Robert de Boron, Merlin en prose

The Merlin tells the story of Merlin's conception by a devil and his birth, and explains the origins of his supernatural powers: he receives the ability to know all the events of the present and the past from his devil father, and the gift of prophecy from God. His mother, having been raped by a devil, is in prison for having sex outside marriage (even though she is unaware of the identity of her baby's father); the newborn Merlin, who possesses the miraculous ability to talk, defends her in court and secures her acquittal by proving that the judge who is trying her is in fact the son of a priest and, therefore, also illegitimate. Merlin then travels with his mother's confessor, Blaise, to the court of King Vortigern, who is trying to build a tower, that will not stand. Merlin explains that the tower will not stand because of two dragons sleeping beneath it. When the dragons are awoken and begin to fight, Merlin tells Vortigern that the defeat of the red dragon by the white dragon symbolises Vortigern's own defeat by the sons of the King Constance, whose throne he usurped. As predicted, Constance's sons, Uther and Pendragon, return from exile to defeat Vortigern. Merlin becomes advisor to the new king, Pendragon, but spends much of his time in the forests of Northumberland, dictating prophecies to Blaise. Merlin predicts Pendragon's death in battle against the Saxons, and Uther subsequently inherits the crown. Afterwards, Merlin creates Stonehenge by magically transporting stones from Ireland, and instructs Uther to build the Round Table. When Uther falls in love with Ygerne, the wife of one his barons, Merlin uses magic to transform Arthur's appearance to that of Ygerne's husband, so that Uther may sleep with her. The child they conceive is Arthur, who is taken away by Merlin to be raised by another noble family. When Uther dies without an heir, a sword driven into an anvil is discovered outside the cathedral, and the bishop tells the court that it has been sent by God to select the next king. When his step-brother Kay requires a replacement sword during a tournament, Arthur takes the sword from the anvil, and this part of the text ends with his coronation.