Tim Clarkson is an independent researcher and historian. He obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester, his dissertation being on the warfare of early medieval northern Britain. He is the author of several books on early medieval Scottish history, including The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland, Columba: Pilgrim, Priest and Patron Saint, and Scotland’s Merlin.
The legend of Lailoken, a mysterious ‘wild man’ who is said to have lived in southern Scotland in the sixth century AD, is preserved in three medieval 12th century Scottish tales. Two of these are grouped together in a text entitled Vita Merlini Silvestris (The Life of Merlin of the Woods) while the third appears in a ‘Life’ of St Kentigern of Glasgow.
This paper considers the possibility that Lailoken might be the original figure behind the Arthurian wizard Merlin. It also considers the case for seeing Lailoken as a real, historical figure rather than as an entirely fictional character.
