- "You can't believe everything you read, Deirdre, especially if it's about Merlin."
- ―Indiana Jones[src]
The man known as Merlin was a legendary wizard and trickster figure most commonly associated with King Arthur.
However, Merlin was also connected to several other identities including Bel, both Apollo and his magician Abaris, and Gandalf.
Biography[]
According to a document of disputed origin attributed to the individual eventually called Merlin, he was born around 2075 BC and studied necromancy, particularly the "wyrding ways", as a young man.[1]
On Merlin's travels through a mountain range across a body of water one day, a meteorite struck the ground before him. When he picked up the cooled black stone, Merlin could communicate with the gods and he was given the seemingly impossible task of using the mountain rock to construct for them a temple a great distance away with which they could visit the world.[1]
Merlin used the stone to build the circular temple in Britain. Upon the gods' arrival through their new doorway, the man observed their behaviour about the structure and so named his temple the Dance of the Giants, later known as Stonehenge.[1]
When Merlin followed the gods' request that he bury the meteorite at the temple's center, he found that he had been granted powers of his own: now a "god, immortal" Merlin could use time itself as a gateway and traveled to Greece in the ancient of days. There, he lived a life and sent a messenger to retrieve the stone from the Dance of the Giants. It was placed in Delphi where the meteorite took on the name of Omphalos.[1]
Afterwards, the wizard sent himself into the future, around the 5th or 6th centuries AD, at a time when the old gods' ways were in decline. He believed he could revive them. However, Delphi had fallen into ruin and taken the artifact with it, while Stonehenge had lost its power. Without the Omphalos, the wizard now known as Merlin proper, found that his own abilities, while still potent, had been reduced and that he himself had returned to a mortal existence.[1]
Merlin was associated with King Arthur and Camelot. The hero Taliesin was said to be his pupil,[2] and on Bardsey Island Merlin served as keeper of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain sought by Arthur.[3]
Legacy[]
Merlin became, alongside King Arthur, part of the Arthurian legends.[4] The mysterious Celtic Book of the Spells of Merlin was connected to the wizard.[2]
Deirdre Campbell possessed a golden scroll that gave credence to Merlin's historical existence, that was crucial for the resurrection of the Druid Order but it was later destroyed in a fire.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Merlin telling Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Dance of the Giants, set in 1925,[1] that he will be known as Gandalf, foreshadows the creation of J. R. R. Tolkien's wizard character who first appeared in The Hobbit, published in 1937.
Appearances[]
- Indiana Jones and the Dance of the Giants (First appearance)
- Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils
- Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones and the White Witch (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel (Mentioned only)
- Disney Magic Kingdoms (Ambiguously canonical appearance) (Mentioned only)
- Indiana Jones und das Erbe von Avalon (Mentioned only)
Sources[]
- Grail Diary
- Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Templars
- Indiana Jones Artifacts
Indiana Jones' Marshall College entry on IndianaJones.com (backup link on Archive.org)- "No Time for Love?" - Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine 5
