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Merlin
(Page 2)
Merlin's association with Arthur is indisputable. According to legend, Uther
Pendragon — with Merlin’s magical help — seduces the wife of one of the
noblemen. From that union, Arthur is born. Though the king married the
woman, who was widowed soon after conceiving Arthur, Merlin advises that the
child be given to foster parents for his own protection. Therefore, immediately after
his birth, Arthur was given into the keeping of Merlin, who then took him to Sir Hector,
who brought the child up as his own son. Later, Merlin tutored and prepared the young lad
for his future role as king. Arthur eventually claimed the throne based upon
his pulling of the sword from the stone.
Geoffrey also credited
Stonehenge to Merlin. In his account, Merlin was asked by Ambrosius Aurelianus,
brother of Uther Pendragon and uncle of King Arthur, to erect a monument to
commemorate the site where several hundred British nobles were murdered by
Saxons. Merlin
then used magic to transport the stones from Ireland, where they
had been erected in the form of Stonehenge after having been brought from
Africa by giants. The formation of stones was called the Giants Dance.
Merlin disappeared forever when Viviane, the Lady of the
Lake, using magic he taught her, betrayed and trapped him in
an enchanted prison, variously described as a cave, a large rock, an
invisible tower, or a thorn bush. From that time on the shadows were seen to
gather swiftly around Arthur’s head.
See
Avalon,
King Arthur,
Glastonbury,
Camelot,
Lyonesse,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism, Carol Publishing Group;
(2)
Lacy, Norris J.,
The New Arthurian Encyclopedia,
Routledge
Publishing; (3)
Steiger, Brad and Sherry
Hansen,
The Gale Encyclopedia of
the Unusual and Unexplained,
Thomson Gale
Publishing; (4) Coghlan, Ronan,
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian
Legends, Houghton Mifflin
Publishing.
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