THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 199 



Moslem Antichrist, in a time of great trouble, when 

 he would overthrow him and his ally the earth-beast 

 in final conflict near Aleppo. Mohammed himself 

 was said to have retreated with Abu Bekr to a cave, 

 where they lay concealed behind a spider's web, as 

 the Scottish tale says Bruce did before his decisive 

 appearance and victory. The influence of these myths 

 may be seen even during the lifetime of Frederick 

 II., when the extravagant hopes of his followers led 

 them to use language regarding the Emperor which 

 was applicable only to the Deity. We may see in 

 this an anticipation by hyperbole of the apotheosis 

 granted him by the Ghibellines after his death. 1 



As for Michael Scot himself, it was a very 

 natural progress of the popular imagination which 

 made him play Merlin to the Emperor's Arthur. 

 That this place in the growing legend was actually 

 his, seems probable from the fact that, in the 

 romance of Maugis (or Merlin) and Vivien? the 

 hero is made to study his art in Toledo, where Scot 

 had notoriously been. Mysterious caves, the refuge 

 of slumbering heroes, were spoken of as existing 

 both near that city and Salamanca. It may be 

 that we here touch on the origin of Scot's legendary 

 connection with the Eildon Hills in his own border- 

 land. That the Scottish Avalon lay beneath these 

 there can be little doubt. Sir Walter Scott repeats 

 a traditional tale which reminds us unmistakably 

 of those given by Gervase of Tilbury and Caesar 

 von Heisterbach. A countryman of Roxburghshire 

 had sold a horse to an old man of the hills. Pay- 



1 For example, he is called : Dei ' cooperator, et Vicarius constitntus 

 in terris' ; ' the cornerstone of the Church,' etc. See Huillard-Breholles 

 Vie et correspondance de Pierre de la Yigne, Paris, Plon, 1864, 



2 See also another romance called L'Histoire de Mav.gis d'Aygremont. 



