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MERLIN
Detail from Cannell's "Merlin and Vivian"
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Background
Merlin, Arthur's adviser, prophet and magician, is basically the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who in his twelfth-century History of the Kings of Britain combined the Welsh traditions about a bard and prophet named Myrddin with the story that the ninth-century chronicler Nennius tells about Ambrosius (that he had no human father and that he prophesied the defeat of the British by the Saxons). Geoffrey gave his character the name Merlinus rather than Merdinus (the normal Latinization of Myrddin) because the latter might have suggested to his Anglo-Norman audience the vulgar word "merde." In Geoffrey's book, Merlin assists Uther Pendragon and is responsible for transporting the stones of Stonehenge from Ireland, but he is not associated with Arthur. Geoffrey also wrote a book of "Prophecies of Merlin" before his History. The Prophecies were then incorporated into the History as its seventh book. These led to a tradition that is manifested in other medieval works, in eighteenth-century almanac writers who made predictions under such names as Merlinus Anglicus, and in the presentaion of Merlin in later literature. Merlin became very popular in the Middle Ages. He is central to a major text of the thirteenth-century French Vulgate cycle, and he figures in a number of other French and English romances. Sir Thomas Malory, in the Morte d'Arthur presents him as the adviser and guide to Arthur. In the modern period Merlin's popularity has remained constant. He figures in works from the Renaissance to the modern period. In The Idylls of the King, Tennyson makes him the architect of Camelot. Mark Twain, parodying Tennyson's Arthurian world, makes Merlin a villain, and in one of the illustrations to the first edition of Twain's work illustrator Dan Beard's Merlin has Tennyson's face. Numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character.
TEXTS AND IMAGES
Medieval Texts:
- The Prophecy of Merlin (Bodley MS) (© TEAMS)
- The Prophecy of Merlin (Dublin MS) (© TEAMS)
- The Prophecy of Merlin (Magdalene Coll. MS) (© TEAMS)
Modern Texts:
- Bannerman, Anne (1765-1829), "The Prophecy of Merlin" (1802)
- Bidder, George (1863-1953), "Merlin's Youth" (1899)
- Blunt, Wilfred Scawen (1840-1922), "To Nimue" (1914)
- Blunt, Wilfred Scawen (1840-1922), "The Wisdom of Merlin" (1914)
- [Brereton, Jane, writing under the pseudonym "Melissa"] (1685-1740), "Merlin: A Poem Humbly Inscrib'd to Her Majesty" (1735)
- [Brereton, Jane, writing under the pseudonym "Melissa"] (1685-1740), "Merlin's Prophecy. Humbly Inscrib'd to His R. H. the Prince of Wales" (1735)
- Buchanan, Robert (1785-1873), "Merlin's Tomb" (1859)
- Campion, Thomas (1567-1620), "An Epigram" (1607)
- Cawein, Madison J. (1865-1914), "The Daughter of Merlin"
- Collins, [Edward James] Mortimer (1827-1876), "Merlin" (1871)
- Colum, Padraic (1881-1972), The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter (1920)
- Cram, Ralph Adams (1863-1942), Excalibur: An Arthurian Drama (1893; published 1909)
- Darley, George (1795-1846), "Merlin's Last Prophecy" (1838)
- De Beverley, Thomas (pseudonym of George Newcomen), "The Story of Nimue" (1925)
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882), "Merlin I" (1846)
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882), "Merlin II" (1846)
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882), "Merlin 's Song" (1846)
- Gareth, David, "Lament for Merlin et Al." (2005)
- Greville, Fulke, Baron Brooke (1554-1628), "Sonnet XXIII" from Caelica (first published 1633)
- Hovey, Richard (1864-1900), The Quest of Merlin (1891)
- Jonson, Ben (1572/3-1637), "The Speeches at Prince Henries Barriers" (1610)
- Lacy, Norris, "Merlin the Mad" (2003)
- Leigh, Joseph, "Illustrations of the Fulfilment of the Prediction of Merlin" (1807)
- Milman, H[enry] H[art] (1791-1868), Samor, Lord of the Bright City (1818)
- Mumford, Ethel Watts (1878-1940), Merlin and Vivien: A Lyric Drama (1907)
- Nieman, Valerie, "The Naming of the Lost" (1989)
- Pyle, Howard (1853-1911), "The Story of Merlin" (1903)
- Reade, John (1837-1919), "The Prophecy of Merlin" (1870)
- Rhys, Ernest (1859-1946), "Broceliande" (1906)
- Rhys, Ernest (1859-1946), "The Death of Merlin" (1898)
- Rhys, Ernest (1859-1946), "The Unfinished Book of Bleise" (1905)
- Robinson, Edwin Arlington (1869-1935), Merlin (1917)
- Rowley, William (?1585-1642) The Birth of Merlin, or, The Childe Hath Found His Father (?1620; first published 1662)
- Sneyd, Ralph de Tunstall (1862-1947), "Vivian and Merlin" (1929)
- Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745), "A Famous Prediction of Merlin, the British Wizard" (1709)
- Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809-1892), "Merlin and Vivien" from The Idylls of the King
- Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809-1892), "Merlin and the Gleam" (1889)
- Uhland, Ludwig (1787-1862), "Merlin der Wilde" / "Merlin the Wild Man" (1829; publ. 1831) (Translated by Nicole Dentzien); Introduction by Nicole Dentzien
- Veitch, John (1829-1894), "Merlin" (1889)
- Wilmer, Lambert A. (1805-1863), Merlin (1827)
- Wilson, Heileman, "Merlin and Vivien" (1895)
- Wordsworth, William (1770-1850), "The Egyptian Maid" (1835)
Images:
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Beard, Dan (1850-1941), "Merlin as Tennyson" (1889)
- Beardsley, Aubrey (1872-1898), "Merlin" (1893)
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Beardsley, Aubrey (1872-1898), "Merlin Taketh the Child Arthur into His Keeping" (1893)
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Beardsley, Aubrey (1872-1898), "Merlin and Nimue" (1893)
- Brickdale, Eleanor Fortescue- (1872-1945), "Merlin" (1911)
- Brickdale, Eleanor Fortescue- (1872-1945), "Merlin and Viven" (1911)
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Brickdale, Eleanor Fortescue- (1872-1945), Merlin Finds the Baby Arthur" (1911)
- Brown, Ian (b. 1962), "The Red Dragon and the White Dragon" (2002)
- Cameron, Julia Margaret (1815-1879), "Vivien and Merlin" (1875)
- Cameron, Julia Margaret (1815-1879), "Vivien and Merlin" (1875)
- Cannell, W. Otway, "King Arthur and Merlin at the Lake" (1917)
- Cannell, W. Otway, "Merlin and Vivian" (1917)
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Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "King Arthur Asks Counsel of Merlin" (1921)
- Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "Vivien Enclosed Him, Living, Within a Magic Circle" (1921)
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Doré Gustave (1832-83), "The Finding of King Arthur" (188-)
- Doré Gustave (1832-83), "Merlin Paints the Young Knight's Shield" (188-)
- Doré Gustave (1832-83), "Vivien Encloses Merlin in the Tree" (188-)
- Doré Gustave (1832-83), "Vivien and Merlin Disembark" (188-)
- Doré Gustave (1832-83), "Vivien and Merlin Enter the Woods" (188-)
- Doré Gustave (1832-83), "Vivien and Merlin Repose" (188-)
- Ford, H. J. (1860-1941), "Merlin and Vivien" (1902)
- Godwin, Frank (1889-1959), "There Fell on Merlin a Great Melancholy" (1927)
- Herter, Albert (1871-1950), "Merlin, Changed into the Appearance of a Fair Young Squire" (1899)
- Kent, William (1685-1745), "The Section of Merlin's Cave in the Royal Gardens at Richmond"
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Kirk, M[aria]. L[ouise]. (1860-193x), "And in the Flame Was Borne a Naked Babe" (1912)
- Pyle, Howard (1853-1911), "Merlin." (1903)
- Pyle, Howard (1853-1911), "Vivien Bewitches Merlin" (1903)
- Rackham, Arthur (1867-1939), "Merlin and Nimue: How by her subtle working she made Merlin to go under the stone" (1917)
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Rackham, Arthur (1867-1939), "So the child was delivered unto Merlin" (1917)
- Rhead, George Wooliscroft (1854-1920) & Louis (1857-1926), "Lightning Frightens Vivien" (1898)
- Rhead, George Wooliscroft (1854-1920) & Louis (1857-1926), "Merlin" (1898)
- Rhead, George Wooliscroft (1854-1920) & Louis (1857-1926), "Merlin and Vivien" (1898)
- Rhead, George Wooliscroft (1854-1920) & Louis (1857-1926), "Vivien's Spell" (1898)
- Smith, John Moyr, "Vivien" (c. 1875)
- Speed, Lancelot (1860-1931), "Waving her hands and muttering the charm, and presently enclosed him fast within the tree" (1912)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dean, Christopher. A Study of Merlin in English Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present Day: The Devil's Son. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
The Figure of Merlin in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Ed. Jeanie Watson and Maureen Fries. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989.
Jarman, A. O. H. "The Merlin Legend and the Welsh Tradition of Prophecy." In The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature Ed. Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman, Brynley F. Roberts. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991. Pp. 117-45
Jarman, A. O. H. "The Welsh Myrddin Poems." In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History. Ed. Roger Sherman Loomis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. Pp. 20-30.
Macdonald, Aileen Ann. The Figure of Merlin in thirteenth Century French Romance. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990.
Markale, Jean. Merlin: Priest of Nature. Trans. Belle N. Burke. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1995. (Translation of Merlin l'enchanteur. Paris: Editions Retz, 1981.)
The Romance of Merlin: An Anthology. Ed. Peter Goodrich. New York: Garland, 1990.
Weiss, Adelaide Marie. Merlin in German Literature: A Study of the Merlin Legend in German Literature from Medieval Beginnings to the End of Romanticism. Diss., Catholic University of America, 1933.