This is the second knot in a string of essays about magical words and inclusivity. Knot one is here.
We’ve been wondering what defines a wizard as such, and thinking about how that definition has excluded people—women, People of Color, Queer folks and a lot more.
Merlin
Let’s talk first about Merlin. What is a wizard if not Merlin? Well, someone else.
While you might imagine Merlin the way I do – pointy hat, white beard, very wizardly, rarely, if ever, is he referred to that way. In fact OG Merlin stories predate the word wizard. He was first named in the 1100s by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistory of Britain, Historia Regum Britanniae. This was a work that popularized the Arthurian canon but did not invent it. Geoff’s Merlin was based on the folkloric Welsh figure Myrddin, a soldier and singer with PTSD, also not a wizard.
In Robert de Boron’s partially lost epic poem (ca. 1300s) Merlin, the eponymous character is a villain of Arthur’s, not an advisor. He is the child of a human woman and an incubus (which opens up a whole can of misogynistic wyrms we’ll do battle with later) and is an Antichrist figure. It’s his demonic parentage that gives Merlin his powers of magic. But that’s not a trait most wizards can boast.
In his authoritative Le Morte d’Arthur, Mallory also never calls him a wizard.
“Some of the kings had marvel of Merlin's words, and deemed well that it should be as he said; and some of them laughed him to scorn, as King Lot; and more other called him a witch.”
– from Le Morte d’Arthur, ch 8, Mallory (1485)
While de Boron’s poem was a primary source for Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, Mallory didn’t make Merlin quite so demonic, preferring to explain his magical powers as deriving from wisdom1 instead. Mallory’s work still predates the word wizard by about a century, and in his work Merlin is not really referred to as anything, other than casually being called a witch2 pejoratively.
In addition to Mallory’s Merlin’s ability to prophesy, he can shapeshift himself and others (something Myrddin could do as well). Arthur is conceived when Merlin facilitates King Uther’s rape of the Duchess of Igrayne by disguising him as her husband.3
In the much later retelling, The Once and Future King from 1945, TH White’s Merlin transforms young Arthur, “Wart,” into various creatures to teach him ways of being a leader. And in White’s authoritative modern contribution to the canon, the word “wizard” is actually used to describe Merlin!
But only twice. Many other times he is called magician.
A… Magician?
In the world of Pathfinder - a hypergranularized, staunchly inclusive DnD offshoot – a magician “dabbles in performance, but sees it as a means to tap into universal energies and channel them.”4
And that’s… really perfect for Merlin. To explain why, let’s revisit our friend with shell-shock: Myrddin.
Myrddin suffered psychologically from what he witnessed in war. In some tellings he was prophetic and foresaw doom before battle. In early Arthurian tales, this power was one he used to advise the king, much like Merlin will in later retellings. He lived a hermetic life in the woods and the speaking of many culturally important songs in Welsh history is credited to him.
These are elements that Merlin came to own, too: hermetic, wild, and capable of pre-cognizance, and while performance and music aren’t traits Merlin, per se, does much with, but it’s thrilling to think that someone at Pathfinder made this connection too.
But this leaves us with a problem: if Merlin isn’t a wizard, who is?
Isn’t it obvious? Gandalf.
Remember wizard’s ancestry, the word wys, meaning “wise.”
We will definitely circle back to this when we talk about the word witch, with all its misogynistic overtones.
Again, we will do battle against these horrible, misogynistic wyrms not now but soon. Also, yikes.
“Performance” here means singing or playing an instrument, and “universal energies” are... magic. Also, linky link.