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Synopsis
Merlin: the very name evokes intriguing images - magician, wise man, prophet, adviser to Arthur, counsellor of Camelot. The legend is famous but not the truth: that Merlin was a historical figure, a Briton, who hailed not from England or Wales, as traditional wisdom would have it, but from Scotland.
Adam Ardrey brings back to life Merlin's role in the cataclysmic battles between reason and religion of sixth-century Britain - battles which Merlin would ultimately lose. From the time of his death up until the present day, historical records relating to Merlin have been altered, his true provenance and importance obscured and his name changed to mean 'Madman'. The same fate awaited Merlin's twin sister, Languoreth, as intelligent and powerful as her brother but, as a woman, a greater threat to the power of church and state. Languoreth's existence was all but obliterated and her story lost - until now.
Finding Merlin uncovers new evidence and re-examines the old. The places where Merlin was born, lived, died and was buried are identified, as well as the people surrounding him - his nemesis Mungo and his friend the hero Arthur. In this impressively well-researched and accessibly written book, Merlin walks from the pages of legend into history.
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About the Author
Adam Ardrey is an advocate and lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children. He was the first chairman of the Moira Anderson Foundation, a charity set up to combat the effects of child sex abuse, and has previously worked in television and as a solicitor.
From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on what he claims has been a history of suppression by England's political and religious authorities, Scottish writer Ardrey says Merlin did indeed exist but that our image of him is a myth: Merlin wasn't a wizard and King Arthur's avuncular counselor but a revered scholar, politician and military commander in central Scotland in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Merlin was a Celt, Ardrey claims, not an Anglo-Saxon, and was not Christian but adhered to the old ways of the druids, who sought to live harmoniously with others and with nature. Together with the great warlord Arthur Mac Aedan, son of the king of Scots, Merlin led the Britons and their Scots allies against the Angles. Ardrey takes aim at Mungo, Glasgow's patron saint and Merlin's archenemy, depicting him as the ruthlessly ambitious head of a group of Catholic fundamentalists akin to the twenty-first-century Taliban, whose exploits were distorted by his 12th-century hagiographer, Jocelyn of Furness. Merlin is an enticing biographical subject, but Ardrey's pedantic style, his dull dissection of Jocelyn, and his long-winded digressions into the cross-dressing of Mungo's father or why Merlin couldn't have built Stonehenge don't enhance his argument. (Sept.)
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Finding Merlin
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
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Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR001962950
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