The adventure of Albion, the giant, with Hercules is alluded to by

   Spenser, "Faery Queene," Book IV., Canto xi:

   "For Albion the son of Neptune was;

   Who for the proof of his great puissance,

   Out of his Albion did on dry foot pass

   Into old Gaul that now is cleped France,

   To fight with Hercules, that did advance

   To vanquish all the world with matchless might:

   And there his mortal part by great mischance

   Was slain."

   Merlin was the son of no mortal father, but of an Incubus, one of
a class of beings not absolutely wicked, but far from good, who
inhabit the regions of the air. Merlin's mother was a virtuous
young woman, who, on the birth of her son, intrusted him to a
priest, who hurried him to the baptismal fount, and so saved him
from sharing the lot of his father, though he retained many marks
of his unearthly origin.

   At this time Vortigern reigned in Britain. He was a usurper, who
had caused the death of his sovereign, Moines, and driven the two
brothers of the late king, whose names were Uther and Pendragon,
into banishment. Vortigern, who lived in constant fear of the
return of the rightful heirs of the kingdom, began to erect a
strong tower for defence. The edifice, when brought by the workmen
to a certain height, three times fell to the ground, without any
apparent cause. The king consulted his astrologers on this
wonderful event, and learned from them that it would be necessary
to bathe the corner-stone of the foundation with the blood of a
child born without a mortal father.

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