She faced the same challenge as all those writing about King Arthur: namely trying to cleave fact from fiction. It does a great job at trying to tell Merlin’s story. Mary Stewart’s book was written back in 1970 but I only recently stumbled across it in the basement of my mother-in-law. The Crystal Cave brings a brightly burning torch to bear on him. There is one other name that’s equal parts famous and mysterious: the magician Merlin.Īs important as he is to The Arthurian Legends, it’s amazing how shrouded in mystery he remains. Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere are all familiar names. The fame spreads beyond just Arthur, as well. The majestic monarch even has a brand of flour named after him. That legendary British King has spawned a myriad of movies, cartoons, and books. Period play, ripe and windy, for ladies easily lulled-and there are many of them.Finding someone who hasn’t heard of King Arthur is a tough task. Many ceremonials, prophesies and wars later, Merlin accomplishes his greatest coup-a procurement exercise resulting in the conception of Arthur by Uther Pendragon out of the Lady Ygraine. Then after secret tutorials in the cave of an old clairvoyant and scholar, Galapos, an escape to Count Ambrosius, a ruler who turns out to be. (There are Pendragonian sallies: ""you were perhaps a little-drastic?"" or bland references to the then non-existent ""Germany"" or ""Ireland."") In any case this is all Merlin's tune-from childhood as a despised bastard at the court of his grandfather the King, with his mother, the King's daughter, who wasn't telling who downed her in the dell. Miss Stewart artlessly confesses in an afterword that she followed Geoffrey but loosely and gaily admits anachronisms. This time applied to Merlin-a seer, Arthur's evil genius and resident engineer-all depending on whether you have your faultless facts from Geoffrey of Monmouth, Malory, Tennyson or a ouija board. With its mythic mists and galloping legends, fifth century Britain is fair game and Miss Stewart takes to whole cloth with a couturier's skill.
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