How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Even now, after all these years, and knowing all that I have learned in a lifetime, I cannot find it in me to break the vow I made of silence and secrecy. […] Men say that what you are taught when young can never be fully expunged from your mind, and I know that I, myself, have never escaped the spell of the secret god who led me to Brittany and threw me at my father's feet. (IV.6.11)
Merlin is trying to tell us something about the secret ceremony of Mithras under the old church in York after his father's great military victories. But something in him wants to keep the old rites a secret. On the practical side, we understand that Stewart probably doesn't know enough about these ancient rites to give Merlin the memories he would need to describe them. Is that meta enough for you?
On the other hand, it's a cool device to show us that Merlin is still struggling with his narrative and with how to tell his tale. He does give us some details of the ceremony, anyway, so at least we know that he remembers the essentials.
Quote #5
A few things I remember. More torch-bearers of stone. The long benches to either side of the center aisle where men reclined in their bright robes, the masks turned to us, eyes watchful. (IV.6.12)
Old Merlin breaks back into the narrative to tell us about the ritual Mithraic ceremony under the church at York. At first, he tells us that he doesn't want to reveal all the secrets of the ceremony since it was forbidden. But now we learn that he's being coy, perhaps because he doesn't really remember all the deets. We know that Merlin's been having some memory lapses over the course of this narrative, and this just cements the idea that we're dealing with a somewhat unreliable narrator.
Quote #6
So I rode out of town and back over the miles to my valley with the memory of her face burned into everything I saw, and the gold of her hair lying in every shaft of the slanting sunlight. (IV.7.28)
Merlin's in lust here. He's seventeen and missing the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his life. Keridwen has fled the nunnery and left no forwarding address, so Merlin will naturally pine for her as he rides on his way. Stewart maps Merlin's memory of the lovely girl onto the landscape, showing us how loss can be projected beyond a person's mind and into the real world.