View source for Merlin

{{Short description|Legendary Welsh wizard}}
{{About||the bird species|Merlin (bird)|other uses}}
{{Redirect|Merlyn}}
{{Infobox character
| series = {{no italic|[[Matter of Britain]]}}
| image = File:Arthur-Pyle The Enchanter Merlin.JPG
| caption = ''The Enchanter Merlin'', [[Howard Pyle]]'s illustration for ''[[The Story of King Arthur and His Knights]]'' (1903)
| first = ''[[Prophetiae Merlini]]'' ({{c.}} 1130)
| creator = [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]
| based_on = [[Myrddin Wyllt]] and [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]]
| species = [[Cambion]]
| occupation = [[Prophet]], [[Magician (fantasy)|magician]], [[bard]], [[advisor]], [[warrior]], others (depending on the source){{#tag:ref|As noted by Alan Lupack, "Merlin plays many roles in Arthurian literature, including bard, prophet, magician, advisor, and warrior. Though usually a figure who supports Arthur and his vision of [[Camelot]], Merlin is, because of the stories in which he is said to be the son of a devil, sometimes presented as a villain."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/frequently-asked-questions |title=Frequently Asked Questions about the Arthurian Legends {{!}} Robbins Library Digital Projects |website=d.lib.rochester.edu |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=28 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128200322/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/frequently-asked-questions |url-status=live }}</ref>|group="note"}}
| significant_other = [[Lady of the Lake]], [[Morgan le Fay]], [[Sebile]] (romance tradition)
| spouse = [[Gwendolen]]
| relatives = [[Gwenddydd|Ganieda]]
| home = "[[Esplumoir Merlin]]", British woods
}}

'''Merlin''' ({{langx|cy|Myrddin}}, {{langx|kw|Merdhyn}}, {{langx|br|Merzhin}}){{#tag:ref|Alternate forms of Merlin's name include the English ''Merlyn'',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA435|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=15 June 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135583408|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315193833/https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA435|url-status=live}}</ref> the Welsh ''Merddyn'' and ''Myrdin'', and the Breton ''Marzin''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAr7i_RGDbAC&pg=PA476|title=The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal|date=15 March 1864|publisher=W. Curry, jun., and Company|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315193833/https://books.google.com/books?id=PAr7i_RGDbAC&pg=PA476|url-status=live}}</ref> Thomas Malory's Winchester Manuscript of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' used, in addition to ''Merlyn'', also the forms ''Merlyon'' and ''Marylon''.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_7M4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 | title=The Manuscript and Meaning of Malory's Morte Darthur: Rubrication, Commemoration, Memorialization | isbn=978-1-84384-453-2 | last1=Whetter | first1=Kevin Sean | date=2017 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer | access-date=2024-04-04 | archive-date=2024-04-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240404134508/https://books.google.com/books?id=_7M4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 | url-status=live }}</ref>|group="note"}} is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of [[King Arthur]] and best known as a [[Magician (fantasy)|magician]], along with several other main roles.{{#tag:ref|Peter H. Goodrich wrote, "According to authorial and cultural interests, [Merlin] assumes seven primary roles: Wild Man, Wonder Child, Prophet, Poet, Counselor, Wizard, and Lover. Most literature about the mage is selective, emphasizing and elaborating on one or more of these features and de-emphasizing or eliminating others. Merlin was not always all of these things. Instead, his figure developed by gradually accreting varied capabilities, each suggesting further capabilities and roles."<ref name=phg>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|title = Merlin: A Casebook|isbn = 9781135583408|last1 = Goodrich|first1 = Peter H.|date = June 2004| publisher=Routledge }}</ref>|group="note"}} The familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historical and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century Catholic cleric [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] and then built on by the French poet [[Robert de Boron]] and prose successors in the 13th century. Geoffrey’s account presented Merlin as both a prophet and royal advisor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Geoffrey |first=of Monmouth |title=The History of the Kings of Britain |publisher=Penguin Classics |year=1136 |isbn=9780140441703}}</ref> 

Geoffrey seems to have combined earlier Welsh tales of [[Myrddin Wyllt|Myrddin]] and [[Ambrosius Aurelianus|Ambrosius]], two legendary [[Celtic Britons|Briton]] prophets with no connection to Arthur, to form the composite figure that he called '''Merlinus Ambrosius'''. His rendering of the character became immediately popular, especially in [[Wales in the Middle Ages|Wales]].<ref>Lloyd-Morgan, Ceridwen. "Narratives and Non-Narrtives: Aspects of Welsh Arthurian Tradition." ''Arthurian Literature''. 21. (2004): 115–136.</ref> Later chronicle and romance writers in France and elsewhere expanded the account to produce a more full, multifaceted character, creating one of the most important figures in the imagination and literature of the [[Middle Ages]].

Merlin's traditional biography casts him as an often-mad [[cambion]], born of a mortal woman and an [[incubus]], from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities.<ref>[[Katharine Mary Briggs]] (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures'', p.440. New York: Pantheon Books. {{ISBN|0-394-73467-X}}</ref> His most notable abilities commonly include prophecy and [[shapeshifting]]. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue.<ref name="thorpe">{{cite book |author=Geoffrey of Monmouth |author-link=Geoffrey of Monmouth |title=The History of the Kings of Britain |series=Penguin Classics |year=1977 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0-14-044170-3 |editor=Lewis Thorpe |editor-link=Lewis Thorpe |title-link=Historia Regum Britanniae}}</ref> Later stories have Merlin as an advisor and mentor to the young king until he disappears from the tale, leaving behind a series of prophecies foretelling events to come. A popular version from the French prose cycles tells of Merlin being bewitched and forever sealed up or killed by his student, the [[Lady of the Lake]], after having fallen in love with her. Other texts variously describe his retirement, at times supernatural, or death.

== Name ==
[[File:Nuremberg chronicles f 138r 5.jpg|thumb|upright|left|{{lang|la|italic=no|Merlinus}} (Merlin) in the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' (1493)]]

The name Merlin is derived from the [[Welsh language|Welsh]] name of the legendary bard {{lang|owl|[[Myrddin]]}} that [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] Latinised to {{lang|la|Merlinus}} in his works. Medievalist [[Gaston Paris]] suggests that Geoffrey chose the form {{lang|cy|Merlinus}} rather than the expected ''*Merdinus'' to avoid a resemblance to the [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] word {{lang|xno|merde}} (from Latin {{lang|la|merda}}) for feces.<ref name="OED">{{cite journal |year=2008 |title=Merlin |journal=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |url=http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00306349?query_type=word&queryword=merlin&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=2&search_id=0h1m-im2NWy-2375&hilite=00306349 |access-date=7 June 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110629011419/http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00306349?query_type=word&queryword=merlin&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=2&search_id=0h1m-im2NWy-2375&hilite=00306349 |archive-date=29 June 2011}}</ref> 'Merlin' may also be an adjective, in which case he should be called "The Merlin", from the French {{lang|fr|merle}} meaning blackbird.<ref name="MPN"/>{{rp|79}} According to Martin Aurell, the Latin form ''Merlinus'' is a euphony of the Welsh form ''Myrddin'' to bring him closer to the blackbird (Latin ''merula'') into which he could metamorphose through his shamanic powers, as was notably the case for [[Buile Shuibhne|Merlin's Irish counterpart]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.europe1.fr/emissions/Au-coeur-de-l-histoire/Excalibur-et-les-mysteres-de-la-table-ronde-62064|title=Excalibur et les mystères de la table ronde|date=6 April 2011|website=Europe 1|access-date=2 June 2023|archive-date=2 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602082740/https://www.europe1.fr/emissions/Au-coeur-de-l-histoire/Excalibur-et-les-mysteres-de-la-table-ronde-62064|url-status=live}}</ref>

''Myrddin'' may be a combination of *''mer'' (mad) and the Welsh {{lang|cy|dyn}} (man), to mean 'madman'.<ref>Brian Frykenberg (2006). "Myrddin". In John T. Koch (ed.). ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia''. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. p. 1326.</ref> It may also mean '[of] many names' if it was derived from the Welsh {{lang|cy|myrdd}}, myriad.<ref name=dames>Dames, Michael. ''Merlin and Wales: A Magician's Landscape'', 2004. Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-28496-2}}</ref><ref name="LGW">{{cite book |series=Collins Gem |title=Welsh Dictionary |date=2009 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-728959-2}}</ref> In his {{lang|fr|Myrdhinn, ou l'Enchanteur Merlin}} (1862), [[Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué|La Villemarqué]] derived ''Marz[h]in'', which he considered the original form of Merlin's name, from the Breton word {{lang|br|marz}} (wonder) to mean 'wonder man'.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrJaAAAAYAAJ|title=Merlin in German Literature: A Study of the Merlin Legend in German Literature from Medieval Beginnings to the End of Romanticism|first=Adelaide Marie|last=Weiss|date=16 March 1970|publisher=AMS Press|isbn=9780404502232|via=Google Books|access-date=16 March 2023|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316052409/https://books.google.com/books?id=mrJaAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> {{lang|cy|italic=no|[[Clas Myrddin]]}} or ''Merlin's Enclosure'' is an early name for Great Britain as stated in the third series of [[Welsh Triads]].<ref>[[John Rhys|Rhys, John]]. ''[[Hibbert Lectures]]''. p. 168.</ref>

Celticist Alfred Owen Hughes Jarman suggested that the Welsh name {{lang|cy|Myrddin}} ({{IPA|cy|ˈmərðɪn}}) was derived from the toponym {{lang|cy|Caerfyrddin}}, the Welsh name for the town known in English as [[Carmarthen]].<ref name="Koch321">Koch, ''Celtic Culture'', p. 321.</ref> This contrasts with the popular folk etymology that the town was named after the bard. The name Carmarthen is derived from the town's previous Roman name [[Moridunum (Carmarthen)|Moridunum]],<ref name=OED/><ref name=Koch321/> in turn, derived from the Celtic Brittonic ''moridunon'', 'sea fort[ress]'.<ref>Delamarre, Xavier (2021), {{lang|cy|Noms de lieux celtiques de l'Europe ancienne}}, Errance, Paris (in French).</ref> [[Eric P. Hamp]] proposed a similar etymology: ''Morij:n'', 'the maritime' or 'born of the sea'. There is no obvious connection between Merlin and the sea in the texts about him, but Claude Sterckx has suggested that Merlin's father in the Welsh texts, Morfryn, might have been a sea spirit.<ref>Claude Sterckx, ''Dieux d'eau : Apollons celtes et gaulois''. Bruxelles, Société belge d'études celtiques, 1996 ({{ISBN|2-87285-050-3}}), p. 44.</ref> Philippe Walter connected it with the figure of the insular Celtic sea god [[Manannán mac Lir|Manannán]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E5HdDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT226|title=Dictionnaire de mythologie arthurienne|first=Philippe|last=Walter|date=1 January 2015|publisher=Editions Imago|isbn=9782849528501|via=Google Books|access-date=8 June 2023|archive-date=5 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105054602/https://books.google.com/books?id=E5HdDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT226|url-status=live}}</ref>

Folklorist [[Jean Markale]] proposed that the name of Merlin is of French origin and means 'little blackbird', an allusion to the mocking and provocative personality usually attributed to him in medieval stories.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6oLdDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT42|title=Lancelot et la chevalerie arthurienne|first=Jean|last=Markale|date=1 January 1985|publisher=Editions Imago|isbn=9782849522790|via=Google Books|access-date=2 June 2023|archive-date=2 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602085154/https://books.google.com/books?id=6oLdDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT42|url-status=live}}</ref> The Welsh ''Myrddin'' could be also phonetically connected to the name [[Martin (name)|Martin]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n36g6eU7KpEC&pg=PA32 | title=Le devin maudit: Merlin, Lailoken, Suibhne : Textes et étude | isbn=978-2-84310-018-5 | last1=Berthet | first1=Jean-Charles | date=1999 | publisher=ELLUG | access-date=2024-04-04 | archive-date=2024-04-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240404160043/https://books.google.com/books?id=n36g6eU7KpEC&pg=PA32 | url-status=live }}</ref> and some of the powers and other attributes of the 4th-century French Saint [[Martin of Tours]] (and his disciple Saint Hilaire) in hagiography and folklore are similar to these of Merlin. If a relationship between the two figures does exist, however, it may rather be a reverse one in which the Merlin tradition inspired the later accounts of the saint's miracles and life.<ref>Jean-Charles Berthet, "Merlin et saint Martin ou les chemins qui ne mènent pas à Rome". ''Mémoire de maîtrise de littérature du Moyen Âge sous la direction de Philippe Walter'', Université Stendhal, Bibliothèque de Lettres, 1992.</ref>{{clear left}}

==Legend==
===Overview===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Select stories and the earliest known sources
|-
! Episode !! Text
|-
|The first mention of Merlin's Welsh prototype, [[Myrddin Wyllt|Myrddin the Wild]]
|''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' (est. 10th century)
|-
|Birth from a virgin and a demon
|''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (c. 1136)
|-
|Blaise's intervention redeems Merlin from his intended role of the [[Antichrist]]
|[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Verse ''Merlin'']] (c. 1200)
|-
|[[Vortigern]] seeks a "fatherless child" for a blood sacrifice to strengthen his castle's tower
| ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' (c. 828)
|-
|Construction of [[Stonehenge]]
|''Historia Regum Britanniae''
|-
|[[Uther Pendragon]] takes on the appearance of the [[Gorlois|Duke of Cornwall]] through a spell by Merlin and conceives [[King Arthur|Arthur]] with [[Igraine]]
|''Historia Regum Britanniae''
|-
|Merlin selects the fifty original knights of Uther's [[Round Table]]
|Verse ''Merlin''
|-
|[[Excalibur]] pulling contest to prove the young Arthur's [[Divine right of kings|divine right]] to the throne of [[King of the Britons]]
|Verse ''Merlin''
|-
|Merlin tutors Arthur's sister [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] in magic 
|[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Prose ''Merlin'']] (c. after 1200) 
|-
|Arthur is warned of [[Mordred]]'s birth and the coming fall of his kingdom
|''[[Post-Vulgate Cycle]]'' (c. 1235)
|-
|Merlin sets up the search for the [[Holy Grail]] by Arthur's [[Knights of the Round Table]]
|{{ill|Prose Perceval|fr|Perceval en prose|lt=Prose ''Perceval''}} (c. after 1200)
|-
|Blaise writes down the story of Merlin
|Prose ''Merlin''
|-
|Entrapment of Merlin by the [[Lady of the Lake|fairy Viviane]]
|Prose ''Merlin''
|}

As summarized by Danielle Quéruel of the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]],

{{quote box|align=center|The character of Merlin is a mythical figure that was constructed through the fusion of oral traditions of Welsh origin and successive rewritings of the legend during the Middle Ages. Linked to forests and wild places, embodying a sort of universal spirit linked to the cosmic rhythms of nature, the enchanter puts his powers at the service of Britain. Between his appearances among men and at court, he retires to the forest of [[Northumberland]] and a dwelling called [[Esplumoir Merlin|"Esplumoir"]]. There awaits him a priest named Blaise whose mission is to record the history of the British kingdom. 

Merlin reverts to his wild form at certain times of the year. Hairy and shaggy, his appearance recalls his wild and primitive features. He has the ability to thwart the traditional cycle of the ages of life and the passage of time: from the moment he is born, he appears older, capable of reasoning and talking like a wise man. Speaking in riddles, he reveals the future to men in obscure terms. The most important mythical trait that characterizes Merlin is his power of [[metamorphosis]]: being a [[protean]], he can at will take the form of an animal, in particular a deer (linked to forests and a symbol of sovereignty), an appearance of a [[wild man]], or even the aspect of guardian of the woods, half-man half-animal. Depending on the circumstances, he can become a peasant, a monk, a child or an old man. He also has the power to transform others: thus, thanks to him, [[Uther Pendragon|King Uter]] takes on the appearance of his vassal, the [[Gorlois|Duke of Tintagel]], and can thus confound and seduce his wife [[Ygerne]]. Omniscient, Merlin dominates the human condition and places himself at the service of men.<ref name=bnf>{{Cite web|url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/litterature/moyen-age-1/ed6c3713-b2d5-4b94-8cac-a35fbd9471b1-mythe-arthurien/article/7e3d4a1c-6d00-43da-aac4-c40ec113b3e0-merlin-enchanteur|title=Merlin l'Enchanteur|website=BnF Essentiels}}</ref>}}

=== Geoffrey and his sources ===
{{see also|Historicity of King Arthur}}

{{multiple image
| width = 180
| align =
| image1 = Cotton Claudius B VII f.224 Merlin Vortigern.jpg
| image2 = Merlin commenting on lunar eclipse.png
| direction = vertical
| caption1 = The young Merlin reading his prophecies to [[King Vortigern]] in an illustration for Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''[[Prophetiae Merlini]]'' (British Library MS Cotton Claudius B VII f.224, c. 1250)
| caption2 = An older Merlin as portrayed in [[Alfonso the Wise]]'s compilation of texts of astronomy (c. 1400)
}}

Geoffrey's composite Merlin is based mostly on the [[Hen Ogledd|North Brythonic]] poet and seer [[Myrddin Wyllt]], that is Myrddin the Wild (known as ''Merlinus Caledonensis'' or ''Merlin Sylvestris'' in later texts influenced by Geoffrey), appearing in 12th-century poems such as "Afallennau Myrddin" ("Myrddin's Apple Trees") or "Yr Oianau" ("The Piglet").<ref name=bnf/> Myrddin's legend has parallels with a northern Welsh and southern Scottish story of the mad prophet [[Lailoken]] (''Laleocen''), probably the same as Myrddin son of Morfryn (''Myrddin map Morfryn'') mentioned in the Welsh Triads,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ooDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58|title=Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World|first=Graham|last=Phillips|date=12 October 2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781591439011|via=Google Books|access-date=16 March 2023|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316044042/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ooDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58|url-status=live}}</ref> and with ''[[Buile Shuibhne]]'', an Irish tale of the wandering insane king Suibihne mac Colmáin (often Anglicised to ''Sweeney'').<ref name="MPN">Markale, J (1995). Belle N. Burke (trans) ''Merlin: Priest of Nature''. Inner Traditions. {{ISBN|978-0-89281-517-3}}. (Originally ''Merlin L'Enchanteur'', 1981.l)</ref>{{rp|58}}

In Welsh poetry, Myrddin was a bard who was driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war and subsequently fled civilization to become a [[wild man|wild man of the wood]] in the 6th century.<ref name=dames/> He roamed the [[Caledonian Forest]] until he was cured of his madness by Kentigern, also known as [[Saint Mungo]]. Geoffrey had Myrddin in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the ''[[Prophetiae Merlini]]'' ("Prophecies of Merlin", c. 1130), which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary poet (including some distinctively apocalyptic<ref name="ab">{{Cite book |last=Berthelot |first=Anne |url=http://books.openedition.org/pup/3362 |title=Magie et illusion au Moyen Âge |date=17 January 2014 |publisher=Presses universitaires de Provence |isbn=9782821836143 |series=Senefiance |pages=51–64 |chapter=Merlin magicien ? |access-date=2 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602152937/https://books.openedition.org/pup/3362 |archive-date=2 June 2023 |url-status=live |via=OpenEdition Books}}</ref> prophecies for Geoffrey's contemporary 12th century); however, the work reveals little about Merlin's background.

{{anchor|Emrys}}<!-- Myrddin Emrys redirects here -->
Geoffrey was further inspired by '''Emrys''' ([[Old Welsh]]: ''Embreis''), a character based in part on the 5th-century historical figure of the [[Romano-British]] war leader [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]] (Welsh name ''Emrys Wledig'', also known as '''''Myrddin Emrys''''').<ref>Ashe, Geoffrey. ''The Discovery of Arthur'', Owl Books, 1987.</ref> When Geoffrey included Merlin in his next work, ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (c. 1136), he supplemented his characterisation of Merlin by attributing stories of Ambrosius to Merlin. These stories were taken from one of Geoffrey's primary sources, the early 9th-century ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' attributed to [[Nennius]]. In this source, Ambrosius was discovered when the [[King of the Britons]], Vortigern, attempted to erect a tower at [[Dinas Emrys]] (City of Emrys). More than once, the tower collapsed before completion. Vortigen's wise men advised him that the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child. When he was brought before the king, Ambrosius revealed that below the foundation of the tower was a lake containing two dragons battling into each other, representing the struggle between the invading [[Saxons]] (the white dragon) and the native [[Celtic Britons]] (the red dragon). Geoffrey retold the story in his ''Historia Regum Britanniæ'', adding new episodes that tie Merlin with King Arthur and his predecessors. Geoffrey stated that this Ambrosius was also called "Merlin", hence Ambrosius Merlinus.

[[File:BLEgerton3028Fol30rStonehengeCropped.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Giants help the young Merlin build [[Stonehenge]] in an illustration for a circa 1325—1350 manuscript of [[Wace]]'s ''[[Roman de Brut]]'', an expanded adaptation of Geoffrey's ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'']]

Geoffrey's account of Merlin's early life is based on the story from the ''Historia Brittonum''. At the same time, however, Geoffrey also turned Ambrosius Aurelianus into the separate character of [[Uther Pendragon]]'s brother Aurelius Ambrosius. Geoffrey added his own embellishments to the tale, which he set in [[Carmarthen]], Wales (Welsh: Caerfyrddin). While Nennius' "fatherless" Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son of a Roman [[consul]], Geoffrey's Merlin is fathered by an [[incubus]] demon through a nun, daughter of the [[Kingdom of Dyfed|King of Dyfed]] ([[Demetae]], today's [[South West Wales]]). Usually, the name of Merlin's mother is not stated, but it is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the [[Brut Chronicle|Prose ''Brut'']],<ref>''Bibliographical Bulletin of the Arthurian Society'' Vol. LIX (2007). Page 108, item 302.</ref> the text also naming his grandfather as King [[Aurelius Conanus|Conaan]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJaNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT612|title = Merlin: A Casebook|isbn = 1135583390|last1 = Goodrich|first1 = Peter H.|date = June 2004| publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

Merlin is born all hairy and already able to speak like an adult, as well as possessing supernatural knowledge that he uses to save his mother. The story of Vortigern's tower is the same; the underground dragons, one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the Britons, and their final battle is a portent of things to come. At this point Geoffrey inserted a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken from his earlier ''Prophetiae Merlini''. Geoffrey also told two further tales of the character. In the first, Merlin creates [[Stonehenge]] as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius, bringing the stones from Ireland.{{#tag:ref|The stones, in actuality, came from the [[Preseli Hills]] in south-west Wales.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/building-stonehenge/|title=Building Stonehenge|website=English Heritage|access-date=2020-01-12|archive-date=2020-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331104957/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/building-stonehenge/|url-status=live}}</ref> Unlike in the later accounts since [[Layamon's Brut|Layamon's ''Brut'']],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORhdEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 | title=Magic in Merlin's Realm: A History of Occult Politics in Britain | isbn=9781316512401 | last1=Young | first1=Francis | date=3 March 2022 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Geoffrey's Merlin actually does not use magic in this episode.|group="note"}} In the second, Merlin's magic enables the new British king, Uther Pendragon, to enter into [[Tintagel Castle]] in disguise and to father Arthur with his enemy's wife, Igerna ([[Igraine]]). These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. Merlin subsequently disappears from the narrative. He does not tutor or advise Arthur as in later versions.<ref name="thorpe" />

Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work, ''[[Vita Merlini]]'' (1150). He based it on stories of the original 6th-century Myrddin, set long after his time frame for the life of Merlin Ambrosius. Nevertheless, Geoffrey asserts that the characters and events of ''Vita Merlini'' are the same as told in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. Here, Merlin survives the reign of Arthur, whose fall he is told about by [[Taliesin]]. Merlin spends a part of his life as a madman in the woods and marries a woman named Guendoloena (a character inspired by the historic king [[Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio]]).<ref name="thorpe"/>{{rp|44}} He eventually retires to observing stars from his house with seventy windows in the remote woods of [[Rhydderch Hael|Rhydderch]]. There, he is often visited by Taliesin and by his own sister Ganieda (a Latinized name of Myrddin's sister [[Gwenddydd]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4oEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134|title=The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature|date=15 October 2020|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781786837349|via=Google Books|access-date=16 March 2023|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316045559/https://books.google.com/books?id=G4oEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134|url-status=live}}</ref>), who has become queen of the [[Cumbrians]] and is also endowed with prophetic powers. Compared to Geoffrey's ''Historia'', his ''Vita'' seems to have little influence on the later portrayals of Merlin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodrich |first=Peter H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA348 |title=Merlin: A Casebook |date=June 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-58340-8 |language=en |access-date=2023-07-07 |archive-date=2023-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707163847/https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA348 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Merlin and the Knight.png|thumb|upright|An illustration of Merlin as a druid in ''The Rose'' (1848)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=Emily |url=https://archive.org/stream/roseoraffections1848mars#page/134/mode/2up |title=The Rose, or Affection's Gift |date=1848 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : D. Appleton & Co. |others=Boston Public Library}}</ref> ]]

Mark Chorvinsky hypothesized that Merlin is based on a historical person, probably a 5th and/or 6th-century [[druid]] living in southern Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2020/10/when-i-interviewed-mark-chorvinsky.html |title=WHEN I INTERVIEWED MARK CHORVINSKY - REMEMBERING A MUCH-MISSED FORTEAN AND FRIEND |date=17 October 2020 |access-date=2023-10-11 |archive-date=2023-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105054607/https://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2020/10/when-i-interviewed-mark-chorvinsky.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Nikolai Tolstoy]] makes a similar argument based on the fact that early references to Merlin describe him as possessing characteristics which modern scholarship would recognize as druidical (but that sources of the time would not have recognized), the inference being that those characteristics were not invented by the early chroniclers but belonged to a real person.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lloyd-Morgan |first1=Ceridwen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w-yVDwAAQBAJ&dq=%2522Tolstoy%2522%252B%2522merlin%2522%252B%25226%2522%252B%2522century%2522&pg=PA46 |title=Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Legend in Celtic Literatures and Traditions |last2=Poppe |first2=Erich |date=2019 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-344-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=tolstoy>{{cite book |last1=Tolstoy |first1=Nikolai |title=The Quest for Merlin |date=1985 |publisher=Hamish Hamilton|isbn=0-241-11356-3}}{{page needed|date=October 2023}}</ref> If so, the hypothetical proto-Merlin would have lived about a century after the hypothetical historical Arthur.

A late version of the ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' (dubbed the "B-text", written at the end of the 13th century) and influenced by Geoffrey,<ref>Curley, Michael, ''Geoffrey of Monmouth'', Cengage Gale, 1994, p. 115.</ref> records that in the year 573 after "the [[battle of Arfderydd]], between the sons of Eliffer and Gwenddolau son of Ceidio; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Myrddin went mad." The earliest version of the same entry in ''Annales Cambriae'' (in the "A-text", written c. 1100), as well as a later copy (the "C-text", written towards the end of the 13th century) do not mention Myrddin.<ref>Gough-Cooper, Henry (2012). "[http://www.heroicage.org/issues/15/gough-cooper.php Annales Cambriae, from Saint Patrick to AD 682: Texts A, B & C in Parallel] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515221958/http://www.heroicage.org/issues/15/gough-cooper.php |date=2013-05-15 }}". ''The Heroic Age'', Issue 15 (October 2012).</ref> Myrddin furthermore shares similarities with the shamanic bard figure of Taliesin, alongside whom he appears in the Welsh Triads and in ''Vita Merlini'', as well as in the poem "Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin" ("The Conversation between Myrddin and Taliesin") from ''[[The Black Book of Carmarthen]]'', which was dated by [[Rachel Bromwich]] as "certainly" before 1100, that is predating ''Vita Merlini'' by at least half century while telling a different version of the same story.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2euBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA458|title=Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain|first=Rachel|last=Bromwich|date=15 November 2014|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781783161461|via=Google Books}}</ref> According to Villemarqué, the origin of the legend of Merlin lies with the Roman story of Marsus, a son of [[Circe]], which eventually influenced the Breton and Welsh tales of a supernaturally-born bard or enchanter named Marzin or Marddin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roOLfgWbIccC&pg=PR5|title=Merlin; Or, The Early History of King Arthur: A Prose Romance (about 1450-1460 A.D.).|first=Henry Benjamin|last=Wheatley|date=15 March 1865|publisher=Early English Text Society|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316035907/https://books.google.com/books?id=roOLfgWbIccC&pg=PR5|url-status=live}}</ref> {{clear left}}

=== Romance reimagination ===
{{multiple image
| width = 250
| align = left
| image1 = Histoire de Merlin.png
| image2 = Emil Johann Lauffer - Merlin presenting the future king Arthur.jpg
| direction = vertical
| caption1 = [[Jean Colombe]]'s circa 1480 illumination of the story of Merlin's unholy birth as told in the [[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Prose ''Merlin'']], elaborating on the brief mention by Geoffrey. This was the first popular account of [[Sexuality in Christian demonology#Sexual relations|demonic parentage]] motif in Western Christian literature<ref name="True History">{{cite book |last=Lawrence-Mathers |first=A.|year=2020 |orig-year=2012 |chapter=Chapter 6: A Demonic Heritage |title=The True History of Merlin the Magician |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300253085}}</ref>
| caption2 = Emil Johann Lauffer's painting of Merlin taking the newborn Arthur to be secretly raised by [[Sir Ector|Ector]]. Merlin is often linked to [[stag]] themes in the legend by either riding on it or transforming himself into one in an apparent association with old Celtic pagan beliefs and their Christianisation{{#tag:ref|Merlin's connections with stags within his stories may be a shadow of the belief in avatars of the Celtic "horned god", [[Cernunnos]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA407|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=22 June 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135583408|via=Google Books|access-date=21 May 2023|archive-date=21 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521170959/https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA407|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT156|title=Merlin: Priest of Nature|first=Jean|last=Markale|date=1 June 1995|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781620554500|via=Google Books|access-date=21 May 2023|archive-date=21 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521171000/https://books.google.com/books?id=fGAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT156|url-status=live}}</ref> As the [[Celtic Otherworld]]-associated "enchanted [[white stag]]" motif become increasingly Christianised,<ref>{{cite book | last=Johnson | first=F.F. | title=Origins of Arthurian Romances: Early Sources for the Legends of Tristan, the Grail and the Abduction of the Queen | publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-7864-9234-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0Cmn4ps-X4C&pg=PA96 | page=96 | access-date=2023-06-04 | archive-date=2023-06-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604041332/https://books.google.com/books?id=K0Cmn4ps-X4C&pg=PA96 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Koch | first=J.T. | title=Celtic Culture: A-Celti | publisher=ABC-CLIO | series=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-85109-440-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA131 | access-date=5 June 2023 | page=131 | archive-date=4 June 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604041340/https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA131 | url-status=live }}</ref> monastic writers of Arthurian prose romances would even directly equate it with the Christ himself.<ref>{{cite web | title=Vision de Galaad, Perceval et Bohort | website=BnF Essentiels | url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/4bb51312-b22d-4f61-83c3-74a25e516198-vision-galaad-perceval-et-bohort | language=fr | access-date=5 June 2023 | archive-date=4 June 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604041340/https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/4bb51312-b22d-4f61-83c3-74a25e516198-vision-galaad-perceval-et-bohort | url-status=live }}</ref>|group="note"}}
}}

Around the turn of the 13th century, [[Robert de Boron]] retold and expanded on this material in ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Merlin]]'', an [[Old French]] epic poem inspired by [[Wace]]'s ''[[Roman de Brut]]'', an Anglo-Norman creative adaptation of Geoffrey's ''Historia''. The work presents itself as the story of Merlin's life as told by Merlin himself to be written down by the "real" author while the actual author claimed merely to translate the story into French. Only a few lines of what is believed to be the original text have survived, but a more popular prose version had a great influence on the emerging genre of Arthurian-themed [[chivalric romance]].

As in Geoffrey's ''Historia'', Merlin is created as a demon spawn, but in Robert's account he is explicitly to become the [[Antichrist]] intended to reverse the effect of the [[Harrowing of Hell]]. The infernal plot is thwarted when a priest named {{ill|Blaise (Arthurian legend)|fr|Blaise (légende arthurienne)|lt=Blaise}} (the story's narrator and perhaps Merlin's divine twin in a hypothetical now-lost oral tradition{{#tag:ref|Blaise also figures within the text as its supposed original author, decades later writing down Merlin's own words in a third-person narration. According to Philippe Walter, Blaise, whose name resembles ''bleiz'', the Old Breton word for wolf, may have originally been a wolf-man double figure of Merlin in pagan-influenced tales before he was thoroughly Christianized and turned into Merlin's scribe and confidant. This association would explain Merlin's animal-like appearance at birth and the name Lailoken, 'the twin'.<ref>Philippe Walter, "Merlin, le loup et saint Blaise". ''Mediaevistik'' 11 (1998).</ref>|group="note"}}) is contacted by the child's mother; Blaise immediately baptizes the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan and his intended destiny.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-birth-of-merlin |title=The Birth of Merlin |website=University of Rochester Robbins Library Digital Projects |access-date=19 June 2019 |archive-date=19 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619170330/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-birth-of-merlin |url-status=live }}</ref> The demonic legacy invests Merlin (already able to speak fluently even as a newborn) with a preternatural knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the boy prophetic knowledge of the future. The text lays great emphasis on Merlin's power to [[shapeshift]],{{#tag:ref|Merlin appears as a woodcutter with an axe about his neck, big shoes, a torn coat, bristly hair, and a large beard. He is later found in the forest of [[Northumberland]] by a follower of Uther disguised as an ugly man and tending a great herd of beasts. He then appears first as a handsome man and then as a beautiful boy. Years later, he approaches Arthur disguised as a peasant wearing leather boots, a wool coat, a hood, and a belt of knotted sheepskin. He is described as tall, black and bristly, and as seeming cruel and fierce. Finally, he appears as an old man with a long beard, short and hunchbacked, in an old torn woolen coat, who carries a club and drives a multitude of beasts before him.<ref name="loomis" />|group="note"}} his joking personality, and his connection to the [[Holy Grail]], the quest for which he later foretells.

''Merlin'' was originally part of a cycle of Robert's poems telling the story of the Grail over the centuries. The narrative of ''Merlin'' is largely based on Geoffrey's familiar tale of Vortigern's Tower, Uther's war against the Saxons, and Arthur's conception. New in this retelling is the episode of young Arthur (who had been secreted away by Merlin) drawing the [[Excalibur|sword from the stone]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-arthur-and-the-sword-in-the-stone |title=Arthur and the Sword in the Stone |website=University of Rochester Robbins Library Digital Projects |access-date=19 June 2019 |archive-date=19 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619170258/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-arthur-and-the-sword-in-the-stone |url-status=live }}</ref> an event orchestrated by Merlin in the role of kingmaker. Earlier, Merlin also instructs Uther to establish the original, quasi-religious chivalric order of the [[Round Table]] for fifty members, following his own act of creating the table itself as a replica of both the [[Last Supper]] table and the table of [[Joseph of Arimathea]].<ref name=bnf/>{{#tag:ref|Merlin's apparently own creation of the Round Table as described in the Prose ''Merlin'' (it is not included in the surviving fragment of the poem), absent of any Biblical connections, contradicts the plot and themes of ''Joseph d'Arimathea'', a related work also attributed to Robert de Boron. This may be thus an invention of the prose author. Furthermore, the Modena manuscript of the ''Didot-Perceval'' continuation of ''Merlin'', sometimes also attributed to Robert, features only 13 seats at the Round Table instead of 50.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA267 |title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature |date=2020 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-743-1 |language=en}}</ref>|group="note"}} The text ends with the coronation of Arthur. The prose version of Robert's poem was then continued in the 13th-century ''Merlin Continuation'', telling of King Arthur's early wars and Merlin's role in them.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/conlee-prose-merlin |title=Prose Merlin |website=University of Rochester Robbins Library Digital Projects |date=January 1998 |access-date=19 June 2019 |archive-date=19 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619170258/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/conlee-prose-merlin |url-status=live }}</ref> In this text, also known as the ''Suite du Merlin'', the mage both predicts and, wielding elemental magic,<ref name="ab" /> influences the course of battles,{{#tag:ref|In one example of Merlin's interventions, the Vulgate version has him conjure a magical mist that causes the forces of Arthur's enemy King Amant to clash with the Saxon army at Carmelide. On another occasion, Merlin comes to aid Arthur a dragon banner that comes to life and throws fire and flames out of its mouth. Merlin's part in these wars is depicted in more detail in the recently-found Bristol ''Merlin'' fragment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2021/september/bristol-merlin-update.html|title=September: Bristol Merlin update &#124; News and features &#124; University of Bristol|date=2 September 2021 |access-date=2021-09-11|archive-date=2021-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910192048/http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2021/september/bristol-merlin-update.html|url-status=live}}</ref>|group="note"}} in addition to helping the young Arthur in other ways. Eventually, he arranges the reconciliation between Arthur and his rivals, and the surrender of the defeated Saxons and their departure from Britain.

{{multiple image
| width             = 180
| align             =
| image1            = Conception of Merlin.jpg
| image2            = Merlin from Le Morte d’Arthur - Beardsley - Early Works plate 67.svg
| direction         = vertical
| caption1          = The conception of Merlin as depicted in a circa 1494 manuscript of the [[Lancelot en prose|Prose ''Lancelot'']]{{#tag:ref|As noted by Miranda Griffin, "while demons are often portrayed with quite extraordinary bodies in illuminations in manuscripts of the ''Merlin''," actual descriptions of Merlin's father tend to talk of an airborne spirit, sometimes taking material shape of a handsome man.<ref>{{cite book | last=Griffin | first=M. | title=Transforming Tales: Rewriting Metamorphosis in Medieval French Literature | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-19-968698-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6hBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 | page=185 | access-date=2023-06-05 | archive-date=2023-06-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605082808/https://books.google.com/books?id=T6hBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 | url-status=live }}</ref> One version of the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']] also makes Merlin essentially a "half-brother" of the monster known as the [[Questing Beast]].<ref name=ll>{{Cite journal|title=Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake|author=Berthelot, Anne|year=2000|journal=Arthuriana|volume=10|issue=1|pages=55–81|doi = 10.1353/art.2000.0029|jstor = 27869521|s2cid = 161777117}}</ref>|group="note"}}
| caption2          = "Merlin", an illustration in the 1894 Dent edition of [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]''
}}

The extended prose rendering of ''Merlin'' was incorporated as a foundation of the ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'', a vast cyclical series of Old French prose works also known as the Vulgate Cycle, in the form of the ''Estoire de Merlin'' (''Story of Merlin''), also known as the Vulgate ''Merlin'' or the Prose ''Merlin''. There, while not identifying his mother, it is stated that Merlin was named after his grandfather on her side. The Vulgate's Prose ''Lancelot'' further relates that after growing up in the borderlands between 'Scotland' (i.e. [[Picts|Pictish]] lands) and 'Ireland' (i.e. [[Argyll]]), Merlin "possessed all the wisdom that can come from demons, which is why he was so feared by the Bretons and so revered that everyone called him a holy prophet and the ordinary people all called him their god."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA19|title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I|isbn=9781843842262|last1=Lacy|first1=Norris J.|year=2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref> In the Vulgate Cycle's version of ''Merlin'', his acts include arranging the consummation of Arthur's desire for "the most beautiful maiden ever born," Lady Lisanor of Cardigan, resulting in the birth of Arthur's illegitimate son [[Lohot]] from before the marriage to [[Guinevere]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WXzagvAprIC&pg=PA254 |title=The Fall of Kings and Princes: Structure and Destruction in Arthurian Tragedy |last=Guerin |first=M. Victoria |date=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-2290-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwB78lRKStoC&pg=PA134 |title=Lancelot-Grail: The Story of Merlin |last=Lacy |first=Norris J. |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-1-84384-234-7 |language=en}}</ref> Merlin seems to be inherently evil in the so-called [[Prose Lancelot|non-cyclic ''Lancelot'']], where he was born as the "fatherless child" from not a supernatural rape of a virgin but a consensual union between a lustful demon and an unmarried beautiful young lady and was never baptized.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dover |first=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkBSujrlYRAC&pg=PA22 |title=A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle |date=2003 |publisher=DS Brewer |isbn=978-0-85991-783-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cartlidge |first=Neil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2a22CNzigcAC&pg=PA101 |title=Heroes and Anti-heroes in Medieval Romance |date=2012 |publisher=DS Brewer |isbn=978-1-84384-304-7 |language=en}}</ref>

A further reworking and an alternative continuation of the Prose ''Merlin'' were included within the subsequent [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]] as the Post-Vulgate ''Suite du Merlin'' or the Huth ''Merlin'', the so-called "romantic" rewrite (as opposed to the so-called "historical" original of the Vulgate). It added some content such as Merlin providing Arthur with the sword [[Excalibur]] through a [[Lady of the Lake]], while either removing or altering many other episodes. Merlin's magical interventions in the Post-Vulgate versions of his story are relatively limited and markedly less spectacular, even compared to the magical feats of his own students, and his character becomes less moral. In addition, Merlin's prophecies also include sets of alternative possibilities (meaning future can be changed) instead of only certain outcomes.<ref name="ab" /> The Post-Vulgate Cycle has Merlin warn Arthur of how the birth of his other son will bring great misfortune and ruin to his kingdom, which then becomes a [[self-fulfilling prophecy]]. Eventually, long after Merlin is gone, his advice to dispose of the baby [[Mordred]] through an event evoking the Biblical [[Massacre of the Innocents]] leads to the deaths of many, among them Arthur.

=== Later developments ===
Both ''Merlin'' and its continuations have been adapted in verse and prose, translated into several languages, and further modified to various degrees by other authors. Notably, the Post-Vulgate ''Suite'' (along with an earlier version of the Prose ''Merlin'') was the main source for the opening section of [[Thomas Malory]]'s English-language compilation work ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' which formed a now-iconic version of the legend. Compared to some of his French sources (such as the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' which described Merlin as "treacherous and disloyal by nature, like his [demon] father before him"<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0sC1dcIRjg0C&pg=PA553 |title=The Holy Grail: History, Legend, and Symbolism |date=January 2006 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486452791 |access-date=2023-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105054602/https://books.google.com/books?id=0sC1dcIRjg0C&pg=PA553 |archive-date=2023-11-05 |url-status=live}}</ref>), Malory limited the extent of the negative association of Merlin and his powers. He is relatively rarely condemned as demonic by other characters such as [[King Lot]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saunders |first=Corinne |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535700/ |title=Romance Rewritten: The Evolution of Middle English Romance. A Tribute to Helen Cooper |date=9 November 2018 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |editor-last1=Archibald |editor-first1=Elizabeth |series=Wellcome Trust–Funded Monographs and Book Chapters |chapter=Lifting the Veil: Voices, Visions, and Destiny in Malory's Morte Darthur |pmid=30620517 |editor-last2=Leitch |editor-first2=Megan |editor-last3=Saunders |editor-first3=Corinne |via=PubMed}}</ref> instead he is presented as an ambiguous trickster.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greene |first1=Wendy Tibbetts |year=1987 |title=Malory's Merlin: An Ambiguous Magician? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27868621 |url-status=live |journal=Arthurian Interpretations |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=56–63 |jstor=27868621 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328181255/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27868621 |archive-date=2023-03-28 |access-date=2023-03-28}}</ref>[[File:Merlin by Louis Rhead.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''Merlin, the Enchanter'' by [[Louis Rhead]] (1923)]]

As the Arthurian myths were retold, Merlin's prophetic "[[Divination|seer]]" aspects were sometimes de-emphasized (or even seemingly vanish entirely, as in the fragmentary and more fantastical ''Livre d'Artus''<ref name=ab/>) in favor of portraying him as a [[Magician (fantasy)|wizard]] and an advisor to the young Arthur, sometimes in the struggle between good and evil sides of his character, and living in deep forests connected with nature. Through his ability to change his shape, he may appear as a "wild man" figure, evoking his prototype Myrddin Wyllt,<ref>Koch, ''Celtic Culture'', p. 1325.</ref> as a civilized man of any age (including as a very young child), or even as a talking animal.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 43632466|title = The Space of Transformation: Merlin Between Two Deaths|last1 = Griffin|first1 = Miranda|journal = Medium Ævum|year = 2011|volume = 80|issue = 1|pages = 85–103|doi = 10.2307/43632466}}</ref> His guises can be highly deformed and animalistic even when Merlin is presenting as a human or humanoid being.<ref name=ab/>{{#tag:ref|In the ''Livre d'Artus'', for instance, Merlin enters Rome in the form of a huge stag with a white fore-foot. He bursts into the presence of [[Julius Caesar]] (here Arthur's contemporary) and tells the emperor that only the wild man of the woods can interpret the dream that has been troubling him. Later, he returns in the form of a black, shaggy man, barefoot, with a torn coat. In another episode, he decides to do something that will be spoken of forever. Going into the forest of Brocéliande, he transforms himself into a herdsman carrying a club and wearing a wolf-skin and leggings. He is large, bent, black, lean, hairy and old, and his ears hang down to his waist. His head is as big as a buffalo's, his hair is down to his waist, he has a hump on his back, his feet and hands are backwards, he is hideous, and is over 18 feet tall. By his arts, he calls a herd of deer to come and graze around him.<ref name="loomis" />|group="note"}} In the ''Perceval en prose'' (also known as the Didot ''Perceval'' and usually also attributed to Robert), where Merlin is the initiator of the Grail Quest and cannot die until the end of days, he eventually retires after Arthur's downfall by turning himself into a bird and entering the mysterious ''[[Esplumoir Merlin|esplumoir]]'', never to be seen again.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k116499t/f508.image | title=Le Saint Graal, ou le Joseph d'Arimathie, première branche des romans de la Table ronde. T1 / Publié d'après des textes et des documents inédits par Eugène Hucher | access-date=2022-04-14 | archive-date=2022-04-14 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414205144/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k116499t/f508.image | url-status=live }}</ref>

The earliest English verse romance concerning Merlin is ''[[Of Arthour and of Merlin]]'' of the late 13th century, which drew from the chronicles and the Vulgate Cycle. In English-language medieval texts that conflate [[Sub-Roman Britain|Britain]] with the [[Kingdom of England]], the Anglo-Saxon enemies against whom Merlin aids first Uther and then Arthur tend to be replaced by the [[Saracen|Saracens]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calkin |first=Siobhain Bly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saL7AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT148 |title=Saracens and the Making of English Identity: The Auchinleck Manuscript |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-47171-2 |language=en}}</ref> or simply just invading pagans. The earliest Merlin work written in Germany was [[Caesarius of Heisterbach]]'s Latin theological text ''Dialogus Miraculorum'' (1220). Among other medieval works dealing with the Merlin legend is the 13th-century French romance ''[[Le Roman de Silence]],''<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8mBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT89 |title=Gender in Medieval Culture |last=Sauer |first=Michelle M. |date=24 September 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-8694-2 |language=en}}</ref> and the 13th-14th Italian story collection ''Il Novellino'' that pictures him as a righteous seer chastising people for their sins.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_lk-wKzYZAC&pg=PA49|title=The Novellino or One Hundred Ancient Tales: An Edition and Translation based on the 1525 Gualteruzzi editio princeps|first=Joseph P.|last=Consoli|date=4 July 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136511059|via=Google Books}}</ref> Conversely, the ''[[Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland]]'', which sympathizes with Mordred as usual in Scottish chronicle tradition, particularly attributes Merlin's supernatural evil influence on Arthur to its very negative portrayal of his rule.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Joanna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDooDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT134 |title=Premodern Scotland: Literature and Governance 1420-1587 |last2=Wingfield |first2=Emily |date=16 June 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-109148-3 |access-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115212817/https://books.google.com/books?id=jDooDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT134 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> He is also a villainous figure, opposing Arthur's daughter, in the late Irish romance ''Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tichelaar |first=Tyler R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLx7w5IzCDMC&pg=PA135 |title=King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition |date=2010-01-31 |publisher=Loving Healing Press |isbn=978-1-61599-066-5 |language=en}}</ref>

In the Second Continuation of ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]]'', written around 1210, a young daughter of Merlin called the Lady of the High Peak of Mont Dolorous, appears to guide [[Perceval]] towards the Grail Castle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nutt |first=Alfred |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42205/42205-h/42205-h.htm |title=Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail |date=13 February 2019 |publisher=The Folk-Lore Society |isbn=9783749406272 |access-date=1 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601232034/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42205/42205-h/42205-h.htm |archive-date=1 June 2023 |url-status=live |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bryant |first1=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWTwf8MZOb8C&pg=PA175 |title=The Legend of the Grail |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2004 |isbn=9781843840060 |access-date=2023-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105054603/https://books.google.com/books?id=oWTwf8MZOb8C&pg=PA175 |archive-date=2023-11-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> Merlin's usually unspecified mother is sometimes called Adhan or Aldan, or Optima, as in Bauduin (Baudouin) Butor's 1294 romance known as either ''Les Fils du Roi Constant'' or ''Pandragus et Libanor''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uq8jEQAAQBAJ&pg=PT253|title=Out of the Mouths of Babes: Infant Voices in Medieval French Literature|first=Julie|last=Singer|date=March 10, 2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-83803-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Paolino Pieri's 14th-century Italian ''La Storia di Merlino'', which invents a new version of the story of Merlin's youth,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=June 24, 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-58340-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref> names his mother as Marinaia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaoqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA213|title=The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature|first=Edmund G.|last=Gardner|date=April 24, 1930|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Limited|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Ulrich Füetrer]]'s 15th-century ''Buch der Abenteuer'', in the section based on [[Albrecht von Scharfenberg]]'s lost ''Merlin'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boyd |first=James |date=15 April 1936 |title=Ulrich Füetrer's Parzival: Material and Sources |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zRdZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1 |publisher=Society for the study of mediæval languages and literature |via=Google Books}}</ref> turns Merlin into father of Uter, effectively making Merlin's grandson Arthur a part-devil too. The eponymous redeemed half-demon Gowther is Merlin's half-brother in the 15th-century English poem ''[[Sir Gowther]]''.

[[File:Beguiling of Merlin.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lady of the Lake]] in ''[[The Beguiling of Merlin]]'' by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] (1874). The depicted episode in its various tellings became a major inspiration for [[Romanticism|Romantic]] authors and artists of the late 19th century.]]

In the prose chivalric romance tradition, Merlin has a major weakness: young beautiful women of ''[[femme fatale]]'' archetype.<ref name="ff2">{{Cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Barbara D. |year=2000 |title=The Spanish 'Viviens' of "El baladro del sabio Merlín" and "Benjamín Jarnés's Viviana y Merlín": From Femme Fatale to Femme Vitale |journal=Arthuriana |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=82–93 |doi=10.1353/art.2000.0035 |jstor=27869522 |s2cid=162352301}}</ref> This is what leads him to his doom by a Lady of the Lake. Besides her, Merlin's apprentice in chivalric romances is often King Arthur's half-sister, [[Morgan le Fay]], who is sometimes depicted as Merlin's lover<ref>{{cite web |url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-arthur-and-gawain |title=Arthur and Gawain - Robbins Library Digital Projects |website=rochester.edu |access-date=1 May 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119190904/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-arthur-and-gawain |archive-date=19 November 2017}}</ref> and sometimes as just his unrequited love interest.{{#tag:ref|As summarized by [[Anne Berthelot]], depending on the version of the narrative, "it may be that a lustful Merlin seduces an (almost) innocent Morgue [Morgan], thus pushing her to her ''déchéance'' (downfall). Or Morgue may appear as an ambitious and unscrupulous bitch ready to seduce an old tottering Merlin in order to gain the wisdom he alone can dispense."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berthelot |first=Anne |date=2000 |title=Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake |journal=Arthuriana |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=55–81 |issn=1078-6279 |jstor=27869521}}</ref>|group="note"}} Contrary to many modern works in which they are archenemies, Merlin and Morgan are never opposed to each other in any medieval tradition, other than she forcibly rejecting him in some texts. Merlin's love for Morgan is so great that he even lies to the king to save her in the Huth ''Merlin'', which is the only instance of him ever intentionally misleading Arthur.<ref>Goodrich, ''Merlin: A Casebook'', p. 149–150.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Merlin also otherwise protects Morgan and continues to aid her when she requests help in some other texts. The ''Prophéties de Merlin'' tells of Morgan's reaction to the news of his entombment by the Lady of the Lake, saying she was "at the same time glad and sorry" and "sorry and worried, because if she were to have need of Merlin, she would be ruined for want of him."<ref name=ll/>|group="note"}} In the Venetian prose romance ''[Les] Prophéties de Merlin'', also known as the ''Prophécies de Merlin'' (c. 1274-79), he further tutors [[Sebile]], two other witch queens, and the Lady of the Isle of [[Avalon]] (Dama di Isola do Vallone). Other figures who learn sorcery from Merlin include the Wise Damsel in the Italian prose romance ''Historia di Merlino'',{{#tag:ref|The Italian [[Tristan]] tradition identifies the Wise Damsel (Savia Donzella / Savia Damigella) as the usually unnamed fairy enchantress who abducted Tristan's father [[Meliodas]] to be her lover. In some versions, including the ''[[Tavola Ritonda]]'', Merlin (Merlino) first appears as a knight to foretell the death of Meliodas' wife Eliabella, who will search for her husband without success while pregnant with Tristan. He then gathers and leads a group of the knights of the realm Leonis to the Wise Damsel's magically hidden and otherwise unaccessible tower or castle deep in the wilderness of the forest Dirlantes (the same Darnantes that Merlin sometimes meets his end) so they can kill her, which Merlin explicitly orders them to do, and free Meliodas. Years later, [[Tristan and Iseult]] will take refuge in her now abandoned but still enchanted castle while hiding from [[King Mark]].|group="note"}} and the male wizard [[Mabon ap Modron|Mabon]] in the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'' and in the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']]. While Merlin's apprentices gain or expand their magical powers through him, his prophetic powers cannot be passed on.

===Merlin's prophecies===

The works dealing with Merlin's prophecies did not end with Geoffrey's ''Prophetiae''. Particularly in Britain, Merlin remained as much as a prophet as a magician up to and including the 16th century, when political content in the style of [[Agrippa d'Aubigné]] continued to be written using Merlin's name to guarantee their authenticity.<ref name="ab"/> For instance, [[John of Cornwall (theologian)|John of Cornwall]]'s 12th-century Latin poem ''[[Prophecy of Merlin]]'' contains a selection of 'updated' prophecies from Geoffrey's ''Prophetae'' that come with the author's interpretations relating them to his contemporary Cornish and English political affairs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mlf9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT64|title=The Book of Merlin: Magic, Legend and History|first=John|last=Matthews|date=September 15, 2020|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-9921-9 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The late medieval ''Vita di Merlino con le sue Profetie'' (1379), combining Merlin romance material and prophecies related to the author's recent contemporary history and politics, became the first Arthurian text printed in Italy.<ref name=ita/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9isAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118|title=The Arthurian Handbook: Second Edition|first1=Norris J.|last1=Lacy|first2=Geoffrey|last2=Ashe|first3=Debra N.|last3=Mancoff|date=January 14, 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-77744-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The influential ''Prophéties de Merlin'' (later abridged and clarified in Pieri's ''Storia'') was written in French but obviously by an Italian in Venice (falsely claiming to be one "Richard from Ireland") on the bidding of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]] and to propagate on his behalf. It contains long prophecies mostly concerned with 11th to 13th-century history and contemporary politics relating to Italy and the [[Holy Land]], some supposedly told by Merlin's ghost after his death, interspersed with episodes relating Merlin's deeds and with assorted Arthurian adventures in which Merlin does not appear at all.<ref name=ita>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA186|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=June 24, 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-58340-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaoqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA45|title=The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature|first=Edmund G.|last=Gardner|date=April 24, 1930|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Limited|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyZzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97|title=Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages|first=Stephen|last=Knight|date=October 18, 2018|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-3292-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The German ''Sagen von Merlin'' from the same era, which included the [[War of the Keys]] between Frederick and the Papacy, contains prophecies directed against the Popes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJ0LtuEYbDwC&pg=PR8-IA24|title=Merlin: Or, The Early History of King Arthur: a Prose Romance (about 1450-1460 A.D.)|first=Henry Benjamin|last=Wheatley|date=April 24, 1865|publisher=Early English Text Society|via=Google Books}}</ref> The widely circulated short political tract ''Expositio Abbatis Joachimi super Sibillis et Merlino'' (c. 1240), falsely attributed to [[Joachim of Fiore]], contains the praise of Frederick's miraculous birth, which backfired, making it look like the coming of Antichrist.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9QYDQAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT57|title=Joachim of Fiore and the Influence of Inspiration: Essays in Memory of Marjorie E. Reeves (1905-2003)|first=Julia Eva|last=Wannenmacher|date=September 17, 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-11088-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJaNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT398|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=June 1, 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=1-135-58339-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref> 

During the 15th century, old Welsh works predicting the Celtic revenge and victory over the Saxons were recast as Merlin's (Myrddin's) prophecies and used along with Geoffrey by the propaganda of the Welsh-descended [[Henry VII of England]] (who fought under the red dragon banner) of the [[House of Tudor]], which claimed to trace its lineage directly to Arthur. Later, the Tudors' Welsh supporters, including bards, interpreted the prophecy of [[King Arthur's messianic return|King Arthur's return]] as having been fulfilled after the Tudors' ascent to the throne of England that they sought to legitimize following the [[Wars of the Roses]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brinkley |first=Roberta Florence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DZHBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Arthurian Legend in the Seventeenth Century |date=13 August 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317656890 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Thornton |first=T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1xxc0qtEq0C |title=Prophecy, Politics and the People in Early Modern England |publisher=Boydell |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84383-259-1 |page= |access-date=5 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605094642/https://books.google.com/books?id=y1xxc0qtEq0C |archive-date=5 June 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=John P. D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C37l-enYEScC&pg=PA108 |title=Propaganda and the Tudor State: Political Culture in the Westcountry |date=8 June 2003 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-926387-5 |access-date=3 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603152820/https://books.google.com/books?id=C37l-enYEScC&pg=PA108 |archive-date=3 June 2023 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}</ref> Prophecies attributed to Merlin have been also previously used by the 14th-century Welsh hero [[Owain Glyndŵr]] in his fight against the English rule.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Jonathan Ceredig |date=8 June 1911 |title=Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CTaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA267 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603152821/https://books.google.com/books?id=9CTaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA267 |archive-date=3 June 2023 |access-date=3 June 2023 |publisher=Printed at the "Welsh gazette" offices |via=Google Books}}</ref> The vagueness of Merlin's prophecies enabled British monarchs and historians to continue using them even in the early modern period. Notably, the King of Scotland and later also of England and Ireland, [[James VI and I]], claimed his 1603 unification of Britain into the United Kingdom had been foretold by Merlin.<ref>{{cite web |date=9 June 2021 |title=What are Merlin's Prophecies? |url=https://www.medievalists.net/2021/06/what-merlins-prophecies/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101202232/https://www.medievalists.net/2021/06/what-merlins-prophecies/ |archive-date=1 November 2023 |access-date=17 September 2023}}</ref>

===Tales of Merlin's end===
{{See also|Lady of the Lake}}

{{multiple image
| width             = 180
| align             = left
| image1            = Merlin and Nimue by Edward Burne-Jones.jpg
| image2            = 315 The Romance of King Arthur.jpg
| direction         = vertical
| caption1          = Edward Burne-Jones' 1861 ''Merlin and Nimue'' using the Lady's name popularized by [[William Caxton]]
| caption2          = [[Arthur Rackham]]'s illustration for ''Romance of King Arthur'' (1917) abridged from ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by [[Alfred W. Pollard]]:<br><small>"How by her subtle working she made Merlin to go under the stone to let wit of the marvels there and she wrought so there for him that he came never out for all the craft he could do."</small>
}}

In the prose romance tradition, Merlin's eventual undoing comes from his lusting after another of his female students: the one often named Viviane, among various other names and spellings (including Malory's own Nyneve that his editor [[William Caxton]] changed to Nymue which in turn eventually became the now-popular Nimue). Her character and relation to Merlin have been added to the legend of Merlin in the prose continuations of de Boron Merlin, identifying her with the figure of [[Lancelot]]'s supernatural foster mother. She is also called a [[fairy]] (French ''fee'') like Morgan and described as a Lady of the Lake, or the "chief Lady of the Lake" in the case of Malory's Nimue. In the Arthurian prequel ''[[Perceforest]]'', the ancestry of both Merlin and the Lady of the Lake is descended from the ancient fairy Morgane (unrelated to Arthur's sister). Here, their bloodline had been cursed by Morgane out of false belief that her daughter was raped by a human (really her lover) so that a female descendant is destined to kill a male one.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HwcwFTpbIsC&pg=PA1254|title=Le roman de Perceforest|first=Gilles|last=Roussineau|date=15 March 1987|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=9782600026116|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315061717/https://books.google.com/books?id=_HwcwFTpbIsC&pg=PA1254|url-status=live}}</ref>

There are several different versions of their story. Common themes in most of them include Merlin actually having the prior prophetic knowledge of her plot against him (one exception is the Spanish Post-Vulgate ''Baladro'' where his foresight ability is explicitly dampened by sexual desire<ref name=ff>{{Cite journal |jstor = 27869522|title = The Spanish 'Viviens' of "El baladro del sabio Merlín" and "Benjamín Jarnés's Viviana y Merlín": From Femme Fatale to Femme Vitale|last1 = Miller|first1 = Barbara D.|journal = Arthuriana|year = 2000|volume = 10|issue = 1|pages = 82–93|doi = 10.1353/art.2000.0035|s2cid = 162352301}}</ref>) but lacking either ability or will to counteract it in any way, along with her using one of his own spells to get rid of him. Usually (including in ''Le Morte d'Arthur''), having learned everything she could from him, Viviane will then also replace the eliminated Merlin within the story, taking up his role as Arthur's adviser and court mage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mangle |first=Josh |date=1 May 2018 |title=Echoes of Legend: Magic as the Bridge Between a Pagan Past and a Christian Future in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur |url=https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/84 |journal=Graduate Theses |access-date=15 May 2019 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208222656/https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/84/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Merlin's fate of either demise or eternal imprisonment, along with his destroyer or captor's motivation (from her fear of Merlin and protecting her own virginity, to her jealousy of his relationship with Morgan), is recounted differently in several variants of this motif. The exact form of his prison or grave can be also variably a cave, a tree, or hole either within or under a large rock (according to ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', this happens somewhere in Benwick, the kingdom of [[King Ban|Lancelot's father]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfyvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA175|title=George Eliot's Originals and Contemporaries: Essays in Victorian Literary History and Biography|first=Gordon S.|last=Haight|date=18 June 1992|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349126507|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315073002/https://books.google.com/books?id=kfyvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA175|url-status=live}}</ref>), or an invisible tower made of magic with no physical walls.<ref name="loomis">Loomis, Roger Sherman (1927). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcZkAAAAMAAJ Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance]''. Columbia University Press.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwiqxJbBqHIC&pg=PA383|title=Viator. Medieval and Renaissance Studies|author=University of California, Los Angeles|date=15 March 1970|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520031364|via=Google Books|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315073003/https://books.google.com/books?id=WwiqxJbBqHIC&pg=PA383|url-status=live}}</ref> The scene is sometimes explicitly placed in the enchanted forest of [[Brocéliande]], a legendary location today identified with the real-life [[Paimpont forest]] in Brittany.<ref name="The enchanted wood">{{Cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/news/France/The-enchanted-wood/2005/03/25/1111692620456.html |title=The enchanted wood |date=26 March 2005 |website=Sydney Morning Herald |language=en |access-date=7 July 2018 |archive-date=11 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111215747/http://www.smh.com.au/news/France/The-enchanted-wood/2005/03/25/1111692620456.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A Breton tradition cited by [[Roger Sherman Loomis]] in ''Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance'' (where he also asserts that it "seems almost certain that Morgan le Fay and the Lady of the Lake were originally the same person" in the legend) has Merlin trapped by his mistress inside a tree on the [[Île de Sein]].

Niniane, as the Lady of the Lake student of Merlin is known in the ''Livre d'Artus'' continuation of ''Merlin'', is mentioned as having broken his heart before his later second relationship with Morgan, but here the text does not tell how exactly Merlin did vanish, other than relating his farewell meeting with Blaise. In the Vulgate ''Merlin'', she (aged just 12 at the time) makes Merlin sleep forever in a pit in the forest of Darnantes "and that is where he remained, for never again did anyone see or hear of him or have news to tell of him."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA21 |title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I |last=Lacy |first=Norris J. |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-1-84384-226-2 |language=en}}</ref> In the Post-Vulgate ''Suite de Merlin'', the young King [[Bagdemagus]] (one of the early [[Knights of the Round Table]]) manages to find the rock under which Merlin is entombed alive by Niviene, as she is named there.{{#tag:ref|In the Post-Vulgate ''Suite'', Viviane (Niviene) is introduced as a young teenage princess. She is about to depart from Arthur's court following her initial episode but, with some encouragement from Merlin, Arthur asks her to stay in his castle with the queen. During her stay, Merlin falls in love with her and desires her. Viviane, frightened that Merlin might take advantage of her with his spells, swears that she will never love him unless he swears to teach her all of his magic. Merlin consents, unaware that throughout the course of her lessons, Viviane will use Merlin's own powers against him, forcing him to do her bidding. When Viviane finally goes back to her country, Merlin escorts her. However, along the way, Merlin receives a vision that Arthur is in need of assistance. Viviane and Merlin rush back to Arthur's castle, but have to stop for the night in a stone chamber once inhabited by two lovers (a king's son Anasteu and a peasant woman in their forbidden affair). Merlin relates that when the lovers died, they were placed in a magic tomb within a room in the chamber. That night, while Merlin is asleep, Viviane, still disgusted with Merlin's desire for her, as well as his demonic heritage, casts a spell over him and places him in the magic tomb so that he can never escape, thus causing his slow death.|group="note"}} He communicates with Merlin, but is unable to lift the stone; what follows next is supposedly narrated in the mysterious text ''Conte del Brait'' (''Tale of the Cry'').{{#tag:ref|The ''Conte'' referred to in the story is an unknown, supposedly separate text that might have been just fictitious.<ref name=":0" /> However, the Spanish Post-Vulgate manuscript known as the ''Baladro del sabio Merlin'' (''The Shriek of the Sage Merlin''), does describe what happened next. Merlin informs Bagdemagus that only Tristan could have opened the iron door sealing the cave in which Merlin is trapped in, but Tristan is by that time still just a baby. Merlin than gives the story's eponymous great cry in a demonic voice, calling for his father to come and take him, and dies amidst a terrific supernatural event.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/romanceofgrailst00bogd |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/romanceofgrailst00bogd/page/54 54] |title=The Romance of the Grail: A Study of the Structure and Genesis of a Thirteenth-century Arthurian Prose Romance |last=Bogdanow |first=Fanni |date=1966 |publisher=Manchester University Press |language=en}}</ref>|group="note"}} In the ''Prophéties de Merlin'', his tomb is unsuccessfully searched for by various parties, including Morgan and her enchantresses, but the tomb cannot be accessed due to the deadly magic traps around it,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larrington |first=Carolyne |title=The Enchantress, the Knight and the Cleric: Authorial Surrogates in Arthurian Romance' |chapter=The Enchantress, the Knight and the Cleric: Authorial Surrogates in Arthurian Romance |date=2008 |pages=43–66 |doi=10.1017/9781846156113.003 |isbn=978-1-84615-611-3 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/265037 |language=en |access-date=2018-07-03 |archive-date=2021-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813032158/https://www.academia.edu/265037 |url-status=live }}</ref> while the Lady of the Lake comes to taunt Merlin, asking if he has rotted yet.<ref name=":0" /> She only allows [[Tristan]]'s half-brother Meliadus the Younger (her lover, groomed by her from childhood) to access it and record his prophecies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA353 |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2865-0 |language=en}}</ref> One notably alternate version that has a happier ending for Merlin is the ''Premiers Faits'' section of the ''Livre du Graal'', where Niniane peacefully confines him in Brocéliande with walls of air, visible only as a mist to others but as a beautiful yet unbreakable crystal tower to him (only Merlin's disembodied voice can escape his prison one last time when he speaks to [[Gawain]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6hBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |title=Transforming Tales: Rewriting Metamorphosis in Medieval French Literature |last=Griffin |first=Miranda |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-968698-8 |language=en}}</ref> on the knight's quest to find him), where they then spend almost every night together as lovers.<ref>Goodrich, ''Merlin: A Casebook'', p. 168.</ref> Besides evoking the final scenes from ''Vita Merlini'', this particular variant of their story also mirrors a certain episode type found in romances in two versions. There, depending on the variant, Merlin can be object of one-sided desire by a different amorous sorceress who (unsuccessfully) plots to trap him, or it is him who does trap an unwilling lover with his magic.{{#tag:ref|In the Italian romance ''Tavola Ritonda'', a fairy enchantress named Escorducarla, the mother of the evil [[Annowre|Elergia]], falls in love with Merlin and plans to trap him for herself in her purpose-built Palace of Great Desire, but Merlin foils this plot and banishes her to Avalon. Conversely, Gaucher de Dourdan's continuation of ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]]'' has Merlin magically abducting a maiden who did not want to love him and then building a house for them to live in together.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinfairym00patogoog|title=Studies in the fairy mythology of Arthurian romance|first=Lucy Allen|last=Paton|date=9 November 1903|publisher=Boston, Ginn & Co.|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>|group="note"}}

[[File:Bradamante at Merlin's Tomb by Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard, High Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|upright|''Bradamante at Merlin's Tomb'' by [[Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard]] (1820)]]

Unrelated to the legend of the Lady of the Lake, other purported sites of Merlin's burial include a cave deep inside Merlin's Hill ({{langx|cy|Bryn Myrddin}}), outside Carmarthen. Carmarthen is also associated with Merlin more generally, including through the 13th-century manuscript known as the ''[[Black Book of Carmarthen|Black Book]]'' and the local lore of [[Merlin's Oak]]. In [[North Wales|North Welsh]] tradition, Merlin retires to [[Bardsey Island]] ({{langx|cy|Ynys Enlli|links=no}}), where he lives in a house of glass ({{langx|cy|Tŷ Gwydr|links=no}}) with the [[Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain]] ({{langx|cy|Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain|links=no}}).<ref name=ashe08>{{cite book |last1=Ashe |first1=Geoffrey |title=Merlin, the Prophet and his History |date=2008 |publisher=Sutton |isbn=978-0-7509-4149-5}}</ref>{{rp|200}} One site of his tomb is said to be [[Marlborough Mound]] in [[Wiltshire]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Merlin's Mount, Marlborough, Wiltshire |url=https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/merlins-mount/ |website=The Northern Antiquarian |date=10 June 2010 |access-date=1 March 2020 |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301153138/https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/merlins-mount/ |url-status=live }}</ref> known in medieval times as ''Merlebergia'' (the Abbot of [[Cirencester Abbey|Cirencester]] wrote in 1215: "Merlin's tumulus gave you your name, Merlebergia"<ref name=ashe08/>{{rp|93}}).

Another site associated with Merlin's burial, in his 'Merlin Silvestris' aspect, is the confluence of the Pausalyl Burn and [[River Tweed]] in [[Drumelzier]], Scotland. The 15th-century ''[[Scotichronicon]]'' tells that Merlin himself underwent a [[Threefold death|triple-death]], at the hands of some shepherds of the under-king [[Meldred]]: stoned and beaten by the shepherds, he falls over a cliff and is impaled on a stake, his head falls forward into the water, and he drowns.{{#tag:ref|Merlin is credited with predicting this: "Today I will perish, overwhelmed by stones and cudgels. / Today by body will be pierced through by a sharp stake / of wood, and so my life will expire. / Today I shall end my present life engulfed in the waves."<ref name=dames/>{{rp|67}}|group="note"}} The fulfillment of another prophecy, ascribed to [[Thomas the Rhymer]], came about when a spate of the Tweed and Pausayl occurred during the reign of the Scottish James VI and I on the English throne: "When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave, / Scotland and England one king shall have."<ref name=dames/>{{rp|62}}

== Modern culture ==
{{Further|Fiction featuring Merlin|Merlin in comics}}

Merlin and stories involving him have continued to be popular from the [[Renaissance]] to the present day, especially since the renewed interest in the legend of Arthur in modern times. During the [[French Renaissance]], Merlin would continue to be uniquely appealing figure of theater and ballet even after the interest in Arthur himself had already waned.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf6zAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 | title=The New Arthurian Encyclopedia: New edition | isbn=978-1-136-60633-5 | last1=Lacy | first1=Norris J. | last2=Ashe | first2=Geoffrey | last3=Ihle | first3=Sandra Ness | last4=Kalinke | first4=Marianne E. | last5=Thompson | first5=Raymond H. | date=5 September 2013 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref> Since the [[Romanticism|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,<ref>[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/magic-merlin-wizard-camelota]{{dead link|date=November 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> such as [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s [[Gandalf]]<ref name=ab/> or [[J. K. Rowling]]'s [[Albus Dumbledore|Dumbledore]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Kathryn  |date=4 October 2020 |title=The story of Merlin and the Demons who made him |url=https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/merlin-demons/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923233553/https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/merlin-demons/ |archive-date=23 September 2023 |access-date=7 July 2023 |website=Medievalists.net}}</ref> who also use some of his other traits. 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."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/merlin |title=Merlin {{!}} Robbins Library Digital Projects |website=d.lib.rochester.edu |access-date=4 July 2019 |archive-date=4 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704094614/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/merlin |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to [[Stephen Thomas Knight]], Merlin embodies a conflict between knowledge and power: beginning as 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyZzDwAAQBAJ |title=Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages - Stephen Knight - Google Books |format= |date=18 October 2018 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9781501732928 |accessdate=5 June 2023}}</ref> While some modern authors write about Merlin positively through an explicitly Christian world-view,<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27869422|title='A land shining with goodness': Magic and Religion in Stephen R. Lawhead's "Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur"|author=Doherty, John J.|year=1999|journal=Arthuriana|volume=9|issue=1|pages=57–66|doi=10.1353/art.1999.0063|jstor=27869422|s2cid=161452366|access-date=2023-06-08|archive-date=2023-06-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605121324/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27869422|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> some [[New Age]] movements instead see Merlin as a druid who accesses all the mysteries of the world.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43308138|title=The New Age Mage: Merlin as Contemporary Occult Icon|author=Goodrich, Peter|year=1992|journal=Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts|volume=5|issue=1 (17)|pages=42–73|jstor=43308138|access-date=2023-06-02|archive-date=2023-06-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602233619/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43308138|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, Merlin appears in the teachings of the Montana-based New Age religious-survivalist group [[Church Universal and Triumphant]] as one of their "[[Ascended master|ascended masters]]".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1v0BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 | title=Millennium Rage: Survivalists, White Supremacists, and the Doomsday Prophecy | isbn=978-1-4899-6076-4 | last1=Lamy | first1=P. | date=11 November 2013 | publisher=Springer }}</ref> 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 forest and wild animals), thus "dechristianizing" Merlin to present him as a champion for the idea of return to nature.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=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|first=Gaëlle|last=Zussa|date=1 June 2009|journal=Perspectives médiévales. Revue d'épistémologie des langues et littératures du Moyen Âge|volume=33 |issue=33|doi=10.4000/peme.2803|doi-access=free}}</ref> Diverging from his traditional role in medieval romances, Merlin is also sometimes portrayed as a villain.<ref name=":1" /> As Peter H. Goodrich wrote in ''Merlin: A Casebook'':

{{quote|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.<ref name=phg/>}}

[[File:Stamp British Honduras 1948 5c.jpg|thumb|[[HMS Merlin (1796)|HMS ''Merlin'' (1796)]] on a 1948 stamp]]

Things named in honour of the legendary figure include asteroid [[2598 Merlin]], the British company [[Merlin Entertainments]], the handheld console [[Merlin (console)|Merlin]], the literary magazine ''[[Merlin (literary magazine)|Merlin]]'', the metal band [[Merlin (metal band)|Merlin]], and more than a dozen different British warships each called [[HMS Merlin|HMS ''Merlin'']]. He was one of eight British magical figures who were commemorated on a [[United Kingdom commemorative stamps 2010–2019#2011|series of UK postage stamps]] issued by the [[Royal Mail]] in 2011,<ref>{{cite news |title=Gallery: Royal Mail: Stamps from magical realms |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2011/mar/09/royal-mail-stamps-magical-realms |access-date=22 September 2022 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=11 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011172947/https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2011/mar/09/royal-mail-stamps-magical-realms |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://news.coinupdate.com/united-kingdom-last-gold-and-silver-proof-coins-in-mythical-legends-series-concludes-with-sorceress-morgan-le-fay | title=United Kingdom: Last gold and silver Proof coins in "Mythical Legends" series concludes with sorceress Morgan le Fay &#124; Coin Update | access-date=2023-09-27 | archive-date=2023-09-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927234248/https://news.coinupdate.com/united-kingdom-last-gold-and-silver-proof-coins-in-mythical-legends-series-concludes-with-sorceress-morgan-le-fay/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[Merlinia]]'', the [[Ordovician]] [[trilobite]], is also named after Merlin; the name is given in memory of a Welsh legend in which the broken tail parts of trilobites were identified as butterflies turned to stone by Merlin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/fossils-and-geological-time/trilobites/|title=Trilobites|access-date=2023-10-22|archive-date=2023-12-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221105304/https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/fossils-and-geological-time/trilobites/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-trilobites-conquered-prehistoric-oceans.html|title=How trilobites conquered prehistoric oceans|website=[[Natural History Museum, London|National History Museum]] cite|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013205713/https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-trilobites-conquered-prehistoric-oceans.html|archive-date=13 October 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

Contrary to a popular belief among the [[Royal Air Force]] pilots and general society at the time (and also later), the [[Rolls-Royce Merlin|Merlin engine]] that powered several British aircraft during the Second World War (including the famous [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire fighter]] that helped to win the [[Battle of Britain]]) was not named after the Arthurian legend figure, but after [[Merlin (bird)|the bird]], as dictated by the [[Rolls-Royce]] company naming policy. That coincidence nevertheless had a positive effect on British war morale.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5825EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|title=R. J. Mitchell: To the Spitfire|first=John|last=Shelton|date=April 16, 2023|publisher=Fonthill Media|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oheeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|title=Spitfire: The Autobiography|first=Jon E.|last=Lewis|date=February 7, 2013|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-1-4721-0782-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PImDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281|title=The Spitfire: An Icon of the Skies|first=Philip|last=Kaplan|date=July 31, 2017|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=978-1-4738-9854-7 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9EcEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT91|title=The Spitfire Smiths: A Unique Story of Brothers in Arms|first1=Rod|last1=Smith|first2=Christopher|last2=Shores|date=September 22, 2008|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=978-1-908117-55-7 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

{{clear}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Mythology}}
* [[Garab Dorje]], also said to have been conceived by a nun without a human father
* [[Merlin's Cave]], a location under Tintagel Castle
{{Clear}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="note"}} {{Clear}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |title=Merlin: A Casebook |last=Goodrich |first=Peter H. |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-135-58340-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Koch |first=John T. |author-link=John T. Koch |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-440-0}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Merlin (legendary figure)}}
{{Wikisource}}
* [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/merlmenu.htm Merlin: Texts, Images, Basic Information] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827073637/http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/merlmenu.htm |date=2010-08-27 }}, Camelot Project at the [[University of Rochester]]. Numerous texts and art concerning Merlin
* [http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/merlin.html Timeless Myths: The Many Faces of Merlin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109101218/http://timelessmyths.com/arthurian/merlin.html |date=2011-01-09 }}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9j2 BBC audio file] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109124502/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9j2 |date=2018-11-09 }} of the "Merlin" episode of ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]''
* [https://youtube.com/watch?v=SSRUOIAydaI ''Merlin — The Legend''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520093926/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSRUOIAydaI |date=2023-05-20 }}, a Chronicle documentary on YouTube
* Prose ''Merlin'', [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/pmint.htm Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040304065311/http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/teams/pmint.htm |date=2004-03-04 }} and [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/confront.htm Text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040406025223/http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/confront.htm |date=2004-04-06 }} (the [[University of Rochester]] TEAMS Middle English text series) edited by John Conlea, 1998. A selection of many passages of the prose Middle English translation of the ''Vulgate Merlin'' with connecting summary. The sections from "The Birth of Merlin to "Arthur and the Sword in the Stone" cover Robert de Boron's ''Merlin''
* [https://reflection.eleusinianm.co.uk/medieval-literature/white-book-of-mottistone/of-arthour-and-of-merlin ''Of Arthour and of Merlin''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106100705/https://reflection.eleusinianm.co.uk/medieval-literature/white-book-of-mottistone/of-arthour-and-of-merlin |date=2021-11-06 }} translated and retold in modern English prose, the story from Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1 (the Auchinleck MS) (from the Middle English of the Early English Text Society edition:   O D McCrae-Gibson, 1973, ''Of Arthour and of Merlin'', 2 vols, EETS and Oxford University Press)
* Phillip Walter (ed.), ''[https://books.openedition.org/ugaeditions/16222 LE DEVIN MAUDIT Merlin, Lailoken, Suibhne — Textes et études] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007030429/https://books.openedition.org/ugaeditions/16222 |date=2023-10-07 }}'' by Philippe Walter, Christine Bord, Jean-Charles Berthet and Nathalie Stalmans. Moyen Âge européen, 1999. Earliest Merlin texts and studies on them, available to read for free at OpenEdition Books (in French)

{{Arthurian Legend}}
{{Geoffrey of Monmouth}}
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