that Aedilus had not survived their attack,

But all the same, relations were fraught,

And it was Avalon’s consolation that they sought,

Arthur, wandering a stone grove overseas,

Had come across a maiden, incredibly lovely,

Lancelot had introduced her as Genivire,

And to her, Igerna of Tintagael was dear,

That poor old lady had just passed away,

Arthur, knowing her as mother lost his way,

For Genivire had known Morgaine in her youth,

And it became clear that Arthur and his queen shared a mother both.



Arthur was so angry with me,

For he knew that I had chosen not to see,

The whole of the unnaturality,

I had just thought to let things be,

But I felt my guilt at letting them be free,

The Bretons would now not follow Arthur,

Lancelot opined that it was the monstrosity,

Of the poor boy Mordred, that he be unfain,

Arthur sent his son away, with the once loved Morgaine.

And in order to forget the sadness,

He would now marry Genivire, that lovely lass,

And he would do so before the Christian God,

So that the old marriage could be unshod.

　

But as time passed, by lake and tree,

Something became clear to me,

That Genivire held Lancelot in her heart,

And that one day the king and his knight would have to part,

I wanted to let things flow,

But I was wrong with Morgaine, and doubt did grow,

I asked Arthur to send Lancelot away,

To be his voice in Brettony,

‘But he is my finest knight,

I love that man and it would not be right,’

This is what Arthur would often say,

But the queen’s love grew clearer by the day,

It was Arthur who knew he was a cuckold,

For he confined in me that no truth could hold,

He loved them both, but would not give way,

And as seasons went on had less to say.



It came apart with the final pull,

The king had assumed that they were unphysical,

But Lancelot and Genivire were discovered together,

And it caused Arthur’s heart to un-tether,

From his mind that came astray,

He ordered Lancelot far away,

He ordered his queen burnt at the stake,

And came to visit me by marshes and lake,

‘She was so beautiful and lovely to me,

But she has to be gone and so has he,

I should truly be gone too,’

And with that, he drew, deathly, but not sure,

That mighty sword Excalibur,

Threw it into the watery portal we stood before,

Only hoping it was a door,

Back to fate from whom it had been given,

‘I give away for what I have striven!’

But we had not spotted a young lass amongst the flows,

In the lake washing clothes,

She waded out and retrieved the sword,

With both hands she bought it to her lord,

‘This is yours, lest you forgot,

Give it away, you cannot,

I am stuck with my chores,

The king’s are much greater, but they are yours.’

Later I would think she was Bretana for certain,

For I never saw that lass again.


We gathered in the night for the terrible fire,

Arthur’s looks were grey and dire,

His age seemed greater than it was,

As he prepared to realise the loss,

‘We are held together by oaths,’ he pronounced,

‘On the breaking of the oaths the end is announced,

They must be broken no more,

Our truths must be sure,

And we must handle this atrocity,

For the future to be,

For all of our security,

Start the flame,

And forget the blame.’



Genivere screamed shear,

She called that Arthur was still dear,

The king was crying, but none noticed through fear,

There was confusion in the crowd,

A wild man hollered loud,

Bound into the fire to release the queen,

It was Lancelot! And the king had seen!

Arthur’s face hung, but his eyes were bright,

He kept quiet in the noise and light,

Seeming stunned, but his face lied,

The king was relieved to be defied.



I ventured out from Avalon, on the boat,

The paths were quiet around Camelot,

People were afraid to venture the road,

For the grim plague was abroad,

I found Arthur in his hall,

‘The land has taken a mighty fall,’

He spoke hesitantly, he was drinking strong mead,

‘It is too late to have my son returned to me,

Morgaine has brought up Mordred to rule,

And the lad is no fool.

He has sensed the northern tribes hostility,

Now they’ve sworn oaths to him to lead,

The Eastermen hide away on the other hand,

From the death that stalks the land,

Tell me, my Merlin, my wisdom does lack,

Why should the lassy of the lake have given my sword back?

I admit it was due to me,

But cannot God and the gods let me be?’

 

‘You are king, it is your responsibility,

I am sorry to be blunt, but you are not free,’

‘Give me advice, my father to me,’

Replied Arthur, straining to agree,

‘The plague will go, once it has had its way,

You need a quest for the knights, so then you can say,

It kept the land together, though it was vexed,

And it will be peaceful, and ready to face some new test,

You must bring in a new era, because it is not long for me,

With a quest for the Christian God, your knights will see,

The very ongoing survival of our lives,

And all will be forgotten of your wives,

It does not matter if the quest is never complete,

It may bring a heaven with the Christ replete.’



King Arthur looked as his thoughts he searched,

‘You remember Patrick of the holy church?

He once told a story to our round table,

That a man named Joseph was once able,

To take the cup, that Nazareth washed in,

And it was as if this cup had the power to begin,

What you speak of, a life that is grand,

And Joseph took this cup to our island,

If we could search it out, then we would stand,

In sight of God, as the prophets planned,

And through reflection of its holy water,

We would glimpse the truth and bring back laughter.’



Therefore, with the king laid low, frail,

The knights sought out the holy grail,

But the Eastermen took no part in the quest,

While Mordred set his own test,

We knew we may be nearing the finish,

But our onward force did not diminish,

Mordred marched south to the land of stones,

Under the strain the knights groaned,

The forces of free Britons and northern men,

Met at the fast glowing river of Camlan,

The knights who returned from their geas fought brave,

But the clash of us natives left little to save,

The Eastermen stood in the wing,

Waiting to strike whoever should win.

 

The battle ended with Mordred dead on the ground,

But neither Arthur or Excalibur could be found,

Some called him the Fisher king,

And I think he is everlasting,

I am marooned in my bed, soon to be dead,

I think that I know sir Gawain came in, to regale,

On how holy Percival has found the grail!

I hear the clash of arms, but will not survive,

To see Horsa, Cynric and general Marke arrive,

The geese and crickets flee the smoke,

Dis will end me with a final stroke,

I do not see, how Gawain’s news could be,

But nevertheless, it make me very happy,

Lugh and Dana will not live again,

One day Christ-lord Nazareth will reign,

Now I know that England has begun,

And it is the end for Avalon.