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The Prose Merlin in Middle English
Dec. 2nd, 2017 10:13 amDipping a toe back into the water after a long dry spell...
Just now I'm doing the research for a nonfiction project that centers on the legends of the wizard Merlin, and so I've been reading (or rereading, in some cases) a lot of medieval Arthurian literature. The book on the end table right now is The Prose Merlin, edited by John Conlee, and I'm startled to find it's not just a good source for research -- it's a really lively read.
Okay, it's in Middle English, which may not be everyone's flagon of ale. Still, the author (nobody knows who he was any more) knew how to write. Here's a bit from an early chapter. Merlin is at Vortigern's tower; they've just drained the underground lake and revealed the two dragons sleepng there:
"Tho spronge up the two dragons and foughten togeder with teeth and feet, and never herde ye of so stronge bataile betwene two bestes, ne so crewell fight. And so they foughten to mydday, and the peple semed that the reade sholde overcome the white, till that the white threwe so much fiere and flame that he brente up the reade, and so was he deed. Then the white leide hym down to reste for werynesse, and ne lived after but thre dayes. And thei that this syen seyde that never so grete merveile hadde be seyn beforn."
(If that doesn't make sense, try reading it aloud.)
There's a lot of lame Merlin fiction out there, so it's good to run into a reminder of just how lively the legend was before the purveyors of canned fantasy got to it.
Just now I'm doing the research for a nonfiction project that centers on the legends of the wizard Merlin, and so I've been reading (or rereading, in some cases) a lot of medieval Arthurian literature. The book on the end table right now is The Prose Merlin, edited by John Conlee, and I'm startled to find it's not just a good source for research -- it's a really lively read.
Okay, it's in Middle English, which may not be everyone's flagon of ale. Still, the author (nobody knows who he was any more) knew how to write. Here's a bit from an early chapter. Merlin is at Vortigern's tower; they've just drained the underground lake and revealed the two dragons sleepng there:
"Tho spronge up the two dragons and foughten togeder with teeth and feet, and never herde ye of so stronge bataile betwene two bestes, ne so crewell fight. And so they foughten to mydday, and the peple semed that the reade sholde overcome the white, till that the white threwe so much fiere and flame that he brente up the reade, and so was he deed. Then the white leide hym down to reste for werynesse, and ne lived after but thre dayes. And thei that this syen seyde that never so grete merveile hadde be seyn beforn."
(If that doesn't make sense, try reading it aloud.)
There's a lot of lame Merlin fiction out there, so it's good to run into a reminder of just how lively the legend was before the purveyors of canned fantasy got to it.
