The author of the million-copy best-seller Ageless Body, Timeless Mind emerges as a powerful new force in fiction with a luminously written novel about the final act of the Arthurian legend playing out in modern England. The Return of Merlin is a brilliantly realized narrative that begins in Arthurian times and jumps boldly to our own 20th-century dark age of war, pollution, predation, and hatred--with a message of hope.

Merlin remains the most famous and familiar image of the magician we possess. In this new book, Arthurian expert John Matthews examines the many guises of Merlin.

Merlin's fragile home on the isle of Fincayra is threatened by the attack of a mysterious warrior with swords for arms and by the escape fo Stangmar from his imprisonment, as Merlin continues to move toward his ultimate destiny.

Merlin was heartbroken after the death of King Arthur Pendragon. This is because he felt he had failed in his quest to protect the King. He stayed in the wooden cottage for months, away from everyone, as self-punishment until Kilgharrah (the old dragon) visited him. The dragon told him about new events at Camelot. According to legend, King Arthur's spirit could not enter the spirit world because Diamair had to pay a debt owed to King Arthur. Diamair uses magical power to return Arthur as a baby. Dochraid got angry as a result of Arthur's reborn. She brought Morgana Pendragon back to life in human form like she did to Sir Lancelot. Morgana Pendragon wages endless battles after discovering that King Arthur was reborn into the Pendragon family as the baby King. Could Merlin remain the undefeated force preventing Morgana Pendragon from achieving her desires this time? Even though Morgana Pendragon failed the last time, she cannot die again this time. This is because she remains the only sorceress that has resurrected from the dead in human form. Find out what happened in many series that eventually took place.

The figure of Merlin has seen a revival in recent years, especially in the form of cultural icons such as Obi wan Kenobi, Gandalf and Dumbledore.This fascinating new book looks at the two main Merlin traditions: the cosmic Merlin of the stars, part of the Arthurian legends; and the earthly Merlin of nature, grounded in human history. Gordon Strachan, author of Jesus the Master Builder, takes us on a compelling journey through Merlin's stories.He discovers a remarkable pattern: Merlin figures, and events relating to Merlin, reappear throughout British history in roughly 700-year cycles. He considers where else in history we can see this pattern emerging, and challenges readers to find their own links to history based on their birth dates.

Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian legend, has been a source of enduring fascination for centuries. In this authoritative, entertaining, and generously illustrated book, Stephen Knight traces the myth of Merlin back to its earliest roots in the early Welsh figure of Myrddin. He then follows Merlin as he is imagined and reimagined through centuries of literature and art, beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose immensely popular History of the Kings of Britain (1138) transmitted the story of Merlin to Europe at large. He covers French and German as well as Anglophone elements of the myth and brings the story up to the present with discussions of a globalized Merlin who finds his way into popular literature, film, television, and New Age philosophy. Knight argues that Merlin in all his guises represents a conflict basic to Western societies-the clash between knowledge and power. While the Merlin story varies over time, the underlying structural tension remains the same whether it takes the form of bard versus lord, magician versus monarch, scientist versus capitalist, or academic versus politician. As Knight sees it, Merlin embodies the contentious duality inherent to organized societies. In tracing the applied meanings of knowledge in a range of social contexts, Knight reveals the four main stages of the Merlin myth: Wisdom (early Celtic British), Advice (medieval European), Cleverness (early modern English), and Education (worldwide since the nineteenth century). If a wizard can be captured within the pages of a book, Knight has accomplished the feat.

The revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the 19th century was a remarkable phenomenon, apparently at odds with the spirit of the age. Tennyson was widely criticised for his choice of a medieval topic; yet The Idylls of the Kingwere accepted as the national epic, and a flood of lesser works was inspired by them, on both sides of the Atlantic. Elisabeth Brewer and Beverly Taylor survey the course of Arthurian literature from 1800 to the present day, and give an account of all the major English and American contributions. Some of the works are well-known, but there are also a host of names which will be new to most readers, and some surprises, such as J. Comyns Carr's King Arthur, rightly ignored as a text, but a piece oftheatrical history, for Sir Henry Irving played King Arthur, Ellen Terry was Guinevere, Arthur Sullivan wrote the music, and Burne-Jones designed the sets. The Arthurian works of the Pre-Raphaelites are discussed at length, as are the poemsof Edward Arlington Robinson, John Masefield and Charles Williams. Other writers have used the legends as part of a wider cultural consciousness: The Waste Land, David Jones's In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, and the echoes ofTristan and Iseult in Finnigan's Wake are discussed in this context. Novels on Arthurian themes are given their due place, from the satirical scenes of Thomas Love Peacock's The Misfortunes of Elphin and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court to T.H. White's serio-comic The Once and Future King and the many recent novelists who have turned away from the chivalric Arthur to depict him as a Dark Age ruler. The Return of King Arthurincludes a bibliography of British and American creative writing relating to the Arthurian legends from 1800 to the present day.

This book deals with all aspects of the Merlin legend, from its origins to its expression in medieval and modern literature, film, and popular culture. Following an extended introduction and a full bibliography, the volume offers nearly twenty essays--some newly commissioned for this volume, others selected from the most important scholarly and critical studies of Merlin and his role. Two of the reprinted essays are translated into English for the first time.

Geoffrey Ashe's book on this legendary figure offers a succession of surprises. The Merlin of legend was born to be a magician. He was 'immaculately' conceived and was able to interpret dreams and utter prophecies. Even his fate was imbued with magic. Like Arthur, he acquired immortality and sleeps on Bardsey Island, in a subterranean chamber with nine companions. Ashe reveals the man behind the myth, establishing beyond doubt the historicity of a Welsh prophet called Myrddin Emrys. Despite his 'supernatural' status it is Merlin, of all the great characters of the Arthurian world, who has the strongest claim to have existed.

The apocalypse is a time of karmic return. Like the astrological Saturn return that occurs every 30 years in an individual’s lifetime and brings with it personal karma, the collective karma of humanity returns during the apocalypse. The apocalypse is a time of revelation when we must ask ourselves: What are we waking up to? When I first began the journey to write spiritual and “new age” books and teach workshops, I never imagined I would write a book with a title such as this one. Times change. Our time has definitely changed. The Pandemic 2020 (and 2021) became a viral wave of apocalyptic truth and reckoning. Let’s use this time of unrest and upheaval to change our destructive ways, and instead embrace co-operation and caring. Let’s wake up to the truth of our collective shadow, so we can heal at last.