Legend of King Arthur revealed: Experts decode seven pages of a 700-year-old manuscript - one of the earliest of its kind - telling the story of Camelot, including a romance between Merlin the Magician and the enchantress Viviane
- The fragments of parchment were discovered in 2019 in a library in Bristol
- They had been recycled into the bindings of four volumes of French philosophy
- Experts from Bristol and Durham have revealed damaged sections of the text
- They believe that the work inspired modern retellings of Arthurian legends
- Yet the older work contains subtle but significant differences, the team said
Fragments of a hand-written medieval manuscript telling the story of Merlin the Magician from the legend of Camelot have been translated into English.
The text tells of battles between King Arthur and King Claudas, as well as the romance between Merlin and Viviane — sometimes known as 'the Lady of Lake'.
The seven pieces of parchment date back some 770 years, and were discovered in 2019 among the University of Bristol’s Special Collections Library by researchers trawling though the ancient tomes.
Experts believe the fragments represent some of the earliest surviving examples of their section of the story.
They had been pasted into a four-volume copy of the works of the French philosopher Jean Gerson, published between 1494–1502.
The documents contain a continuous passage from the 13th Century set of Old French texts known as the 'Vulgate' or 'Lancelot–Grail' Cycle.
Scholars believe these texts were used as a source for Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur', on which many modern retellings of Arthurian legend are based.
The team used advanced imaging techniques to reveal damaged sections of the text previously invisible to the naked eye, and they also identified the ink used.
Fragments of a hand-written medieval manuscript telling the story of Merlin the Magician from the legend of Camelot have been translated into English. Researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Durham used advanced imaging techniques to reveal damaged sections of the text previously invisible to the naked eye. Pictured: one of the damaged fragments
The text tells of battles between King Arthur (left) and his King Claudas, as well as the romance between Merlin (right) and Viviane — sometimes known as 'the Lady of Lake'
'We were able to date the manuscript from which the fragments were taken to 1250–1275 through a palaeographic (handwriting) analysis,' said paper author and medieval literature scholar Leah Tether of the University of Bristol.
Following that, she explained, a linguistic analysis 'located it to northern, possibly north-eastern, France.
'The Suite Vulgate du Merlin was written in about 1220–1225, so this puts the Bristol manuscript within a generation of the narrative’s original authorship.
'We were also able to place the manuscript in England as early as 1300–1350 thanks to an annotation in a margin — again, we were able to date the handwriting, and identify it as an English hand.
'Most manuscripts of the text known to have been in England in the Middle Ages were composed after 1275.
'So this is an especially early example, both of Suite Vulgate manuscripts in general anywhere, but especially of ones known to have found their way to England from France in the Middle Ages.'
Key to the study, Professor Tether explained, was collaboration with Durham University chemist Andy Beeby and his team, who developed a mobile spectrometer specifically designed for studying manuscripts.
'We captured images of damaged sections and, through digital processing, could read some parts of the text more clearly,' she added.
'This process also helped us to establish, since the text appeared dark under infra-red light, that the two scribes had in fact used a carbon-based ink — made from soot and called "lampblack" — rather than the more common "iron-gall ink".'
Iron-gall ink was made from gallnuts — swellings on oak trees caused by chemicals injected into the tree by the larvae of gall wasps — and, unlike lampblack, appeared light-coloured when viewed under infrared illumination.
'The reason for the scribes’ ink choice may have to do with what particular ink-making materials were available near their workshop,' Professor Tether said.Having been able to transcribe the Bristol Merlin into English, the researchers were able to identify various subtle but significant differences in this telling of the Vulgate Cycle in comparison with more modern iterations.
For example, descriptions of the actions of various characters are in places more detailed in this older version of the story, especially as regarded combat.
And in one part of the text, in which Merlin instructs on who will lead each of the four divisions making up Arthur's forces, the four leaders chosen are different than in the better-known, later versions of the narrative.
Other differences are more minor in nature. For example, in modern retellings of the legend, King Claudas — Arthur's opponent who ruled over a region in central France known as Terre Deserte, the 'Land Laid Waste' — is wounded through the thighs.
Professor Tether and her team used advanced imaging techniques to reveal damaged sections of the text previously invisible to the naked eye — and they also identified the ink used
The researchers suspect that the Gerson volumes containing the fragments were transported to Bristol by Tobias Matthew (pictured) the archbishop of York between 1606 and 1628
Thigh wounds are often used as metaphors for impotence or castration, the team explained, allowing for a different interpretation of the story in such versions to that of the Bristol Merlin, in which the exact nature of the wound is not described.
Another discrepancy between the narratives comes in the form of Merlin's encounter with the enchantress Viviane — the character known in many later interpretations of the Arthurian legend, like Malory's, as 'the Lady of the Lake'.
Unlike more modern versions of the tale, in which Viviane seduces Merlin and imprisons him in a tower where they make love (before ultimately leaving him in a magic tomb to die a slow death), the account is somewhat toned down.
Merlin stays with Viviane for a week, apparently falling in love with her, but is said to resist sleeping with her before he returned to Arthur's side.
Experts from the Universities of Bristol and Durham believe that the fragments represent some of the earliest surviving examples of their section of the story. Pictured: this close-up of one of the manuscript fragments has revealed that it was penned by two different hands
The documents — the 'Bristol Merlin' — contain a continuous passage from the 13th Century set of Old French texts known as the 'Vulgate' or 'Lancelot–Grail' Cycle. Pictured: an artist's impression of King Arthur's 'Round Table', with a vision of the holy grail seen in the centre
The seven pieces of parchment — which date back some 770 years — were rediscovered in 2019 among the University of Bristol’s Special Collections Library. Pictured: Gustave Doré's illustration of Camelot from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1867 work 'Idylls of the King'
The full findings of the study are published in the book 'The Bristol Merlin: Revealing the Secrets of a Medieval Fragment', pictured
'One thing that undertaking this study, edition and translation of the Bristol Merlin has revealed is the immeasurable value of interdisciplinary and trans-institutional collaboration,' added Professor Tether.
In this case, he continued, collaboration 'has forged a holistic, comprehensive model for studying medieval manuscript fragments that we hope will inform and encourage future work in the field.'
'It has also shown us the very great potential of local manuscript and rare book collections in Bristol — particularly in the Central Library, where there are many more unidentified manuscript fragments awaiting discovery.'
The full findings of the study are published in the book 'The Bristol Merlin: Revealing the Secrets of a Medieval Fragment', by ARC Humanities Press.
Experts from the Universities of Bristol and Durham believe that the fragments represent some of the earliest surviving examples of their section of the story. Pictured: one of the Gerson volumes containing the Bristol Merlin fragments is photographed by Don Hooper
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