Merlin, the magician. History and legends.
Introduction
Merlin, also known as Myrddin or Merlinus, is the great magician of Arthurian legends best known for Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1469). The character was created by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain (1136), where he first appears as a wise and precocious young man with prophetic powers.
The French poet Robert Wace (c.1110-1174) translated Geoffrey's work and expanded it in his Roman de Brut (c.1160). Later, Robert de Boron (12th century) introduced Merlin as a central character and presented him as a Christian prophet; This representation, with some variations, would continue in the Vulgate Cycle (1215-1235) and the Post-Vulgate Cycle (c. 1240-1250) to influence Malory's final characterization of the seer.
In Malory (15th century), Merlin is Arthur's mentor, instrumental in every aspect of his life, from his conception to his education, his rise to power, and his vision of a kingdom governed by justice and good will. Merlin is central to the lives of all the main characters in the legend, able to see both the past and the future, eager to advise and serve, but unable to alter what he knows must be. He may have originally been a fertility god or spirit, feared or revered for his great wisdom and magical abilities, and this concept of Merlin was revived in 19th-century Romantic literature.
The name of the character Merlin is not a proper name but a toponym (a place name), specifically the Welsh Caermyrddin (Merlin's Town), referring to the town of Carmarthen, Merlin's birthplace.
Geoffrey Latinised Myrddin as Merlinus because the strict Latinisation of Merdinus would have associated the name with the Latin merdus (dung, feces). The character originated in Welsh folklore with the motif of the wild man of the forest, a half-savage living on the fringes of civilisation, who possessed great power and great wisdom. The most famous Welsh wild man was Myrddin Wylt (˂˂Myrddin the Wild˃˃), a 6th-century AD bard who is said to have gone mad after a particularly bloody battle and retreated into the forest. Following the success of his Historia, Geoffrey wrote another work, The Life of Merlin (c. 1150), in which the protagonist displays magical and prophetic abilities, but this work has no relation to the Arthurian Legends.
Legends and their variants. Appearances in texts
In Geoffrey's Historia, Merlin appears as a prominent character in books VI-VII. King Vortigern, the usurper, has trouble building a tower because the foundations do not hold firm. His magicians advise him to find a young orphan from the kingdom, sacrifice him, sprinkle his blood on the mortar, and thus the foundations will be solid. The king sends his ministers to find him, and they find Merlin, whose mother tells them that she has no earthly father, but was visited by a spirit that took the form of a man and impregnated her.
Merlin is brought before the king who explains his problem and how he must sacrifice the child, but Merlin, unimpressed, orders the wizards to be brought to prove that they are lying. He asks them what is under the foundations that prevents them from standing and they cannot answer. He then tells Vortigern that he will find a pool underneath, to call his workmen to tear up the foundations. They find the pool as Merlin said, he asks the wizards again what is in the pool. To which they do not know what to answer, Merlin tells them that they will find two hollow stones and two sleeping dragons inside, one white and one red, which they find when they drain the pool. In Book VII, Merlin interprets the meaning of dragons and predicts the future. The red dragon symbolizes the Britons and the white one the Saxons whom Vortigern has invited to his kingdom. The white dragon will oppress the red until the Cornish boar rises to drive out the Saxons; a prophecy concerning King Arthur and his future victory over the Saxons. Vortigern's illegitimate rule is challenged in Book VIII by the nobleman Ambrosius Aurelius and his brother Uther Pendragon, and when Vortigern is killed, he is succeeded by Ambrosius.
Ambrosius, after a great victory, orders the construction of a monument, and Merlin moves the gigantic mystical stones from Mount Killare in Ireland to Amesbury outside London, thus creating Stonehenge. Ambrosius is killed by the Saxons, Uther becomes king and allies himself with Gorlois of Cornwall, but falls in love with Gorlois's wife, Igerna.
Merlin casts a spell that makes Uther resemble Gorlois, sleeps with her and they conceive Arthur. Gorlois is killed in battle and Uther marries Iger and later dies from drinking from a spring poisoned by his Saxon enemies. Arthur becomes king, avenges his father, his uncle, and drives the Saxons out of Britain. Merlin disappears from the narrative after arranging Uther's night with Igerna without giving any explanation.
Robert Wace translated Geoffrey's Historia, but added to the story what he himself imagined. As did many French poets of his time. Wace is responsible for some of the most famous aspects of the Arthurian legends, such as the Round Table and the name of Arthur's sword, Excalibur. He also further developed the main characters, especially Merlin in the Stonehenge episode which, although closely following Geoffrey's, makes more of Merlin's magical abilities. Robert de Morón is the next to develop the character based on Wace's work in his Merlin (c. 1200). This poem opens with a group of demons plotting the destruction of the world by creating a supernatural being whose evil will rival the goodness of Christ.
The supernatural circumstances of his conception endow him with skills in the magical arts. He can speak from birth, and before he is three days old he is able to tell the story of Joseph of Arimathea and how he brought the Holy Grail to Britain. Merlin grows up with his mother in peace until the usurping king Vertigern sends his ministers to find a fatherless child for sacrifice because the foundations of his tower do not hold firm. Robert's Merlin is a sequel to his earlier Joseph of Arimathea and was possibly the second work in a trilogy that concluded with a work about Perceval and the grail. Robert's most significant contribution to the Arthurian tales was their Christianization, which will influence later writings.
Arthur as a Christian king is evident from Geoffrey onwards, but in Geoffrey's Historia and Wace's Brutus, Arthur fights first for his country and people and calls upon Christ to support that effort; after Robert de Boron, Arthur is first in the service of Christ and all his great achievements are a consequence of his devotion to God.
Vulgate Cycle and Merlin in Prose
The Vulgate Cycle continued and developed this tradition, also marking the first time that Arthurian legends appear in prose. In the Middle Ages, prose was used for works of history, theology or philosophy, which were considered ˂˂serious˃˃ subjects; poetry was used for works of imagination. The anonymous authors of the Vulgate Cycle chose the form on purpose because they wanted to present the subject as a real story, not a fantasy romance.
The Vulgate Cycle begins with a story of the Holy Grail, goes through Merlin's birth and relationship with Arthur, highlights Lancelot's romance with Guinevere, establishes the import of the knights' quest for the Holy Grail, and ends with Arthur's death after the Battle of Camlan. The Vulgate Cycle (edited and revised as the Post-Vulgate Cycle) inspired another work, The Prose Merlin. This work, dated to the mid-15th century (shortly before Malory wrote Le Morte D'Arthur), was written in Middle English and focuses entirely on Merlin as a hero and central character against the backdrop of the Arthurian world.
The Prose Merlin is largely based on Robert de Borón's Merlin, but adds significant details, such as the specific reason for the devil's plot to impregnate a human woman with a demon child. As mentioned in the Bible, after Christ's death on the Cross, he descended into Hell to free the patriarchs imprisoned there (an act known as the Rending of Hell). This event upset the balance of Hell, so the demons set in motion their plan to create a human agent on Earth who will counteract Christ's rescue of souls and send more to Satan's realm. The author also explains that Merlin was named after his pious Christian grandfather, thus cutting off any association of the seer Myrddin from Welsh pagan tradition.
The Prose of Merlin
The Prose of Merlin follows Robert de Boron through its first five sections, which are followed by two sequels known to scholars as the historical continuation (Prose of Merlin Sequel) and the romantic continuation (Merlin Suite, also known as the Huth Merlin because it is contained in the Huth Manuscript at the British Library). The historical sequel picks up where Robert's Merlin leaves off, with Arthur pulling the sword from the anvil, (only now it's a sword in a stone), and then tells the story of Arthur's struggle against his rebellious barons, the formation of the court, and the exploits.
The romantic sequel develops all the more mythic aspects of the Arthurian legends, such as Arthur receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, the enigma of Arthur, and the fact that Arthur is the only one who can be found in the castle.
Arthur's bereavement that leads him to father Mordred, the formation of the Round Table, the Lancelot-Guinevere affair, and how Nimue (also known as Vivienne and Niniane in other works, Merlin's protégé and lover), traps Merlin, sealing him forever in a world from which he cannot escape and to which only she has access, thus condemning him to an eternal death in life and eliminating the character from the narrative.
Malory's Merlin
Sir Thomas Malory was a political prisoner in Newgate, London, between 1468 and 1470, when he wrote Morte d'Arthur. Although his primary source was the Post-Vulgate Cycle, scholars agree that he probably had access to a good library and was well versed in Arthurian culture.
Malory's Merlin is the ultimate culmination of all other pre-1469 versions of the seer: a powerful wizard with prophetic vision who can control the elements, shape-shift, alter other people's perception of reality, read people's hearts and true desires. Malory almost certainly drew on the prose Merlin for the core of his character, but developed it to a deeper degree.
As in the earlier works, Merlin is born of a nomadic woman and a demon, helps Uther conceive Arthur, and places the child with Sir Ector's foster family after his birth. Arthur grows up as a squire to his older foster brother Kay, and serves him at tournaments. At one tournament, he discovers that he has forgotten to bring Kay's sword from the tent, and upon returning, sees a sword in a stone. He pulls it out and brings it to Kay, who recognizes it as the king's sword and tries to pretend that he drew it, but is found to be lying. Arthur then returns the sword to the stone and pulls it out again with ease, proving that he is the heir to the throne. Merlin returns to Arthur's life after this event, advising him on kingship and just rule, remaining an ever-present figure orchestrating events behind the scenes or trying to convince others to listen to their better nature. He tells Arthur that Guinevere will be unfaithful to him with Lancelot at the moment when Arthur announces his intention to marry her, but Arthur does not listen.
Other sources: The Celtic Merlin.
We have seen that it all begins when writers of the 12th and 13th centuries turned a bard, who might have lived five hundred years ago, into a central character in the court of the mythical King Arthur. The wizard Merlin is a character linked to characters from ancient Celtic mythology during the Middle Ages, although in some sources they believe that his existence was real, that we could frame it around the 6th century.
References to Merlin are always linked to his abilities and powers in the field of magic, which allowed him to change shape, fly, talk to animals, know the secrets of the universe and even become invisible. He possessed great wisdom. The first Merlin is not exactly a magician, but rather a bard or poet. For some authors, Merlin, in Celtic mythology, rather than a specific character, would be the name of a kind of figure, like the druids or shamans who would represent the deep connection between the human being and the powers of the natural world. Merlin would be a powerful oracle for the Celts, capable of seeing the past, the present and the future.
If we look at his biography, first of all it must be said that the specifics of the birth or origins of the Magician Merlin, may be the most mysterious and inexact of all his mythological references. This character is established as the son of Princess Dyved and an incubus demon, who could change forms, disguising himself as a human, in order to procreate with a woman. From this we can attribute the magical powers of knowing the past, changing form and other mystical abilities of Merlin.
In any case, the creation of the Arthurian myth during the 12th century has its roots in a political project. In that period, the kings of the Plantagenet dynasty, who reigned in England but had roots in Brittany, Normandy and Anjou, were building a great kingdom, and that dynasty, Anglo-French, needed to find a precedent, both among the insular Celts and the Normans, that could ennoble and bring together lineages from both sides of the English Channel. This precedent was found in the ancient Christianized Celtic kings.
If we focus on the symbolic aspects, the magician Merlin represents goodness and dreams, nature in its original power. That is why he captivates us, because he represents an eternal archetype. Close to nature, close enough to the god Pan of Celtic mythology who represents the embodiment of nature itself.
The magician Merlin interprets the signs and reads the stars. He guesses what is hidden and sees the future as the past. His powers sometimes lead him to laugh at appearances, a laugh incomprehensible to ordinary mortals. Merlin knows the use of magic and teaches it. His wizard students are all women, including Morgane and Viviane. He speaks the language of animals and even rides at the head of an army of deer.
The woods are still the place where Merlin takes refuge to become himself again after the madness of men. He lives like an animal, feeding on forest fruits and spring water. He draws his strength and prophetic power from this osmosis with nature. When Merlin was already an old man, as we said in previous paragraphs, he met his beautiful young beloved Nimue, whom Merlin reubatized as The Lady of the Lake, in reference to the fact that he built her a palace at the bottom of a lake, in exchange for her agreeing to be his lover, after not being able to resist her charms, falling madly in love with her. Nimue, distrustful after learning that Merlin was the son of a demon, deceives Merlin, first asking him to teach her the oldest art of all time, and the great wizard agrees and teaches her everything he knows.
The young woman decided to test her power, cast a great spell on the wizard Merlin, and imprisoned him in an underground cave, which had an entrance covered by an enchanted rock. The power of the spell was so enormous that he could not escape from that place, a crystal prison, where he finally died.
According to other stories Merlin, the wizard, the druid of King Arthur, the hero of the most famous Celtic legend, has not died. He continues to live although he is outside of time and space; an enchantment keeps him prisoner between life and death, without aging, without living and without dying, he contemplates the passage of centuries locked in a prison built with the magic of words, with the power of the voice. Their king, Arthur, also remains at the edge of the world, on the magical island of Avalon, sleeping an enchanted sleep. Both hope that the court of Camelot may one day regain its splendor.
Merlin has become the model druid bequeathed by Celtic tradition. He is a wise man who knows the past, the present and the future; he can use the forces of nature, of the visible world and of the dark, invisible world, of the Other World. He has mastery of the word, the power of the voice: he pronounces sacred formulas in the main religious ceremonies, recites incantations and possesses the gift of clairvoyance. In addition, he performs the political functions of the druids: he is the one who provides a king to the Celts using his magical power so that Arthur is conceived; he will then take care of the education of the boy who, under his protection, will acquire wisdom and strength. Merlin is the power in the shadows, the counselor and ambassador, the druid who will share power with Arthur.
But who is Merlin really? A druid who exercised his power among the Celts of Britain as Diviciacus among the fiefs, or a legendary character, one more among the many heroes created by the peculiar Celtic sense of history? The first chroniclers of the history of Britain mention two historical figures, Ambrose and Myrddin, who may be at the origin of the legendary character of Merlin. In the 5th century the Romans had abandoned Britain and a king called Constantine ruled, who had the aforementioned Ambrose as a druid. Some time later, in the 6th century, the chronicles mention a leader from the lands of northern Britain called Myrddin who, in a battle against the Saxons, had a vision of a horrible monster in the sky and, driven mad, took refuge in the depths of the forests, where he dedicated himself to prophesying and led a wild life in the wild.
According to Welsh oral tradition, the story of Merlin begins in the 6th century. At that time, the Celtic kings of Britain were involved in tribal struggles, with none of them succeeding in imposing themselves and pacifying the country. One of these chieftains, Vortigern, had sought help from Saxon mercenaries, who soon realized that they could easily invade the island and dominate it thanks to the internal struggles that were tearing it apart.
Ignacio Povedano Selfa - ignacio.povedano305@gmail.com
Bibliography:
-Ardrey, A. Finding Merlin. The Truth Behind the Legend. Mainstream publishing, 2011.
-Mathews, J. Los misterios de la tradición artúrica. Esoterika-Temas de hoy, Madrid. 1989.
-Mathews, J. The book of Merlin, Amberley Publishing, 2020.
Related articles:
> History of the occult (II). The Middle Ages
> Waun Mawn: the Welsh origin of the Stonehenge stones.
