Who was Merlin and was he a real person?

Is it Gandalf? Is it Dumbledore? Or is it Merlin?

For many centuries, Merlin was the most famous wizard of them all. Then, along came the one, two combo punch of Gandalf and then Harry Potter, knocking the bearded wonder from his post – possibly whilst he was disguised as an owl, if the Disney Classic ‘The Sword in the Stone’ is to be believed.

Thing is, mentioning the Harry Potter books, films, and lunchboxes is rather apt, as Merlin shares many similarities with Dumbledore. Both characters are wise elite-level wizards, and both are teachers to a young hero. Harry Potter was the pupil of Dumbledore, whilst Arthur Pendragon (the future King Arthur) was the ward of Merlin. Both Harry and Arthur benefited greatly from having wand-waving masters in their corner, overcoming the many trials and tribulations of their adventures, receiving numerous experience points and level-ups with all the side quests their mentors gave them.

Was Merlin a real person though?

Sadly not, though he is an amalgamation - a combination - a mishmash - of numerous historical figures. Back in the 12^th century, a fella called Geffrey of Monmouth wrote a big book. This was called the ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ and was a chronicle, or list, of all the people who had run the show over the last few centuries. Now, our friend Geffrey didn’t concern himself with boring things called ‘facts’ getting in the way of a good story. Whilst plotting the history of Britain - dating way back from the Roman invasion, through to Alfred the Great and various Vikings - Geffrey added lots of fun made-up bits to keep the reader interested and modern historians thoroughly confused.

One such addition was King Arthur, who, like Merlin, was pretty much a mishmash of many different historical kings. To give Arthur’s story more zip, Merlin was added. Geffrey created the character by combining two Welsh mythological figures together, Myrddin – who started off as a singing bard before transforming into Merlin – and Ambrosius Aurelianus – a real person who fought and won many battles against the Anglo-Saxons, back when the ‘British’ and the Anglo-Saxons were fighting over England.

Merlin counts off all the odd things added to his story on his fingers in this Medieval illustration.

So how did Arthur and Merlin's story change?

It was later French writers who took the barebones of Monmouth’s tale and padded it out, adding all the most exciting parts to the Arthur story. So, that’s the Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, The Lady of the Lake and the sword Excalibur - you’ve probably heard of many of these, if not all of them. 

Over the centuries, loads of new chunks were added to Merlin’s history, like bits of bacon in a soup. In the 12^th century, it was disclosed that Merlin’s dad was a demon. Geffrey also added that Merlin ordered the construction of Stonehenge. Merlin later became a lover of prophecies; telling people what would happen in the future, but in a really unhelpful and confusing way that no-one really understood, resulting in many prophesy-receivers ending up doing the thing they shouldn’t do anyway. Soon, the tale spread of how Merlin fell in love with his students. One of his students, the Lady of the Lake, was later slotted into the story and Merlin became bewitched/entrapped/killed by her – delete as appropriate.

These inventive stories were separated by hundreds of years, showing how mythologies are grown and developed very gradually over a long period of time.

Here's what AI thinks Merlin and Arthur may have looked like - we're just glad they have the right amount of fingers!

But is the story real?

Of course, this being history, not every historian believes what we just told you. Some think that Merlin was a real person, quite possibly a Scottish druid who hung around the place being all mystical in the 5^th – 6^th century. Others believe that Merlin was based on even earlier myths, dating back to a pre-Celtic era. Some suggest that Merlin shares many similarities with a character in Roman mythology – Marsus, the son of the witch goddess Circe – which would make the story of Merlin over two thousand years old.

Anyhow, if those brainy boffins don’t know, we certainly don’t know. All we can tell you is that the character of Merlin has fascinated audiences for well over a thousand years and he continues to do so today, turning up in numerous video games, TV shows, films and books. And this blog.