Merlin

Nationality/Culture

Romano-British/Celtic

Pronunciation

MUR-lin

Alternate Names

Myrddin

Appears In

Nennius's History of the Britons, Geoffrey of Mon-mouth's Prophecies of Merlin and Life of Merlin

Lineage

Unknown

Character Overview

In the legends about King Arthur, the king had the help and advice of a powerful wizard named Merlin. Indeed this magician, who arranged for Arthur's birth and for many aspects of his life, can be seen as the guiding force behind the Arthurian legends. Many stories about Merlin circulated in medieval times.

Some early legends claimed that Merlin was the son of a demon and of a human woman. Only half human, Merlin was mysterious and unpredictable, sometimes helping the human race but sometimes changing his shape and passing long periods as a bird, a cloud, or something else. He also had many relationships with women. By the thirteenth century, however, the influence of Christianity was reshaping the Arthurian legends, and Merlin became a more respectable figure—a wise old man who supplied moral and magical guidance.

In the legend of Vortigern (pronounced VOR-tuh-gurn), a legendary king of Britain, the king was trying to build a temple on Salisbury Plain, but it kept falling down. The young Merlin told the king of a vision in which he had seen a red dragon and a white dragon fighting in a pool under the temple's foundation. From this, he predicted that the red dragon of Wales (King Vortigern) would be defeated by the white dragon of Britain (King Uther Pendragon), which later happened. The magician then built the temple himself, using his magic to bring standing stones from Ireland and arrange them on the plain in a single night. That, according to legend, was how Stonehenge was built.

Merlin became the ally of Uther (pronounced OO-ther) and used his magic to enable Uther to spend a night with another king's wife. The child born of that union was Arthur. Merlin predicted that he would be a great king who would one day unite all of Britain.

Entrusted with Arthur's upbringing, Merlin prepared the boy for kingship. Some accounts say that the wizard fashioned the magical sword Excalibur that proved that Arthur was the rightful king. According to other stories, Merlin also created the Round Table, around which Arthur's knights sat. Merlin was Arthur's helper and advisor in many things. Yet, even Merlin could not prevent the final crumbling of the knights' fellowship and the fall of Arthur, as recounted in every version of the Arthurian legends.

As for Merlin's own fate, accounts vary. Some say that he went mad after Arthur's defeat and wandered into the woods. Most versions of the magician's story, however, end with him being tricked by a witch named Nimue (pronounced neem-OO-ay), also identified as the Lady of the Lake , with whom he had fallen in love. Nimue did not really care for Merlin but simply wanted to learn his secrets. When she had learned enough, she trapped him in an underground cave from which he could never escape.

Merlin in Context

The figure of Merlin seems to be based on a magician named Myrddin, who appeared in the pre-Christian mythology of the Celtic people. The writings of Nennius, a Welsh storyteller who lived around 800 ce, include tales of a young magician named Ambrosius (pronounced am-BROH-zhuhs) who became an advisor to Vortigern.

Three hundred years later, British writer Geoffrey of Monmouth told a more elaborate story about the magician in his History of the Kings of Britain (1136). In this account, a sorcerer known as Merlin Ambrosius served as advisor to British king Uther Pendragon and, later, to his son Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth also wrote a work about Merlin that drew on old Celtic legends about a “wild man of the woods” with magical and fortune-telling powers. As Christianity spread throughout Britain, Merlin's role within the legend shifted. The re-casting of Merlin as a fatherly advisor may reflect the influence of Christian ideals upon existing myths.

Key Themes and Symbols

An important theme in the myths of Merlin is prophecy, or the ability to see the future. When he meets with Vortigern, Merlin relates his vision of battling dragons , which suggests that Vortigern will be defeated by Uther. Merlin later sees that Uther's son Arthur will unite Britain. Another theme found in the tales of Merlin and Arthur is the dangerous power of passion. For Arthur, Guinevere's affair with the knight Lancelot causes the unity of Camelot to crumble. For Merlin, his love of Nimue blinds him to her plan to imprison him after learning his secrets.

Merlin in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life

As an important character in the tales of King Arthur, Merlin has appeared in nearly every major adaptation of the Arthurian legends. This includes Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485), T. H. White's The Once and Future King (1958), and films such as King Arthur (2004). Merlin has also appeared in many other stories outside the traditional King Arthur myth, including Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and That Hideous Strength (1946) by C. S. Lewis. The wizard was also the subject of the Broadway musical Merlin that began and ended its run in 1983; the show was designed mainly as a showcase for magic tricks, and starred popular magician Doug Henning in the tide role.

Read, Write, Think, Discuss

The Lost Years of Merlin (1996), by T. A. Barren, is a tale about Merlin's younger years. In the book, Merlin is initially known as Emrys, a seven-year-old boy who finds himself washed up on the beach at Wales with no memory at all. He eventually discovers that he has magical powers, and the story reveals how Merlin learns to use those considerable powers for good rather than evil.

SEE ALSO Arthur, King; Arthurian Legends