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Melkin's Prophecy II
by Steve Goodwin
On to Chapters 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Bibliography | Back to Chapter 1
s mentioned earlier, Melkin’s Prophecy has been dismissed by many scholars as an elaborate forgery. Consequently, this led many to overlook the obvious clues that run through the text. However, by re-examining the mysterious prophecy line by line, the text begins to reveal its original geography. In a recent book, Steve Blake and Scott Lloyd (The Keys of Avalon; 2000) argue that North Wales played a prominent role in ‘Dark Age’ history. By re-examining early Welsh and Latin sources they bring into focus what they call “the myth in the landscape”, basically, remnants of names that survive in the landscape and local tradition that equate with the early written and oral sources. Within this book I came across Melkin’s Prophecy and began to connect its subtle clues to a landscape I was familiar with, that of North-east Wales.
The opening lines by John of Glastonbury state that “the chief personages” (the king and his nobles) took refuge in the monastery where the prophecy was delivered. Here, John may unwittingly be giving a clue to who Melkin/Melchin was. Professor J. Carley has suggested that Melkin was Maelgwyn Gwynedd a 6th century king of what is now North Wales. Further research supports this connection and accounts state that Maelgwyn retreated to a Celtic monastery for many years. The earliest British source (6th century) is the monk Gildas who was a contemporary of Maelgwyn; and from the way his account is written he appears to know him personally. However, Gildas pores bitter scorn on the King, which is not surprising considering Gildas’ politico-religious perspective – that of an avid Roman Catholic. Gildas wrote at a time of competing variations of the ‘true faith’ a title that both Rome and the native British church both claims to uphold. This is obvious when Gildas claims that the Celtic stream of Christianity was in league with ‘Jews’ by “serving the shadow rather than the truth of divine revelation”.
It must be considered that by the time of Gildas (6th century) Western Christianity had evolved from a thousand different sects into a universal (Catholic) church based in Rome. However, to reach this position it had developed a theological orthodoxy vacant of much of the original message due to political need of the day.
Gildas states that after Maelgwyn had committed many sins against man and God and he was “by a desire to return to the right way, he had published to the world and vowed before God to become a monk for ever, with no intension to be unfaithful. His conversion brought joy to all, but then like a sick dog to its vomit, he reverted to his old ways”. (Bartrum; 1993) Glidas clearly states that Maelgwyn became a monk and then rejected his vows, reverting back to “his old ways”. By this it is implied that the king had rejected the church and returned to tyranny. However, this may mean that the king had rejected the Roman orthodoxy in favour of his native form religious practice. This was in fact the dominant form of Christianity in Western Britain at this time and it was probable that Gildas was in a minority in his religious orientation, that is if we can rely on the Gildas’ account as it has come down to us.
Nevertheless, the Maelgwyn-monk connection is clearly established and this was reinforced by Professor Carley’s assertion that Melkin of Avalon equated to Maelgwyn Gwynedd as both were bards and prophets within the Celtic church. Further Carley also points to the natural mutation from the Latin ‘Mailcunnus’ to the Welsh ‘Maelgwyn’ and through to the Melkin form of the name.
The suggestion that Melkin/Melchin the monk was non-other than Maelgwyn/Mailcunnus the 6th century king was strengthened further when the origins of the word melkite/melchite are traced. This can be traced back to a Syrian derivation used to denote a follower of the ‘king’. Furthermore, Blacks biblical dictionary states that Melki/Melchi = King, and in this form it says that the word ‘Melkizedek’ found in the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls equate to ‘Priest King’ or ‘Just King’an elusive Old Testament figure who’s role held many similarities to that of the ‘Messiah’.
From our findings so far it is clear that Melkin the monk was probably Maelgwyn the King of Gwynedd, and that Melki/Melchi signifies ‘a King’. So therefore we have a monk who was a king and this was Melkin a corruption of Maelgwyn. The significance of this may not directly imply that the King himself wrote the text, but that his title was used to signify the status of its authority and his religious orientation. The relevance of this connection will develop as we investigate the geographic and genealogical connections between Maelgwyn and the Prophecy. Interestingly, the county of Flintshire has an entry in the 11th century Domesday Book which states: “In Pichetone et Melchanestone”.
The prophecy’s opening line is; “The Isle of Avalon,
A great deal has been written regarding the mysterious realm of Avalon, with its Arthurian legends and the Holy Grail. Most is of very little relevance and even less historical value, much of this material links Avalon with Glastonbury in Somerset. However, there is another claim to the location of Avalon and this tradition is set in North Wales.
The origins of Glastonbury’s claim to Avalon can be traced back to the 12th century, a time of civil war after the death of Henry I. The opposing sides (Stephen and Matilda) each required a written history to justify their claim to the crown of England. Works of this sort, which today are regarded as pseudo-histories, reflected the political needs of the day and when studied represent manufactured and warped historical account. The confusion concerning the true location of Avalon is largely due to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s imaginatively crafted history.
In his 12th century masterpiece History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey reworks a series of old stories and ancient documents originally written in the “British tongue” (Welsh/Cornish/Breton) and distorted them to suit his master’s needs. Little is known of Geoffrey’s early life, however, his later labours were greatly rewarded in the 1150’s when within a week he was ordained a priest and promoted to the status of a Bishop. Where was his bishopric located? Astonishingly, Geoffrey was installed as the Bishop of the newly created Bishopric that encapsulates North-east Wales, the region where the key elements of his work were drawn from. To crown his new status he re-named his bishopric and used the title – Bishop of St. Asaph. He was the first to use this title as we shall see.
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