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For other uses of this word see: Merlin (disambiguation)

Merlin the Magician is the wizard character of Arthurian legend and fiction.

Also variously called Merlinus Ambrosius or, in Welsh, Myrddin Emrys, Merlin first appears in the twelfth century in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum Britanniae or History of the Kings of Britain.

Geoffrey blended two older story-strands: a long-lived British folkloric tradition of a "Wildman of the Woods," sometimes called Lailoken and, later, Myrddin, and a story from Nennius' Historia Brittonum or History of the Britons of a fatherless boy called Ambrosius who prophesies the doom of King Vortigern. Geoffrey called his composite character "Merlin Ambrosius."

In various guises, Merlin appears in almost all fantasies based on the Arthurian legends, notably in Jane Yolen's Young Merlin Trilogy, Ian McDowell's Merlin's Gift, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.

Merlin has been played by Sam Neill in the 1982 TV movie Merlin and Nicol Williamson in John Boorman's movie Excalibur (1981).

See also

• Ancient mysteries
• Holy Grail

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