He would dine from the varied dishes, and soon after rise, with a compliment to his sister; then he would wander through the house gazing at the stars, and sing in this manner of the future that he knew would be:

"O the madness of the Britons! Their universal affluence leads them to excess. They are not satisfied with peace. A Fury goads them on. They engage in civil war and family feuds. They allow the churches of the Lord to go to ruin, and drive the holy bishops out into distant lands. The nephews of the Cornish boar disrupt everything. They lay ambushes for each other and put one another to death with their evil swords: they cannot wait to succeed lawfully, but seize the crown. The fourth after them will be crueller and harsher. A sea-wolf will engage him and defeat him and drive him in defeat across the Severn into wilder realms. This wolf will lay siege to Cirencester and by means of sparrows raze its walls and houses to the ground. He will then set off for France with a fleet, but will die by a king's spear.

"Rodarch is dying. After his death Scotland and Cumbria will quarrel long, until Cumbria is given over to a growing tooth.

"The Welsh will make war on Gwent, and afterwards on Cornwall, nor shall any law constrain them. (Wales will always enjoy spilling blood. Nation abominable to God, why do you enjoy spilt blood?) Wales will force brothers into fighting and condemning their own nephews to a foul death.

"Scottish forces will often cross the Humber, putting all opposition pitilessly to death: not with impunity, however, for their leader will be killed, he of the horse name and savage with it. His heir will be driven headlong from our frontiers. Scots, sheath the swords you bare too often. Your power will not prove a match for our fierce nation.

"Dumbarton will fall, with no king to re-build it for an age, until the Scot is defeated by a boar. Carlisle will be deprived of its pastor and stand vacant until the Lion's authority restores the staff of office to it. The towers and great palaces of Segontium will be torn down, and they will weep there until the Welsh go to their old domain.

"Porchester will see its walls lying broken in its harbour till a rich man with a fox's tooth re-builds them. The city of Richborough will also lie strewn along the harbour shore. It will be a man from Flanders in a crested ship who will restore them. The fifth from him will repair the walls of St David's, and through him, too, the pall lost for many years will be recovered. The City of the Legions will fall into your bosom, Sabrina. It will lose its citizens for a long age. When the Bear-in-Lamb comes, he will bring them back.

"Saxon kings will turn out citizens and hold their cities, lands and homes for a long time. Among these kings three dragons will three times wear the crown. Two hundred monks will perish in Leicester: the Saxon will overthrow the city's leader and leave the city empty within its walls. The first Angle to wear the crown of Brutus will restore the city which was emptied by that massacre.

"A savage nation will forbid the rite of anointing throughout the land and set up images of gods in the shrines of God. Later, Rome will restore God, with a monk's aid; and a holy priest will sprinkle God's shrines with holy water. He will rebuild the shrines, and their pastors will be set once more within them. Many of them will thereafter be obedient to the commands of divine law and earn their right to heaven. But an irreligious people frill of venom will break that peace, will violently confound right and wrong, will sell their sons and relatives into slavery in the far corners of the earth across the sea and incur the anger of the Thunderer.

"What an unutterable crime that man, whom the Creator of the universe made worthy of heaven in honourable liberty, should be roped and led to the sale like a cow!

"You wretch, who turned traitor to your lord when you came into the kingdom, you will attend to God. The Danes will come with a fleet, defeat our people and reign for a short while: they will be driven out and return home. Two men will administer them. A snake will forget its pact and strike them with its stinging tail instead of its garlanded sceptre.

"Then the Normans will come over the sea in wooden ships, bearing a face in front of them and a face at their back. Clad in their iron armour, they will make a violent attack with sharp swords on the Angles, kill them and win the field. They will bring many kingdoms under them and rule foreign nations for a time, till a Fury flying all around will infect them with its poison. Peace, faith and all honour will depart, and there will be civil war throughout the land. Man will betray his fellow, and friendship will not be found. Husbands will have no regard for their wives and will turn to whores: wives, regardless of their husbands, will mate with whom they wish. Respect for the church will dwindle, and the order will perish. Bishops will then bear arms, will then follow the military life, will set up towers and walls on sacred ground and give to soldiers what should go to the poor. They will be swept along by riches and follow the worldly path, and take from God what their holy office forbids them to take.

"Three will wear the crown, after whom will be that desire for new men. The fourth in power will be harmed by his clumsy piety until he puts on his father's clothes and so, girt with boar's teeth, crosses the shadow of the Helmeted Man. Four of those anointed will strive in turn for the supreme power; and two who win it will alternate on the throne in such a way as to tempt the French to start a fierce campaign against them. The sixth will overthrow the Irish and pull down their walls. By his piety and foresight he will re-establish our people and cities.

"All this I once predicted at greater length to Vortigern when I was explaining to him the mystic battle of the two dragons as we sat on the bank of the drained pool. But now, dear sister, go home and attend to the dying king. Bid Taliesin come. I have much I wish to discuss with him, since he has only recently returned from Brittany, where he has been enjoying the sweets of learning under the wise Gildas."

Vita Merlini