Merlin

Merlin the Magician is the most powerful known Warlock or magic user anywhere, including in the Dreamlands. He is also the wizard who taught Great Uncle Alfred long ago in his youth. He is an extremely old man.

When Kuranes goes to see Merlin he must climb the mountain on which Merlin's castle sits. The old wizard agrees to teach Kuranes one spell, after which he tells Kuranes, the young man must seek his answers elsewhere for now.

### ROOTS OF THE PAST

The name "**Merlin**"
 is derived from the Welsh Myrddin, the name of the bard who was one of
the chief sources for the later legendary figure. Geoffrey of Monmouth
Latinised the name to Merlinus in his works.

Another possible inspiration for Merlin is Taliesin, who is a historical figure obscured by part of the coverup of real British history. **Taliesin** is
believed to have lived between 534 and 599. He was chief bard in the
courts of at least three kings of Britain, and is associated with the
Book of **Taliesin**, a text from the 10th century containing his poems.

**Merlin**, enchanter and wise man in Arthurian legend
 and romance of the Middle Ages, linked with personages in ancient
Celtic mythology (especially with Myrddin in Welsh tradition). He
appeared in Arthurian legend as an enigmatic
 figure, fluctuations and inconsistencies in his character being often
dictated by the requirements of a particular narrative or by varying
attitudes of suspicious regard toward magic and witchcraft. Thus, treatments of Merlin reflect different stages in the development of Arthurian romance itself.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in *Historia regum Britanniae* (1135–38), adapted a story, told by the Welsh antiquary Nennius (flourished *c.*
 800), of a boy, Ambrosius, who had given advice to the legendary
British king Vortigern. In Geoffrey’s account Merlin-Ambrosius figured
as adviser to Uther Pendragon (King Arthur’s father) and afterward to Arthur himself. In a later work, *Vita Merlini,*
 Geoffrey further developed the story of Merlin by adapting a northern
legend about a wild man of the woods, gifted with powers of divination.
Early in the 13th century, Robert de Borron’s verse romance *Merlin* added a Christian dimension to the character, making him the prophet of the Holy Grail (whose legend had by then been linked with Arthurian legend). The author of the first part of the Vulgate cycle
 made the demonic side of Merlin’s character predominate, but in later
branches of the Vulgate cycle, Merlin again became the prophet of the
Holy Grail, while his role as Arthur’s counsellor was filled out; it was Merlin, for example, who advised Uther to establish the knightly fellowship of the Round Table
 and who suggested that Uther’s true heir would be revealed by a test
that involved drawing a sword from a stone in which it was set. It also
included a story of the wizard’s infatuation with the Lady of the Lake,
which eventually brought about his death. He is popularly said to be buried in the magical forest of Brocéliande.

Robert de Boron retold and expanded on this material in his influential Old French poem *Merlin*
 written around 1190. Only a few lines of the poem have survived, but a
prose retelling became popular and was later incorporated into chivalric romances. In Robert's account, as in Geoffrey's *Historia*, Merlin is created as a demon spawn to become the Antichrist and reverse the effect of the Harrowing of Hell. This plot is thwarted when a priest named Blaise immediately baptizes the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan and his intended destiny. 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 lays great emphasis on
Merlin's power to shapeshift, on his joking personality, and on his connection to the Holy Grail, the quest for which he foretells. Inspired by Wace's *Roman de Brut*, an Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey's *Historia*, *Merlin* was originally a part of a cycle of Robert's poems telling the story of the Grail over the centuries. The narrative of *Merlin*
 includes Geoffrey's episodes of Vortigern's Tower, of Uther's war
against the Saxons, and of Arthur's conception, but follows it with the
new episode of the drawing of the sword from the stone, an event orchestrated by Merlin just as he earlier instructs Uther to establish the original order of the Round Table after creating the table itself.

### MERLIN'S CAVE

**Merlin's Cave** is a cave located beneath Tintagel Castle, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south-west of Boscastle, Cornwall, England. It is 100 metres (330 ft) long, passing completely through Tintagel Island from Tintagel Haven on the east to West Cove on the west. It is a sea cave formed by marine erosion along a thrust plane between slate and volcanic rocks. The cave fills with water at high tide, but has a sandy floor and is explorable at low tide. Tennyson made Merlin's Cave famous in his *Idylls of the King*, describing waves bringing the infant Arthur to the shore and Merlin carrying him to safety.