Myrddhin

[threemonkeys]

When Jeremy Clarkson hears an engine note that he particularly loves, what engine does he relate it back to? When Michael Wood starts doing his "In Search of..." documentaries, who is pretty much the first subject? When TV producers want a subject for a new series featuring a youthful wizard, where do they look? Yes, its Merlin - well Arthur and Merlin really. They get everywhere.

I mention Merlin in particular, because I recently read three novels in succession all of which invoke Merlin in some way. All in different ways as it happens - an indication of the flexibility and wide use of the character over the years. Charles de Lint uses him as a kind of forest spirit presence in the opening of Spiritwalk. It isn't de Lint's best work - it may well be the opposite - it is the sequel to Moonheart, and like that book suffers from too much stuff crammed in it compared to his later more focussed work.

In Illuminations, Gillian Polack uses a version of Arthurian times for the setting of a fantasy tale found in an old library - both Arthur and Merlin get a mention or two. However, they don't get such a look in during the other story that winds its way through letters that bridge the Arthurian fable and that is where the really fascinating part of the story takes place.

The Last Watch is the fourth book in a trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko and it shows typical fourth book weaknesses of story. What is more, it invokes merlin much more than the books mentioned above. Turns out Merlin was ...[spoilers removed] - I don't need to tell you what, I'm sure you have seen the same type of thing before. The real problem with The Last Watch, making it weaker than the others, is that it is missing a major character - Moscow.

I suppose it isn't surprising - Arthur & Merlin really are the most powerful myth to emanate from the British Isles. Its hard to even think who #2 may be - Beowulf I suppose. I suppose it depends on how you define "myth" though.

Oh, and I should mention that I'm told that Mary Stewart's Merlin books are going to be reissued after many years out of print. I read them in High school. I wonder how well they hold up.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I would rank Robin Hood second. Though the archetype "He took from the rich and he gave to the poor/He'd a hand and a heart and a brain" is probably ahead. (Except in the Scottish Border; Border ballads have a lot about taking from the rich, but almost nothing about giving to the poor.)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I'm told there are resonances of the Arthur story in the Irish Finn McCool stories. I guess myths like to share good ideas around.

Since the part of my ancestry that is Scots is Highland, I just smile.