Myrddin, otherwise known as Lailoken, born in Wales, was the original person in which the legends of Merlin sprouted up from for the Arthur legends. It is said that he prophesied the death of King Rhydderch Hael and ended up being dragged along to fight in the battle that ensued in Cumbria, England.
However instead of the King being killed, he slaughtered his enemies and Myrddin became part of the army that lost and the sight of all the men dying based upon his words drove him mad and he went off to live in the wilderness with the animals.
There is another story where he has several meetings with St. Kentigern in the wilderness where the saint describes a naked hairy madman, and Myrddin tells him why he is there and why he has been forsaken. After some meetings later Myrddin asks for forgiveness and it is granted and then he speaks a new prophesy about his own death that he would die by falling stabbing and drowning all at once, yet no one believed him, until later some jeering shepherds drove him off a cliff where he fell down onto a stake which had been left out by fisherman and died with his head below the water.
What is unclear about the story is that little is said about his prediction of the Kings death, whether he had predicted the death differently and a heap of people jumped on the bad wagon in the hope of killing the King? It is not known, yet what is clear is that when the gift of prophecy had been seen as being abused it was stripped from him and he was driven mad until he was forgiven.
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