Literary Devices in The Crystal Cave
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Merlin is quite the ramblin' man in this book, but Stewart focuses on two main locations for the action. The first is Merlin's home in Maridunum, which is on the southern coast of Wales. From there...
Narrator Point of View
What we get in The Crystal Cave is Merlin's own, first-person account of his adventures. Mary Stewart uses two types of "I" in this work. The first is used by Merlin the old man, the dude who is te...
Genre
Mary Stewart riffs off of early medieval "historical" chronicles, like the ones written by Nennius (8th century), Gildas (6th century), and Geoffrey of Monmouth (11th century). Each of these dudes...
Tone
It's not a surprise that Stewart's prose feels a bit emo, especially with a tragic character narrating the entire story from memory in old age. The best is clearly in the past for Merlin, and a lif...
Writing Style
Mary Stewart knows how to turn a descriptive phrase. Check out this line about the creepy forest in Brittany, for example: "The air was full of the smell of damp and fungus and dead leaves and rich...
What's Up With the Title?
The title refers to the crystal cave nestled inside of Galapas' cave outside Maridunum. (Yes, we're talking about a cave within a cave.) But it's not just the place where young Merlin has his first...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
"Merlin," by Edwin MuirPoet Edwin Muir asks the legendary Merlin a series of truly tough questions. The first half of the poem asks if there will ever be a "singer" (a poet or creative type) who ca...
What's Up With the Ending?
What happens at the end of the The Crystal Cave? Let's do a quick recap:Uther and Ygraine hook up, but Gorlois is killed.Merlin barely escapes death, but Cadal doesn't.Uther chews out Merlin for th...
Tough-o-Meter
There's a moment at the beginning of the book when we witness a meeting between two lovers who turn out to be Merlin's parents. We don't yet know who the characters are or what they're talking abou...
Plot Analysis
We're introduced to young Merlin, who is growing up without a daddy at the court of his hostile grandpa. Gramps is King of Demetia (southern Wales), and he's convinced that his daughter was impregn...
Trivia
Mary Stewart wasn't an historical fiction writer originally, and her publishers threw a fit when she pitched The Crystal Cave to them. Before this, she was a super famous writer of romance thriller...
Steaminess Rating
Other than references to Uther's sexual escapades, there's only one steamy—and pretty creepy—scene in the book. That's when Keridwen seduces Merlin on the hilltop above the cave and Merlin has...
Allusions
Actaeon (II.10.50)Danaë (V.4.20)Endymion (II.10.50)Harmony of the Spheres or celestial music (I.6.86)Helen of Troy (V.5.33)Mithras (II.3.13-22; II.6.21)Phaeton (III.5.55)Vision of the Red Dragon (...