MERLIN IS REAL TO ME
Merlin
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Merlin reciting
his poems, as illustrated in the French book from the
13th century "Merlin", by Robert de Boron.
Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially
in Wales.[1]
Later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard.
Merlin's traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he
inherits his supernatural powers and abilities.[2]
The name of Merlin's mother is not usually stated but is given as Adhan in the
oldest version of the Prose Brut.[3]
Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur
through magic and intrigue.[4] Later authors have Merlin serve as the
king's advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.[
Geoffrey's sources
Geoffrey's composite Merlin is based primarily on Myrddin
Wyllt, also called Merlinus Caledonensis, and Aurelius Ambrosius, a mostly
fictionalised version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus.[7] The former
had nothing to do with Arthur: in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after
witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the
wood in the 6th century.[8] Geoffrey
had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin),
which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary madman.
Geoffrey's Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlin's background.
When he included the prophet in his next work, Historia Regum Britanniae,
he supplemented the characterisation by attributing to him stories about
Aurelius Ambrosius, taken from Nennius' Historia Brittonum. According to Nennius,
Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was
trying to erect a tower. The tower always collapsed before completion, and his
wise men told him the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the
blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a
child, but when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the
tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who
destroyed the tower by fighting. Geoffrey retells this story in Historia
Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child
the name of the prophetic bard, Merlin. He keeps this new figure separate from
Aurelius Ambrosius, and to disguise his changing of Nennius, he simply states
that Ambrosius was another name for Merlin. He goes on to add new episodes that
tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors.
Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work, Vita
Merlini. He based the Vita on stories of the original
6th-century Myrddin. Though set long after his time frame for the life of
"Merlin Ambrosius", he tries to assert the characters are the same
with references to King Arthur and his death as told in the Historia Regum
Britanniae.
Merlin Ambrosius, or Myrddin Emrys
Geoffrey's account of Merlin Ambrosius' early life in the Historia Regum
Britanniae is based on the story of Ambrosius in the Historia Brittonum.
He adds his own embellishments to the tale, which he sets in Carmarthen,
Wales (Welsh:
Caerfyrddin). While Nennius' Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son
of a Roman
consul,
Geoffrey's Merlin is begotten on a king's daughter by an incubus. The
story of Vortigern's tower is essentially the same; the underground dragons,
one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the British, and their final
battle is a portent of things to come.
At this point Geoffrey inserts a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken
from his earlier Prophetiae Merlini. He tells only two further tales of
the character. In the first, Merlin creates Stonehenge
as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius. In the second, Merlin's magic enables
Uther
Pendragon to enter into Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with his
enemy's wife, Igraine.
These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. As Lewis
Thorpe notes, Merlin disappears from the narrative after this; he does not
tutor and advise Arthur as in later versions.[4]
Later adaptations of the legend
Several decades later, the poet Robert
de Boron retold this material in his poem Merlin. Only a few lines
of the poem have survived, but a prose retelling became popular and was later
incorporated into two other romances. In Robert's account, as in Geoffrey's Historia,
Merlin is begotten by a demon on a virgin as an intended Antichrist.
This plot is thwarted when the expectant mother informs her confessor Blaise of
her predicament; they immediately baptize the boy at birth, thus freeing him
from the power of Satan. The demonic legacy invests Merlin with a preternatural
knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the
boy a prophetic knowledge of the future.
Robert de Boron lays great emphasis on Merlin's power to shapeshift,
on his joking personality, and on his connection to the Holy Grail.
This text introduces Merlin's master Blaise, who is pictured as writing down
Merlin's deeds, explaining how they came to be known and preserved. Robert was
inspired by Wace's Roman
de Brut, an Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey's Historia.
Robert's poem was rewritten in prose in the 12th century as the Estoire de
Merlin, also called the Vulgate or Prose Merlin. It was originally
attached to a cycle of prose versions of Robert's poems, which tells the story
of the Holy
Grail: brought from the Middle East to Britain by followers of Joseph of Arimathea, the Grail is eventually
recovered by Arthur's knight Percival.
The Prose Merlin contains many instances of Merlin's shapeshifting.
He appears as a woodcutter with an axe about his neck, big shoes, a torn coat,
bristly hair, and a large beard. He is later found in the forest of
Northumberland by a follower of Uther's disguised as an ugly man and tending a
great herd of beasts. He then appears first as a handsome man and then as a
beautiful boy. Years later, he approaches Arthur disguised as a peasant wearing
leather boots, a wool coat, a hood, and a belt of knotted sheepskin. He is
described as tall, black and bristly, and as seeming cruel and fierce. Finally,
he appears as an old man with a long beard, short and hunchbacked, in an old
torn woolen coat, who carries a club and drives a multitude of beasts before
him (Loomis, 1927).
The Prose Merlin later came to serve as a sort of prequel to the
vast Lancelot-Grail, also known as the Vulgate Cycle. The
authors of that work expanded it with the Vulgate Suite du Merlin
(Vulgate Merlin Continuation), which describes King Arthur's early adventures.
The Prose Merlin was also used as a prequel to the later Post-Vulgate Cycle, the authors of which added
their own continuation, the Huth Merlin or Post-Vulgate Suite du
Merlin.
In the Livre d'Artus, Merlin enters Rome in the form of a huge stag
with a white fore-foot. He bursts into the presence of Julius
Caesar and tells the emperor that only the wild man of the woods can
interpret the dream that has been troubling him. Later, he returns in the form
of a black, shaggy man, barefoot, with a torn coat. In another episode, he
decides to do something that will be spoken of forever. Going into the forest
of Brocéliande, he transforms himself into a herdsman carrying a club and
wearing a wolf-skin and leggings. He is large, bent, black, lean, hairy and
old, and his ears hang down to his waist. His head is as big as a buffalo's,
his hair is down to his waist, he has a hump on his back, his feet and hands
are backwards, he's hideous, and is over 18 feet tall. By his arts, he calls a
herd of deer to come and graze around him (Loomis, 1927).
These works were adapted and translated into several other languages. The
Post-Vulgate Suite was the inspiration for the early parts of Sir Thomas
Malory's English language Le Morte d'Arthur. Many later medieval works
also deal with the Merlin legend. The Italian The Prophecies of Merlin
contains long prophecies of Merlin (mostly concerned with 13th-century Italian
politics), some by his ghost after his death. The prophecies are interspersed
with episodes relating Merlin's deeds and with various Arthurian adventures in
which Merlin does not appear at all. The earliest English verse romance
concerning Merlin is Arthour and Merlin, which drew from the chronicles
and the French Lancelot-Grail.
As the Arthurian myths were retold and embellished, Merlin's prophetic
aspects were sometimes de-emphasised in favour of portraying him as a wizard
and elder advisor to Arthur. On the other hand, in the Lancelot-Grail
it is said that Merlin was never baptized and never did any good in his life,
only evil. Medieval Arthurian tales abound in inconsistencies.
A manuscript found in Bath from the 1420s simply records a "Merlyn"
as having helped Uther Pendragon with his "sotelness" or
subtleness, presumably but not necessarily magic. His role could be embellished
and added to that of Aurelianus Ambrosius, or he could be made into
one of old Uther's favourite advisors and naught more.
In the Lancelot-Grail and later accounts, Merlin's eventual downfall came
from his lusting after a huntress named Niviane
(or Nymue, Nimue, Niniane, Nyneue, or Viviane in some versions of the legend),
who was the daughter of the king of Northumberland. In the Suite du Merlin,[9]
for example, Niviane is about to depart from Arthur's court, but, with some
encouragement from Merlin, Arthur asks her to stay in his castle with the
queen. During her stay, Merlin falls in love with her and desires her. Niviane,
frightened that Merlin might take advantage of her with his spells, swears that
she will never love him unless he swears to teach her all of his magic. Merlin
consents, unaware that throughout the course of her lessons, Niviane will use
Merlin's own powers against him, forcing him to do her bidding.[9]
When Niviane finally goes back to her country, Merlin escorts her. However,
along the way, Merlin receives a vision that Arthur is in need of assistance
against the schemes of Morgan le Fay. Niviane and Merlin rush back to
Arthur's castle, but have to stop for the night in a stone chamber, once
inhabited by two lovers. Merlin relates that when the lovers died, they were
placed in a magic tomb within a room in the chamber. That night, while Merlin
is asleep, Niviane, still disgusted with Merlin's desire for her, as well as his
demonic heritage, casts a spell over him and places him in the magic tomb so
that he can never escape, thus causing his death.[9]
Merlin's death is recounted differently in other versions of the narrative;
the enchanted prison is variously described as a cave (in the Lancelot-Grail),
a large rock (in Le Morte d'Arthur), an invisible tower, or a tree.[citation needed] In his book
"The Meaning of Trees: botany, history, healing, lore" Fred Hageneder
writes on page 149, "According to Breton legend, the legendary wise man
Merlin climbed the Pine of Barenton (from bel nemeton, "Sacred Grove
of Bel"), just as shamans climb the World Tree. Here, he had a profound
revelation and he never returned to the mortal world. In later versions,Merlins
glas tann was mistranslated as a "glass house". It is actually
a living tree (from the Cornish glas "(ever)green", and tann,
"sacred tree"), and from these words the name of Glastonbury, in
Somerset, England is sometimes derived.[citation needed] Hence, according
to legend, it is a sacred tree in which the soul of Merlin awaits his
return." In the Prophetiae Merlini, Niviane confines him in the
forest of Brocéliande with walls of air, visible as mist to others but as a
beautiful tower to him (Loomis, 1927). This is unfortunate for Arthur, who has
lost his greatest counselor. Another version has it that Merlin angers Arthur
to the point where he beheads, cuts in half, burns, and curses Merlin.[citation needed]
Fiction featuring Merlin
Merlin is well known in the series of "Harry Potter" as one of
the greatest wizards of all time. According to the newly released website,
Pottermore, Merlin was described with deeper biographical background. According
to J.K. Rowling, Merlin was born sometime during the medieval era. During his
formative years, he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and
was Sorted into Slytherin House. It's possible that he was taught by Salazar
Slytherin himself, given the time period Merlin lived.
In the series, The Chronicles of the
Imaginarium Geographica by James
A. Owen, Merlin is from a place known as the Archipelago of Dreams where he
was born Myrdyyn along with his twin brother, Madoc (who would later on become Mordred). He is
portrayed as an ambitious and treacherous man who was banished from the
Archipelago for trying to use knowledge of the future to shape it. He soon
becomes a caretaker of the Holy Grail in the library of Alexandria, but is soon
arrested for trying to steal it. He is able to escape however, and banish his
brother in his place. He then travels to Britain (then called Albion) and
changes his name to Merlin. Sometime after this, he becomes the apparent father
of Arthur through the Lady of the Lake.
In 1985, Merlin was portrayed in the arcade game Gauntlet (arcade game). His role in the
game series continued until Gauntlet 4 for the Sega Genesis. Merlin is also
featured in the mythology of DC Comics, often in association with the demon character Etrigan. As a
result, he has appeared in various animated series, including Justice
League and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In the
first of these, he curses Jason Blood for his treachery by fusing him together
with Etrigan. In the second, he goes by Merlin Ambrosius and is revealed to be
a former mentor of Morgaine Le Faye, who
surpassed him in magical skill and conquered Camelot. Desperate for help, he
learned that Excalibur might be drawn from its stone and used against Le Faye
by "the one who is worthy" and came to believe that either Batman or Green Arrow
was the individual in question. He thus brought the two back in time, and
quickly came to believe that Batman was the one spoken of. He joined the heroes
in facing Morgaine Le Faye and the enslaved Etrigan, later freeing both Etrigan
and Batman from Le Faye's enchantments before her defeat at the hands of both
Batman and Green Arrow. He subsequently sent the pair back to their own time,
believing their competitive bickering to be unseemly conduct for candidates for
knighthood.
Merlin has been referenced in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchises in
two ways. First, the comic book series features the
character of Merlin Prower, a wizard obviously named for Merlin himself.
Secondly, the videogame Sonic and the Black Knight is based
loosely on the Camelot story, and features Merlin as having created an illusory
King Arthur to rule over Camelot. His granddaughter, Merlina, appears as an
antagonist in the series, attempting to preserve her grandfather's vision of
the glorious kingdom.
In the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice, modern day
New Yorker David Stutler, played by Jay
Baruchel, discovers he is the last descendant of Merlin and is trained as a
sorcerer by Balthazar Blake, portrayed by Nicolas
Cage, a former student of the great wizard, so that he may ultimately do
battle with Merlin's old nemesis Morganna,
played by Alice
Krige.
In the 2011 TV series Camelot, Merlin was played by Joseph
Fiennes. Ashley Cowie, Scottish author, historian, and archaeologist, and
his team search the U.K. for treasures said to have been hidden away by Merlin
in the 5th episode of season 1's "Legend Quest".[12]
See also
Notes
1.
^ Lloyd-Morgan,
Ceridwen. "Narratives and Non-Narrtives: Aspects of Welsh Arthurian
Tradition." Arthurian Literature. 21. (2004): 115–136.
3.
^ Bibliographical
Bulletin of the Arthurian Society Vol LIX (2007) p 108, item 302
7.
^ Ashe,
Geoffrey. The Discovery of Arthur, Owl Books, 1987.
8.
^ Dames,
Michael. Merlin and Wales: A Magician's Landscape, Thames & Hudson
Ltd, 2004
9.
^ a
b
c
Robert de Boron (1994). James J. Wilhelm, ed. Suite du Merlin. Garland
Reference Library.
10.
^ Torregrossa,
Kyle Murdough and Bryson Poland, Michael A., “Merlin Goes to the Movies: The
Changing Role of Merlin in Cinema Arthuriana,” Film & History: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 29.3–4 (1999):
54–65; Torregrossa, Michael A., “The Way of the Wizard: Reflections of Merlin
on Film," in The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf
to Buffy, eds. Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
2004), pp. 167–91.
References
- Oxford English Dictionary. 2008 http://dictionary.oed.com.dax.lib.unf.edu
|url= missing title (help). Retrieved June 7, 2010.
- Arbrois De
Jubainville, H., Merlin est-il un personage historique?, Revue des
questions historiques 5, 1868.
- Breton-Guay,
Neomie, Merlin l'Enchanteur dans les images de la renaissance
arthurienne, 2006.
- Cadieux-Larochelle,
Josee, Pour forger un mythe: les avatars de Merlin, 1996.
- Castleden,
Rodney, King Arthur: The Truth behind the legend, London, New-York,
G. Routhledge, 2000.
- Donnard,
Ana, Merlin, L'intermediaire des mondes. Minas Gerais federal
University.
- Dumezil,
Georges, Mythes et Dieux des Indo-europeens Flammarion, 1992.
- Gaster, M,
The Legend of Merlin: A Postscript, Folklore, 1905
- Gaster, M,
"The Legend of Merlin"
Folk-Lore, 1905.
- Gill,
N.S., Who was Merlin and was Merlin Real? Ancient/Classical
History, http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/people
Merlin
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Merlin reciting
his poems, as
illustrated in the French book from the 13th century "Merlin", by Robert
de Boron.
Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially
in Wales.[1] Later
writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard. Merlin's
traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of
a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his
supernatural powers and abilities.[2] The name
of Merlin's mother is not usually stated but is given as Adhan in the oldest
version of the Prose Brut.[3] Merlin
matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through
magic and intrigue.[4]
Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor until he is bewitched and
imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.[4]
Name and etymology
The Enchanter
Merlin, by Howard
Pyle from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. (1903)
The Celticist A. O. H. Jarman suggests the Welsh name Myrddin (Welsh
pronunciation: [ˈmərðɪn]) was derived from the toponym Caerfyrddin,
the Welsh name for the town known in English as Carmarthen.[6]
This contrasts with the popular but false folk
etymology that the town was named for the bard. The name Carmarthen derives
from the town's previous Roman name, Moridunum.[5][6]
Geoffrey's sources
Geoffrey's composite Merlin is based primarily on Myrddin
Wyllt, also called Merlinus Caledonensis, and Aurelius Ambrosius, a mostly
fictionalised version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus.[7] The former
had nothing to do with Arthur: in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after
witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the
wood in the 6th century.[8] Geoffrey
had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin),
which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary madman.
Geoffrey's Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlin's background.
When he included the prophet in his next work, Historia Regum Britanniae,
he supplemented the characterisation by attributing to him stories about
Aurelius Ambrosius, taken from Nennius' Historia Brittonum. According to Nennius,
Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was
trying to erect a tower. The tower always collapsed before completion, and his
wise men told him the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the
blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a
child, but when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the
tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who
destroyed the tower by fighting. Geoffrey retells this story in Historia
Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child
the name of the prophetic bard, Merlin. He keeps this new figure separate from
Aurelius Ambrosius, and to disguise his changing of Nennius, he simply states
that Ambrosius was another name for Merlin. He goes on to add new episodes that
tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors.
Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work, Vita
Merlini. He based the Vita on stories of the original
6th-century Myrddin. Though set long after his time frame for the life of
"Merlin Ambrosius", he tries to assert the characters are the same
with references to King Arthur and his death as told in the Historia Regum
Britanniae.
Merlin Ambrosius, or Myrddin Emrys
Geoffrey's account of Merlin Ambrosius' early life in the Historia Regum
Britanniae is based on the story of Ambrosius in the Historia Brittonum.
He adds his own embellishments to the tale, which he sets in Carmarthen,
Wales (Welsh:
Caerfyrddin). While Nennius' Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son
of a Roman
consul,
Geoffrey's Merlin is begotten on a king's daughter by an incubus. The
story of Vortigern's tower is essentially the same; the underground dragons,
one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the British, and their final
battle is a portent of things to come.
At this point Geoffrey inserts a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken
from his earlier Prophetiae Merlini. He tells only two further tales of
the character. In the first, Merlin creates Stonehenge
as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius. In the second, Merlin's magic enables
Uther
Pendragon to enter into Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with his
enemy's wife, Igraine.
These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. As Lewis
Thorpe notes, Merlin disappears from the narrative after this; he does not
tutor and advise Arthur as in later versions.[4]
Later adaptations of the legend
Several decades later, the poet Robert
de Boron retold this material in his poem Merlin. Only a few lines
of the poem have survived, but a prose retelling became popular and was later
incorporated into two other romances. In Robert's account, as in Geoffrey's Historia,
Merlin is begotten by a demon on a virgin as an intended Antichrist.
This plot is thwarted when the expectant mother informs her confessor Blaise of
her predicament; they immediately baptize the boy at birth, thus freeing him
from the power of Satan. The demonic legacy invests Merlin with a preternatural
knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the
boy a prophetic knowledge of the future.
Robert de Boron lays great emphasis on Merlin's power to shapeshift,
on his joking personality, and on his connection to the Holy Grail.
This text introduces Merlin's master Blaise, who is pictured as writing down
Merlin's deeds, explaining how they came to be known and preserved. Robert was
inspired by Wace's Roman
de Brut, an Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey's Historia.
Robert's poem was rewritten in prose in the 12th century as the Estoire de
Merlin, also called the Vulgate or Prose Merlin. It was originally
attached to a cycle of prose versions of Robert's poems, which tells the story
of the Holy
Grail: brought from the Middle East to Britain by followers of Joseph of Arimathea, the Grail is eventually
recovered by Arthur's knight Percival.
The Prose Merlin contains many instances of Merlin's shapeshifting.
He appears as a woodcutter with an axe about his neck, big shoes, a torn coat,
bristly hair, and a large beard. He is later found in the forest of
Northumberland by a follower of Uther's disguised as an ugly man and tending a
great herd of beasts. He then appears first as a handsome man and then as a
beautiful boy. Years later, he approaches Arthur disguised as a peasant wearing
leather boots, a wool coat, a hood, and a belt of knotted sheepskin. He is
described as tall, black and bristly, and as seeming cruel and fierce. Finally,
he appears as an old man with a long beard, short and hunchbacked, in an old
torn woolen coat, who carries a club and drives a multitude of beasts before
him (Loomis, 1927).
The Prose Merlin later came to serve as a sort of prequel to the
vast Lancelot-Grail, also known as the Vulgate Cycle. The
authors of that work expanded it with the Vulgate Suite du Merlin
(Vulgate Merlin Continuation), which describes King Arthur's early adventures.
The Prose Merlin was also used as a prequel to the later Post-Vulgate Cycle, the authors of which added
their own continuation, the Huth Merlin or Post-Vulgate Suite du
Merlin.
In the Livre d'Artus, Merlin enters Rome in the form of a huge stag
with a white fore-foot. He bursts into the presence of Julius
Caesar and tells the emperor that only the wild man of the woods can
interpret the dream that has been troubling him. Later, he returns in the form
of a black, shaggy man, barefoot, with a torn coat. In another episode, he
decides to do something that will be spoken of forever. Going into the forest
of Brocéliande, he transforms himself into a herdsman carrying a club and
wearing a wolf-skin and leggings. He is large, bent, black, lean, hairy and
old, and his ears hang down to his waist. His head is as big as a buffalo's,
his hair is down to his waist, he has a hump on his back, his feet and hands
are backwards, he's hideous, and is over 18 feet tall. By his arts, he calls a
herd of deer to come and graze around him (Loomis, 1927).
These works were adapted and translated into several other languages. The
Post-Vulgate Suite was the inspiration for the early parts of Sir Thomas
Malory's English language Le Morte d'Arthur. Many later medieval works
also deal with the Merlin legend. The Italian The Prophecies of Merlin
contains long prophecies of Merlin (mostly concerned with 13th-century Italian
politics), some by his ghost after his death. The prophecies are interspersed
with episodes relating Merlin's deeds and with various Arthurian adventures in
which Merlin does not appear at all. The earliest English verse romance
concerning Merlin is Arthour and Merlin, which drew from the chronicles
and the French Lancelot-Grail.
As the Arthurian myths were retold and embellished, Merlin's prophetic
aspects were sometimes de-emphasised in favour of portraying him as a wizard
and elder advisor to Arthur. On the other hand, in the Lancelot-Grail
it is said that Merlin was never baptized and never did any good in his life,
only evil. Medieval Arthurian tales abound in inconsistencies.
A manuscript found in Bath from the 1420s simply records a "Merlyn"
as having helped Uther Pendragon with his "sotelness" or
subtleness, presumably but not necessarily magic. His role could be embellished
and added to that of Aurelianus Ambrosius, or he could be made into
one of old Uther's favourite advisors and naught more.
In the Lancelot-Grail and later accounts, Merlin's eventual downfall came
from his lusting after a huntress named Niviane
(or Nymue, Nimue, Niniane, Nyneue, or Viviane in some versions of the legend),
who was the daughter of the king of Northumberland. In the Suite du Merlin,[9]
for example, Niviane is about to depart from Arthur's court, but, with some
encouragement from Merlin, Arthur asks her to stay in his castle with the
queen. During her stay, Merlin falls in love with her and desires her. Niviane,
frightened that Merlin might take advantage of her with his spells, swears that
she will never love him unless he swears to teach her all of his magic. Merlin
consents, unaware that throughout the course of her lessons, Niviane will use
Merlin's own powers against him, forcing him to do her bidding.[9]
When Niviane finally goes back to her country, Merlin escorts her. However,
along the way, Merlin receives a vision that Arthur is in need of assistance
against the schemes of Morgan le Fay. Niviane and Merlin rush back to
Arthur's castle, but have to stop for the night in a stone chamber, once
inhabited by two lovers. Merlin relates that when the lovers died, they were
placed in a magic tomb within a room in the chamber. That night, while Merlin
is asleep, Niviane, still disgusted with Merlin's desire for her, as well as his
demonic heritage, casts a spell over him and places him in the magic tomb so
that he can never escape, thus causing his death.[9]
Merlin's death is recounted differently in other versions of the narrative;
the enchanted prison is variously described as a cave (in the Lancelot-Grail),
a large rock (in Le Morte d'Arthur), an invisible tower, or a tree.[citation needed] In his book
"The Meaning of Trees: botany, history, healing, lore" Fred Hageneder
writes on page 149, "According to Breton legend, the legendary wise man
Merlin climbed the Pine of Barenton (from bel nemeton, "Sacred Grove
of Bel"), just as shamans climb the World Tree. Here, he had a profound
revelation and he never returned to the mortal world. In later versions,Merlins
glas tann was mistranslated as a "glass house". It is actually
a living tree (from the Cornish glas "(ever)green", and tann,
"sacred tree"), and from these words the name of Glastonbury, in
Somerset, England is sometimes derived.[citation needed] Hence, according
to legend, it is a sacred tree in which the soul of Merlin awaits his
return." In the Prophetiae Merlini, Niviane confines him in the
forest of Brocéliande with walls of air, visible as mist to others but as a
beautiful tower to him (Loomis, 1927). This is unfortunate for Arthur, who has
lost his greatest counselor. Another version has it that Merlin angers Arthur
to the point where he beheads, cuts in half, burns, and curses Merlin.[citation needed]
Fiction featuring Merlin
Merlin is well known in the series of "Harry Potter" as one of
the greatest wizards of all time. According to the newly released website,
Pottermore, Merlin was described with deeper biographical background. According
to J.K. Rowling, Merlin was born sometime during the medieval era. During his
formative years, he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and
was Sorted into Slytherin House. It's possible that he was taught by Salazar
Slytherin himself, given the time period Merlin lived.
In the series, The Chronicles of the
Imaginarium Geographica by James
A. Owen, Merlin is from a place known as the Archipelago of Dreams where he
was born Myrdyyn along with his twin brother, Madoc (who would later on become Mordred). He is
portrayed as an ambitious and treacherous man who was banished from the
Archipelago for trying to use knowledge of the future to shape it. He soon
becomes a caretaker of the Holy Grail in the library of Alexandria, but is soon
arrested for trying to steal it. He is able to escape however, and banish his
brother in his place. He then travels to Britain (then called Albion) and
changes his name to Merlin. Sometime after this, he becomes the apparent father
of Arthur through the Lady of the Lake.
In 1985, Merlin was portrayed in the arcade game Gauntlet (arcade game). His role in the
game series continued until Gauntlet 4 for the Sega Genesis. Merlin is also
featured in the mythology of DC Comics, often in association with the demon character Etrigan. As a
result, he has appeared in various animated series, including Justice
League and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In the
first of these, he curses Jason Blood for his treachery by fusing him together
with Etrigan. In the second, he goes by Merlin Ambrosius and is revealed to be
a former mentor of Morgaine Le Faye, who
surpassed him in magical skill and conquered Camelot. Desperate for help, he
learned that Excalibur might be drawn from its stone and used against Le Faye
by "the one who is worthy" and came to believe that either Batman or Green Arrow
was the individual in question. He thus brought the two back in time, and
quickly came to believe that Batman was the one spoken of. He joined the heroes
in facing Morgaine Le Faye and the enslaved Etrigan, later freeing both Etrigan
and Batman from Le Faye's enchantments before her defeat at the hands of both
Batman and Green Arrow. He subsequently sent the pair back to their own time,
believing their competitive bickering to be unseemly conduct for candidates for
knighthood.
Merlin has been referenced in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchises in
two ways. First, the comic book series features the
character of Merlin Prower, a wizard obviously named for Merlin himself.
Secondly, the videogame Sonic and the Black Knight is based
loosely on the Camelot story, and features Merlin as having created an illusory
King Arthur to rule over Camelot. His granddaughter, Merlina, appears as an
antagonist in the series, attempting to preserve her grandfather's vision of
the glorious kingdom.
In the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice, modern day
New Yorker David Stutler, played by Jay
Baruchel, discovers he is the last descendant of Merlin and is trained as a
sorcerer by Balthazar Blake, portrayed by Nicolas
Cage, a former student of the great wizard, so that he may ultimately do
battle with Merlin's old nemesis Morganna,
played by Alice
Krige.
In the 2011 TV series Camelot, Merlin was played by Joseph
Fiennes. Ashley Cowie, Scottish author, historian, and archaeologist, and
his team search the U.K. for treasures said to have been hidden away by Merlin
in the 5th episode of season 1's "Legend Quest".[12]
See also
Notes
1.
^ Lloyd-Morgan,
Ceridwen. "Narratives and Non-Narrtives: Aspects of Welsh Arthurian
Tradition." Arthurian Literature. 21. (2004): 115–136.
3.
^ Bibliographical
Bulletin of the Arthurian Society Vol LIX (2007) p 108, item 302
7.
^ Ashe,
Geoffrey. The Discovery of Arthur, Owl Books, 1987.
8.
^ Dames,
Michael. Merlin and Wales: A Magician's Landscape, Thames & Hudson
Ltd, 2004
9.
^ a
b
c
Robert de Boron (1994). James J. Wilhelm, ed. Suite du Merlin. Garland
Reference Library.
10.
^ Torregrossa,
Kyle Murdough and Bryson Poland, Michael A., “Merlin Goes to the Movies: The
Changing Role of Merlin in Cinema Arthuriana,” Film & History: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 29.3–4 (1999):
54–65; Torregrossa, Michael A., “The Way of the Wizard: Reflections of Merlin
on Film," in The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf
to Buffy, eds. Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
2004), pp. 167–91.
References
- Oxford English Dictionary. 2008 http://dictionary.oed.com.dax.lib.unf.edu
|url= missing title (help). Retrieved June 7, 2010.
- Arbrois De
Jubainville, H., Merlin est-il un personage historique?, Revue des
questions historiques 5, 1868.
- Breton-Guay,
Neomie, Merlin l'Enchanteur dans les images de la renaissance
arthurienne, 2006.
- Cadieux-Larochelle,
Josee, Pour forger un mythe: les avatars de Merlin, 1996.
- Castleden,
Rodney, King Arthur: The Truth behind the legend, London, New-York,
G. Routhledge, 2000.
- Donnard,
Ana, Merlin, L'intermediaire des mondes. Minas Gerais federal
University.
- Dumezil,
Georges, Mythes et Dieux des Indo-europeens Flammarion, 1992.
- Gaster, M,
The Legend of Merlin: A Postscript, Folklore, 1905
- Gaster, M,
"The Legend of Merlin"
Folk-Lore, 1905.
- Gill,
N.S., Who was Merlin and was Merlin Real? Ancient/Classical
History, http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/people
Merlin
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Merlin reciting
his poems, as
illustrated in the French book from the 13th century "Merlin", by Robert
de Boron.
Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially
in Wales.[1] Later
writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard. Merlin's
traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of
a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his
supernatural powers and abilities.[2] The name
of Merlin's mother is not usually stated but is given as Adhan in the oldest
version of the Prose Brut.[3] Merlin
matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through
magic and intrigue.[4]
Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor until he is bewitched and
imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.[4]
