Of gods and men

[Thalia]

<dl>
<dt>Spectra Lin</dt>
<dd>Sep 7 2013, 01:14 PM</dd>
</dl>
Thank-you, Thalia! I have not read that version, but I will look for it when next I roam through a bookstore!

It's an amalgamation of other versions, rotating the prince, rose and the "bad fairy" POV during the 100 year sleep. Pretty short book. One of my tutors at uni raved about it. It's an enjoyable read, if you like that sort of thing.

[Michael Vellas]

There are origins of that kind of story in Greek/Roman mythology.

See: Medea

Medea was a 'sorceress' or 'witch'. She helped Jason (the Argonaut) with her magic win the Golden Fleece. She married Jason but he left her for another woman. She went crazy and killed the woman and in some versions, her own children by Jason.

Procne

Procne's sister was raped by her husband who cut her tongue out and hid her away so she couldn't tell anyone. When Procne found out, she and her sister got pretty pissed and killed her children and fed them to the husband.

[Spectra Lin]

How interesting. Yes, there are many stories which feature a woman such as Maleficent. I specifically wanted to incorporate those which include a female rival who sleeps. For that reason, in the back of my mind, I blend the inspirations for my character as having come from the evil witch/sorceress in the Sleeping Beauty-esque fairy tales with the evil queen/sorceress in the Snow White-esque fairy tales. Tracing those back, I came to the ancient story of Gold Tree and Silver Tree as also being tied to the mythology and largely excluded the Greek and Roman stories (at least from my mind) as they could largely stand on their own as having been about completely separate women.

[Aria]

lol it could be a total twist on fairytales as Once Upon a Time is doing. Their fairytales are pretty off the wall and awesome.

[Michael Vellas]

Ahh true. Hmmm, it will be interesting to see what happens.

[Spectra Lin]

I haven't seen Once Upon A Time. Do you think it's a good show?

[Vladimir]

I enjoy it. My hubby and kiddos do too. It's a very unique twist on story books. I won't say fairy tales, because it's not all fairy tales but the majority of it is.

[Nick Trano]

I just noticed how amusing it is that you posted from Vladimir for that, Aria.

[Katya]

lol and now I'm posting as Katya It happens when you are logged in and forget... (didn't forget this time tho, didn't it on purpose )

[Aeva]

I'm very late on this thread, but it looked like a fun thing to try.

Since his earliest mentions in Welsh mythology, Merlin/Myrddin has a lot of different characteristics and personalities (depending on who you read), and spellings, and many different theories about who the real Merlin might have been. I've put together a few of the more interesting theories on the evolution of the character/god:
The nearest 'real' person was, it is thought, two people with the same name 'Emrys' - one of whom was among King Arthur's advisors, and another who was a court bard. They became combined in the Wise-Man Druid figure of Merlin.
Some speculate that his original name was the Welsh Myrddin (which offered phonetic connections to the god Mithras, as well. Something the Romans would have liked while they were busy trying to wipe out the Celts). So it was pronounced more like 'Mithrin', but the Welsh spelling, with all those Ds, translated into French, when Malory was writing, as Merde-in (ie - 'shit') so the 'r' was substituted and this had the happy coincidence of being the name of a bird of prey.
My favourite theory is that 'Merlin' was not a single person, but a title held by successive people (hence the idea of his longevity, and that he aged backwards), and it was the title that got passed on. I'm especially fond of this one as it allows a woman to be the Merlin. MZB is probably the most famous example of this idea, but Neil Gaimon (and later other authors) in the 'Books of Magic' make the Merlin a mage whose particular gifts are reborn, even if the soul, per se, isn't.
Followers of the Grail Tradition consider the Arthurian characters as deities, including Merlin, of course.

Personally, I find Merlin a fascinating character, and I especially love to see what modern authors come up with, such as Stephen Lawhead, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton &amp;c. Many emphasise his abilities as Wise Druid/Shaman figure, rather than his great magical prowess, which is why I've made Aeva potentially relatively weak, and starting very low indeed so she can grow into the more confident and wise figure.