[All]: Gunnlaugr appears to refer to two developments that might be seen as prophesied by Merlin and due for fulfilment: 1) the obliteration of the English race and culture from Britain, 2) the conquest of Wales by the descendants of the Norman dynasty. Although a full conquest of Wales did not occur until some decades after the turn of the thirteenth century, i.e. after the probable date of composition of Merl, such a development must have seemed inevitable and indeed imminent from much earlier (Thomas 2008, 62-3).