instead his original name was derived from Carmarthen's Welsh name . Stories of the life of Myrddin Wyllt can be found in the Black Book of Carmarthen (1250 A.D.), written in a Brythonic Celtic language. In Welsh tradition of his life he is said to be a wild man of the woods, prophet and Bard as written in Vita Merlini (1150). Merlin Sylvestris was baptised and thus converted to Christianity by Saint Kentigern at the 'altarstone' near the village and is said to have died through his 'three deaths' here also. Legend has it that he prophesied his own death of falling, drowning and stabbing. It is said that he was chased off a cliff by shepherds where he tripped and fell, impaled himself on a fishing rod on the sea bed and died with his head under the water. Pennicuick in 1715 states that Merlin was buried a little below the churchyard at the side of the Powsail Burn. Richard Brown, a minister of the parish, showed Pennicuick the exact spot, marked by a thorn tree. A prophecy is stated : The very day that James VI of Scotland and I of England was crowned the prophecy was fulfilled, with the River Tweed bursting its banks and meeting with the Powsail Burn at Merlin's Grave, something it had not done before and has not done since. The Tweed river spirit Celtic beliefs included the existence of river spirits and the need to appease them with sacrifices. The Tweed is wide and shallow, whilst the nearby Till is deep and narrow. A local tradition tells of a Baron of Drumelzier returning from a long involvement in the Crusades to find his wife nursing a baby. The wife explained that one day she had been walking beside the Tweed when the river spirit appeared and ravished her. The Baron appears to have accepted the explanation; however, less convinced locals applied the nickname 'Tweedie' to the child, who became Baron Drumelzier. The family name of the Barons was Tweedie. One of the Merovingian Kings of France was supposedly conceived under similar circumstances. Micro history As late as 1598, on the first day of May, the parishioners built Beltane fires on the local hills. On this date several parishioners were put on trial by the kirk session for carrying out this pagan act. See also List of places in the Scottish Borders List