Living La Vita Merlini

“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.” – Amazon.

Merlin has been a figure of interest to me since I was very young, and I’ve always indulged myself in books that concern him in any way, whether it be legendary, historical, or fictional. Search this blog for “Merlin” (or indeed, “Merlyn”) and you won’t even begin to scratch all the works that involve the famous wizard in some way. I was finally able to track down this seminal early work about him at last.

It was fairly expensive for being such a thin little book; it is only 105 pages long, and half of that is the original Latin poem. The other half is the English translation and footnotes. The price is reflected in its rarity and its niche scholarly interest, but I found after hesitating for almost a year I had to have it. It was a quick read, but not without interest. It contains elements of the Madness of Merlin, the Three Fates, and the Matter of Britain (in prophecy), but there is also a large chunk recounting the world creation from Genesis, which I can only consider filler and a little off topic, but probably inevitable in an early medieval work.