an gaire tá mé le fáil go dtí seo go cad a cheapann liom Rourke i úrscéalta Báis ( JD Robb ) Breathnaíonn an nós

BUT

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I started with Dragons yesterday I thought I’d just do a week of legends:  Today Merlin

Who hasn’t heard of the legendary magician, mage, what ever you want to call him.  He and his legendary friends and enemies have graced our literature, plays, stories, movies and now even TV for long before any living person has memory of.

 

Some feel that our legend of Merlin has grow from a Caledonian  (for those who don’t know that one–it is in Gaelic Scot “An Calaidh” which is a term that the Romans used for Scotland and particularly the Highlands where all the crazies came–so bad the Romans built a wall to hold them out) prophet Merlinus Celidonius.  It would seem that most of the legend comes from Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Celtic areas that stayed out of the focus of Roman and later Anglo Saxon as much as main stream Briton.

In other legends I have found Merlin was the son of a nun and a devil (this makes sense as Celtic beings of legend would seem demonic to the Christian–an imported theology–way of thinking.  I personally prefer the ones that say that Merlin was the son a beautiful girl who caught the eye of an obviously male fairy being).

I personally prefer the Merlin (Welsh Myrddin, latinized as Merlinus_) from the older legends and not the creature created by Hell to set on earth a creature that would counterbalance the good done by Jesus, but who was baptized and so not evil.  But rather the chief advisor to the War Lord; not what we think of as King; of a time that was betwixt and between when England was afloat between the Roman’s domination and the Saxon indoctrination.  A time when Monks attempted to convert the populace but Christianity warred with paganism and the Celts saw their greatest legend Arthur,  who didn’t search for a grail (which was introduced in the 13th century by the French) but fought for freedom.

 

 

Merlin’s chief problem is that in the legend he becomes enchanted with a woman variously named as Niniame, or Nimue or Viviane (I like the last one best) a fellow magician who enchants and seals the living mage into a tomb and takes over his duties attempting to save Arthur from his half sister Morgana.  This is believed to be a combination of Cetic legends made into one femme fatale, I guess the woman as being a serious issue to a man’s success isn’t anything new.

The French (and Geoffrey of Monmouth) did a lot to establish the legend as it developed today–scholars debate how much was mostly Monmouth and how much as items he gleamed from other sources in his time.  We do know that the legend was felt to be Welsh (I disagree and would place my war lord in Cornwall–where he was born at Tintagel,  Avalon at Glastonbury—while I would place Merlin as Welsh and the area of battles in England proper holding off the Saxons that used the Isle of Mann as their base of action.)

My least favorite Merlin Ever

I think Merlin in the era of the 13th century was a problem.  Like Ashe says:  “Things were Christian or heathen, white or black.  Magic was essentially heathen; therefore it was not good.”  We have came into an age where magic is again (at least to most of us) at least a possibility and so our legends have evolved.  Merlin has changed and moved along (for a fun look at the Legend:  Peter David’s KNIGHT LIFE—King Arthur is reborn and running for mayor in New York City—great fun).

One of my favorites

But skip the TV version where Morgana goes from high priestess of the Goddess to a nun…..REALLY?????

IF you’d like to see more of my idea check out https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-novels/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian

Barber, Richard:  KING ARTHUR HERO AND LEGEND

Coghlan, Ronan:  THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPAEDIA ARTHURIAN LEGENDS

Hopkins, Andrea: CHRONICLES OF KING ARTHUR

Loomis, R.S.: CELTIC MYTH AND ARTHURIAN ROMANCE                               THE GRAIL CELTIC MYTH TO CHRISTIAN   SYMBOL

Markale, Jean:  KING OF THE CELTS