ShmoopTube

00:03

T.H. White may have been the first 20th century writer to put his spin on the Arthurian legend, [White with his book]

00:08

but he wasn't the last. [book falls off pedestal]

00:10

That would have been an awfully brief movement, there.

00:12

White was followed by a flood of folks just itching to write about kings and knights and

00:16

one of the roundest tables in all the land. [crowd of people]

00:18

Well, one member of that stampede was Mary Stewart, the author of The Crystal Cave.

00:22

However, instead of following in White's footsteps and giving Arthur a modern spin, she focused [Mary Stewart with her book]

00:28

on Merlin.

00:29

In fact, The Crystal Cave is set before Arthur was even born. [Merlin appears]

00:33

So anyone hoping for more tales of good ol' Art will be sorely disappointed.

00:36

They'll have to content themselves with the dozens of other books of Arthurian legend [person surrounded by books]

00:40

that are a bit more, well, Arthurian and less Merlinian.

00:44

Merlin's life gets off to a bit of a rocky start.

00:46

He is born into Welsh royalty.

00:48

Generally, being born into any royalty is a real plus, where all babies tend to get [baby in royalty]

00:52

the best pacifiers money can buy, but he's an illegitimate child and his mother refuses

00:58

to marry. [woman refuses to marry]

00:59

These days, there's definitely nothing wrong with being a single mom, but this opinion

01:02

was not exactly shared by medieval aristocrats.

01:04

Well, little Merlin's status in the family is further damaged by the fact that he sees

01:08

visions and hears voices that aren't there. [Merlin hearing and seeing things]

01:11

You'd think family members might want to consult the young lad, or at least take him four counseling.

01:15

But, being God-fearing types, they instead brand him, "the devil's brat."

01:19

Because if God likes anything, it's giving cruel nicknames to children. [religion always makes people nice]

01:23

In addition to all of this personal drama, there's a lot of historical drama.

01:27

And we don't mean drama like the Late Middle Ages calling the Early Middle Ages a jerk

01:31

behind her back. [Middle Ages drama]

01:32

Merlin's story is set in South Wales at a time when Great Britain was occupied by the

01:36

Romans. [Roman occupation]

01:37

And although occupation's no fun, nothing gets people's blood boiling like feeling as

01:41

if they're beholden to an illegitimate form of power.

01:45

Just ask any toddler who's been told that it's nap time. [toddler runs from mom]

01:48

What's more, we're dealing with a period when various factions were vying for the British

01:52

crown. [people fight for crown]

01:53

Finally, this period was also seeing the growing influence of Christianity as it started to

01:57

supplant the traditional pagan religions.

02:00

Even if people were wearing robes and talking about how everyone else should be nice to [priest speaks]

02:03

everyone else, a power struggle is still a power struggle.

02:06

And those clerics know how to fight dirty. [cleric unleashes the thunder]

02:08

Put it all together, and you have a dramatic new telling of some old Arthurian legends.

02:12

Too bad Arthur was not around to see it, but having not been born yet, we're sure he wouldn't

02:17

mind. [baby Arthur misses story]

Full Transcript