A Study of Merlin in English Literature From the Middle Ages to the Present

This study traces the manner of Merlin's presentation in English fiction from the twelfth century to the present day. Unlike the speculative works that deal with Merlin's pre-historic origins, this study is based throughout entirely on the concrete evidence of verifiable texts. A fundamental thesis of the study is that the way Merlin is presented is largely determined by the mood and spirit of the times in which the different authors wrote. Attempts have been made, therefore, to make this link as consistently as possible. A detailed bibliography, which gives a comprehensive checklist of the works in English in which Merlin appears down to 1989, is itself a valuable contribution to scholarship on this subject.