The author of the million-copy best-seller Ageless Body, Timeless Mind emerges as a powerful new force in fiction with a luminously written novel about the final act of the Arthurian legend playing out in modern England. The Return of Merlin is a brilliantly realized narrative that begins in Arthurian times and jumps boldly to our own 20th-century dark age of war, pollution, predation, and hatred--with a message of hope.
"Young sorcery fans . . . set aside Harry Potter and pick up Merlin! ["The Mirror of Merlin" is] ingeniousIfilled with rich images [and] surprising touches of humor.U--"Cincinnati Enquirer. TRich with magic."--"The New York Times Book Review."
Merlin's fragile home on the isle of Fincayra is threatened by the attack of a mysterious warrior with swords for arms and by the escape fo Stangmar from his imprisonment, as Merlin continues to move toward his ultimate destiny.
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.
The figure of Merlin has seen a revival in recent years, especially in the form of cultural icons such as Obi wan Kenobi, Gandalf and Dumbledore.This fascinating new book looks at the two main Merlin traditions: the cosmic Merlin of the stars, part of the Arthurian legends; and the earthly Merlin of nature, grounded in human history. Gordon Strachan, author of Jesus the Master Builder, takes us on a compelling journey through Merlin's stories.He discovers a remarkable pattern: Merlin figures, and events relating to Merlin, reappear throughout British history in roughly 700-year cycles. He considers where else in history we can see this pattern emerging, and challenges readers to find their own links to history based on their birth dates.
The revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the 19th century was a remarkable phenomenon, apparently at odds with the spirit of the age. Tennyson was widely criticised for his choice of a medieval topic; yet The Idylls of the Kingwere accepted as the national epic, and a flood of lesser works was inspired by them, on both sides of the Atlantic. Elisabeth Brewer and Beverly Taylor survey the course of Arthurian literature from 1800 to the present day, and give an account of all the major English and American contributions. Some of the works are well-known, but there are also a host of names which will be new to most readers, and some surprises, such as J. Comyns Carr's King Arthur, rightly ignored as a text, but a piece oftheatrical history, for Sir Henry Irving played King Arthur, Ellen Terry was Guinevere, Arthur Sullivan wrote the music, and Burne-Jones designed the sets. The Arthurian works of the Pre-Raphaelites are discussed at length, as are the poemsof Edward Arlington Robinson, John Masefield and Charles Williams. Other writers have used the legends as part of a wider cultural consciousness: The Waste Land, David Jones's In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, and the echoes ofTristan and Iseult in Finnigan's Wake are discussed in this context. Novels on Arthurian themes are given their due place, from the satirical scenes of Thomas Love Peacock's The Misfortunes of Elphin and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court to T.H. White's serio-comic The Once and Future King and the many recent novelists who have turned away from the chivalric Arthur to depict him as a Dark Age ruler. The Return of King Arthurincludes a bibliography of British and American creative writing relating to the Arthurian legends from 1800 to the present day.
The apocalypse is a time of karmic return. Like the astrological Saturn return that occurs every 30 years in an individual’s lifetime and brings with it personal karma, the collective karma of humanity returns during the apocalypse. The apocalypse is a time of revelation when we must ask ourselves: What are we waking up to? When I first began the journey to write spiritual and “new age” books and teach workshops, I never imagined I would write a book with a title such as this one. Times change. Our time has definitely changed. The Pandemic 2020 (and 2021) became a viral wave of apocalyptic truth and reckoning. Let’s use this time of unrest and upheaval to change our destructive ways, and instead embrace co-operation and caring. Let’s wake up to the truth of our collective shadow, so we can heal at last.
Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2016 A Tale of the Last Knight of the Round Table Seven years after the death of Arthur Pendragon, Sir Percival, the last surviving knight of the Round Table, returns to Albion after a long and futile quest for the Holy Grail. The peaceful and prosperous home that he left a decade earlier is no more. Camelot has fallen, and much of the Pendragon’s kingdom has been subjugated by the evil Morgana and the Norse invaders who once served under her banner. Although the knight desires only to return to his ancestral lands and to live in peace, he vows to pursue one last quest before he rests—to find Guinevere, the Queen of the Britons. This journey will force the knight to travel the length and breadth of Albion, to overcome the most fearsome and cunning of enemies, and to embrace a past that is both painful and magnificent. The Return of Sir Percival is the tale of a knight who seeks peace, but finds only war, of a Queen who has borne sorrow and defeat, but who will not yield, and of a valiant people determined to cast of the yoke of their oppressors. It is also a tale of tragedy and triumph, and of romance lost and then found. The unique vision of the Arthurian world brought to life in S. Alexander O’Keefe’s The Return of Sir Percival takes readers on a journey that is as enthralling as it is memorable.
This book deals with all aspects of the Merlin legend, from its origins to its expression in medieval and modern literature, film, and popular culture. Following an extended introduction and a full bibliography, the volume offers nearly twenty essays--some newly commissioned for this volume, others selected from the most important scholarly and critical studies of Merlin and his role. Two of the reprinted essays are translated into English for the first time.
