7 - The Merlin and its Suite

Summary

The genesis of the Merlin is a complex romance project in the image of its eponymous character. It is a work with a history, firstly because it was fashioned from a variety of earlier texts, and secondly because it was inserted into one cycle, then into another. Like a polychrome print that needs several inkings before the final printing can be made, the romance combines figures and colors from earlier works, but the end result is a flawless landscape, a literary monument so tightly woven and self-contained that it fits almost intact into a very different textual environment, like a painting that serves first as the central panel of a triptych and then as the center of a polyptych. The romance's plasticity comes from the character of Merlin himself, whose literary representations evolved throughout the twelfth century until they melded solidly together in our romance, in a skillful combination of physical and moral traits, prophetic and magical powers that had hitherto been scattered widely in the texts. In their new environment they acquire a prodigious hierarchy and coherence, the hallmark of an outstanding fictional achievement.

The forty-six manuscripts and eight fragments in which it has survived suggest that the Roman de Merlin (written c. 1205) was a great success in the Middle Ages. But the character of Merlin himself, under the name of Myrddin, was already a glorious figure from the Celtic legends that must have circulated before the twelfth century. Merlin's Celtic ancestry has not always been obvious to critics, but today we accept it and acknowledge the importance of Celtic folklore in his makeup, even though so little remains from a literature that was primarily oral. SixWelsh poems found in manuscripts ranging from the twelfth to the fifteenth century portray Myrddin as a warrior chief. Whether they give him the status of king or great lord, in all of them he goes mad after the battle of Arferdydd, where he witnesses the death of his lord and nephews. He flees civilization and lives in the woods in harmony with nature. In other sources he has the gift of prophecy, which he exercises from time to time in enigmatic language. Thus, the solitary figure we can glimpse in silhouette already combines the attributes of the wild man with those of the seer.