Prose Merlin

by Anonymous, John Conlee (Editor)

Predating Malory's Morte d'Arthur, this anonymous text is regarded as "the earliest piece of Arthurian literature written in English Prose." It combines elements of the French Vulgate cycle translated into Middle English, constructing a narrative from a single-stranded narration of the origin and rise of Arthur, originating from an early-medieval Robert de Boron text (and, in this version, roughly six times the length of the corresponding narrative within Morte d'Arthur), and continuing with a multi-stranded, interlacing "sequel" narrative.

From the publisher's description:

With its contextualizing introduction, notes, and gloss, this edition makes the Prose Merlin available to any student of Arthurian legend, no matter their level of proficiency in Middle English. Written in the latter half of the fifteenth century, the Prose Merlin is the first work of Arthurian literature written in English prose. The highly original poem, though based upon the French Vulgate cycle tradition of Arthurian legends, is full of episodes, motifs, and characters found nowhere else in the entire Arthurian corpus. Beginning with the story surrounding Merlin's birth, and charting the course of his fantastical life until his ambiguous death, Prose Merlin is an enchanting text for any class studying Arthuriana.

Genres: Arthurian, Medieval, Classics, Historical Fiction

407 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1470

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Elizabeth Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is without doubt a groundbreaking book that has made a difficult-to-access text accessible. This is because there is only one manuscript in existence, the MS Ff 3.11. I say accessible, as it is, but this does not mean that the text is easy. As a medieval student myself, I read middle English in its original format, but the book is a serious chunk to get through. This is not to say that the text makes the manuscript difficult, rather that the original manuscript is simply quite a tough one, and this edition makes it easier to read. Without this book my dissertation would simply not exist. If you can, I highly recommend reading it, it is funny and melodramatic and upsetting and anger-inducing, it's just brilliant.

[Dan Sumption · Rating 4 out of 5]

300 pages of Middle English is quite the slog, and an awful lot of it consists of tedious and repetitive battle scenes (many of which are longer in the original, thankfully the editor has cut and summarised these). However the scenes where Merlin appears, though disappointingly few and far between, are really rather... magical. And for the Monty Pythonesque "Arthur and the Devil Cat" this book is worth the admission price.