Is Merlin Really Dead? Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNNN!!!

Hey guys, Peter here with another episode of "Your Crazy, But Keep Talking". Okay, so I was going from underline quote to underline quote and went from space to space in between. On the very last page of the "Prose Merlin", where he is entombed in a dark, dank, hole in the ground, the story mentioned how his cries could be heard throughout the land. No they never mention if or when they go silent. So (stick with me here), what if he dug a really deep hole out the bottom and into the air letting him out? I mean he is born of a woman AND a demon. I dont think even a very large boulder could stop him from getting out. He is magically and all powerful and, with those attributes in mind, he is most likely immortal too.


But, that is not why I am writing today. Some of you folks may not know this already, but I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist (yeah, shocking isnt it?). As I sat thinking further and further about Merlin and his so called "death", it hit me. I remembered that when Merlin was born, he was gifted with quite a bit of extra hair. Later on in his life I imagined he got rid of it at least for the sake of holding up appearances or hanging out with royalty. With that hair issue he had, there is a great way he could put it to use----- as a disguise for, say, hiding in plain sight or rather somewhat hidden site in the forests and swamps of the world. after all, in the "Vita Merlini" that we read for last week, he sounded like he enjoyed hanging out in the woods with the animals, at least until he had that McMansion built for him.

That whole idea of living in the woods brings me to my next theory: Merlin is the Sasquatch! *Cue Dramatic gasps from the audience(Lisa, Jennifer thats your cue)* I mean it would explain how there are so many sasquatch, skunk apes, boogey mman, and bigfoot sightings all around the world. He is again very powerful and magical which would make it possible for him to be in two places at once or more. Maybe, he willed the hair on his body to grow thick and matted and began to use fairies as stilts to make him look taller. Or maybe, he really was that tall and thats what made people see him as magical; which makes my sputterings just sound like the insane utterings of a man who should be residing in the looney bin with all the other crazies. But, then again it is possible! so therefore I am not insane I tell you, I swear it! Thanks for listening to my ramblings for the day and goodnight FREDERICK!!
(PS I know these are wookies but I simply could not resist)

Merlin, Fiction verses well Fiction

This post may contain spoilers for anyone who has not yet viewed the first episode of Merlin

Sorry for the late post. The other day, I watched the first episode of BBC's Merlin. As I watched the first episode I found myself comparing the characters to how they are portrayed in the literature.

Uther Pendragon, I had hope for the show when they introduced the King as Uther Pendragon, a name I immediately recognized from the Prose Merlin. I'm not sure what to make of King Uther. I thought he was kind of an idiot  in the Prose Merlin and the show reinforced these beliefs. He just can't take a hint. Really, I could go on talking about Uther for the rest of this post but then we'd never get to Prince Arthur or even Merlin (who is pretty important to the show).

Merlin: In the Prose, Merlin we read for class on Monday, Merlin was old. When I hear the word Merlin I often think of that old guy from Disney's Sword and the Stone, you know, the one with the really long white beard, who speaks in riddles.  However, I was surprised to find that in the show Merlin is young and fairly sane. I found Merlin a lot more likeable in the show than in the Prose, Merlin. Maybe, it's because in Monday's literature Merlin was a creepy old guy trying to as Dr. MB put it deflower a fifteen year old girl. Yeah Merlin has some issues in the show like fighting Prince Arthur (or trying to at least, Merlin was totally cheating not that I felt bad for the prince). Speaking of the Prince...

Prince Arthur: As soon as this jerk entered the scene throwing knives and all in all being a jackass, I found myself silently hoping that it wasn't the King Arthur of legend. Of course, BBC immediately responded by introducing the character as Prince Arthur. I might be a little rusty on my Arthurian stories but isn't King Arthur supposed to be a great guy who is dealt a really bad hand when his wife Guinevere, cheats on his with his best friend Sir Lancelot? Because,  in the show, I'm feeling more bad for Guinevere for eventually having to be married to this jerk. Arthur seems to be this larger than life character who is really just... as Merlin so rightly put it (multiple times)... a prat.

Guinevere: I do not know much about Queen Guinevere as according to legend. However, the show kept implying that she had a thing for Merlin which really confused me. Also, Guinevere more or less came from lower means than what I'd expected of the future Queen of Camelot. It seems to me that the show further implied for Lady Morgana to serve as Prince Arthur's love interest in the show. This whole Guinevere part of the show just has me baffled but she's a likeable enough character.

Lastly, the random witch: At the very being of the episode I felt really bad for the witch, she had just seen her son beheaded. I didn't realize the role she would play in the episode until she vanished in a pile of leaves (?) and then all I could think was shit, she's a witch. Well damn. I still felt bad for her, as creepy as she was. Then she killed that singer and I started getting really really bad vibes from her. At this point I wondered why the show would portray witches in the light that they did. I mean lets face it, Arthur may be the most hated character in the episode but she takes second place pretty easily on creepiness alone. I have spent the whole semester feeling sorry for witches or those accused at least and here is a perfect example of what everyone is so afraid of.

Also, there is a dragon... a talking dragon (wtf?) I felt the dragon kind of came out of no where.

No shit, you're a freaking talking dragon, how could anyone forget you?

Merlin the interesting life story.

Sorryfor the late post, didn't understand the switch. Now I am not to familiar wi the history of Merlin, but I did enjoy the readings. There is so much going on here I just want to touch on a few things.

First off, talking baby. I never pictured Merlin young. I just had this image of him as old and powerful. So when the story highlights his youth and his flaunting demeanor it struck me. Another element of Merlin's humanity is that he ages.

I found it also quite interesting that God gives Merlin these powers because as the it says in the text "he gave this ability to the child, whose need was greater." Merlin was influenced by demonic powers. So the best way to cancel that while still givin Merlin free will is giving him good powers and letting him choose. I want to highlight the part about Merlin's need is greater. He obviously needed to be blessed by God and given such holy powers or else we might have had an antichrist roaming around. The thing that I find so interesting, is all the Mystics we have read that received their visions; they were in great need too. And so God gave them visions. Maybe Merlin was one of the first Mystics in a way

Lastly, I want to talk about how religious or how much Merlin refers to God, Jesus and the last supper. I never thought of merlin this way. He is a magician, a sorcerer, a master of the magical arts. He poofed the stone heads to where they are now (just one of many origin stories about this lol). But a man of God. Never would have pictured that. Even from the beginning my thoughts don't jump to the conclusion that God gave Merlin these powers. I just thought he was magic, one of the first know beings of magic. This is what I think anyway.

Now there is his death which I won't get into since it frustrated me. But he died in a very human way which was sad, but he was powerful so as Merlin says man should not fear death and nothing does not come that does not end,

Merlin was a cool guy except for when he wasn't

My mental image of Merlin has always been mixed in with how I think of wizards like Gandalf and Dumbledore. I've never really internalized who or what Merlin was, so when I approached this reading I was interested to see what there was to learn. It was the Prose Merlin that I enjoyed more, so that's what I'll write about for this blog post.

First off, I was put off a bit by Merlin's conception. I had absolutely no idea of his origins; I always kind of assumed he was just a normal person who had discovered how to use magic and see the future and all that cool stuff. But here I was introduced to the Enemy, some devils conspiring amongst themselves, to use a woman to conceive a child with their powers. I found it interesting that the power to see the past was given by the Enemy while the power to see the future was given by the Lord. Why is that? Is it because trying to change the past is wrong while thinking about the future is right? I'm not sure of why these powers are given the connotations they are.

When Merlin spoke suddenly using full sentences, I got an almost horror movie kind of feeling from it. Like a haunted baby doll came to life and was suddenly threatening to kill people. He was born as some hairy creature that repulsed people from the start, and then he starts talking about knowing the past and the future. Pretty unsettling stuff, if you ask me. And then Merlin insults the mother of a judge who has a hand in deciding the fate of his own mother. He was one pushy child for sure.

Jumping forward to something that was a little bit more familiar for me, there is the king and the Round Table. The mental image of fifty men who had never met gathering and partying for a week before deciding that they're all brothers and want to stay forever made me happy. There's no devils or demons to talk about here, just good old friendship. These guys got together and had such a good time that they said they wanted to move their families there so that they would never have to leave. And then, after creating this environment, Merlin says he doesn't want to take the credit for himself, so he leaves. All that work and he's pleased to just leave and pursue something else? What a guy.

And then as I'm continuing on thinking, "Yeah good stuff this is great I like these things" I get hit in the face with some grimy love story featuring the king and a married woman. At first it seemed rather innocent, with the king falling head over heels for this beautiful woman (ignoring the fact she was already married I guess). He even realized that he couldn't openly pursue her because she was indeed married, so he tried to woo her on the low. In typical fashion, he responded to rejection by throwing more parties and trying to ignore the pain instead of trying to move on with his life. Now, I'm not popular with the ladies by any stretch, but even I know that harassing them with gifts in an attempt to get with them isn't going to work.

So Ygerne and her husband flee from the king's creepy advances and so on and so forth and I felt like I was reading some kind of wacky romcom or something. As such I wasn't at all surprised when Merlin was brought back and disguised the king as the woman's husband so that he could do husband and wife things with her. I guess Merlin is still kind of a bro in that way because he DID help the king out but the whole situation was dripping with scumminess. Not cool Merlin. Not cool Uther.

(I'm sorry that this post was late, it honestly slipped my mind that I was supposed to post because I skimmed the schedule and didn't see "Water" for today. It didn't register that I was supposed to post. My bad)

Merlin's character: to be or not to be?

I have never been a Merlin fan. While my preconceived notions of him before this class where the obvious old wizard who helped King Arthur, I still didn’t like him. He wasn’t exciting to me. His adventures weren’t spectacular. I see him as some prophet who gained magic over the years who uses it for his own advantage and that of his close friends. I know, I’m being a negative Nellie about Merlin when everyone else probably likes him.

 Even though I may not like Merlin as a person, I did enjoy reading the Prose Merlin. Being rooted in creative writing fashion, it was easier and entertaining to read. I laugh when I imagine Merlin as a year old baby talking to his mother and her dropping him out of sheer bewilderment. That would seriously freak me out too if my child suddenly started spouting out wisdom like Plato. Demon child anyone?

However, out of all the tales associated with Merlin, the one that bothers me the most is Uther Pendragon’s perusal of Ygerne. It is a classic case of someone wanting something they can’t have. I feel the feminist rising in me with this because they treat Ygerne as if she were property to be owned. I realize it was the norm for men to consider women as possessions back then, but I still rage against it. I’m proud of Ygerne for standing up for herself and evading the kings advances. The man just would not give up even when he knew she loved her husband dearly and would never betray him in such a manner.

When Urfin goes to speak to Ygerne about becoming the king’s lover, I let out a cry of indignation at what he says to her. Urfin says, “My lady, it would be an honor to die for my lord. But what lady as ever before refused to accept the king as her lover! And he does love you more than anyone else. Surely, you are fooling?” (Rosenberg 332). Excuse me? Well then, by all means, die for your lustful greedy king who can’t keep it in his pants. I’d rather keep my loving husband than betray him for one night with the king. I am glad Ygerne does not find this to be a compliment, but stands by her virtue and holds fast.

Yet, sadly, Ygerne does fall to the king’s advances by way of Merlin’s trickery. I cannot decide if Merlin did this for his own gains or for the gains of his country. Are they the same? Why would he allow such adultery? I would say the devil side of him tipped the scale against God in this instance. However, without the conception of Arthur, God may not have blessed the kingdom when Arthur comes to power.  Once again, the balance between good and evil rears its head. 

                                             (And suddenly Gandalf had a twin brother....)