“Now send someone for great stones that are in Ireland, and send along two boats in which to bring them, and they will not be able to bring so many back that I cannot set them all up. And I will go to show them which ones I want so they can bring them back.”

And the king said that he would very gladly send them there, and he sent a great many boats. And when they got there, Merlin showed them some great stones, long and wide. And he said to them, “Here are the stones we came to
find.”

When they saw them, they thought it was all madness, and said that all together they could hardly turn one of them over, “and we will never put such stones on our boats at sea.”

And Merlin said, “If you don’t wish to do this, then you have come for nothing.”

They turned about and went back to the king and told him the wonder Merlin had ordered them to perform, which they knew no man on earth could do. And the king said to them, “Now wait until he comes.”

When Merlin came, the king told him the story his men had brought back to him. And Merlin answered, “Since they have all let me down, I will do what I have promised all by myself.”

Then by the power of magic he had the stones brought from Ireland which are still in the burial ground at Salisbury. And when they had come, the king went to see them and took many of his people to see the wonder of the stones. When they saw them, they said that all of them together could not move one of them, and they wondered at how he got them there, for no one had seen it or heard about it. And Merlin said that someone should set them upright, for they would be more beautiful standing straight up than lying down.

And the king answered that no man could do do that but God, “unless you did it.”

And Merlin said to him, “Now you go away and I will set them up, and I will have fulfilled my pledge to Pendragon; otherwise, I would have begun something for his sake that can never be brought to an end.”

So Merlin stood the stones up. They are still in the burial ground at Salisbury and will be there as long as the world lasts.

Vulgate Merlin