What do you think?
Rate this book
The Life of Merlin
Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, is a work by the Norman-Welsh author Geoffrey of Monmouth, composed in Latin around AD 1150. It retells incidents from the life of the Brythonic seer Merlin, and is based on traditional material about him. Merlin is described as a prophet in the text. There are a number of episodes in which he loses his mind and lives in the wilderness like a wild animal, like Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. It is also the first work to describe the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, as Morgen.
Geoffrey had written of Merlin in his two previous works, the Prophetiae Merlini, purported to be a series of prophecies from the sage, and the Historia Regum Britanniae, which is the first work presenting a link between Merlin and King Arthur. The Vita Merlini presents an account of Merlin much more faithful to the Welsh traditions about Myrddin Wyllt, the archetype behind Geoffrey's composite figure of Merlin. Whereas the Historia had Merlin associating with Arthur, his father Uther Pendragon, and his uncle Ambrosius in the 5th century, the Vita's timeframe is during the late 6th century, and includes references to various figures from that period, including Gwenddoleu and Taliesin. Geoffrey attempts to synchronize the Vita with his earlier work by having Merlin mention he had been with Arthur long before.
Geoffrey had written of Merlin in his two previous works, the Prophetiae Merlini, purported to be a series of prophecies from the sage, and the Historia Regum Britanniae, which is the first work presenting a link between Merlin and King Arthur. The Vita Merlini presents an account of Merlin much more faithful to the Welsh traditions about Myrddin Wyllt, the archetype behind Geoffrey's composite figure of Merlin. Whereas the Historia had Merlin associating with Arthur, his father Uther Pendragon, and his uncle Ambrosius in the 5th century, the Vita's timeframe is during the late 6th century, and includes references to various figures from that period, including Gwenddoleu and Taliesin. Geoffrey attempts to synchronize the Vita with his earlier work by having Merlin mention he had been with Arthur long before.
253 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1150
62 people are currently reading
1019 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 3, 2023
Geoffrey of Monmouth composed this epic poem in Latin hexameter some time after his History of the Kings of Britain. He brought together traditions and legends of Myrddin, the mad man of the woods in Welsh legends and poems contained in the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Book of Taliesin, and the prophet Ambrosius from Nennius’s Historia Brittonum. For reasons unknown, he combined these two characters into one. He gave a fleshed out treatment of the man’s prophecies in his earlier book, as well as a short sketch of his discovery by Vortigern’s men.
In this poem, Geoffrey gives the full adult life story of Merlin, a king who goes mad in the brutalities of battle and flees to the Caledonian forest where he lives in seclusion for many years, becoming one with the wild woods, sharpening his skills of prophecy and natural philosophy. His sister and his wife mourn his absence and eventually have him brought back to court, where he is disgusted by society and driven further into his madness, but is forcefully prevented from returning to the woods. After his prophecy about the threefold death of a young man is fulfilled, he is eventually able to return to the woods, where he discusses the wonders of the natural world with another legendary bard and prophet, Taliesin. There are references not only to the books of Welsh poetry and myth, but to Roman and Greek poetry and myth, to Ovid, to Hesiod, to Homer.
Merlin gives his wife permission to remarry, acknowledging his inability to be with her in his madness. All he desires is a life of contemplation and learning in the woods, and Taliesin seems to be his only peer, the one from whom Merlin can learn the most. The agreement he has arranged with his sister leads to having a house built for him in the woods, along with a whole crew of servants to keep him fed and healthy while he gives his attentions to his more lofty ambitions away from society. Here Geoffrey repeats Merlin’s prophecies, though much shortened and slightly altered, but still nationalistic in character, with Arthur as the Boar of Cornwall, and Wales and Britain and its kings referred to as lions, dragons, and other creatures of metaphor. Many events that would come to be over the following centuries are painted in poetic ornament and mystique, including the death of the king, Merlin’s brother in law, as prophecies and portents without clear meaning to anyone except those who know what to look for.
Mark Walker’s translation attempts to be faithful to the feel and meaning of the original, even keeping the rhythm. As a poem it is simple in form and reads easily, designed to serve the narrative. It doesn’t distract from the lively and mythological content. It is such a subdued form that if you aren’t reading it aloud it can be easy to forget it’s a poem.
The exchanges between Merlin and Taliesin toward the end are my favorite parts. The whole thing is a charming spectacle of myth-making, but these sections borrow from the Book of Taliesin and combine Geoffrey’s skill at inventing additional fiction and fantasy from his source material. It is a metaphysical journey of scientific knowledge and natural philosophy of the twelfth century, dressed up in allusions to strange beasts and the fantastical.
Most of the later portions of the poem are pure invention by Geoffrey, with Merlin’s madness being healed by the healing streams of the woods, the appearance of another madman from Merlin’s past, and his sister joining him, Taliesin, and his friend in the woods as the new prophet. In this closing, Merlin establishes a sort of university of the woods, where he and his companions are free to study nature unbothered by others, much like the universities that were appearing in Britain at the time. It is thought that this aspect of Merlin’s story mirror’s Geoffrey’s, who was, at this point in his life, involved in the Oxford community during its growth into an academic institution.
Merlin here is no magician or wizard, but a Renaissance man of wisdom, unique insights, and knowledge of the mysteries that exist outside of human civilization. The madness he is thrown into after witnessing great losses in battle seems to carve away the parts of the psyche that would prevent a person from tapping fully into their powers as a prophet, although in his history Geoffrey has established that Merlin already possessed this ability. Perhaps the madness enhanced it, or his rough existence in the woods honed it in ways previously not possible, as he lost his connection to the fabric of society and grew more dependent on nature. Merlin undergoes a complete arc, and every stage of it makes for an engrossing character portrait and story.
In this poem, Geoffrey gives the full adult life story of Merlin, a king who goes mad in the brutalities of battle and flees to the Caledonian forest where he lives in seclusion for many years, becoming one with the wild woods, sharpening his skills of prophecy and natural philosophy. His sister and his wife mourn his absence and eventually have him brought back to court, where he is disgusted by society and driven further into his madness, but is forcefully prevented from returning to the woods. After his prophecy about the threefold death of a young man is fulfilled, he is eventually able to return to the woods, where he discusses the wonders of the natural world with another legendary bard and prophet, Taliesin. There are references not only to the books of Welsh poetry and myth, but to Roman and Greek poetry and myth, to Ovid, to Hesiod, to Homer.
Merlin gives his wife permission to remarry, acknowledging his inability to be with her in his madness. All he desires is a life of contemplation and learning in the woods, and Taliesin seems to be his only peer, the one from whom Merlin can learn the most. The agreement he has arranged with his sister leads to having a house built for him in the woods, along with a whole crew of servants to keep him fed and healthy while he gives his attentions to his more lofty ambitions away from society. Here Geoffrey repeats Merlin’s prophecies, though much shortened and slightly altered, but still nationalistic in character, with Arthur as the Boar of Cornwall, and Wales and Britain and its kings referred to as lions, dragons, and other creatures of metaphor. Many events that would come to be over the following centuries are painted in poetic ornament and mystique, including the death of the king, Merlin’s brother in law, as prophecies and portents without clear meaning to anyone except those who know what to look for.
Mark Walker’s translation attempts to be faithful to the feel and meaning of the original, even keeping the rhythm. As a poem it is simple in form and reads easily, designed to serve the narrative. It doesn’t distract from the lively and mythological content. It is such a subdued form that if you aren’t reading it aloud it can be easy to forget it’s a poem.
The exchanges between Merlin and Taliesin toward the end are my favorite parts. The whole thing is a charming spectacle of myth-making, but these sections borrow from the Book of Taliesin and combine Geoffrey’s skill at inventing additional fiction and fantasy from his source material. It is a metaphysical journey of scientific knowledge and natural philosophy of the twelfth century, dressed up in allusions to strange beasts and the fantastical.
Most of the later portions of the poem are pure invention by Geoffrey, with Merlin’s madness being healed by the healing streams of the woods, the appearance of another madman from Merlin’s past, and his sister joining him, Taliesin, and his friend in the woods as the new prophet. In this closing, Merlin establishes a sort of university of the woods, where he and his companions are free to study nature unbothered by others, much like the universities that were appearing in Britain at the time. It is thought that this aspect of Merlin’s story mirror’s Geoffrey’s, who was, at this point in his life, involved in the Oxford community during its growth into an academic institution.
Merlin here is no magician or wizard, but a Renaissance man of wisdom, unique insights, and knowledge of the mysteries that exist outside of human civilization. The madness he is thrown into after witnessing great losses in battle seems to carve away the parts of the psyche that would prevent a person from tapping fully into their powers as a prophet, although in his history Geoffrey has established that Merlin already possessed this ability. Perhaps the madness enhanced it, or his rough existence in the woods honed it in ways previously not possible, as he lost his connection to the fabric of society and grew more dependent on nature. Merlin undergoes a complete arc, and every stage of it makes for an engrossing character portrait and story.
June 29, 2020
This little tale was short and acrid.
I'm not quite sure what I expected from Geoffrey, as this story merely repeats the problems of The History of the Kings of Britain, but somehow manages to be more weird.
Long after Arthur's gone, Merlin gets PTSD and runs away to live in the woods. Both his wife and his sister try to stop him. That's pretty much it. It's hardly a life of Merlin, since it mentions nothing of his miraculous childhood and only barely touches on his time with Arthur.
What the story does show, in abundance, is that Merlin is kind of an arsehole:
He tries to rat out his adoring sister for no real reason, laughs that a man bothered to mend his shoes because he's fated to die soon, and Merlin kills a bloke by ripping off a stag's antlers (with his bare hands) and throwing them at the victim.
Admittedly that last one is metal, but Merlin is a pig to family, beast and the soon to be departed, and knowing he's meant to be very mentally unwell isn't played off as an excuse, as Geoffrey seems to think trauma is all for laughs. There's even a scene when another raving, literally frothing, man is captured and tied up to 'amuse his captors with his insane ramblings', and Merlin only takes pity on the poor fella because he recognises him as an old friend.
The actual life and awful deeds of Merlin are about thirty percent of this book, the rest is taken up by cryptic prophecies, Geoffrey bitching about Britain, copy pastes from The History and entirely inaccurate scientific musings on the behaviours of birds, fish and the weather. Also apparently there's no bees in Ireland, who knew? Oh yes, and someone takes up about two pages to simply list every magical river/spring in the world, which can cure everything from wounds to sterility, and cause everything from making you boring to turning you off wine.
Geoffrey does give us more flesh for the Arthurian mythos that wasn't in The History (or not that I can remember, at least), including the woman who'd later become Morgan la Fay and what happened to Arthur after the battle of Camlann, which is nice.
This was mercifully quicker than The History but not very enjoyable past the more surreal bits. History lovers may be interested in the 'science' nonsense as an example of medieval ecology theory, Arthur fans may like the references, and I'm just pissed Geoffrey ends this tosh by asking Britain to 'throw him a wreath' and congratulate him for this stupid story.
I'm not quite sure what I expected from Geoffrey, as this story merely repeats the problems of The History of the Kings of Britain, but somehow manages to be more weird.
Long after Arthur's gone, Merlin gets PTSD and runs away to live in the woods. Both his wife and his sister try to stop him. That's pretty much it. It's hardly a life of Merlin, since it mentions nothing of his miraculous childhood and only barely touches on his time with Arthur.
What the story does show, in abundance, is that Merlin is kind of an arsehole:
He tries to rat out his adoring sister for no real reason, laughs that a man bothered to mend his shoes because he's fated to die soon, and Merlin kills a bloke by ripping off a stag's antlers (with his bare hands) and throwing them at the victim.
Admittedly that last one is metal, but Merlin is a pig to family, beast and the soon to be departed, and knowing he's meant to be very mentally unwell isn't played off as an excuse, as Geoffrey seems to think trauma is all for laughs. There's even a scene when another raving, literally frothing, man is captured and tied up to 'amuse his captors with his insane ramblings', and Merlin only takes pity on the poor fella because he recognises him as an old friend.
The actual life and awful deeds of Merlin are about thirty percent of this book, the rest is taken up by cryptic prophecies, Geoffrey bitching about Britain, copy pastes from The History and entirely inaccurate scientific musings on the behaviours of birds, fish and the weather. Also apparently there's no bees in Ireland, who knew? Oh yes, and someone takes up about two pages to simply list every magical river/spring in the world, which can cure everything from wounds to sterility, and cause everything from making you boring to turning you off wine.
Geoffrey does give us more flesh for the Arthurian mythos that wasn't in The History (or not that I can remember, at least), including the woman who'd later become Morgan la Fay and what happened to Arthur after the battle of Camlann, which is nice.
This was mercifully quicker than The History but not very enjoyable past the more surreal bits. History lovers may be interested in the 'science' nonsense as an example of medieval ecology theory, Arthur fans may like the references, and I'm just pissed Geoffrey ends this tosh by asking Britain to 'throw him a wreath' and congratulate him for this stupid story.
January 23, 2017
The VITA MERLINI (LIFE OF MERLIN) is an often-overlooked, but nonetheless important and fascinating, account of the life of Merlin, the good wizard of the Arthurian legendarium. In this volume, we have the original Latin poem (from the 12th century), an English translation thereof, and copious notes to enhance the understanding of the poet's allusions to various aspects of medieval lore that would otherwise remain obscure to postmodern readers. Of special interest to me was a description of the medieval cosmos and its denizens, along with an account of how Taliesin (the legendary Welsh bard) conveyed King Arthur to the Isle of Avalon after his last battle, there to be cared for (and healed by) the King's sister, Morgan Le Fay, who is portrayed here as a wise and benevolent healer and NOT as an archvillain (as in later Arthurian romances). Highly recommended -- you'll learn things here about the Arthurian characters that you won't find anywhere else, including Merlin's sister, Ganieda.
Read
March 12, 2021Read for class and found the parts of this that explore Merlin’s “madness” (what we would probably let consider PTSD) the most interesting
April 9, 2023
"He who first among the Angles shall wear the diadem of Brutus, shall repair the city laid waste by slaughter."
*dreamy voice* Athelstan!
*dreamy voice* Athelstan!
March 3, 2023
«Dice Telgesino: "Ciertamente que no creemos que haya de haber entre conciudadanos tantas feroces guerras como tú has visto".
Y dice Merlín: "Pues ciertamente ha de ser así, que yo he vivido ya mucho y mucho he visto de los nuestros contra sí mismos y de la gente bárbara que todo lo perturba"».
—
«Cuando ya Arturo se quedó en Avalon, en compañía de las hadas, cuando Perceval hubo realizado la más grande hazaña encomendada al mejor caballero, ¿qué iba a hacer Merlín? Seguramente el adivino se dejó seducir con pena, pero consintiendo en desaparecer porque ya había llegado la hora de hacerlo, y encontró que ceder a los hechizos de una bella y tentadora muchacha era un final no exento de ironía. Merlín, amante de la farsa, risueño, fingió llorar desde el interior de su pétrea o vidriosa cárcel mágica; el encantador encantado se resignó a desaparecer con una última pirueta. Tal vez dejando subsistir la duda respecto a que un día podría romper el hechizo y volver, tal vez cuando Arturo decidiera regresar de Avalon...».
Y dice Merlín: "Pues ciertamente ha de ser así, que yo he vivido ya mucho y mucho he visto de los nuestros contra sí mismos y de la gente bárbara que todo lo perturba"».
—
«Cuando ya Arturo se quedó en Avalon, en compañía de las hadas, cuando Perceval hubo realizado la más grande hazaña encomendada al mejor caballero, ¿qué iba a hacer Merlín? Seguramente el adivino se dejó seducir con pena, pero consintiendo en desaparecer porque ya había llegado la hora de hacerlo, y encontró que ceder a los hechizos de una bella y tentadora muchacha era un final no exento de ironía. Merlín, amante de la farsa, risueño, fingió llorar desde el interior de su pétrea o vidriosa cárcel mágica; el encantador encantado se resignó a desaparecer con una última pirueta. Tal vez dejando subsistir la duda respecto a que un día podría romper el hechizo y volver, tal vez cuando Arturo decidiera regresar de Avalon...».
October 8, 2010
The Life of Merlin is a shorter text by Geoffrey of Monmouth, compared to The History of the Kings of Britain, and focused this time around the figure of Merlin, although the story of Arthur is alluded to in brief. Taliesin also appears. From what I gathered elsewhere, this is more closely related to Welsh tradition than Geoffrey's more famous work is.
This edition is available online for free, from Forgotten Books, though I actually got a copy from Amazon. The original introduction seems to be missing, but the text and footnotes seem to be intact and are reasonably helpful. The translation is, as far as I can tell, reasonable.
The publishers' preface contains typos and citing of wikipedia, though. Be wary of that!
This edition is available online for free, from Forgotten Books, though I actually got a copy from Amazon. The original introduction seems to be missing, but the text and footnotes seem to be intact and are reasonably helpful. The translation is, as far as I can tell, reasonable.
The publishers' preface contains typos and citing of wikipedia, though. Be wary of that!
February 2, 2024
thumbs up to morgana making her first literature appearance
August 28, 2018
The slim version of this book published by ReadaClassics has both the Latin poem and the English translation. There are notes for the English translation. If you just want to read the Life of Merlin this is a cheap option. And it's worth reading. It's not really a 'life of Merlin', more a mix of 'prophecies', some of which are probably references to events closer to Geoffrey than Merlin, folk tales, and some dramatic moments. If Geoffrey wrote this and the History of the Britons then consistency was not his strong point. Rowenna is Hengist's sister in one, his daughter in another.
However, there's nothing in this Readaclassics edition to say who translated it, or when. The notes verge on the useless because there is no way of knowing when they were written, or of identifying some of the authors/Authorities refered to in the notes.
Most frustrating of all are the frequent comments along the lines of;'For a full discussion see the introduction'.
There is no introduction.
However, there's nothing in this Readaclassics edition to say who translated it, or when. The notes verge on the useless because there is no way of knowing when they were written, or of identifying some of the authors/Authorities refered to in the notes.
Most frustrating of all are the frequent comments along the lines of;'For a full discussion see the introduction'.
There is no introduction.
March 21, 2022
This poem had been always known as the other Geoffrey of Monmouth book - the one that was written after his history and did not get incorporated into it and which as a result as never as popular as the other 2 books he wrote ("Prophecies of Merlin" and the History - with the earlier one incorporated in the latter). Written almost 15 years after the history was published, it may appear to be almost inconsequential and yet, if one reads it, they will find yet another kernel from the story of Arthur (so it could not have been so impossible to find). Plus it had been preserved and survived to our days (which does not necessarily mean it was important - that's now how those things worked).
Reviewing this book requires reviewing two separate things: the poem itself and the translation.
So let's start with the poem - written in 1,529 hexameter verses in ~1150, it had not always been attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth. The current scholarship seems to be in agreement that it was his but that can change. So let's assume its his - until we know more (that's part of the challenge and fun in medieval (and earlier) literature). It is very different from the history - it is didactic in places, with sidelines on the natural world (fishes from all things), cosmology and geography (survey of the islands in the neighborhood of the big island), it has dialogues which make one thinks of the Greek Philosophers, it has Taliesin (the Welsh bard who shows up to have a learned conversation and forgets to leave).
The History showed us Merlin as a boy and as a young man but then he fell off the story and we never saw him again - he was instrumental in making sure that Arthur existed but Arthur never met him. When we finally catch up with Merlin, he had been a kind and then a mad man, living in the woods for awhile (Wales has a lot of legends of wild men and that's what that particular part seems to be related to) and is now towards the end of his life. We get to hear what happened between when we last saw him and the current times but it is Taliesin who brings the bit of information that puts that in the proper timeline - the bard had been part of the party which followed Arthur and he was there when the king fell and was brought to the Isle of Apples/Avalon, where the local healer Morgen takes care of him. The name is not an invention - she exists in a lot of versions in Welsh mythology but that is the first written source to mention her - and with a bit of reinvention in the next decades and centuries, she will become Morgaine le Fey, the half sister of Arthur and a sorceress. But those times are yet to come - here she is just a healer. But another part of the legend is thus added to the growing account which will keep growing and mutating as times pass.
What makes that poem unusual is that the author does not claim to be translating or collating it - he is inventing new material. And that did not happen that often in these times (remember that even the History was supposedly a translation from a book he had... emphasis on supposedly).
The translation I read is the first (so it claims and I cannot find any others) English translation in verse. The translator's introduction reads like a shorter version of Wikipedia's articles on the sources (mostly Welsh of course), the author and the poem creation. There is one interesting part in there though - the one discussing the translation. He spends some time explaining why the iambic pentameter is the natural rhythm of an English-language epic poems and why hexameter worked so well for Latin and Greek (language structure, stresses and so on) and then goes onto a defense of the hexameter in English and his decision to use that for the translation. That decision is somewhat baffling. While hexameter can be made to work in English (Longfellow's "Evangeline" for example), Mark Walker is not Longfellow. It kinda works in some places and it really grates in others - and I wish he had gone for the iambic pentameter - I almost can see some places where the phrase wants to go that way and is forced into unnatural order and breaks so it goes where the translator wanted it to go. Here are the first three lines so you see what I mean (line breaks as per the translation; the Latin ones are not exactly like that - but that is hard to be done in a verse translation anyway):
"Merlin, his madness, the mischievous muse of the poet prophetic
I am preparing to sing; friend Robert peruse this my poem,
Glory of bishops, correct it now calmly with sensible pen-strokes,"
The same text, translated in 1925 by John Jay Parry(in prose) reads:
"I am preparing to sing the madness of the prophetic bard, and a humorous poem on Merlin; pray correct the song, Robert, glory of bishops, by restraining my pen."
(the full text is available here: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/... the complete Latin text is here: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/... if someone wants it).
Add to this the decision to split the poem into parts and to add overviews/summaries for each part (complete with line numbers) before the poem itself and the edition was very annoying (once I stopped reading the summaries, it got better). I am not sure if the latter parts' translation grate less because I got used to the format or because they were less weird but it takes awhile to get used to the way the poem goes. And even then, some parts required almost a reshuffle to figure out what they mean (which goes back to my complaint about the decision to use hexameter.
PS: "Evangeline" can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/evangeline-tal.... It does sound a bit weird at the start (the format is really weird in English) but it does not grate and it works.
Reviewing this book requires reviewing two separate things: the poem itself and the translation.
So let's start with the poem - written in 1,529 hexameter verses in ~1150, it had not always been attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth. The current scholarship seems to be in agreement that it was his but that can change. So let's assume its his - until we know more (that's part of the challenge and fun in medieval (and earlier) literature). It is very different from the history - it is didactic in places, with sidelines on the natural world (fishes from all things), cosmology and geography (survey of the islands in the neighborhood of the big island), it has dialogues which make one thinks of the Greek Philosophers, it has Taliesin (the Welsh bard who shows up to have a learned conversation and forgets to leave).
The History showed us Merlin as a boy and as a young man but then he fell off the story and we never saw him again - he was instrumental in making sure that Arthur existed but Arthur never met him. When we finally catch up with Merlin, he had been a kind and then a mad man, living in the woods for awhile (Wales has a lot of legends of wild men and that's what that particular part seems to be related to) and is now towards the end of his life. We get to hear what happened between when we last saw him and the current times but it is Taliesin who brings the bit of information that puts that in the proper timeline - the bard had been part of the party which followed Arthur and he was there when the king fell and was brought to the Isle of Apples/Avalon, where the local healer Morgen takes care of him. The name is not an invention - she exists in a lot of versions in Welsh mythology but that is the first written source to mention her - and with a bit of reinvention in the next decades and centuries, she will become Morgaine le Fey, the half sister of Arthur and a sorceress. But those times are yet to come - here she is just a healer. But another part of the legend is thus added to the growing account which will keep growing and mutating as times pass.
What makes that poem unusual is that the author does not claim to be translating or collating it - he is inventing new material. And that did not happen that often in these times (remember that even the History was supposedly a translation from a book he had... emphasis on supposedly).
The translation I read is the first (so it claims and I cannot find any others) English translation in verse. The translator's introduction reads like a shorter version of Wikipedia's articles on the sources (mostly Welsh of course), the author and the poem creation. There is one interesting part in there though - the one discussing the translation. He spends some time explaining why the iambic pentameter is the natural rhythm of an English-language epic poems and why hexameter worked so well for Latin and Greek (language structure, stresses and so on) and then goes onto a defense of the hexameter in English and his decision to use that for the translation. That decision is somewhat baffling. While hexameter can be made to work in English (Longfellow's "Evangeline" for example), Mark Walker is not Longfellow. It kinda works in some places and it really grates in others - and I wish he had gone for the iambic pentameter - I almost can see some places where the phrase wants to go that way and is forced into unnatural order and breaks so it goes where the translator wanted it to go. Here are the first three lines so you see what I mean (line breaks as per the translation; the Latin ones are not exactly like that - but that is hard to be done in a verse translation anyway):
"Merlin, his madness, the mischievous muse of the poet prophetic
I am preparing to sing; friend Robert peruse this my poem,
Glory of bishops, correct it now calmly with sensible pen-strokes,"
The same text, translated in 1925 by John Jay Parry(in prose) reads:
"I am preparing to sing the madness of the prophetic bard, and a humorous poem on Merlin; pray correct the song, Robert, glory of bishops, by restraining my pen."
(the full text is available here: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/... the complete Latin text is here: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/... if someone wants it).
Add to this the decision to split the poem into parts and to add overviews/summaries for each part (complete with line numbers) before the poem itself and the edition was very annoying (once I stopped reading the summaries, it got better). I am not sure if the latter parts' translation grate less because I got used to the format or because they were less weird but it takes awhile to get used to the way the poem goes. And even then, some parts required almost a reshuffle to figure out what they mean (which goes back to my complaint about the decision to use hexameter.
PS: "Evangeline" can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/evangeline-tal.... It does sound a bit weird at the start (the format is really weird in English) but it does not grate and it works.
October 11, 2022
Not what I expected. Good in parts frustrating in others. The copious prophesies being the frustrating stuff. The translator, who I assume produced the notes, also seems to lend credence to the idea that either Merlin or Geoffrey actually had the power of prophecy! Also annoying is statements to see the introduction for elucidation of some point however my copy reprinted by Forgotten Books had no introduction. As I said though despite these drawbacks it is still very good in other parts.
November 12, 2025
Said Taliesin: 'But none who are now in the land of the living
Will be alive to enjoy it - not you even, I suppose,
Who has seen more of the cruelty of war than can rightly be endured.'
I really liked this one. Geoffrey takes his own work and other, older tales and tries to build the character of Merlin from all he has, probably asking himself: How would a man feel who has spent (fifty, in the Black Book) years half-mad in the wilds out of guilt, the apple tree the only witness to his sorrow? Would he be able to return to society? How would his friendship with Taliesin look like in that life?
I'm just sad he left out the pig.
I was also pleasantly surprised how women are portrayed in this book, considering its time and age. There's Morgen, Merlin's equal in sorcery and knowledge, ruling her own island. There's Ganieda, Merlin's sister who joins his centre of learning in the woods at the end, becoming a prophetess herself. His wife Gwendoloena, who does not sit around to wait for him, but tries to get on with her life (although he messes that up pretty badly).
Read
March 6, 2022I noticed that Geoffrey used some techniques in his History of the Kings of Britain that would later be used in post-modernist fiction. In this book he plays with structure and uses structure to tell the story in a way that I just don’t think I’ve seen before in something so old. It reminded me a bit of Heinrich Böll’s Gruppenbild mit Dame where the novel still has its scaffolding up and you’re not sure if its under construction or being taken apart.
Geoffrey has made his poem by jointing together a whole range of disparate sources. The joints are unwieldy and rough. The themes of the poem come in related pairs, so you have for example the past and the future or madness and prophecy. As past and future are jointed in the present so madness and prophecy might be jointed in people. Cleverly done, but the poem is something of a victim of its own success as it is rather a disjointed read.
I see there is more than one edition on the market. I have Basil Clarke’s. I recommend it. It has the Latin text in parallel if that’s useful to you. A very good introduction that will tell you everything you’ll ever want to know about the background to the poem. Also excellent notes which (amongst much else) identify the sources Geoffrey has cobbled together. Without that context I don’t think I would have understood what he was trying to do. It also has translations of the Lailoken A & B tales from Cotton Titus A xix (early Merlin analogue tales) and part of Yr Afallennau from the Black Book of Carmarthen.
Geoffrey has made his poem by jointing together a whole range of disparate sources. The joints are unwieldy and rough. The themes of the poem come in related pairs, so you have for example the past and the future or madness and prophecy. As past and future are jointed in the present so madness and prophecy might be jointed in people. Cleverly done, but the poem is something of a victim of its own success as it is rather a disjointed read.
I see there is more than one edition on the market. I have Basil Clarke’s. I recommend it. It has the Latin text in parallel if that’s useful to you. A very good introduction that will tell you everything you’ll ever want to know about the background to the poem. Also excellent notes which (amongst much else) identify the sources Geoffrey has cobbled together. Without that context I don’t think I would have understood what he was trying to do. It also has translations of the Lailoken A & B tales from Cotton Titus A xix (early Merlin analogue tales) and part of Yr Afallennau from the Black Book of Carmarthen.
December 31, 2023
"He became a silvan man just as though devoted to the woods. For a whole summer after this, hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no one and forgetful of himself and of his kindred."
The life of Merlin; mediator between madness and wisdom and prophet of tumultuous times when the British people were beset from all sides by Scots and Saxons.
The pagan history of the character (origins in Myrddin Wyllt and the wild man of Lailoken) is able to be squared with Monmouth's contemporary Christianity by having Merlin's prophetic outbursts relegated to his periods of madness but then having him recover his senses and renew his devotion to God:
"... by his playing compelled the man, little by little, to put aside his madness, captivated by the sweetness of the lute. So Merlin became mindful of himself, and he recalled what he used to be, and he wondered at his madness and he hated it."
The ending of this short tale has Merlin, his sister Ganieda, Maeldinus and Taliesin form a sort of band of societal outcasts, keeping to the wilds and thus setting to stage for Merlin's coming role in the Utherpendragon/Arthurian legends.
The life of Merlin; mediator between madness and wisdom and prophet of tumultuous times when the British people were beset from all sides by Scots and Saxons.
The pagan history of the character (origins in Myrddin Wyllt and the wild man of Lailoken) is able to be squared with Monmouth's contemporary Christianity by having Merlin's prophetic outbursts relegated to his periods of madness but then having him recover his senses and renew his devotion to God:
"... by his playing compelled the man, little by little, to put aside his madness, captivated by the sweetness of the lute. So Merlin became mindful of himself, and he recalled what he used to be, and he wondered at his madness and he hated it."
The ending of this short tale has Merlin, his sister Ganieda, Maeldinus and Taliesin form a sort of band of societal outcasts, keeping to the wilds and thus setting to stage for Merlin's coming role in the Utherpendragon/Arthurian legends.
February 26, 2024
I bought this book when I was in my first year at college because I've been gaining a keen interest in the Matter of Britain since I was a teenager. I only read it when I was doing my master's degree in Medieval History, since my thesis was about Merlin.
It's not hard to read and understand (English is not my native tongue), and it's an interesting story of a man who tries to deal with his life (and problems), in the medieval kind of way. Also, having both the latin text and the translated version really helped me doing my thesis.
It's not hard to read and understand (English is not my native tongue), and it's an interesting story of a man who tries to deal with his life (and problems), in the medieval kind of way. Also, having both the latin text and the translated version really helped me doing my thesis.
July 12, 2017
3.5 Stars
I was really surprised by the many covert moments of post-structuralist destabilisation of structure and centres this text contained! I particularly enjoyed the entire section on Merlin's madness (which forms the major part of the text), touching upon ideas of truth, disguise, liminal selfhood, sanity and reason, and of course the figure of the "holy/unholy wild man in the woods". I am glad I picked this up for my dissertation.
Favourite moment 1: when all three of Merlin, Maeldinus and Taliesin gave up on humans going "damn you society, imma live with animals and rock and roll in the wild!" I couldn't help but thump my fist in the air in communion.
Favourite moment 2: After Merlin is cured of his madness, his sister is driven by grief into a similar state of un-'reason'.
Merlin's advice? "Rejoice in it! (Carpe diem)"
P.S. Believe me, rock and roll is a very choice word to describe Merlin's profusely entertaining ramblings
I was really surprised by the many covert moments of post-structuralist destabilisation of structure and centres this text contained! I particularly enjoyed the entire section on Merlin's madness (which forms the major part of the text), touching upon ideas of truth, disguise, liminal selfhood, sanity and reason, and of course the figure of the "holy/unholy wild man in the woods". I am glad I picked this up for my dissertation.
Favourite moment 1: when all three of Merlin, Maeldinus and Taliesin gave up on humans going "damn you society, imma live with animals and rock and roll in the wild!" I couldn't help but thump my fist in the air in communion.
Favourite moment 2: After Merlin is cured of his madness, his sister is driven by grief into a similar state of un-'reason'.
Merlin's advice? "Rejoice in it! (Carpe diem)"
P.S. Believe me, rock and roll is a very choice word to describe Merlin's profusely entertaining ramblings
August 23, 2022
This was bought for me as a gift for my birthday (or Xmas the problem of a December birthday is that in the years to come you do forget which) because I love the legend of King Arthur.
This was an insight to me as I’ve always been more interested in the fantasy of the legend rather than the history of it.
Anyway maybe if you’re interested in this subject as more of a scholar this might float your boat. If you’re just in to the Arthurian Legend because Camelot seems like a awesome place then probably give this a miss.
This was an insight to me as I’ve always been more interested in the fantasy of the legend rather than the history of it.
Anyway maybe if you’re interested in this subject as more of a scholar this might float your boat. If you’re just in to the Arthurian Legend because Camelot seems like a awesome place then probably give this a miss.
August 2, 2024
Il libro è, nel complesso, carino: ci sono parti di vera poesia e parti molto avvincente, tuttavia alcuni passi sono un po' troppo noiosi (e per un libro molto corto, di poco più di 1.500 esametri, è un problema grave). È comunque molto consigliato per chi ama il ciclo di re Artù (che qui però è solo menzionato). Consiglio di trovare un'edizione col testo latino, perché si può vedere tutta l'abilità di Goffredo di Monmouth nel comporre i versi; questa edizione ne è priva, ma il testo originale l'ho recuperato su internet (tuttavia, non è formattato in modo decente neanche su wikisource)
December 3, 2023
"Жизнь Мерлина" латинская гекзаметрическая поэма про Мерлина Амвросия. Возможно в оригинале не совсем гладкая, но в переводе просто замечательна. Содержит обширные знания средневековых бестиариев и этимологий Исидора. Широкими описаниями мира напоминает "Щит Геракла" из Гомера. "Предсказания" о современных автору событиях. В отличие от Хроники - не была популярны до "переоткрытия" в 19 веке. Мерлин здесь король и отшельник.
December 22, 2022
Read it for research purposes. Drier than a bone and put me to sleep a number of times. Understandably a product of its time and medium, but droned on for ages about largely narratively irrelevant details on healing waters, birds, and prophecies.
December 24, 2022
I found this was a great historical read. This book gave Merlin a new depth that isn't really seen in current [televisvised or written] fanfiction. He felt less fantasy and more magical archetype. I highly recommend for anyone that wants to deep dive into the Merlin mythology and lore.
October 15, 2020
This was an interesting book, although some of the story appears out of sync with the overall tale.
May 10, 2022
Not the vibe for me.
February 1, 2024
Merlin is such a funny guy— I’m definitely less of a Geoffrey of Monmouth hater now.
February 27, 2024
vine aquí por morgana y literalmente solo aparece en dos párrafos
June 30, 2024
Spin off arturiano, un gustoso excursus con un Merlino inedito, matto, re, fratello, eremita dei boschi. Splendide riflessioni medievali sulla natura di uomini e altri animali.
September 6, 2024
DNF'd
So boring & such a bad picture is drawn of Merlin that I couldn't continue!
So boring & such a bad picture is drawn of Merlin that I couldn't continue!
December 10, 2024
Ganieda, your twin brother does not deserve you.
Read
December 31, 2025Ye olde tale, Geoffrey's third with Merlin, but this time as the main character.
February 17, 2024
This like Histories of the Kings of Britain is an enjoyable yet slightly odd book. It does seem to get a bit overlooked which is a shame as there is a lot to enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews