Discover the magic of Myth
 

Merlin

Merlin (Welsh: Myrddin)[note 2] is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a prophet and a magician, along with several other main roles.[note 3] 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 a prophet and royal advisor to Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon.[6]

Geoffrey seems to have combined earlier Welsh tales of Myrddin and Emrys (Ambrosius), two legendary 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.[7] 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. Today, he continues to be highly popular in the modern era (see also the article fiction featuring Merlin).

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.[8] His most notable abilities commonly include prophecy and shapeshifting. Merlin matures into an ascendant sage and engineers Arthur's birth through magic and intrigue.[9] 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, Lady of the Lake, after having fallen in love with her. Other texts variously describe his retirement, at times supernatural, or death.

Name

Merlinus (Merlin) in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

A male merle, the bird whose name may have inspired that of Merlin

The name Merlin is derived from the Welsh name of the legendary bard Myrddin that Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinised to Merlinus in his works. Medievalist Gaston Paris suggests that Geoffrey chose the form Merlinus rather than the expected *Merdinus to avoid a resemblance to the Anglo-Norman word merde (from Latin merda) for feces.[10][11] Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville reduced it to the result of the "tendency of d to change into l in Indo-European languages."[12]

'Merlin' may also be an adjective, in which case he should be called "The Merlin", from the French merle meaning common blackbird (Turdus merula).[13]: 79  An association with this bird in French was deemed logical by Philippe Walter.[14] According to Martin Aurell, the Latin form Merlinus is a euphony of the Welsh form Myrddin to bring him closer to the white blackbird (merle blanc[note 4]) into which he could metamorphose through his shamanic powers, as was notably the case for Merlin's Irish counterpart.[16][17] 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.[18] According to Jean-Charles Berthet, however, the analogies between Merlin and the blackbird are more akin to a later establishment than to a real etymology, since the French name of Merlin is later than the other forms.[19]

Myrddin may be a combination of *mer (mad) and the Welsh dyn (man), to mean 'madman'.[20] It may also mean '[of] many names' if it was derived from the Welsh myrdd, myriad.[21][22] In his Myrdhinn, ou l'Enchanteur Merlin (1868), La Villemarqué derived Marz[h]in, which he considered the original form of Merlin's name, from the Breton word marz (wonder) to mean 'wonder man'.[23] Clas Myrddin or Merlin's Enclosure is an early name for Great Britain as stated in the third series of Welsh Triads.[24]

Celticist Alfred Owen Hughes Jarman suggested that the Welsh name Myrddin (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈmərðɪn]) was derived from the toponym Caerfyrddin, the Welsh name for the town known in English as Carmarthen.[25] This contrasts with the popular folk etymology that the town was named after the bard (Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville, who questioned the historical origins of Merlin, concluded that the legend was fabricated to retroactively explain the name of the town[26]). The name Carmarthen is derived from the town's previous Roman name Moridunum,[10][25] which was in turn derived from the Celtic Brittonic moridunon, 'sea fort[ress]'.[27] Eric P. Hamp proposed a similar etymology: Morij:n, 'the maritime' or 'born of the sea'.[28] 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.[29][note 5]

The Welsh Myrddin could also be phonetically connected to the name Martin.[31] 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 (albeit coming from God[32]). 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.[33]  Wikipedia