Legends come to life... After a daring rescue from high-tech computer game Feyland, Scottish teenager Corinne MacArthur looks forward to a quieter life and time to enjoy her magical grey horse and her friendship with Elphin Irving. Music student Elphin thinks he's seen the last of the blue-faced hag who ensorcelled him in Feyland. But Cailleach, the legendary witch of winter, has other ideas. And greater ambitions. Ambitions which spread beyond the faerie realm and into the real-world landscapes of Scotland. However, she's reckoned without Corinne and Elphin, and their legendary friends... :: Merlin's Army is the sixth book in the Celtic Fey series set in Anthea Sharp's Feyland universe (with her kind permission), and it concludes the story arc started in the first book, Unicorn Magic. This is a clean Arthurian fantasy which is set in Scotland (and the faerie realm) and uses British English spelling and grammar. Start reading this amazing series today! Keywords: Arthurian, portal, fantasy, Merlin, Arthur, Scottish, litRPG, gamelit, cyberpunk, VR, YA, young adult, clean, Clean & Wholesome, Myths & Legends, unicorn, horse riding, teenage girl, rider, fae, fey, faerie, faery, fairy, elf, elves, Scotland, celtic, celt, pony, Narnia, Feyland, Anthea Sharp, gamer, nerd, geek, contemporary, British, PG, virtual reality, RPG, MMORPG, mythology, folklore, myth, legend, Excalibur, Nimue, lady of the lake

Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian legend, has been a source of enduring fascination for centuries. In this authoritative, entertaining, and generously illustrated book, Stephen Knight traces the myth of Merlin back to its earliest roots in the early Welsh figure of Myrddin. He then follows Merlin as he is imagined and reimagined through centuries of literature and art, beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose immensely popular History of the Kings of Britain (1138) transmitted the story of Merlin to Europe at large. He covers French and German as well as Anglophone elements of the myth and brings the story up to the present with discussions of a globalized Merlin who finds his way into popular literature, film, television, and New Age philosophy. Knight argues that Merlin in all his guises represents a conflict basic to Western societies-the clash between knowledge and power. While the Merlin story varies over time, the underlying structural tension remains the same whether it takes the form of bard versus lord, magician versus monarch, scientist versus capitalist, or academic versus politician. As Knight sees it, Merlin embodies the contentious duality inherent to organized societies. In tracing the applied meanings of knowledge in a range of social contexts, Knight reveals the four main stages of the Merlin myth: Wisdom (early Celtic British), Advice (medieval European), Cleverness (early modern English), and Education (worldwide since the nineteenth century). If a wizard can be captured within the pages of a book, Knight has accomplished the feat.

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.

Merlin was heartbroken after the death of King Arthur Pendragon. This is because he felt he had failed in his quest to protect the King. He stayed in the wooden cottage for months, away from everyone, as self-punishment until Kilgharrah (the old dragon) visited him. The dragon told him about new events at Camelot. According to legend, King Arthur's spirit could not enter the spirit world because Diamair had to pay a debt owed to King Arthur. Diamair uses magical power to return Arthur as a baby. Dochraid got angry as a result of Arthur's reborn. She brought Morgana Pendragon back to life in human form like she did to Sir Lancelot. Morgana Pendragon wages endless battles after discovering that King Arthur was reborn into the Pendragon family as the baby King. Could Merlin remain the undefeated force preventing Morgana Pendragon from achieving her desires this time? Even though Morgana Pendragon failed the last time, she cannot die again this time. This is because she remains the only sorceress that has resurrected from the dead in human form. Find out what happened in many series that eventually took place.

Geoffrey Ashe's book on this legendary figure offers a succession of surprises. The Merlin of legend was born to be a magician. He was 'immaculately' conceived and was able to interpret dreams and utter prophecies. Even his fate was imbued with magic. Like Arthur, he acquired immortality and sleeps on Bardsey Island, in a subterranean chamber with nine companions. Ashe reveals the man behind the myth, establishing beyond doubt the historicity of a Welsh prophet called Myrddin Emrys. Despite his 'supernatural' status it is Merlin, of all the great characters of the Arthurian world, who has the strongest claim to have existed.

This trilogy establishes a provenance for the Holy Grail and, through the figure of Merlin, links Joseph of Arimathea with mythical British history and with the knightly adventures of Perceval's Grail quest. It is hard to overstate the importance of this trilogy of prose romances in the development of the legend of the Holy Grail and in the evolution of Arthurian literature as a whole. They give a crucial new impetus to the story of the Grail by establishing a provenance for the sacred vessel - and for the Round Table itself - in the Biblical past; and through the controlling figure of Merlin they link the story of Joseph of Arimathea with the mythical Britishhistory of Vortigern and Utherpendragon, the birth of Arthur, and the sword in the stone, and then with the knightly adventures of Perceval's Grail quest and the betrayal and death of Arthur, creating the very first Arthurian cycle. Ambitious, original and complete in its conception, this trilogy - translated here for the first time - is a finely paced, vigorous piece of storytelling that provides an outstanding example of the essentially oral nature of early prose. NIGEL BRYANT is head of drama at Marlborough College. He has also provided editions in English of the anonymous thirteenth-century romance Perlesvaus, published as The High Book of the Grail, and Chretien's Perceval: The Story of the Grail.

Parts one and two of Lancelot cover Lancelot s boyhood and his admission to Arthur s court, where he falls immediately in love with Guenevere. The adventures and quests which follow, including his friendship with the tragic Galehaut, take us to the point where he becomes a companion of the Round Table. --Book Jacket.