Merlin: The Wizard
Merlin and The Gleam
O YOUNG Mariner, You from the haven
Under the sea-cliff, You that are watching
The gray Magician, With eyes of wonder
I am Merlin,
I am dying,
I am Merlin
Who follow The Gleam.
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Mighty the Wizard Who found me at sunrise
Sleeping, and woke me And learn'd me Magic!
Great the Master, And sweet the Magic,
When over the valley, In early summers,
Over the mountain, On human faces,
And all around me, Moving to melody,
Floated The Gleam.
Once at the croak of a Raven who crost it,
A barbarous people,
Blind to the magic, And deaf to the melody,
Snarl'd at and cursed me. A demon vext me,
The light retreated, The landskip darken'd,
The melody deaden'd, The Master whisper'd
Follow The Gleam.
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Then to the melody, Over a wilderness
Gliding, and glancing at Elf of the woodland,
Gnome of the cavern, Griffin and Giant,
And dancing of Fairies In desolate hollows,
And wraiths of the mountain, And rolling of dragons
By warble of water, Or cataract music Of falling
torrents,
Flitted The Gleam.
Down from the mountain And over the level,
And streaming and shining on Silent river, Silvery
willow,
Pasture and plowland, Horses and oxen,
Innocent maidens, Garrulous children,
Homestead and harvest, Reaper and gleaner,
And rough-ruddy faces Of lowly labour,
Slided The Gleam.--
Then, with a melody Stronger and statelier,
Led me at length To the city and palace Of Arthur the
king;
Touch'd at the golden Cross of the churches,
Flash'd on the Tournament,
Flicker'd and bicker'd From helmet to helmet,
And last on the forehead Of Arthur the blameless
Rested The Gleam.
Clouds and darkness Closed upon Camelot;
Arthur had vanish'd I knew not whither,
The king who loved me, And cannot die;
For out of the darkness Silent and slowly
The Gleam, that had waned to a wintry glimmer
On icy fallow And faded forest,
Drew to the valley Named of the shadow,
And slowly brightening Out of the glimmer,
And slowly moving again to a melody Yearningly tender,
Fell on the shadow, No longer a shadow,
But clothed with The Gleam.
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And broader and brighter The Gleam flying
onward,
Wed to the melody, Sang thro' the world;
And slower and fainter, Old and weary, But eager to
follow,
I saw, whenever In passing it glanced upon Hamlet or
city,
That under the Crosses The dead man's garden,
The mortal hillock, Would break into blossom;
And so to the land's Last limit I came--
And can no longer, But die rejoicing,
For thro' the Magic Of Him the Mighty,
Who taught me in childhood, There on the border
Of boundless Ocean, And all but in Heaven
Hovers The Gleam.
Not of the sunlight, Not of the moonlight,
Not of the starlight!
O young Mariner, Down to the haven,
Call your companions, Launch your vessel,
And crowd your canvas, And, ere it vanishes
Over the margin, After it, follow it,
Follow The Gleam.
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Merlin, sage from another world, was an
inspired seer and mystic mage, a wise councilor
and faithful friend to three kings. But
for all his wisdom, was bewitched by the Lady
of The Lake who turned his love to her own
ends. She sapped his power and plundered his store
of secrete knowledge, and when done, she
bound him in stone by his own spells.
Merlin, sometime Myrddin, was the famous
wizard in Arthurian mythology. So powerful
was his magic that one medieval tradition
credits him with the magical construction of of Stonehenge.
Another of his works was supposed to be
King Arthur's famous Round Table.
Enchanter, wizard and prophet who
oversees Arthur's conception and birth, enables
his ascension and acts as high counsel to the King
in the early phase of his reign. Merlin's
role as a whole is that of advisor and scholar.
His genius guides the realm. Geoffrey of
Monmouth is responsible for the Merlin known to
literature today. His name, "Merlinus," is a
latinized adaptation of the Welsh "Myrddin" - the
name of a late sixth century northern bard
reported to have the gift of sight who predicted a
Celtic uprising.
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Merlin's birth was the subject of a strange story. Apparently, the Britons were told that a great fortress they had built would never be safe until the ground there had been soaked with the blood of a child who had no mortal father. Such a half-human sacrifice seemed impossible to achieve, until it was learned that a beautiful girl was with child by a demon. The child turned out to be Merlin, who, though baptized as a Christian, still possessed fabulous powers inherited from his demon father. Somehow the boy did not need to be sacrificed for the sake of the fortress because it is likely that Merlin was able to deal with the problem by means of magic. Two dragons, as a matter of fact were responsible for the problem.
There a various accounts of Merlin's death. One tells how the wizard forgot about the seat at the Round Table that only Galahad could use, being the only knight worthy enough to see the Grail. Merlin sat down and was at once swallowed up by the earth. Another story blames the wizard's death on his passion for women. Either Viviane, possibly The Lady of the Lady, or Nimue, the daughter of a Sicilian siren, imprisoned him in an enchanted wood after Merlin had explained all about the secretes of his own magic. As Merlin told Sir Gawain, who once passed by: "I am also the greatest fool. I love another more then I love myself, and I taught my beloved how to bind me to herself, and now no one can set me free."
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