Avalon from the Vita Merlini
1 Usually these three cities are translated as Brest, Chartiers, and Pavia. John J. Parry (The Vita Merlini, University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 10:3 [1925], p. 123) suggests that Papie could also be understood as Paris; Christine Bord and Jean-Charles Berthet (Vie de Merlin par Geoffrey de Monmouth, in Le devin maudit, [Grenoble: Ellug, 1999], p. 127) suggest that "Bristi" could be either Brest or Bristol.
Translated by Emily Rebekah Huber
Introduction
Introduction
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Insula pomorum que Fortunata vocatur ex re nomen habet quia per se singula profert. Non opus est illis sulcantibus arva colonis, omnis abest cultus nisi quem natura ministrat. Ultro fecundas segetes producit et uvas nataque poma suis pretonso gramine silvis. Omnia gignit humus vice graminis ultro redudans, annis centenis aut ultra vivitur illic. Illic jura novem geniali lege sorores dant his qui veniunt nostris ex partibus ad se, quarum que prior est fit doctior arte medendi exceditque suas forma prestante sorores. Morgen ei nomen didicitque quid utilitatis gramina cuncta ferant ut languida corpora curet. Ars quoque nota sibi qua scit mutare figuram et resecare novis quasi Dedalus aera pennis. Cum vult, est Bristi, Carnoti sive Papie, 1 cum vult, in vestris ex aere labitur horis. Hancque mathematicam dicunt didicisse sorores Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten cithara notissima Thiten. Illuc post bellum Camblani vulnere lesum duximus Arcturum nos conducente Barintho, equora cui fuerant et celi sydera nota. Hoc rectore ratis cum principe venimus illuc, et nos quo decuit Morgen suscepit honore, inque suis talamis posuit super aurea regem fulcra manuque sibi detexit vulnus honesta inspexitque diu, tandemque redire salutem posse sibi dixit, si secum tempore longo esset et ipsius vellet mendicamine fungi. Gaudentes igitur regem commisimus illi et dedimus ventis redeundo vela secundis. |
The island of apples, which is called the Fortunate island has its name because it produces all things for itself. There is no work for the farmers in plowing the fields, all cultivation is absent except for what nature manages by herself. On its own the island produces fertile crops and grapes and native apples by means of its own trees in the cropped pastures. On its own the overflowing soil puts forth all things in addition to the grass, and in that place one lives for one hundred years or more. There nine sisters give pleasant laws to those who come from our parts to them, and of those sisters, she who is higher becomes a doctor in the art of healing and exceeds her sisters in excellent form. Morgen is her name, and she has learned what usefulness all the herbs bear so that she may cure sick bodies. Also that art is known to her by which she can change shape and cut the air on new wings in the manner of Dedalus. When she wishes, she is in Brist, Carnot, or Papie; 1 when she wishes, she glides out of the air onto your lands. They say that this lady has taught mathematics to her sisters Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thiten the most noteworthy on the cither. To that place after the battle of Camblan we brought Arthur, hurt by wounds, with Barinthus leading us, to whom the waters and the stars of the sky were known. With this guide for our raft we came to that place with our leader, and with what was fitting Morgen did honor to us, and in her rooms she placed the king upon a golden couch and with her own honorable hand she uncovered his wound and inspected it for a long time, and at last she said that health could return to him, if he were with her for a long time and wished to undergo her treatment. Therefore rejoicing we committed the king to her and returning gave sails to the assisting winds. |
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