Merlin S Gift

This book deals with all aspects of the Merlin legend, from its origins to its expression in medieval and modern literature, film, and popular culture. Two of the reprinted essays are translated into English for the first time.

A medieval historian examines what we really know about the man who was “Merlin the Magician” and his impact on Britain. Merlin has remained an enthralling and curious individual since he was first introduced in the twelfth century in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. But although the Merlin of literature and Arthurian myth is well known, his “historical” figure and his relation to medieval magic are less familiar. In this book Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores just who he was and what he has meant to Britain. The historical Merlin was no rough magician: he was a learned figure from the cutting edge of medieval science and adept in astrology, cosmology, prophecy, and natural magic, as well as being a seer and a proto-alchemist. His powers were convincingly real—and useful, for they helped to add credibility to the “long-lost” history of Britain which first revealed them to a European public. Merlin’s prophecies reassuringly foretold Britain’s path, establishing an ancient ancestral line and linking biblical prophecy with more recent times. Merlin helped to put British history into world history. Lawrence-Mathers also explores the meaning of Merlin’s magic across the centuries, arguing that he embodied ancient Christian and pagan magical traditions, recreated for a medieval court and shaped to fit a new moral framework. Linking Merlin’s reality and power with the culture of the Middle Ages, this remarkable book reveals the true impact of the most famous magician of all time. “The story of how the image of Merlin as political prophet, magician and half-demon evolved in the Middle Ages is as fascinating as any romance.”—Euan Cameron

In 2019, Robert Hunt is a young man with no family, desperately in need of guidance. He gets in with a bad crowd, eventually part of a bank raid in London. Miraculously, before being arrested, Robert is saved by a ghost named Viviane: the mythical Lady of the Lake, who transports him to 600 AD, to the time of King Arthur. Robert begins as a helper in the kitchen of Camelot Castle, but due to his modern knowledge is quickly promoted and eventually becomes advisor to King Arthur. As Robert introduces things like cannons, gunpowder, and even early electricity, he is deemed a wizard and given the name Merlin. Although now a man of legend himself, Robert’s journey is not over. Leaving behind King Arthur’s court, Viviane transports Robert to 1200 AD to the time of Robin Hood, no more than a highwayman when they first meet. Robert helps turn Robin Hood into a hero, but at the same time, Robert is becoming a man with power and purpose. His journey is one of adventure, danger, death, and rebirth as a simple man travels back in time to shape the legends we know today while paving his own path to greatness.

A comprehensive and objective study of Layamon's sources is long overdue. As a first step Françoise le Saux investigates the English poet's handling of his main source, Wace's Roman de Brut, to determine what principles guided the composition of the English Brut. These established, she is able to distinguish between different sorts of variation from the Roman, thereby providing norms against which to gauge the probability of further, secondary sources. Additional sources are then identified, in the various fields suggested by the poem: historical; literary; and religious writings (or tales) in Welsh, English, Latin and French and perhaps even Scandinavian.

Was Merlin a mythical character or a real person? If he was a real person, when and where did he live? In this provocative survey of all the known literary and historical sources, Jean Markale pieces together a compelling story of who and what Merlin might have been. Combining his investigation of the sources with fragments of Celtic mythology, Druidic culture, and the esoteric tradition, Markale draws an enlightening portrait of the archetypal Wild Man and shaman known as Merlin, who lived in the Lowlands of Scotland late in the sixth century, some fifty years after the reign of King Arthur. In a state of divine madness Merlin sought refuge in the forest, where he inherited the gift of prophecy. With him was his companion, Vivian, an essential element of the Merlin legend. Their sacred clearing in the woods--described in some legends as an invisible castle of glass or air--was the site of their ecstatic journey of enlightenment and union with nature. From his place in the Cosmic Tree and outside of time, Merlin the enchanter challenges us to reexamine our way of life. When the Merlin legend resurfaced in the twelth century, his message of the universal brotherhood of all beings and things called out to a rapidly urbanizing society that was losing touch with nature. His warning, which went unheeded, is no less relevant to us today than it was at the dawn of the modern era.

Offers insight into crows' ability to make tools and respond to environmental challenges, explaining how they engage in human-like behaviors, from giving gifts and seeking revenge to playing and experiencing dreams.

`This book is a useful addition to any staff library. What makes it different to many other similar books is that it shows teachers that speaking, listening and reading create the foundations for writing. Tested in schools, staff said: "It is a very useful framework for action-research based upon secure theory. When deciding classroom strategies, it is easy to find what you are looking for and the chapter summaries are very helpful. Some of the staff development and training suggestions are very practical and we are trying them out. We found the emphasis upon class novels and the class discussion that follows, very important, especially when linked to the excellent examples of children′s writing." This book may appear to some as theoretical and ′academic′, but this is why it will be valuable. It does what the title says because it shows how children learn to write. It starts at the beginning and saves diving into the latest trend. Perhaps its best recommendation is that every school that was asked to look at it said, `It′s good and we have ordered a copy′ - John Lilly, independent education consultant `The chapter on the Taxonomy of Writing Purposes will be useful for planning and those on extending and enhancing writing will definitely be helpful in many day-to-day situations′ - Nicholas Bielby, Times Educational Supplement This book outlines the processes which are involved when children learn to write. The author shows how certain strategies can improve children′s progress in writing. Dealing with the age range three to 13, the book addresses issues to do with: - the gender gap - children with English as an additional language - left-handedness Dorothy Latham includes ideas for sound and easy ongoing assessment of writing. The book is written in line with the requirements of the English National Curriculum and The National Literacy Strategy Framework for England, but is not limited to them. Topics also covered include: - brain development and structures - the acquisition of speech - language and thinking - working memory - secretarial skills - stages in compositional development - writing purposes and cross-curricular applications - strategies for improving self-generated writing - using reading to improve writing - using speech and drama to improve writing and - ten ways to improve children′s writing. This book is for serving teachers in schools wishing to study the subject in further depth, and as a source book for students. Useful for school-based staff INSET, it provides simple activities for teachers to do and discuss.