Overview
In tales and place names that span Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria and Caledonia, Merlin's name lives on as powerfully as that of King Arthur himself, to whom he has been so closely linked. Michael Dames shows us the many aspects of this elusive and mercurial figure -- seer and enchanter, sage and madman, poet and god -- in the royal court and in the wilderness, on land and in water.With illustrations of the art and artifacts that relate to the Merlin legend as well as the author's own evocative photographs of the mythic sites, the book guides us through the many versions of the story of Merlin and his sister/lover -- from the mysterious boy on Dinas Emrys, who aroused the embattled red and white dragons in their hidden pool, to the metaphor of his retreat to the holy island of Bardsey, off the coast of Wales.
The myths about this most famous of magicians carry Egyptian and Roman traces, and emerge in several languages across the centuries, in oral tales, folk-rites, early literatures and visual symbols. Especially loved by the people of rural Wales, as their folklore shows, Merlin is often subversive, a maverick, a trespasser.