Young Merlin finds his refuge in a cave not far from home, where the old hermit Galapas lives. The life of an unacknowledged bastard prince isn't always easy - and if he isn't a fighter but a boy rather small for his age, he'd better learn to stay away as much as he can. His mother is the local king's daughter, his father unknown.

Myrddin Emrys - more commonly known as Merlin, here telling his own story - lives in the king's palace in Maridunum, his grandfather's. Myth and history, magic and engineering blended into one whole. Mary Stewart has done a tremendous job researching before writing, and thought quite a lot before starting off. This is fantasy - no dragons, but plenty of magic.īut it is also a series where the historical facts are taken into consideration. If you've got the same prejudices, I can assure you that you still can read this series and enjoy it. It's historical', he told me - implying that historical novels were beneath us devoted fantasy readers. When I told an old friend of mine I was planning to read Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, he looked at me. To me she is best known as the author of one of the most read modern versions of the old story about King Arthur. I don't know to what category Mary Stewart belongs. Mainstream writers like John Steinbeck and Mark Twain as well as fantasy and science fiction specialists like Marion Zimmer Bradley and Stephen Lawhead. To me personally he is an important person, whose presence I can feel when I think about my childhood.īefore 'Narnia', before Tolkien, there was Arthur - and it seems like I'm not alone in this.įew stories have been told as many times as this, and yet every year there are scores of new retellings being published.Įverybody seems to want to stamp their own name on the famous tale, tell it their own way. The Last Enchantment (Volume 3 of the Merlin Trilogy) The Hollow Hills (Volume 2 of the Merlin Trilogy) The Crystal Cave (Volume 1 of the Merlin Trilogy)

The merlin trilogy