At Geoffrey's Window

Geoffrey saw from his golden window not only Tintagel, that beautiful
South Welsh city by the sea, but also a little village in North Wales
called Beddgelert. This little village is set down in the midst of
mountains like a lump of sugar in the bottom of a deep cup. Outside
this little village is a hill called Dinas Emrys. Geoffrey looked
northward out of his golden window in Monmouth, and what do you think
he saw? He saw the magician, Merlin, the youth who had never had a
father. And this lad was quarreling with another lad in Caernarvon, a
Welsh city thirteen miles away from the little village of Beddgelert.

Now Vortigern had been attempting to build a tower on Dinas Emrys, but
whatever the workmen did one day was swallowed up the next.

Then some wise men said to Vortigern: "You must find a youth who has
never had a father. You must sacrifice him and sprinkle the foundations
with his blood."

So Vortigern sent men to find a boy who had never had a father and
who should be brought him that they might kill him. When Vortigern's
messenger reached Caernarvon, thirteen miles away from Beddgelert and
the hill Dinas Emrys, they found two boys playing games and quarreling
about their parentage. And one of them, Dabutius, was accusing the
other, Merlin, of having no father. They took him to Vortigern.

And Vortigern said, "My magicians told me to seek out a lad who had
no father, with whose blood the foundations of my building are to be
sprinkled to make it stand."

"Order your magicians," answered Merlin, "to come before me and I will
convict them of a lie."

It is a terrible thing to be convicted of a lie, and of course the
magicians did not wish to come. But King Vortigern made them come and
ordered them to sit down before Merlin.

Merlin spoke to them after this manner: "Because you are ignorant what
it is that hinders the foundations of the tower, you have told the King
to kill me and to cement the stones with my blood. But tell me now,
what is there under the foundations that will not suffer it to stand?"

To this they gave no answer, for they were frightened.

Then said Merlin, "I entreat your Majesty would command your workmen
to dig into the ground, and you will find a pond which causes the
foundations to sink."

This the King had done, and a pond was found there.

Then said Merlin to the King's magicians, "Tell me, ye false men, what
is there under the pond?"

But they were afraid to answer.

Merlin turned to King Vortigern and said, "Command the pond to be
drained, and at the bottom you will see two hollow stones, and in them
are two dragons asleep."

The King had the pond drained, and he found all just as Merlin said it
would be. And as the King sat on the edge of the drained pond out came
the two dragons, one red and one white, and, approaching each other,
they began to fight, blowing forth fire from their nostrils. At last
the white dragon got the advantage and made the red dragon fly to the
other end of the drained pond.

When King Vortigern asked Merlin to explain what this meant, Merlin
burst into tears.

Then commanding his voice, he spoke: "In the days that are to come
gold shall be squeezed from the lily and the nettle, and silver shall
flow from the hoofs of bellowing cattle. The teeth of wolves shall be
blunted and the lion's whelps shall be transformed into sea-fishes."

And unto this day nobody knows exactly what Merlin meant, or what
Geoffrey thought he meant, although there has been much guessing.