Merlin is a multi-faceted Illustration from a French History of figure- Druid, shaman, monk,
Merlin bard, necromancer, magician,
astronomer, youth and old sage.
He was also known as a seer and a prophet, and his predictions always came
true. In the legends of Arthur, it is Merlin the sorceror, court wizard,
and prophet who embodies the themes of magic and myth, and who acts as
Arthur's principal advisor. It is believed that the story of Merlin
originates in legends of a Celtic poet and prophet who lived in the 500's,
a man named Myrddin. He lived in what was then a Cymric borderland near
the Solway Firth. Fragments of poetry by and about him survive, and a man
named Lailoken, a madman and prophet who figures in Scottish legend, may
be the same man. Legends of Myrddin recount his creating unrest between
British chieftains and causing the Battle of Arderydd near Carlisle, which
was fought in the 570's. As a supernatural punishment, he loses his reason
and is sent wandering through the forest of Celidon in the Scottish
lowlands.
Merlin first takes literary shape in the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth
in the early 12th century. Geoffrey published some prophecies around 1135
that dealt with British and Welsh affairs over the coming several
centuries. He ascribed them to a British prophet named Merlin, and soon
afterwards included those prophecies in his History of the Kings of
Britain. Geoffrey also wrote a Latin poem entitled Vita Merlini (Life of
Merlin). Geoffrey's Merlin is the son of an demon which had lain with his
mother, a nun at Carmarthen in southwest Wales, while she slept. In
Geoffrey's History, Merlin is credited with using magic at the request of
King Aurelius to help transport Stonehenge from its supposed original site
in Ireland to Salisbury Plain.
Medieval legends of Merlin credit him with
the birth of Arthur. King Uther Pendragon
was smitten by another man's wife, Lady
Ingraine, and although he wanted to lay
with her, she refused. Uther called upon
Merlin to help him gain access to the fair lady, and Merlin devised a
magical deceit where Uther appeared to Ingraine as her own husband. The
result of this union was Arthur, and according to Sir Thomas Malory's
Tales of King Arthur one of the conditions of Merlin performing this magic
for Uther was that he would turn over the child to Merlin to nourish and
eductate him, to which Uther agreed.
As the stories of Merlin developed through the writings of various poets,
he became associated, like Arthur, with places, roots, trees, and other
natural magics. One of his many magical skills was the ablity to change
shape. His prophecies were held in great esteem, and commentators
endeavored to make sense of them. Romancers added to the mythology of
Merlin by crediting him with the foundation of the Round Table and by
giving him a major role in the mysteries of the Grail. Sir Thomas Malory,
in his Tales of King Arthur writes how the seer secured Arthur's ascension
to the throne. According to Malory, it was Merlin who instigated the
Archbishop of Canterbury to summon all the barons to London where Merlin
had provided great stone with a sword stuck within it that said Whoso
pulleth out the sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of
all England.
Nobody succeeded in pulling out the sword, although many tried, until the
young Arthur casually came by and removed it. In Malory's tales it is
Merlin who creates the Round Table for Uther Pendragon.
Merlin and Nimue, or Vivienne,
the wood goddess with whom he Merlin falls in love with Nimue, (called
became besotted and who stole Nyneve by Malory, also known as Vivienne)
all his secrets from him. with disastrous results. She accompanies
Merlin on a journey to learn his magic,
though never does consent to be his lover. Although Merlin foresees the
tragic end through prophesy he is unable to avert it. Nimue grows tired of
him, and turns one of his own spells against him to imprison Merlin
forever in a cave, buried under a great rock. Some retellings of the tale
have Nimue trapping Merlin in a bush or a Hawthorne tree, from which his
voice may sometimes still be heard; Tennyson's Idylls of the King is
adapted from this version. Different versions of the story have Merlin
variously living forever within his confinements, dying, or descending
into madness. In the romance Suite de Merlin Vivienne tricks Merlin into a
tomb and forces him to die a slow death upon being sealed within.
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