Prose Merlin

At the beginning of the passage of Merlins birth it is said that Merlin has the body given to him from the devil and the mind and soul given from God. A point is brought up that Merlin will have to choose which path to go down(the devils or God). However, right after his birth he is baptized, by doing this did it affect his decision or was his decision already made for him by baptizing him?

"This Child Frightens Me!"

In the second part of this reading the audience gets a detailed description of Merlin's birth. While I was reading this part of Merlin's life I could not help but laugh at the way his mother treated him upon hearing him speak. "When his mother heard him speak, her heart almost failed her; her arms suddenly dropped from the child, and she let him fall to the floor" (328). The true reaction that we get from Merlin's mother is something that is not seen in many of these stories. Arthur and his Knights are always described in such a glorious manner; seeing that Merlin was an individual who was unwanted was startling. Even after his mother dropped him Merlin remained on the floor for a while, before the other women walked back in. Once they picked him up, they proceeded to treat him like a magical doll. I thought that this scene was something quite different from other stories. When magical creatures were introduced in other Arthurian tales the people in the story did not seem to react at all, it was something quite normal to them. Here in this story we finally see a true reaction and it sets Merlin's birth apart from the rest.

Clueless much?

Why is the all knowing Merlin portrayed as being so clueless with the Lady of the Lake?

"When she heard that he would come with her, she felt struck to the quick, because she hated no on else so much as Merlin" (Robert de Boron 363).