- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson; New edition edition (4 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0500284962
- ISBN-13: 978-0500284964
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.8 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 114,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Who was Merlin? Did he ever exist? 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 artefacts that relate to the Merlin legend as well as the author's own evocative photographs of the mythic sites, this book guides us through the many versions of the story of Merlin and his sister/lover, Gwyndydd.
About the Author
Michael Dames is a former lecturer in the History of Art at Birmingham Polytechnic. Among his previous books are The Silbury Treasure, The Avebury Circle and Mythic Ireland.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This well produced and well presented overview of the Welsh legends of Merlin, the famous mythical Wizard, is coherent and consistent; It's also totally bonkers.
When writing a history of mythic figures and times,the author has a choice of a dry reportage of odd long dead beliefs or an enthusiastic embracing of the implied magic and wisdom the myths could be seen as representing. Michael Dames is solidly in the latter camp.
It is perfectly possible to report on such things while taking a middle way between the two extremes. For example, Robert MacFarlane'e "The Wild Places" has :"To travel somewhere like..Sutton Hoo...is to find...beliefs expressed here, you think, which might be learned from.A sense of orientation, perhaps, or connection."(p172)
In many ways, a more measured tone, like MacFarlanes's is more instuctive than what can seem to be an uncritical assumption that the wonder tales from ancient times have an actual and literal magic, a view Dames more or less states again and again.
"Merlin and Wales" contains many assertions which are interesting and eye-catching, but Dames doesn't try to support these assertions, and so they become merely bald opinions.Wishful thinking even : e.g. "Who was Vivien? Some scholars derive her name from chwifleian....a term of endearment used by Merlin..when addressing his twin sister...It was therefore with his thinly disgusied sister that he incestuously reunited." This is a pretty large leap of logic, supported by "some scholars" who remain totally anonymous.
Dames does have an irritating habit of conflating obviously different figures, Bran and Arthur for example. This reaches a absurd head on page 159 when all three Bards in a contest at Caerleon are revealed to be separate versions of Merlin.
Having said all this, the book is easily digestible and contains loads of interesting bits, discussions of Glass in Celtic legend, Modern Day survivals, Ghost Dogs etc etc. And the illustrations are all excellent.
When writing a history of mythic figures and times,the author has a choice of a dry reportage of odd long dead beliefs or an enthusiastic embracing of the implied magic and wisdom the myths could be seen as representing. Michael Dames is solidly in the latter camp.
It is perfectly possible to report on such things while taking a middle way between the two extremes. For example, Robert MacFarlane'e "The Wild Places" has :"To travel somewhere like..Sutton Hoo...is to find...beliefs expressed here, you think, which might be learned from.A sense of orientation, perhaps, or connection."(p172)
In many ways, a more measured tone, like MacFarlanes's is more instuctive than what can seem to be an uncritical assumption that the wonder tales from ancient times have an actual and literal magic, a view Dames more or less states again and again.
"Merlin and Wales" contains many assertions which are interesting and eye-catching, but Dames doesn't try to support these assertions, and so they become merely bald opinions.Wishful thinking even : e.g. "Who was Vivien? Some scholars derive her name from chwifleian....a term of endearment used by Merlin..when addressing his twin sister...It was therefore with his thinly disgusied sister that he incestuously reunited." This is a pretty large leap of logic, supported by "some scholars" who remain totally anonymous.
Dames does have an irritating habit of conflating obviously different figures, Bran and Arthur for example. This reaches a absurd head on page 159 when all three Bards in a contest at Caerleon are revealed to be separate versions of Merlin.
Having said all this, the book is easily digestible and contains loads of interesting bits, discussions of Glass in Celtic legend, Modern Day survivals, Ghost Dogs etc etc. And the illustrations are all excellent.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Merlin and Wales: A Magician's Landscape; is an intriguing journey into the myth of Merlin that is visited via the use of language and filled with lavish photographs of the areas in which the legend was enacted.
It was a weird reading experience for me finding the text reading like a mystery into lesser known areas of the wizard who sleeps awaiting the call when England is in dire need at the end of days.
Though the tone of writing is strange I found the book one that inspired me of my summer reading. Maybe it was this mystery relating Merlin as a bard set as Celtic pagan religion was being eradicated by a religion from Rome and finding another version of the end for Merlin going mad chased by the Christian King Arfderydd in Southern Scotland after the battle of Arfdertdd north of Carlisle in 573.
Other areas here are explored as well as those commonly known in the Arthurian myth that see Merlin ending his sojourn on earth in enchantment by caused by Niviane but the whole book is done in a loose way as each avenue of investigation is explored. For me this loose jointed trek into the myth led into the archetypal magician figure that is the mystery of an England now lost; this book brought new vigour to my attitude to those long forgotten times of the dark ages.
The book is much better than recent attempts by TV to set Merlin's legend into an inspiring account of the exploits of Merlin, this book stands miles away from such trivia.
It was a weird reading experience for me finding the text reading like a mystery into lesser known areas of the wizard who sleeps awaiting the call when England is in dire need at the end of days.
Though the tone of writing is strange I found the book one that inspired me of my summer reading. Maybe it was this mystery relating Merlin as a bard set as Celtic pagan religion was being eradicated by a religion from Rome and finding another version of the end for Merlin going mad chased by the Christian King Arfderydd in Southern Scotland after the battle of Arfdertdd north of Carlisle in 573.
Other areas here are explored as well as those commonly known in the Arthurian myth that see Merlin ending his sojourn on earth in enchantment by caused by Niviane but the whole book is done in a loose way as each avenue of investigation is explored. For me this loose jointed trek into the myth led into the archetypal magician figure that is the mystery of an England now lost; this book brought new vigour to my attitude to those long forgotten times of the dark ages.
The book is much better than recent attempts by TV to set Merlin's legend into an inspiring account of the exploits of Merlin, this book stands miles away from such trivia.
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