Latest Posts by mightybog - Page 9

'The Fairy Procession' (Thorn Rose) by Errol Le Cain, 1977.

Merlin/Arthur | Mature | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 500

Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Survival | Injury Recovery

For @merlinmicrofic with the prompt "starting over"

Merlin and Arthur find refuge in a small broken down cottage

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Before Arthur knew what was happening, his hand was on the hilt of his sword. He almost evicted Merlin from the mildewed thing they called a bed. 

Cold hands found his neck, his face in the dark. “It’s just thunder, Arthur.”

He lay back down and Merlin lay on his chest. Their hearts slowed together. The rain on the broken roof went on.

“I’ll work out the spell, I promise.”

Gone, for now, were Merlin’s entreaties for Arthur to return to Camelot. They would face whatever came next together.

Arthur drifted, until water dropped down on his forehead. He groaned.

Arthur strode across the small, disused field, carrying a hare by its ears. It was dusk and ahead of him was their temporary salvation, a little lopsided cottage, with a field of its own taking root on what was left of the roof. 

When he let himself inside Merlin was there to greet him, making no secret of the fact he had been peering anxiously though the little window. 

“I caught a hare,” Arthur told him.

Merlin grimaced but nodded. “I heard it screaming.”

They needed more than the meagre meals they had made of fried hazel catkins and cleavers.

Merlin was making use of a sturdy ash rod they had found while they were still running, the burns on the outside of Merlin’s right leg and his feet were still healing and the tightened skin gave him a limp. But he was dispelling any illusions Arthur had of his frailty, advancing on him now like a storm.

Arthur dropped the rusted hoe he’d been using.

“I told you! There’s no use in planting when we’ll just have to run again!”

“Your spell...”

“There’s no spell!”

“There could be if-”

“If I try? You do it, if it’s so easy!”

The ground was uneven here in the green wood. Merlin told him that this place had been used by a charcoal maker, he had no doubt that the earth here had once smoked hellishly. He checked their traps. The woods went on. But where was Merlin? Where did he leave him? Feelings of temporary safety, images of holding Merlin in a suntrap somewhere fled from him. He panicked, called his name.

Then an answer. “-thur! Arthur!”

He saw him, ran, caught him.

“Arthur! I’m sorry, I'm sorry,” he soothed, then he grinned. “My spell worked a little too well, then?”

Their little shelter was golden with the morning sun and so, just for a moment, were Merlin’s eyes. Arthur found he couldn’t let go of his hands, feeling they might just fall to their knees in relief otherwise. They were safe, anyone who tried to find them now would be gently guided away.

“Promise me this isn’t forever, Arthur,” Merlin beseeched quietly. “Promise me we’ll return and you’ll be king.”

“We will return, when the time is right, when you’re healed and we have a plan.” He pulled him close. “Until then…”

“Until then…” Merlin’s eyes fell to Arthur's lips.

Merlin/Arthur | Mature | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 100

Rescue | Angst and Hurt/Comfort | Merlin's Magic Revealed

For @merlinmicrofic with the dialogue prompt "I promised"

Arthur saves Merlin from the pyre

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Arthur cared not for the blistering flesh of his arms, only Merlin blackened and coughing in his lap.

Voices, hooves came.

He covered his mouth.

They died away, leaving just the wind in the leaves.

Arthur’s whispered agonised apologies as Merlin wheezed for air.

“Go back, Arthur,” he pressed out. “You’re supposed to-”

“I don’t care what fate or your dragon has to say! I promised.”

Tears tracked through soot. “…Please.”

Arthur smeared them away. “Merlin… I can't manage without you. We’ll run.” 

Merlin laughed brokenly. “And if I can’t run?” 

A kiss, all ash and salt. “Need you ask?”

Merlin/Arthur | Mature | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 100

Merlin's Magic Revealed | Merlin's Scars Revealed | Angst and Hurt/Comfort

For @merlinmicrofic with the prompt "nightfall"

As night falls Arthur learns about Merlin's sacrifices and fears for his safety

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After all was aired, once the word “lied” had been thoroughly exorcised from Arthur’s tongue, he could only listen.

Night fell and the veil was lifted from his eyes.

How could he match such devotion? He could not, he could only whisper his promises of protection, his thanks into Merlin’s skin.

Merlin wore his scars all too casually.

“They were easy,” Merlin whispered, his lips on his bare shoulder. “A small price, Arthur, and I’d pay it again.”

“No,” Arthur replied. “Never again.”  

“Fate punishes that kind of talk.”

In Arthur’s dreams, fate was Uther warming himself on Merlin’s pyre.

Voice of the Nightingale, 1923, Wladyslaw Starewicz

this was going to be a normal lancelot edit but it suddenly turned into a compilation of him having just one braincell 😭

Bog Visit - July

Words from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

I am tired. I will be there.

You can't blame Merlin for calling Arthur a ‘Lazy-daisy’, if this is how Arthur looks like whenever he sleeps/wakes up:

Quick sketch of Merlin in Disney's Sword in The Stone style! Haven't done any other styles in a while this was so fun

Guinevere's wedding dress and chainmail veil in Excalibur 1981

hi!! youre one of the few blogs i know of that are familiar with both the bbc show and arthuriana so i was wondering if you could point me towards texts where gawain and merlin have any sort of meaningful interaction? or is prose merlin all there is? i love their dynamic on the show and i know it's probs one of a kind in arthuriana but it would be interesting to compare and contrast :) thanks!

so far i only know of Robert de Boron's Prose Merlin for this. In that text, Merlin had lots of interactions with the teenaged Orkney siblings and especially Gawain, acting as an annoying coach to them (i.e. shapeshifting into different disguises to insult them into getting their asses together, or just messing with these royal teenagers and making them laugh.)

Welsh Myrddin did not have anything to do with Arthur and Gwalchmai in the Mabinogion either. Actually Myrrdin isn't in Mabinogion.

Myrddin and Taliesin were the only ones who had some interaction in The Black Book of Carmarthen.

In Geoffrey of Monmouth, Merlin never met Arthur and his knights. because he left Uther's court permanently after he helped Uther beget Arthur by Ygraine

Medieval French! Merlin (Robert de Boron tradition) usually just takes a backseat and disappears from the narrative once Arthur properly rules the throne after he defeats the rebelling barons.

I haven't gotten far in the Vulgate Cycle myself (it is also based on Robert de Boron's initial work). Maybe there are more there. But I have no idea yet.

In Thomas Malory, Merlin would often only appear to Knights after some tragedy happens to tell them that he knew everything all along.

I don't know much about post-Thomas Malory Arthuriana yet to tell you if there are other adaptations where Merlin is constantly involved in the (mis)adventures of Arthur's Knights either.

.....

Here's the thing we have to remember tho. Legendary Merlin is supposed to be this old wise trickster fart that everyone in King Arthur's court fears and respects (because of his powers and because he has advised and assisted many kings). If he forms some bonds with the knights then it's because he wanna mess with them or he knows something that they don't, or he has some quests for them.

It's what we have to keep in mind when looking at arthurian legends and even classic arthurian tv shows and movies.

BBC Adventures of Merlin is an anomaly because they made their Merlin into one of the youngest, and most inexperienced characters (who doesnt even have a court rank). As a result, he formed some rather interesting dynamics with characters that bore the same name as Arthurian Knights.

...

thanks for trusting me with this question. i hope you find the stories you are looking for.

You ever think about Arthur’s deleted depression arc from Season 4 of Merlin or are you normal

Dale McCready was the Director of Photography on Merlin from 2008-2012. In April 2020 she released some BTS photos from this time.

📷 Source: Dale McCready Merlin Archive

pendragon siblings yet again

Illustration made by Frank Godwin in 1927 for a book titled, "King Arthur and his Knights: Based on Morte d’Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory" compiled and arranged by Elizabeth Lodor Merchant. Published by The John C. Winston Company. [x]

Finished this art for @liviapeleia as part of the @merlin-gotcha4gaza event!

I absolutely adore your story https://archiveofourown.org/works/57536806 and I hope you like the my little drawing inspired by Merlin answering the door and seeing Uther :)

We were robbed honestly

Imagine if you will a curse gone wrong-

We get the whole castle and town exploding into song, and a refrain and melody developing that echoes through the rest of the songs, maybe asking if things will ever return back to normal

There's an opera style back and forth between Uther and Gaius about the cause of the curse and whether it's dangerous, they don't resolve anything

Uther tasks Arthur with rooting out the cause, and it's a kind of call and answer, with Arthur following Uther's orders

We get Morgana, terrified her magic will be found out. Her song transforms into an "I want" song, maybe she wants fairness, maybe revenge, maybe power

The knights have a barbershop quartet thing going on and we love that for them

Merlin finds the cause, and maybe the curse is ultimately deadly although it seems innocuous enough. Maybe people are already starting to feel the ill effects. He needs help, but he just has to get someone to believe him. Cue his moment to sing, appealing to Arthur and the knights his voice turns out to be so sweet and heartbreaking (see Colin Morgan's work with PJ Harvey) and to his surprise everyone rallies around

We get a song with Merlin, Arthur, the knights and maybe others like Gwen and Gaius working together to fix the problem, the song builds to a crescendo and stops short the moment the spell is seemingly broken

It cuts to the next day and some normal speech indicates that their efforts worked. But Arthur hovers just outside this chambers because Merlin is cleaning inside and is singing as he works, his singing finally resolves the melody. Arthur laughs quietly and enters the room

The End

merlin should have had a musical episode

Have we taken into consideration that perhaps, the reason Merlin does not die, it’s because the Gods don’t want him to? They’ve been playing with him this entire time, and The Cailleach made it clear that even if Merlin wants to die, he can’t, and he cannot change the course of his life. Merlin does not say, “yes” willingly, but rather tests to see if the goddess in front of him knows about his destiny, and her answer proves him right. It’s not because she sees Lancelot going into the veil. It’s because she knows deep down Merlin cannot do anything now. Merlin is more powerful than Gods, and to prevent him to come to this knowledge, they constantly stop him from achieving his destiny.

Merlin!!! in the forest doing illegal sketchy stuff

i recently became possessed with the idea of a merlin series rewrite that would follow more closely the legends in some aspects. i'm not exactly sure how one would pull it off but i already ordered a copy of le morte d'arthur to refresh my memory

something something uther dies from an illness while arthur is still a child and how that's gonna affect things?

but, i still want merlin and arthur to be the same age

so balinor is gonna take on the role in events that occurred pre arthur's birth where merlin's figure was involved?

i really love-hate the story about ygraine in the legend. adds so much trashinnes to uthers character. so fitting.

uther literally got hots for a married woman, got pissy offended when she left in the night because of his creepy behaviour and waged war against her husband because of that.

and than he impersonated her husband and slept with her. which is really SA. and then when her husband died, in that same war, he was like "well guess you'll now have to marry me". what a disgusting creature.

i can go on and on

For most witches, it is often appropriate to blend the spoken charm with certain physical rites of folk magic. These are usually understood within the two pillars of what we call simulacra and contagia. The first of these refers to an object that represents something else. . . . Contagion, however works differently, spreading its influence slowly and regularly by proximity to the target of the charm. . . . For the witch who desires to pair well-established folk magical methods alongside the work of incantation, any of the following methods would be more than appropriate . . .

from The Witch's Art of Incantation; Spoken Charms, Spells, & Curses in Folk Witchcraft by Roger J. Horne

I saw this and had to make the edit