Merlin
Merlin names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Merlin mer'lin, in British legend
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
mer'lin, in British legend, a celebrated prophet and enchanter who figures prominently in the stories of King Arthur. Merlin was supposed to have flourished toward the latter part of the fifth century. According to the legend, he was the son of a demon and a British princess, and was rescued from the power of Satan by receiving Christian baptism as an infant. He became an adept in magic and was the greatest sage of his time. He was beguiled by the enchantress Nimue, who buried him under a rock. Another story is that Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, became his mistress. She brought him entirely under her magic power and finally imprisoned him in a thorn bush from which he was unable to escape. It was Merlin who instituted the order of the Knights of the Round Table. In his Idylls of the King Tennyson introduces Merlin as a very old man. He is the friend and servant of King Arthur, but is beguiled and enchanted by the wily Vivien. See Arthur ; Vivien; Idylls Of The King ; Round Table
Merlin a prince of enchanters of the time of the Saxon invasion of England
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a prince of enchanters of the time of the Saxon invasion of England. He was the son of a damsel seduced by a fiend, but Blaise baptized the infant, and so rescued it from the power of Satan. He died spellbound by his mistress Vivian in a hawthorn bush. MERMAIDS and MERMEN, in the popular folklore of Europe, a class of creatures more or less like human beings, living in the sea, but in some circumstances capable of social relationship with men and women. MEROË MEROË (mer'ō-ē), a city and state of ancient Ethiopia, in the N. E. part of Africa, corresponding mainly with the district between the Nile and Atbara, N. of Abyssinia. Meroë was the center of the caravan trade between Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, northern Africa, and India. There are pyramids the site of ancient Meroe and a small town of same name on the Nile.
Merlin an Old World species of falcon
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an Old World species of falcon. It is closely related to the American sparrowhawk, which it resembles in size. It is an active, easily trained bird. It was popular in the days of falconry, being used to take pigeons, partridges, and quails. Unlike other falcons, it will pursue its prey, if necessary, through underbrush. The merlin is still abundant in Europe, nesting on the ground and preferring stony localities. It is of a bluish ash color above, with a reddish yellow on the breast. See Falcon
Merlin An enchanter of Britain who dwelt at the court of King Arthur
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
An enchanter of Britain who dwelt at the court of King Arthur. His origin is obscure, but early legends concerning him agree that he was the offspring of Satan . He was probably an early Celtic god, who in process of time came to be regarded as a great sorcerer. There appears to have been more than one Merlin, and we must discriminate between the Merlin of Arthurian romance and Merlin Caledonius; but it is probable that originally the two conceptions sprang from the one idea.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The stories the accounts retell in 1910 and 1921 are still told the same way, since they come from fixed medieval texts emof Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1136) and the French prose romances emthat no discovery can revise. What has moved is explanation: the Occultism volume's guess of 1920 that Merlin was "probably an early Celtic god" has few defenders now, and scholars instead trace him to the Welsh Myrddin poems and the wild-man figure Myrddin Wyllt, the same tradition behind the "Merlin Caledonius" that entry rightly distinguished. Geoffrey is generally thought to have taken the name from Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) and to have Latinised it as Merlinus rather than Merdinus for obvious reasons. Aiton's other Merlin, the falcon, is no longer called "an Old World species": Falco columbarius is now treated as one bird across the northern hemisphere, the American form long known as the pigeon hawk.
Written for this edition, 2026.