Merlin's Thorn
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
MERLIN'S THORN (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Alex Gray Tweeddale Collection1- 8 1s lead down for 4 bars and up
9-16 1s dance reflection reels on own side (1s out and down to start)
17-24 1s+2s+3s Promenade
25-32 1s+2s dance the RSh Helix:
Set passing partner RSh into BtoB position and cast round partner to own sides, ½ turn partners RH and dance ½ RH across. 213
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Merlin's Thorn - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
Bearing in mind that this dance was published in "The Tweeddale Collection", the title "Merlin's Thorn" references the story of Merlin's burial beside a mystical thorn tree near the River Tweed, where he met his tragic fate after being impaled and drowned.Merlin, also known as Myrddin Wyllt, lived from around 540 to 584 and ended his life as a prophet and recluse in the forests of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders. According to legend, he was a bard who served a British king but later retreated into madness following the death of his lord. While Merlin is famously connected to Arthurian legend, his actual historical figure is separate from the Merlin of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.
Merlin's life came to a tragic end in 584 after an encounter with St Kentigern. After his conversion to Christianity, Merlin supposedly foresaw his own death, which would involve falling, stabbing, and drowning. Fleeing from shepherds, he fell off a cliff into a river, was impaled on a stake securing a fisherman's net, and drowned.
Merlin's burial place is believed to be beside a thorn tree at Drumelzier (pronounced "Drummellier"), near where the Powsail Burn flows into the River Tweed, in a spot close to a settlement known as Merlindale. The town has installed a plaque at the base of the tree recognizing it as "The Wizard Merlin's Grave." The plaque also notes that the current tree is not the original; the original was washed away in a flood in the late 1920s.
Merlin And Kentigern, by Scottish scholar and poet J.S. Blackie, is a narrative poem referencing Merlin's Thorn that weaves together themes of loss, faith, and the clash of cultures through the figures of Merlin, the legendary wizard, and Kentigern, a Christian saint.
Come with me fair maiden, Lilias,
Come and sit a space with me,
Where the Powsail purls and prattles,
Gently by this old thorn tree.
Merlin And Kentigern Poem - Information Video
Marker For Merlin's Grave, Drumelzier
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