text: It is recorded in the diaries of Samuel Pepys that whilst surveying the damage to London caused by the Great Fire in the company of the Royal Family they were heard to discuss Mother Shipton’s prophecy of the event.
  Recently the History Channel produced a documentary on the prophetical aspects of Merlin the Magician. This bit of research was new to me. I’d never heard of Merlin linked to prophecies.
  From my own research, Merlin probably was a real historical figure, being a Celtic Druid. From his time line in history, he may have been influenced, not only by his own druidic beliefs, but by early Christianity… and the Sybil prophecies, from Roman influences. It is also possible that druidism was influenced by or an offshoot from ancient Jewish mysticism, as one studies the probablilty that the Prophet Jeremiah landed in Eire.
  Merlin is not the only prophetic voice coming from ancient England, as we have Mother Shipton, and Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche to name a couple. History tells us St. Paul visited the British Isles and his teachings may have influenced these prophets.
  The 12th century cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth provides us with our earliest information on Merlin. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about the early history of Britain in Historia regum Britanniae (the “History of the Kings of Britain”) and Vita Merlini (“Merlin’s Life”), which was adapted from Celtic mythology. Being mythology-based, Merlin’s Life is not enough to say Merlin ever lived. To determine when Merlin may have lived, one way would be to date King Arthur, the legendary king with whom Merlin is associated.
  Geoffrey Ashe, an historian and co-founder and secretary of the Camelot Research Committee, wrote about Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Arthurian legend. Ashe says Geoffrey of Monmouth connects Arthur with the tail end of the Roman Empire, in the late 5th century A.D.:
  “Arthur went over to Gaul, the country now called France, which was still in the grip of the Western Roman Empire, if rather shakily.”
  “This is one of the clues, of course, to when Geoffrey [of Monmouth] thinks all this is happening, because the Western Roman Empire ended in 476, so, presumably, he’s somewhere in the 5th Century. Arthur conquered the Romans, or defeated them at least, and took over a goodly part of Gaul….”
  The name of King Arthur in Latin is Artorius. The following is a further attempt to date and identify King Arthur that places Arthur earlier in time than the end of the Roman Empire, and suggests the name Arthur may have been used as an honorary title rather than a personal name.
  “184 – Lucius Artorius Castus, commander of a detachment of Sarmatian conscripts stationed in Britain, led his troops to Gaul to quell a rebellion. This is the first appearance of the name, Artorius, in history and some believe that this Roman military man is the original, or basis, for the Arthurian legend. The theory says that Castus’ exploits in Gaul, at the head of a contingent of mounted troops, are the basis for later, similar traditions about King Arthur, and, further, that the name Artorius became a title, or honorific, which was ascribed to a famous warrior in the fifth century.”
  Certainly the legend of King Arthur’s court started in the Middle Ages and the Medieval History Guide has a fine collection of links on the subject, but the putative figures on which the legends are based, appear to come from before the Fall of Rome.
  In the shadows between Classical Antiquity and the Dark Ages lived prophets and warlords, druids and Christians, Roman Christians and the outlawed Pelagians, in an area sometimes referred to as Sub-Roman Britain, a pejorative label suggesting that the native British elements were less advanced than their Roman counterparts.