Known as 'Myrddin' or 'Myrdhin' in Welsh, 'Merzhin' or 'Marzhin' in Breton and Cornish, Merlin is generally depicted as a benevolent mage commanding the natural elements and animals. It is particularly attached to Brittonic mythology, which covered mainland Britain and present-day Great Britain (except Scotland). Nowadays, his name is frequently associated with his function as an "enchanteur" (magician), especially since this term was used as the title of the French version of a popular cartoon from the 1960s.
The Legend of Merlin
Merlin's very name has no clearly defined origin. Some place it at the time of the Celtic Druids. What we do know is that the names "Merddin", "Myrddin", then "Merlinus" or even "Merilun" were used successively to describe one and the same character. The name "Merlin" will be adopted later, probably around the 12th century. The legend of Merlin, whose name is associated with various qualifiers such as "enchanter", "magician" or "Man of the woods", is very complex. We do not know if this character really existed, the manuscript sources of the time having disappeared. Most books that talk about Merlin also mention Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. These texts date from the 12th century to the 16th century, but stories featuring Merlin go back much longer. It appears that a certain Merlinus Ambroisius would have really existed, of royal descent. The Christian influence in the Middle Ages would have transformed the initial writings into legend:the mother of Merlin having given birth to an "antichrist" with great powers. Also, some women become witches preying on men, even Merlin. In short, his description varies over time until he becomes the Merlin that we know through tales and cartoons:enchanter, prophet, man of the woods, master of animals, sage, a pure magician and close to nature, quite close to the god Pan of Greek mythology who represents the very embodiment of nature. Symbolically, Merlin represents kindness and dreams, nature in its original power. This is probably why it captivates us, because it is the representation of an eternal archetype.
The best-known legend as to his origin makes him the son of a virgin and a demon, hence the Christian parallel and the qualification of antichrist. However, other legends (reported by Stephen Lawhead in his Cycle of Pendragon) link his existence to the legend of Atlantis, where his mother would be native (Charis, daughter of King Avallach of Atlantis), while his father would be Breton (Taliesin son of Elphin, king of Caer Dyvi), according to the legend of the Cycle of Pendragon. These differences of origin come from the fact that no real story has yet been discovered, and, therefore, any version is possible.
Merlin, in the Arthurian gesture
Its role in the Arthurian cycle is to help fulfill the destiny of the kingdom of Brittany (mythical kingdom grouping present-day England, Wales and mainland Brittany). Using legendary wisdom, he becomes the friend and advisor of King Uther Pendragon. When he dies, he organizes the challenge of the Excalibur sword which allows Arthur, illegitimate son of Uther, to succeed his father. Then he encourages Arthur to establish the Round Table so that the knights who constitute it can embark on missions relating to the myth, in particular the famous quest for the Grail. At the end of his life and despite all his knowledge, Merlin will be powerless against the destiny of the Kingdom of Brittany and the tragic end of King Arthur.
The legend of Merlin is not originally incorporated into the Arthurian cycle. The character will be in a way "Christianized" later to be able to appear there, but we can recognize the archetype of the druid:proximity to nature, magical powers, supernatural knowledge, wisdom, long life, role of guide and adviser powerful ones. In a Christian world then in full swing, he represented what remained of the ancient tradition:the druidic world dying.
The end of Merlin
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Seer and magician, Merlin fell, according to legend, madly in love with the fairy Viviane, to whom he confided the secret to binding a man forever. The fairy Viviane therefore undertook to perform this magic, tracing the "nine circles" around the sleeping Merlin. The magic being powerful, Merlin was locked up for eternity in his jail, to the great regret of the fairy Viviane who did not believe that the thing was possible. It is also said that even now he is still locked up. Thus, in the forest of Brocéliande, on a stele is written:"Here was locked up Merlin the enchanter by the fairy Vivianne".
Merlin in cultural works
The first literary references to Merlin are Welsh. Different texts clearly distinguish the difference between two characters named Merlin. The Welsh Triads, for example, mention three bards:Taliesin, chief bard, Myrddin Wyllt and Myrddin Emrys. If the two bards called Myrddin were originally variants of the same character, their history has become so different in the first texts that we have about them that it is appropriate to treat them separately, even if certain adventures belong to both.
Merlinus Caledonensis, Myrddin Wyllt
(“Myrddin the Wild”) This Myrddin has nothing to do with Arthur and appears after the Arthurian period. The earliest Welsh poems concerning the legend of Myrddin present him as a madman living a miserable existence in the Caledonian forest, brooding over his sad existence and the disaster that cast him so low:the death of his lord Gwenddolau, in whose service he was a bard. The allusions made in these poems serve to show the events of the Battle of Arfderydd, where Rhydderch Hael, King of Rheged, slays the forces of Gwenddolau, while Myrddin goes mad watching the defeat. The Annales Cambriae dates this battle to 573 and names Gweddolau's opponents Gwrgi and Peredur son of Eliffer.
A version of this legend is preserved in a late 15th century manuscript, in a story called Lailoken and Kentigern. In this account, Saint Kentigern meets in a deserted place a naked and disheveled madman called Lailoken, whom some call Merlynum or Merlin, who declares to him that he is condemned to wander in the company of wild beasts because of his sins. Furthermore, he is said to have been the cause of the death of all those killed during the battle "on the plain between Liddel and Carwannok". After telling his story, this madman walks away and flees the presence of the saint to return to his wild state. He appears several more times in the story until he finally asks the saint for the last rites, prophesying that he is about to die a triple death. After some hesitation, the saint grants the madman's wish; then King Meldred's shepherds captured him, beat him with a stick, threw him into the River Tweed where his body was pierced with a stake, his prophecy thus being fulfilled.
Welsh literature contains many examples of prophetic literature, predicting the military victory of all the Celtic peoples of Britain who would come together to drive the English - and later the Normans - back to sea. Some of these works were interpreted as the "Prophecies of Myrddin", except for the one called the Prydein Arms.
Geoffrey of Monmouth also spoke of this savage and prophetic Merlin in his Vita Merlini, which seems to be a very close adaptation of many "Myrddin's poems".
Merlin Ambrosius, Myrddin Emrys
It was Geoffrey of Monmouth who introduced Merlin to the King Arthur cycle. If Geoffrey is best known for his character of Arthur, it is above all Merlin that he treated, making the prophetic bard of Welsh tradition a central character in his three books:Prophetiae Merlini, Historia regum Britanniae, and Vita Merlini . Following his second book, where Merlin appears in the tale of King Vortigern, Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon, whose reign immediately preceded that of Arthur; Merlin also becomes in several later works a character in the tales of King Arthur.
Geoffroy narrates only three tales of Merlin. In the first, the author attributes to Merlin the story of the fatherless boy that Nennius relates about Aurelius Ambrosius. Merlin is the daughter of a king (possibly Queen of Ireland Medb, wife of Ailill mac Máta) and a demon, and the episode takes place in Carmathen in Wales, home of Myrddin. Geoffrey simply mentions that Merlin was also called Ambrosius, thus concealing the change he makes from Nennius' account. A long series of prophecies is then added. The second tale relates how Merlin created Stonehenge, having the function of being the burial place of Aurelius Ambrosius. The third tale relates how Merlin transforms Uther Pendragon's appearance, allowing him to enter Tintagel Castle to beget his son Arthur.
Some time later, the poet Robert de Boron reworked this material in his poem Merlin, but adding many altered and distorted details in a way that suggested that Wace's version, who had adapted Geoffroy's account into French, was now entered the oral tradition and that this was what Robert de Boron was aware of, as well as other tales of Merlin. Only a few lines of this poem have come down to us. But the resulting prose became popular and was later incorporated into two other novels.
In Robert de Boron's story, Merlin is begotten by a demon from hell and a virgin, like an antichrist. But his mother, pregnant, advised by her confessor Blaise who had noticed the situation, had the child baptized at birth to thwart this satanic plot. Anyway, Merlin, half man and half demon, had extraordinary magical powers such as knowledge of the past, present and future, the latter being a gift from God.
Robert de Boron speaks with great emphasis of Merlin's power to transform himself, his facetious character and his relationship with the Grail. This text also introduces Blaise, Merlin's master, portrayed as transcribing Merlin's gesture that Merlin dictates to him himself, explaining how this gesture should be known and preserved. This text also links Merlin to the Grail.
As the Arthurian myth expanded and embellished, the prophetic aspects of Merlin sometimes lost their emphasis in order to make him a magician, Arthur's mentor and confidant. On the other hand, it is said in the Prose Lancelot that Merlin had never been baptized nor had he ever done anything good in his life except demonic works. Medieval Arthurian tales abound in this direction.
In the Prose Lancelot and other later accounts, Merlin's downfall is caused by his love for a woman named Nimue, who extorts his magical secrets from him, turning them against him. Other texts mention the name of Viviane, another key figure in the Arthurian cycle. Merlin would have fallen madly in love with her and, at her request, would have taught her several spells, including that of imprisoning a man forever. Viviane imprisoned him to keep him with her, either in a cave where he died, or in a magical palace where he would still live, this palace being sometimes located in the forest of Brocéliande, in Little Brittany.
There are thus three accounts of Merlin in Arthur's time which also cover the early days of his reign. The oldest, known as the Vulgate Merlin, includes Robert de Boron's Merlin. It can be considered as a kind of prefiguration of the three novels of Lancelot's Cycle. There is also an incomplete variant known as the Book of Arthur. The second is most often titled Suite de Merlin. It is a long prose novel which has not come down to us intact but is now known to us as the Book of the Grail, intended as the entire history of the Grail and of Arthur and his knights. This book also includes Robert de Boron's Merlin. Finally, the third is called The Prophecies of Merlin and therefore contains the character's prophecies (most relating to political events in thirteenth-century Italy), while others are revealed by his ghost after his death. These prophecies are interspersed with episodes of Merlin's doings and various Arthurian adventures in which Merlin does not appear at all.