Merlin

The Magician of King Arthur's Court

 Merlin was a legendary figure who was best known as the wizard featured in the King Arthur legends. There have been many TV shows and movies about Merlin and of course King Arthur. The series Stargate depicted Merlin as an "ancient" - one of that race of people that build the so called "Stargates".

Then we have the many movies about the Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. One of the best starred Sean Connery - who I think did a fantastic job of depicting King Arthur.

In May of 2009 a new TV series started on network television. It was appropriately named "Merlin". It follows the exploits of Merlin as a young servant to "Prince Arthur". He plays a buffoon and is an apprentice to the Wizard of Prince Arthur's fathers court. Little does anyone realize what powers he actually poses - not even his teacher.

I must say that the show is well written with a very interesting look into the life of the ancient celt's, druids and wiccans. Each week one of these is weaved into the story to depict life back then. Just remember it IS TV and so a lot of "poetic licensing" (stretching of the truth and the imagination for entertainment purposes...) has been inserted.

Note: In the 1st quarter of 2011 Starz started showing their big screen epic, they had created, called Camelot. In their version Merlin is depicted as a manipulator who is determined to save the kingdom with Arthur's help. It also takes literary license with some of the age old tales of the sword in the stone, the Lady of the Lake, and other tales. 

However, the standard depiction of Merlin first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, which was written around 1136.

Merlin's character is actually based on an combination of previous historical and legendary figures. Geoffrey combined the existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt (Merlinus Caledonensis), who was a Northern British madman who had NO connection to King Arthur whatsoever,  with the tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus thus forming the composite figure that he called Merlin Ambrosius.

Geoffrey's rendering of this fanciful character immediately became very popular. Later future writers chose to expand those accounts to produce a fuller image of the wizard. Merlin's traditional biography casts him as being born of a mortal woman, fathered by incubus, who was the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and sets about to engineer the birth of Arthur through his magic. Later authors have Merlin serving as the King's adviser until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.

Of all the tales about Merlin the one that shaped the legend of the man, as we know it today, and as portrayed in most TV shows and movies, was most likely from Age of Fables: Vol. III: The Age of Chivalry written around 1913.

To read more you can go to:

http://www.bartleby.com/182/103.html  or to Wikipedia

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The Celts and King Arthur's Court

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