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A review by oblomov
The Life of Merlin by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke
2.0
This little tale was short and acrid.
I'm not quite sure what I expected from Geoffrey, as this story merely repeats the problems of [b: The History of the Kings of Britain|129521|The History of the Kings of Britain|Geoffrey of Monmouth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456245951l/129521._SY75_.jpg|124745], but somehow manages to be more weird.
Long after Arthur's gone, Merlin gets PTSD and runs away to live in the woods. Both his wife and his sister try to stop him. That's pretty much it. It's hardly a life of Merlin, since it mentions nothing of his miraculous childhood and only barely touches on his time with Arthur.
What the story does show, in abundance, is that Merlin is kind of an arsehole:
He tries to rat out his adoring sister for no real reason, laughs that a man bothered to mend his shoes because he's fated to die soon, and Merlin kills a bloke by ripping off a stag's antlers (with his bare hands) and throwing them at the victim.
Admittedly that last one is metal, but Merlin is a pig to family, beast and the soon to be departed, and knowing he's meant to be very mentally unwell isn't played off as an excuse, as Geoffrey seems to think trauma is all for laughs. There's even a scene when another raving, literally frothing, man is captured and tied up to 'amuse his captors with his insane ramblings', and Merlin only takes pity on the poor fella because he recognises him as an old friend.
The actual life and awful deeds of Merlin are about thirty percent of this book, the rest is taken up by cryptic prophecies, Geoffrey bitching about Britain, copy pastes from The History and entirely inaccurate scientific musings on the behaviours of birds, fish and the weather. Also apparently there's no bees in Ireland, who knew? Oh yes, and someone takes up about two pages to simply list every magical river/spring in the world, which can cure everything from wounds to sterility, and cause everything from making you boring to turning you off wine.
Geoffrey does give us more flesh for the Arthurian mythos that wasn't in The History (or not that I can remember, at least), including the woman who'd later become Morgan la Fay and what happened to Arthur after the battle of Camlann, which is nice.
This was mercifully quicker than The History but not very enjoyable past the more surreal bits. History lovers may be interested in the 'science' nonsense as an example of medieval ecology theory, Arthur fans may like the references, and I'm just pissed Geoffrey ends this tosh by asking Britain to 'throw him a wreath' and congratulate him for this stupid story.
I'm not quite sure what I expected from Geoffrey, as this story merely repeats the problems of [b: The History of the Kings of Britain|129521|The History of the Kings of Britain|Geoffrey of Monmouth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456245951l/129521._SY75_.jpg|124745], but somehow manages to be more weird.
Long after Arthur's gone, Merlin gets PTSD and runs away to live in the woods. Both his wife and his sister try to stop him. That's pretty much it. It's hardly a life of Merlin, since it mentions nothing of his miraculous childhood and only barely touches on his time with Arthur.
What the story does show, in abundance, is that Merlin is kind of an arsehole:
He tries to rat out his adoring sister for no real reason, laughs that a man bothered to mend his shoes because he's fated to die soon, and Merlin kills a bloke by ripping off a stag's antlers (with his bare hands) and throwing them at the victim.
Admittedly that last one is metal, but Merlin is a pig to family, beast and the soon to be departed, and knowing he's meant to be very mentally unwell isn't played off as an excuse, as Geoffrey seems to think trauma is all for laughs. There's even a scene when another raving, literally frothing, man is captured and tied up to 'amuse his captors with his insane ramblings', and Merlin only takes pity on the poor fella because he recognises him as an old friend.
The actual life and awful deeds of Merlin are about thirty percent of this book, the rest is taken up by cryptic prophecies, Geoffrey bitching about Britain, copy pastes from The History and entirely inaccurate scientific musings on the behaviours of birds, fish and the weather. Also apparently there's no bees in Ireland, who knew? Oh yes, and someone takes up about two pages to simply list every magical river/spring in the world, which can cure everything from wounds to sterility, and cause everything from making you boring to turning you off wine.
Geoffrey does give us more flesh for the Arthurian mythos that wasn't in The History (or not that I can remember, at least), including the woman who'd later become Morgan la Fay and what happened to Arthur after the battle of Camlann, which is nice.
This was mercifully quicker than The History but not very enjoyable past the more surreal bits. History lovers may be interested in the 'science' nonsense as an example of medieval ecology theory, Arthur fans may like the references, and I'm just pissed Geoffrey ends this tosh by asking Britain to 'throw him a wreath' and congratulate him for this stupid story.