Original subtitles

Behold Taliesin of the radiant brow

and in his voice will be born a kingdom of summer.

Hail, Taliesin, I confess I should not like

to miss the chance to fight under your blessing once more.

Then you shall have it.

Ah!

Your father has given audience to a large group

of strangely dressed Britains.

Our father, Morgian.

King Elphin Ap Gwyddno,

I present to you my daughter,

the Princess Charis savior of our people.

I know the price for the power you display.

I'll never spill blood for power.

You will be my bard proclaiming my reign

in the world of men.

Taliesin.

You are my father, that the gods should war for my soul.

The treasure is my son, a bard of extraordinary talent.

♪ Hoo-hah ♪

It wasn't my intention

to intrude into your thought.

You intruded it into my soul.

I know what the bull god offered you,

Cernunnos has offered me the same.

And?

I made the same choice you did

Then damn us both.

True power is killing what you love, little girl.

Not letting it kill you.

Death before slavery!

Elphin, you can't let this happen.

Elphin, no, we don't have to do this now. Come on.

We don't have to do this.

We don't have to do this!

Stay back, stay back, stay back!

You're supposed to be our king!

No, Ah!

Annubi!

Help me.

I was with my Lord in the heavens

when Lucifer fell into the depths of hell.

I carried a banner before Alexander.

In each, I called the stars by name

from North to the South.

I was an architect of Nimrod's tower.

I was three times in the prison of Arianrhod.

I witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I upheld Moses through the sea.

I was with my Lord in the manger of oxen and asses.

I called stars by name from North to South.

I was Architect of Nimrod's tower.

I received my awen from Ceridwen's Cauldron.

In the dark times men may find Him and see the light.

In the dark times men .

I received my awen from Ceridwen's Cauldron.

Taliesin?

Some people call me poet and bard,

henceforth I shall be known as prophet Taliesin I am,

and my name shall remain until doomsday.

What have you done? My Lord, we have done little

but listen to his declarations all night.

Taliesin, Taliesin?

There you're, Hafgan.

Father, I have met the Great Light,

the Supreme Spirit, the Lord of All Worlds.

There are many spirits, Taliesin.

Yet my Lord reigns over them all.

I know that gods war for you, son.

My God has died for me.

Maybe so, but I need you now.

There are pressing matters at hand.

Pressing matters?

Father, nations not yet born must come to know him.

Enough!

We're leaving, boy.

What's happened?

The Atlantean King would make slaves of us.

Avallach spoke in ignorance.

Men have had their throats cut for less.

Come. We are no longer welcome in these lands.

The Savior of Her people should not

be lurking in a crypt.

Don't call me that.

You should not be ashamed

of the name you've earned.

Your brother secured the ships.

Only because you beset him.

None of us believed your prophecy.

It's a sorry god that demands the blood of his people.

And a sorry people who give it.

And yet,

if I had given myself to Bel...

No, it was arrogance

that doomed Atlantis.

My arrogance.

And would you doom us again?

Why have you sent the Cymry away?

I offered them a great gift, a new start.

Land of their own.

You offered them slavery, Father.

I only asked that they defend our people.

They are a warrior race after all.

And what are we?

We? We've seen enough war.

What you asked would've made them less than a people

and Elphin less than a king.

King without land is no king at all.

All of this is an illusion,

an echo of a voice that has died.

And soon that echo will cease.

But it has not ceased yet.

Do you love him then?

I don't know.

You ride with purpose, Singer.

Charis, I had to see you.

And so you have.

What is it?

My people are leaving these lands and-

Sh, whatever has gone wrong,

we can make it right, together.

Makieviea.

Why, Morgian?

To show you, my love,

I have power too.

Think of what we could be together.

What we could accomplish.

What of your foal?

The one we saved in birth?

I don't hear it.

She's asleep.

I'd like to see. Do not mock my sacrifice.

Men are weak, Taliesin.

Unwilling to pay the price for better world.

But not you.

I will do whatever is required.

But you, your gifts come so easily.

Do not presume to know what I have sacrificed.

I would know. I would know you.

I would know your ways.

I would be your wife, Taliesin,

your lover, and your queen.

Together we could build the world more powerful

than Atlantis itself.

Atlantis rests the bottom of the sea, Morgian.

There is a new power at work in the world.

I've seen it.

A God who does not ask us to sacrifice

what we love, but who sacrifices what He loves for us.

I pray you find Him.

Ah!

Charis?

I've never seen these men before.

Irish sea wolves.

No doubt they came up Mor Hafren looking for easy plunder.

Clearly they didn't find it.

If you'd seen me in the bull ring,

you would not look at me that way.

Marry me, Charis.

What?

I will not be separated from you,

not by my father or yours.

Then you have heard.

Even now my people prepare to ride.

Charis, look at me.

I love you.

Do you not speak to me of love.

Why? Are you not worthy of it?

I told you, my life ended out there.

But here, Charis. Here, it begins again.

We are each given only one life, Singer.

No, we're given another

if we'd receive it.

Pretty words, perhaps you should put them

in one of your songs.

Charis, Listen...

Charis, what has happened?

I was attacked while riding.

The Cymry, while you show them generosity,

they scheme against you.

He is a fool who can no longer tell friend from foe.

That was not the Cymry but the Irish raiders.

Father, I would speak to you alone.

He poisons your mind, Father.

You are out of line.

Are you hurt?

Had the singer not been there...

Had the singer not been there, I would not be here.

What reward would you have me give him

that compares to what I've already offered his people?

Taliesin seeks no reward, nor would he accept any.

What then?

You must reconsider your offer to the Cymry.

Must?

Give them the land unencumbered by any condition.

Must?

We will not survive without them.

Enough!

I know it has been lonely for you.

Taliesin is an ally. Nothing more.

You swear?

Mm.

You are not to leave the palace again until they've gone.

You would make me a prisoner in my own home?

We are a noble people.

Our race is a noble race.

It need not be this way!

I will not give my daughter to a barbarian.

If you want to marry,

I will find someone, one of our own kind.

There are many in my brother's house

who would gladly marry you.

Tactfully put Father.

I might be more grateful were I one

of your brood mares.

You drove me away once before.

Do you remember?

Please, please, do not drive me away again.

Allow me to go to him freely

so that I may return freely.

This is more bitter to me than death.

No, you cannot bind me to you with false feeling.

I'm dying here, Father.

Every day I die a little more.

And I say you shall not leave.

Taliesin, at last.

Father, I must speak with you.

We may speak on the trail.

Tonight there's work to be done.

You would leave so soon?

Not soon enough.

We may mend this rift yet.

I've spoken with Charis.

The princess?

She'll speak to her father on our behalf.

The old fool will not bend.

That is your anger talking.

I will not listen.

He's Faer Folk are just that:

anemic, weak armed men unwilling to fight for their own.

Don't mince words.

We should take the land that we need.

We're not thieves.

No, we're less than thieves.

Father, these people have known war

beyond anything we have ever seen.

They are cowards.

Do you know why Avallach walks with a limp?

He was betrayed by his own brother kings

in a terrible civil war.

Avallach was tied face-to-face with his own dead son.

For three long days, he lay in the heat,

in the stench waiting to die.

He's no coward.

Enduring hardship does not make one an honorable man.

Is he the one speaking of theft and war?

Why beholdest the mote in thy brother's eye,

but consider not the beam in thy own?

I would be less than a king

if I ignored open insults to our people, Taliesin.

It's time to go.

A woman with beauty and spirit, a treasure.

One need not be not be the great Taliesin

to see the love written on your face.

It's true. I do love the Princess Charis.

I would marry her.

Is she the one who taught you that riddle?

No, old friend. It's from the Great Light.

I met Him in the other world.

I see.

He's the one, Hafgan.

Mm. I'm certain of it.

He lived as a man among men in the east.

Think of it.

I remember the elders telling me of this God Man

in the east,

but there are many gods.

Would it not be best to worship this one

alongside the others?

Why worship the creature when the creator is present?

And yet to turn away from the gods of our fathers?

I will not abandon the Princess Charis.

Your path has ever been your own, Taliesin.

Where you came from, no man knows.

Where you are going, no man can say.

But you will be missed

by those who have carried you this far.

You should know the stables would be locked and guarded.

If you were planning on trying to escape the palace.

You sing the bard's song.

I find his music soothing.

Do you not?

I have no quarrel with you, Morgian,

but let us have an understanding.

An understanding, how so?

About Taliesin.

He has declared his love for me.

And it is his wish that we should be married.

Cowbane.

If you don't cook them properly,

you become their victim.

As if they eat you inside out.

You would have drowned on the shores of Sarras

if not for me.

I held you in my arms.

Comforted you in the hull of that wretched vessel.

And am I to thank you for this life that I have,

ignored and forgotten?

Shall I revere you like the rest of them

and call you savior?

I forbid you to interfere in my affairs.

Oh.

But you are choked with doubt, aren't you?

You are too sure of yourself.

Am I?

Father, don't do this!

Father!

How did you get up here?

What, a bull dancer afraid of heights?

I tried to come to you.

My people are leaving in the morning

And my father has hardened his heart.

We can't stay here.

Our people will not see reason tonight,

but they may yet if we leave,

You would leave your home?

There is no life for me here, Taliesin.

Not without you.

I would wait till we're married

in the way of the Christians.

I'm sure I could trust another god, Taliesin.

Then trust in me.

Wait.

I had this sword crafted for my father

by the High King's own smith.

Surely there's no other like it.

Even among my people, it has no rival.

An art lost to the sea,

like everything else about our home.

My father rejected the gift.

We were estranged and...

But now

I offer it to my husband.

The writing says,

"Take me up."

And here,

Cast me aside.

Cast me aside.

You can read our language?

Perhaps it's best to

leave it here with your other belongings,

so your father may be assured of our return.

Forgive me, Father.

Brother, hey.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti

Amen.

Where are you, my love?

A place I've never been.

Free.

Something left me, when I came out

to the water last night, I...

A tormentor who's been my constant companion for

as long as I can remember.

Jesu will not share you with the spirit of the past.

It is for freedom He's made you free.

How is it you know so much of the Good God's ways.

Wherever I came from, it was for this purpose,

to know Him

and to proclaim Him.

I have nothing to offer, my love.

No wedding gift but myself.

No home, no lands.

All the world belongs to us, my lady.

Then where shall we go?

Dafyd the priest has kin in the west.

Perhaps they'll receive us in his name.

What is it?

I'm not...

What have you found?

A hawk.

A merlin.

Ah! Easy.

I'm trying to help you.

Sh.

What are we going to do with you?

Most wild things cannot be healed, Charis, they die.

I didn't.

Lord Pendaran, the bard Taliesin of Elphin and Gwyneth.

Do you offer the bird or the girl?

I offer a song, King Pendaran,

and greetings from your kinsman, Dafyd,

priest of Jesu, the Most High.

Dafyd is a fool.

He spoke highly of you.

Let's just leave. There are others who would welcome us.

It seems King Pendaran suffers from a lack

of common courtesy.

Worry not, though the cure is painful, it's rarely fatal.

Sing beggar, you're beginning to tax my generosity!

Our most grievous hardship indeed

when one obviously has so little to spare.

Lord Pendaran, I know something of these

so-called derwydd holy men.

Any man can play the harp and call himself a bard.

Allow me to prove him before he sings.

Tell me, if you can,

the qualities of the

nine bodily humors.

You take unfair advantage, friend.

Druid wisdom does not embrace such hollow falsehood.

The man deems false

what he does not know.

Then tell me,

what is the proper sacrifice

to restore virility

and to which god is it made?

There is but one True God

and a true bard makes no sacrifice

for that which can be cured with simple herbs.

Herbs, the man says, herbs.

Lord Pendaran, the man is a liar.

And worse, he is a blasphemer!

So you are discovered.

You will be flogged and driven out,

but your lady will stay.

If a man can be flogged from your court

for speaking the truth,

then I think you've listened long enough

to this false priest.

I will have your tongue, beggar.

Not before I have yours, son of lies, sh!

Hleed ramo felsk!

Hleed rasmo felsk!

Mlur flagin.

Hleed ramo felsk!

Meeko relumi relumi!

Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh.

Relumi!

You may have to learn to speak like a man again,

but at least you'll still have your tongue to do it,

which is more than you'd have given me.

Enough!

♪ Summer light in time recedes ♪

♪ The cold air claims ♪

♪ The leaves, the leaves ♪

♪ And many a woman ♪

♪ Who waits for word ♪

♪ The cost of the fighting season ♪

♪ The cost of the fighting season ♪

♪ Math ap Mathonwy ♪

♪ Ruled the western lands ♪

♪ Gwynedd, Dyfed, and Lloeger in his hands ♪

♪ All his eyes be held, be held ♪

♪ And all the people were his realm ♪

♪ When the dew of creation ♪

♪ Was still fresh upon the land ♪

♪ The fair maiden, Goewin was her name ♪

♪ From Don Pebin, westward then she came ♪

♪ Offering it seemed, it seemed ♪

♪ Life eternal to the king ♪

♪ As long as that sweet virgin ♪

♪ Held his feet and knew no shame ♪

♪ Summer light in time recedes ♪

♪ The cold air claims ♪

♪ The leaves, the leaves ♪

♪ And many a woman ♪

♪ Waits for word the cost ♪

♪ Of the fighting season ♪

♪ The cost of the fighting season ♪

♪ Math came home from war only to find ♪

♪ His maiden's magic had in fighting time ♪

♪ Been claimed by force ♪

♪ By force and guile ♪

♪ The magic stolen from fair child ♪

♪ Now neither king ♪

♪ Nor lass would know ♪

♪ The life of olden times ♪

♪ Summer light in time recedes ♪

♪ The cold air claims ♪

♪ The leaves, the leaves ♪

♪ And many a woman awaits for word ♪

♪ The cost of the fighting season ♪

I am your servant, King Pendaran.

No, no, you are the master of all men

within the sound of your voice.

I stand ashamed and humbled before you.

Know by this, Taliesin shall reside here

as bard to me,

and you will receive and honor him

as your master.

For such he is.

The merlin is restless.

I believe he's ready to fly.

Should we give him a chance to prove it?

I was raised beyond those mountains.

I've never heard you speak about your home.

We haven't found it yet.

But I see it.

I've seen a land shining with goodness

where each man protects his brother's dignity

as well as his own,

where war and want have ceased

and all men live under the same law

of love and honor.

I've seen a land

bright with truth

where a man's word is his pledge

and falsehood is banished,

where children sleep safe

in their mother's arms

and never know fear

or pain.

I've seen a land where kings extend their hands in justice

rather than reach for the sword,

where mercy, kindness,

compassion flow like deep water

over the land,

and men revere virtue,

revere truth, revere beauty,

above comfort, pleasure or selfish gain.

A land where peace reigns

in the hearts of men and faith blazes like

a beacon from every hill

and love like a fire from every hearth.

Where the True God

is worshiped and His ways are claimed by all.

It's a wonderful dream.

Nah, it's not a dream.

It's the true world.

But it's not our world.

No, not yet.

It's the Kingdom of Summer.

The kingdom that will

shine like the suns so that all men may know

and see what the Good God intended for it to be.

And I will be its king.

Charis, Charis?

Push, push, girl.

Jesu befall me.

Please.

Please.

Hafgan?

Dafyd? What do you here?

We bring news of peace between our people

and King Avallach.

Peace?

The Atlantean king has repented for his evil

and sought the forgiveness of Jesu.

And of your father.

He seeks the same from you and his lady daughter.

He offers you his kingdom, Taliesin.

You'll be king of the Summerlands, Taliesin.

The Kingdom of Summer?

King Avallach sends this as a sign of his sincerity.

Lady Charis, my wife,

she's not well.

Push it, girl!

I'm here. Push it.

I'm right here.

Ah, ah!

Move aside now.

Ah! Hafgan?

Ah, ah!

Dafyd, Dafyd, ah!

Go again, I can see it, lady, push!

Push it out now.

No.

The baby's dead.

No, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no!

No, no.

No, no, no, no, no.

No, Taliesin, Taliesin, no, no!

Taliesin?

No, Taliesin! Taliesin?

Taliesin?

Jesu!

Jesu!

Taliesin!

God in heaven.

My son has the eyes of a hawk.

A merlin.

No, no.

Die!

No!

No!

Merlin Emrys has returned

to the land of the living.

They say Merlin is of the fearful,

my king, they call him endless, immortal.

Merlin was a myth before our father was even born,

but he is legend in these lands.

He's nearly an otherworldly being.

Merlin died long before you

and I were born.

A great darkness is falling upon this land.

Until this island is ruled by one,

there will be no peace.

Here is your hope and the hope of our people.

A king will arise to hold all Britain in his hand.

A high king will be the wonder of the world.

You.