Merlin at the table

In the Brittonic kingdoms from which the legend of Merlin comes (Wales, Cornwall, Armorican Brittany), there is no starter-main-dessert. The meal is organized around a base of porridge or pottage — the cawl — that simmers on the fire and feeds the whole household. Around it revolve bread or oatcakes (bara), dairy products, honey, whatever the forest and river provide, and mead for feast days. The nobler you are, the more meat and imported spices appear; a forest hermit like Merlin lives on little: pottage, oatcake, spring water, and herbal remedies.

Oats (ceirch) are the king grain of the damp Celtic lands where wheat grows poorly: they are made into pottages, griddle cakes, and porridges. Honey from hives and wild swarms, meanwhile, is the only sugar of the Brittonic Middle Ages — it sweetens, preserves, heals, and, fermented, becomes the mead of banquets. These two ingredients run through the whole table of Merlin.