Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."[1]

Analysis

According to Stephen Thomas Knight, Merlin embodies a conflict between knowledge and power: a symbol of wisdom in the first Welsh stories, he became an advisor to kings in the Middle Ages, and eventually a mentor and teacher to Arthur and others in the works around the world since the 19th century.[2] While some modern authors write about Merlin positively through an explicitly Christian worldview,[3] New Age movements see Merlin as a druid who accesses all the mysteries of the world,[4] and Francophone artistic productions since the end of the 20th century have tended to avoid the Christian aspects of the character in favor of the pagan aspects and the tradition sylvestre (attributing positive values to one's links to the forest and wild animals), thus "dechristianizing" Merlin to present him as a champion for the idea of return to nature.[5] Diverging from his traditional role in medieval romances, Merlin is also sometimes portrayed as a villain.[1] As Peter H. Goodrich wrote in Merlin: A Casebook:

Merlin's primary characteristics continue to be recalled, refined, and expanded today, continually encompassing new ideas and technologies as well as old ones. The ability of this complex figure to endure for more than fourteen centuries results not only from his manifold roles and their imaginative appeal, but also from significant, often irresolvable tensions or polarities [...] between beast and human (Wild Man), natural and supernatural (Wonder Child), physical and metaphysical (Poet), secular and sacred (Prophet), active and passive (Counselor), magic and science (Wizard), and male and female (Lover). Interwoven with these primary tensions are additional polarities that apply to all of Merlin's roles, such as those between madness and sanity, pagan and Christian, demonic and heavenly, mortality and immortality, and impotency and potency.[6]

Since the Romantic period, Merlin has been typically depicted as a wise old man with a long white beard, creating a modern wizard archetype reflected in many fantasy characters,[7] such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Gandalf[8] or J. K. Rowling's Dumbledore,[9] that also use some of his other traits. Things named in honour of the legendary figure have included asteroid 2598 Merlin, the British company Merlin Entertainments, the Merlin handheld console, the literary magazine Merlin, the metal band Merlin, and more than a dozen different British warships each called HMS Merlin. He was one of eight British magical figures that were commemorated on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2011,[10] and one of the three Arthurian figures (along with Arthur and Morgan) commemorated on the gold and silver British pound coins issued by the Royal Mint in 2023.[11] Merlinia, the Ordovician trilobite, is also named after Merlin. The name is given in memory of the legends of Wales, in which broken tail parts of trilobites were identified as butterflies turned to stone by Merlin.[12][13]

Film

Games

  • In Age of Wonders II and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, Merlin is a playable character.
  • In Curses, Merlin is an important figure in the story's history.
  • In Fate/Grand Order, Merlin is playable as a Caster-class servant.
    • Merlin's female 'Prototype' is a playable Caster-class servant first debuted in the Arcade version of the game, who later became playable in the original mobile version under the name Lady Avalon.
  • In the arcade game Gauntlet, Merlin is one of the four playable heroes. His role in the game series continued until Gauntlet 4 for the Sega Genesis.
  • In Blazing Dragons, Merlin, renamed Mervin, is Sir George's wizard companion, advisor and sidekick of Castle Grim, and antagonist. He is voiced by Rob Paulsen.
  • The Disney version of Merlin appears in the action role-playing games Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts III. This Merlin is depicted in the same way as he appeared in Disney's film The Sword in the Stone. Though silent in the original game, he has audible dialogue provided by Jeff Bennett in the sequel.
  • In the role-playing game Magic and Mayhem, Merlin is the game's final antagonist.
  • In Master of Magic, Merlin is one of the predefined wizards.
  • In the MMORPG RuneScape, Merlin is a part of three quests, including Merlin's Crystal (a quest to free Merlin and become one of the Knights of the Round Table), The Holy Grail, and King's Ransom.
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, the character Merlina is based on Merlin. Merlin is Merlina's grandfather.
  • In the 2013 video game Soul Sacrifice, Merlin was the game's antagonist. In the English version of the game, he is known as the Magusar. Merlin reappeared in the game's sequel, Soul Sacrifice Delta, to conclude the Magusar's story.
  • In the MMORPG Wizard101, the character Merlin (who presents himself as "Merle Ambrose") is the headmaster of Ravenwood School of Magical Arts and assigns players multiple quests.
  • In Young Merlin, the player follows Merlin in his youth.
  • In Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, Merlin gives the protagonist, Mike, psychic abilities to help him throughout the game.
  • In the Avalon variant of The Resistance, Merlin is given knowledge at the start of every game who the evil players are, but must keep his identity secret or else the evil players can redeem a lost game by correctly guessing which player is Merlin.
  • In SMITE: Battleground of the Gods,[16] Merlin is a playable character.
  • In Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, Merlin is a side mission and a playable character.[17]
  • In Disney Dreamlight Valley, the Disney version of Merlin appears as a villager and guide for the player.

Literature

  • In a play called The Birth of Merlin, written by William Rowley in 1622, Merlin appears to be a son of the Devil (or a devil). By the end of the play, he becomes an adviser to Uther, the young King of Britain.
  • Mark Twain presents Merlin in his 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as a complete charlatan with no real magical powers. The character seems to stand for (and to satirize) superstition. However, near the end of the book, Merlin seems to possess real magical powers.
  • C.S. Lewis used the figure of Merlin Ambrosius in his 1946 novel That Hideous Strength, the third book in The Space Trilogy. In it, Merlin has supposedly lain asleep for centuries to be awakened for the battle against the materialistic agents of the devil, able to consort with the angelic powers because he came from a time when sorcery was not yet a corrupt art. Lewis' character of Ransom has apparently inherited the title of Pendragon from the Arthurian tradition. Merlin also mentions "Numinor", a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien's Númenor.
  • In John Cowper Powys' novel Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages (1951), Myrddin Wyllt, or Merlin the Wild, is the Emperor Arthur's counselor, a major character in the story. Powys identifies him with Cronos, or Saturn, the father of Zeus.[18] Merlin also plays an important part in Powys's A Glastonbury Romance (1934)[19] and Morwyn (1937).[20]
  • In the novel Merlín e Familia (1955) written by the Galician author Álvaro Cunqueiro, Merlin dwells in the Galician forest of Esmelle and is visited by mythical figures seeking magical advice. This story synthesizes Arthurian legend and Galician folktales.
  • Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series (first published between 1965 and 1977) has Merlin as the central character in an Arthurian fantasy series about the battle between "the Dark and the Light". Some of the child characters know him as "Gummerry" (a contraction of Great Uncle Merry). He is also variously known as Professor Merriman Lyon, Merry Lyon, Mer-lion, and Merlin.
  • In T.H. White's 1958 Arthurian retelling, The Once and Future King, "Merlyn" has a curious affliction of living backward in time to everyone else. This affliction also appears in Dan Simmons' Hyperion (1989) as the "Merlin sickness". A related novel to The Once and Future King is The Book of Merlyn (1977).
  • In Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy (first published between 1970 and 1979), Myrddin Emrys (Merlin Ambrosius) is the protagonist of the first two novels, The Crystal Cave (1970) and The Hollow Hills (1973), which are based on earlier traditions of the character. The last book of the trilogy, The Last Enchantment, and a related book, The Wicked Day, focus more on Arthur and Mordred, though the former is still told from Merlin's viewpoint. Stewart portrays Aurelius Ambrosius (brother to Uther Pendragon) as his father, and thus makes him Arthur's cousin. In the end, Merlin goes mad due to Morgause's poison.
  • Merlin's Mirror (1975) by Andre Norton, tells the story of the half-human, half-alien Merlin.
  • Merlin (1978) by Robert Nye is a bawdy, anti-Christian version of the Arthurian story, as relived by Merlin after Nimue had trapped him. Though dedicated to Malory, it draws rather from the earlier texts, curiously intertwining references to Kaballah and explicit erotic passages.[21]
  • Merlin plays a modern-day villain in Roger Zelazny's short story The Last Defender of Camelot (1979), which won the 1980 Balrog Award for short fiction and was adapted into an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone in 1986.
  • Cyr Myrddin, the Coming of Age of Merlin (1979) by Michael de Angelo is the story of the early life of Merlin as he searches for his destiny.[22]
  • Merlin, called Aurelianus, is a character in Tim Powers' novel The Drawing of the Dark (1979), which describes the reincarnation of King Arthur as an Irishman named Brian Duffy leading the forces of the West into battle against the forces of the East in 16th century Vienna.
  • Stephen King mentions a character called Maerlyn in The Dark Tower series of novels (the first novel published in 1982), as well as the prequel comic The Gunslinger Born (2007). Although this Maerlyn is an adviser to an alternative Earth's version of King Arthur, he appears to be evil, as he sires the evil sorcerer Marten Broadcloak and creates the soul-corrupting Wizard's Rainbow.
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley's 1983 The Mists of Avalon retells the Arthurian legend with Morgan Le Fay as the protagonist, in the tradition of John Gardner's Grendel. It includes two distinct characters who, in succession, hold the title of "The Merlin of Britain", an office which grants leadership of the Druids in the same way that "The Lady of the Lake" is the title of the high priestess of Avalon.
  • René Barjavel's novel L'Enchanteur (1984) tells the story of the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail from the perspective of Merlin and his relationship with the Lady of the Lake.
  • Arthurian scholar Nikolai Tolstoy (a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy) wrote two books about Merlin, a non-fiction The Quest For Merlin (1985) and a historical fantasy The Coming of the King (1988), the first of an unfinished trilogy. The latter book's depiction of Merlin may be the most historically accurate of all since he lives after Arthur's death. The hero Beowulf even appears as an invader.
  • In Merlin (1989), a novel by Michel Rio, Merlin is presented as a strategist and a wise man rather than a wizard, an advisor to the king and, later, Morgana's teacher. A hundred-year-old Merlin reflects upon the fate of Avalon and remembers people who surrounded him throughout his long life. There are also two connected novels, Morgane (1999) and Arthur (2002) told from the respective perspectives.
  • Merlin is one of the main characters in the Magic Tree House series of children's books by Mary Pope Osborne (the first novel published in 1992). He appears in the later volumes of the series, known as The Merlin Missions.
  • Merlin (1988) and Pendragon (1994), the second and fourth books of Stephen Lawhead's fantasy Pendragon Cycle series respectively, are narrated by Merlin (Myrddin) and seen through his viewpoint. Lawhead makes him a half-Atlantean king of Dyfed, who goes insane but recovers after years of living in the forest; he then assumes the roles of prophet, adviser, and bard.
  • Merlin is a central figure in Jack Whyte's nine-volume series The Camulod Chronicles (first published between 1992 and 2005). The series presents a full retelling of the Arthurian legend with entirely natural explanations of the magical abilities attributed to Merlin.
  • In A Logical Magician (1994), also published as A Modern Magician, and its sequel A Calculated Magic (1996) by Robert Weinberg, Merlin is portrayed as a being brought into existence through belief. Thus, here Merlin possesses all the powers general belief grants him.
  • Fred Saberhagen's novel Merlin's Bones (1995) is told partly from the perspective of a young Merlin.
  • In Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles (first published between 1995 and 1997), Merlin is a druid who rules over Avalon: all the land seen from the top of his hall in Ynys Wydryn.
  • T.A. Barron portrays Merlin as a young man in his The Lost Years of Merlin series (the first novel published in 1996), and as an adult in its sequel series, The Great Tree of Avalon. Merlin also figures prominently in Barron's Merlin Effect, which may be in the same fictional continuity.
  • The Young Merlin Trilogy by Jane Yolen (first published between 1996 and 1997), featuring the novels Passager, Hobby, and Merlin, re-imagines the story of Merlin in his boyhood. Abandoned by his parents and left to live in the woods at the age of eight, he discovers his powers at twelve.[23]
  • J.K. Rowling portrays Merlin as a famous or almost God-like wizard in her Harry Potter series (first published between 1997 and 2007) and refers to him as "The Prince of Enchanters."
    • The magical population uses the expression "Merlin's Beard" as a substitute for "My God."
    • "The Order of Merlin," mentioned throughout the books, is given to witches and wizards for great accomplishments and is given in three classes: First, Second, and Third; it is similar to an OBE. According to the Harry Potter website Pottermore, the Order of Merlin began as an organization formed by Merlin to protect Muggles (non-magical beings).
    • Merlin is featured on a Famous Witches and Wizards Collectors card; such cards are included with chocolate frogs.
    • Albus Dumbledore much resembles Merlin.
    • As in many other stories, Merlin is the enemy of Morgan le Fay.
    • The Harry Potter website Pottermore states that Merlin was a Slytherin, despite the fact that real-world mythology places Merlin's existence several centuries before the founding of Hogwarts.
  • Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series (the first novel published in 2000) includes Merlin as both a title (leader of the White Council) as well as a man responsible for the creation of the supernatural prison Demonreach.
  • Merlin is the main character in Robert Holdstock's The Merlin Codex trilogy of mythic fiction novels (first published between 2001 and 2006), which traces Merlin's adventures in Europe over a span of two millennia; this trilogy places him alongside Jason and the Argonauts and Urtha Pendragon. Merlin is also a major character in Holdstock's short novel Merlin's Wood (1994).
  • In Diana Wynne Jones' book The Merlin Conspiracy (2003), Merlin is not a person, but rather a title. The Merlin of the kingdom is entrusted with the kingdom's magical health.
  • Simon Green's Nightside series (first published between 2003 and 2012) contains a character named Merlin Satanspawn, who is the son of the Devil and King Arthur's mentor and friend.[24]
  • In the romantic urban fantasy Enchanted, Inc. (2005) and its sequels by Shanna Swendson, Merlin is the CEO of Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc.
  • Sherrilyn Kenyon (writing under the name of Kinley MacGregor) includes a "Penmerlin Emrys" of Arthurian legend in her Lords of Avalon series (first published between 2006 and 2018).
  • Books based on the British TV show Merlin (2008) feature an adolescent Merlin in King Uther's Camelot.
  • Merlin appears as the antagonist in James A. Owen's The Indigo King (2008) in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series. In the book, Owen discusses the development of Merlin into the Cartographer of the Imaginarium Geographica. Merlin comes from a place known as the Archipelago of Dreams, where he was born as Myrdyyn along with his twin brother, Madoc (who would become Mordred). He is portrayed as an ambitious and treacherous man who was banished from the Archipelago for trying to use knowledge of the future to shape it. He then travels to Britain (then called Albion) and changes his name to Merlin. Sometime after this, he becomes the apparent father of Arthur through the Lady of the Lake.
  • In Chapter 19 of James Rollins' sixth Sigma Force novel, The Doomsday Key (2009), Father Rye and historian Wallace Boyd tell the group seeking the Doomsday Key that Bardsey Island was home to Fomorian royalty and that Merlin was a famous Druid priest, buried on sacred Bardsey Island with other prominent Druids.
  • Kristine Papin Morris explores Merlin's emotional childhood in the Merlin of Carmarthen[25] series, which features Merlin of Carmarthen[26] (2010) and Merlin of Calidon (2013).[27]
  • In the urban fantasy series Arkwell Academy (first novel published in 2013) written by Mindee Arnett, Merlin is the main antagonist who sets out to claim a legendary sword of great power, only to be thwarted by protagonist Dusty Everhart.[28]
  • In the High School DxD light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi, the mythological Merlin of Arthurian legend (under the name Merlin Ambrosius) was stated to have founded the system of magic and sorcery used by human beings by studying demon magic, and was considered the first human magician.
  • Merlin Ambrosius and other aspects of Arthurian mythology appear in a semi-science fiction context in Theodore Sturgeon's short story Excalibur and the Atom (1951).
  • In The Seven Deadly Sins, Book 1, the First Hunt[29] written by Gabriel Estes, Merlin is a sorcerer in Caerleon who gives Exevalathor a grimoire in the form of a pair of gauntlets called the Gauntlets of Ira. He is later revealed to be Satan, the Sin of Wrath, aged and weakened from the side effects of having the Sin of Wrath sealed within him.

Music, musicals, and operas

Television

Other cultural references

  • In Puck's Song, at the beginning of Puck of Pook's Hill, Kipling calls England "Merlin's Isle of Gramarye".
  • John le Carré's 1974 spy novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy focuses on "Source Merlin", the code name of an agent supposedly providing British Intelligence with high-level information on the Soviets. The source is sponsored under an operation codenamed "Witchcraft". The code names were evidently chosen to emphasize the superb quality of the information provided "magically" by "Merlin". The protagonist, George Smiley, eventually proves that this "Merlin" is far from a wondrous magician.
  • In the historical mystery novel Sovereign by British author C. J. Sansom, conspirators seeking to overthrow King Henry VIII of England make use of a prophecy attributed to Merlin that calls Henry VIII evil and illegitimate and foretells his rise and his highly deserved fall. This supposed prophecy was distributed by broadsheets despite the harsh punishment meted out to anyone caught spreading it.
  • In Kingsman, the fictional secret service featured in the Kingsman comic series and the film franchise, each agent bears the name of an Arthurian character. "Merlin" is an older, wise agent who acts as a mentor to younger agents and who sacrifices his life so that the others may survive and successfully complete their vital mission.
  • Adobe Photoshop has long included an Easter egg featuring Merlin in a miniature dialogue box entitled "Merlin Lives!", with a cartoon depiction of the wizard and a single button, "Begone".
  • The British-made Merlin helicopter is a medium-lift helicopter in military and civil use by the armed forces of Britain, Denmark, Portugal, and others under the name Merlin instead of its original AgustaWestland AW101 designation.[30][31]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Merlin". Robbins Library Digital Projects. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  2. ↑ Knight, Stephen (18 October 2018). Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-3292-8. Retrieved 5 June 2023 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Doherty, John J. (1999). "'A land shining with goodness': Magic and Religion in Stephen R. Lawhead's "Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur"". Arthuriana. 9 (1): 57–66. doi:10.1353/art.1999.0063. JSTOR 27869422. S2CID 161452366.
  4. ↑ Goodrich, Peter (1992). "The New Age Mage: Merlin as Contemporary Occult Icon". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 5 (1 (17)): 42–73. JSTOR 43308138.
  5. ↑ Zussa, Gaëlle (1 June 2009). "Gaëlle Zussa, Merlin. Rémanences contemporaines d'un personnage littéraire médiéval dans la production culturelle francophone (fin xxe siècle et début xxie siècle) : origines et pouvoirs". Perspectives médiévales. Revue d'épistémologie des langues et littératures du Moyen Âge (33). doi:10.4000/peme.2803 – via journals.openedition.org.
  6. ↑ Goodrich, Peter H. (June 2004). Merlin: A Casebook. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-58340-8.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Berthelot, Anne (17 January 2014). "Merlin magicien ?". Magie et illusion au Moyen Âge. Senefiance. Presses universitaires de Provence. pp. 51–64. ISBN 9782821836143 – via OpenEdition Books.
  9. ↑ "The Story of Merlin and the Demons who made him". 4 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "Gallery: Royal Mail: Stamps from magical realms". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  11. ↑ https://news.coinupdate.com/united-kingdom-last-gold-and-silver-proof-coins-in-mythical-legends-series-concludes-with-sorceress-morgan-le-fay
  12. ↑ "Trilobites".
  13. ↑ "How trilobites conquered prehistoric oceans". National History Museum cite. Archived from the original on 13 October 2023.
  14. ↑ Morton, Jennie (2008) "Of Magicians and Masculinity: Merlin and the Manifestation of the New Man," UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity: Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 6. Archived 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Baghdad Wizard Magic for Kiddies". The Daily Oklahoman. 26 December 1960. Retrieved 13 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com. ...the prince and princess live happily ever after and hung-over genie goes from Arabian Nights to the Knights of the Round Table for his next assignment, as Merlin, the Magician.
  16. ↑ "List of gods". Smite Wiki. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  17. ↑ "Medieval England Side Missions". IGN. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  18. ↑ Powys, John Cowper. " 'Preface' or anything you like to Porius"; "The Characters of the Book". The Powys Newsletter 4, 1974–5, p. 17.
  19. ↑ A Glastonbury Romance. London: Macdonald, 1955, p. 571:
  20. ↑ London: Village Press, 1974, p. 87.
  21. ↑ Nye, Robert (1978). Merlin. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89952-4.
  22. ↑ "Blub of 'Cyr Myrddin, The Coming of Age of Merlin'". Goddin Publishing. 2009. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009.
  23. ↑ Jane Yolen. "Young Merlin Trilogy: Passager". janeyolen.com. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  24. ↑ Smith, Craig (17 November 2006). "If ever oh ever a wiz there was". The New Mexican. Vol. 157, no. 321. p. 77 (147). Retrieved 11 May 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "Kristine Papin Morris: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  26. ↑ Papin Morris, Kristine (24 February 2011). Merlin of Carmarthen. Kristine Papin Jones. ISBN 978-1-4564-4724-3. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  27. ↑ Papin Morris, Kristine (5 June 2013). Merlin of Calidon (Merlin of Carmarthen) (Volume 2). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-4903-8120-6. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  28. ↑ Arnett, Mindee (5 March 2013). "The Arkwell Academy series". Goodreads.com. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  29. ↑ Estes, Gabriel (29 September 2021). The Seven Deadly Sins: Book 1: The First Hunt. Dorrance Publishing. ISBN 978-1-64957-059-8.
  30. ↑ "EH-101 Merlin factsheet". Portuguese Air Force. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  31. ↑ "Danish Airforce factsheet". Danish Airforce. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
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