Merlin

Merlin Europe
The archetypal wizard of Arthurian legend. He brought together the royal couple who were to become Arthur's parents, King Uther Pendragon and Igraine, who at the time was the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. He accomplished the seduction by magic arts, and then he himself watched over Arthur's youth, preparing him in secret for the hour of his destiny. According to one tradition, he also used his magic to build Stonehenge. The stones came from Ireland and they were erected as a monument to British nobles killed by the Saxons. Another work to his credit was the Round Table, a copy of which may still exist at Winchester.

Merlin himself had been begotten upon a king's daughter by a mysterious youth who came at night to her nun's cell. In his Historia Regum, written in the twelfth century, Geoffrey of Monmouth reckoned that Merlin's father was a demon. So potent an influence did his prophecies have on medieval Europe that they were...

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