East of Carmarthen, where the A40 runs up the Tywi valley, a rounded hill with the ramparts of an Iron Age fort on top rises above the river. It is Bryn Myrddin, Merlin's Hill, and it has long been claimed as the place where the magician lies to this day.
The legend follows the medieval romances. Merlin fell in love with a young enchantress, called Nimue or Vivien, and taught her his craft and his spells. Once she had learned enough, she used his own magic against him, and shut him away in a cave under the hill, bound by enchantment, where he sleeps and waits. It was firmly believed in the eighteenth century that at certain seasons of the year you could hear the old man under the hill lamenting his foolishness in letting a woman learn his secret. Others say you can hear him groan, or the clanking of his chains, if you put your ear to the ground and listen hard.
Other places in Britain claim Merlin's prison, from Brittany to the Scottish Borders, but Bryn Myrddin has the advantage of standing in sight of the town which bears his name, and of an oak that bore it too.
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