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hrjI found it interesting that, although the premise of the session was "other Merlin-like practitioners of magic" and although various female enchanters were discussed in the context of the papers, all the papers focused on male figures. One hates to put too much analysis into the selection of papers, but there's a temptation to see this as a default-to-male issue and that Merlin's female colleagues would likely be relegated to a markedly female session topic.
Merlin’s Colleagues
Sponsor: Société Internationale des Amis de Merlin Organizer: Anne Berthelot, Univ. of Connecticut Presider: Karen Zook, Univ. of Connecticut
Maugis d’Aigremont
Kathleen Jarchow, Univ. of Connecticut
Session focuses on Merlinesque practitioners of magic that are not part of the Arthurian cycle. Ms. history: 13th c. epic poem has only 3 extant versions, which may help explain the lack of focus on this romance. Full length is ca. 9000 lines, but one of the texts is abridged, though it includes some elements not found in the other versions. Some critical work done on it in the late 19th century and a later combined edition that merges the three variants. Only available in Old Friench. Recent doctoral thesis examined the story in the context of the chansons de gest, as well as providing a modern French translation. This paper compares Maugis with the figure of Merlin. Story is a Christianizing/crusader account of 2 twins separated as infants during battle, one of which is Maugis. The story includes fairies, dwarfs, giants, and other marvelous elements, as well as covering the standard quest/romance elements. Not much personal charcter development for Maugis, though the quest (for his lost family) concludes satisfactorily. Maugis as an infant is found by a mairy and then learns his magical craft (from his uncle) rather than it being part of his nature from birth (as for Merlin, as well as learning chivalric arts. Also: magical pony! Contrasting characteristics between the two magicians: inborn talent vs learned, Arthurian vs independent story, court culture vs questing, supernatural vs human birth, ambiguous/supernatural nature vs heroic character. Both share the characteristics of being part of a national epic, magical swords, presence of fairy women.
(Note: the author indicataed that this is her first conference paper. It was a bit too informal in presentation and was weak in terms of thesis, analysis, and structure, but the topic was interesting.)
ETA: I overheard a conversation after posting this that there had been a snafu over getting her paper text printed out and she had to improvise at the last minute. So please ignore the previous critique.
Guinebaut’s Enchanted Carol in the Lancelot-Grail Cycle: A Magical Prison of Love and Interlaces
Florence Marsal, Univ. of Connecticut
Enchanter who appears in the Lancelot/Grail cycle who creates a magical carol. Lancelot's uncle. His story includes echoes of motifs from Merlin's story, including the enchanted prison of love. Guinebaut is presented as an intellectual (clerc) and as such is a colleague of the (fictional) clerks to whom the stories of the knights are dictated for recording. He has ties not only to the court and royalty but to the church and to the intellectual community. But in contrast, Guinebaut is said to learn "jeux" (tricks, games) from Merlin, though he is presented as being more learned and eloquent even than Merlin's teacher Blaise. Guinebaut comes across a group of knights and ladies dancing in a clearing accompanied by the most beautiful lady in the world with whom he instantly falls in love. He says he will extend the dance magically until the most perfect knight comes along to break the spell which in some way wins him the lady's love. The event seems intended to frame this as the (enchanted) lady entrapping Guinebaut but this is lost in the following events. The expected "perfect knight" is Lancelot and there is a vaguely similar scenario in the Lancelot cycle where he does free a group of knights from an enchanted prison, but the connection isn't definite. There are parallels drawn between Guinebaut and Morgaine in that they both learn magical "tricks" from Merlin that they use to satisfy illicit lust. In Guinebaut's story, Lancelot does show up and, after being briefly trapped by the magic carol, he breaks the enchantment freeing the knights and ladies from their eternal magical dance. (The magic carol could trap people who had known "joie" at least once in their life, with some sexual implications to the context.) The dance is framed as the folly of obsessive love which becomes tedious when extended indefinitely. In te parallel episode in the Lancelot Grail story only the knights are happy to be freed while the ladies mourn the ending of the dance.
Eliavres, or, Merlin’s Dark Reflection
Anne Berthelot
There are actually relatively few "enchanter" figures in the romances and they can be hard to distinguish as individuals rather than reflections of the archetypal enchanter, Merlin. The character of Eliavres pops up in an isolated story, though he has family connections to significant Arthurian families. The "beheading trick" (cf. Gawain & Green Knight) shows up but as a deliberate trick to reveal the character's identity, and there context is never intended as deadly. Eliavres has an adulterous affair with a (married) niece of Arthur resulting in a son. (Note that the conjunction of a character being both a knight and magician is almost unprecedented in the romances.) Eliavres substitutes female animals (disguised magically as the lady) in his lover's marriage bed while he enjoys her favors. There are some parallels here with the begetting of Arthur where Merlin substitutes a disguised Uther in Ygraine's bed resulting in a son. But in the story of Eliavres the lady is clearly compliicit. (We now digress to question whether it was actually Uther disguised in Ygraine's bed when Merlin is the one with the ability to change shapes.) So anyway, the beheading game shows up as part of Eliavres revealing himself to his son, which latter doesn't seem to be entirely happy to discover that he's a bastard and the son of an evil enchanter rather than a king. The son seems to have inherited his own magical powers for he arranges for Eliavres to be punished by imprisonment in a tower, but further arranges for him to couple with three female animals (as in the initial illusion) but this time the result is three animal sons. (This suggests parallels with the Welsh tale of Math vab Mathonwy and the transformation of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy into pairs of animals that beget beast-children, again in punishment for illicit sexual activity.)
Merlin’s “Modern Colleague”: Louis Denizart Hippolyte Griffont, Gentleman- Magician
Elisabeth Buzay, Univ. of Connecticut
[We now pause for vast amounts of technical issues getting the last prenter to be able to Skype in.]
Discussion of a fictional character in a cycle of modern fantasy novels (the Ambremer Cycle by Perre Pevel). Early 20th c. century, parallel universes, tropes of the medieval fantasy world intersecting with a more modern "mundane" setting. These worlds now merge and the story focuses on three "circles" of magicians who are long-lived and use magic as an "alternate solution" to problems, contrasted with science. This world also seems to have female magical characters but who are framed as fairies who choose to live in the human world. (Unclear if there are any female "magicians" in the same sense as the protagonist.) Merlin shows up in the second book of the cycle. The modern "magician circles" seem to function similarly to Arthur's knights, being mostly gentlemen wth martial as well as magical skills. The novels also have elements of the detective/mystery genre. Three types of magic: instinctive, innate, an initiatory. Instinctive is spontaneous and reflextive; innate is inborn but requires training; initiatory is entirely learned. Griffont pratices relatively minor everyday magics for largely practical purposes. His larger magics tend to be more structured, relying on props/tools and more "scientific" in approach. One of the props is a magical stone into which he is able to transfer his soul when he dies, enabling him to be revived (by Merlin) at a later time. The second major feat involves enabling mirrors to "play back" events they have reflected, tying in to motifs of spiritualism and sympathetic magic. Overall, the character appears more as a "scientific" figure and one who doesn't always understand his own abilities. In contrast, Merlin (in these stories) is far more powerful (as depicted) but his magical act is confined to the revival of Griffont.
Merlin’s Colleagues
Sponsor: Société Internationale des Amis de Merlin Organizer: Anne Berthelot, Univ. of Connecticut Presider: Karen Zook, Univ. of Connecticut
Maugis d’Aigremont
Kathleen Jarchow, Univ. of Connecticut
Session focuses on Merlinesque practitioners of magic that are not part of the Arthurian cycle. Ms. history: 13th c. epic poem has only 3 extant versions, which may help explain the lack of focus on this romance. Full length is ca. 9000 lines, but one of the texts is abridged, though it includes some elements not found in the other versions. Some critical work done on it in the late 19th century and a later combined edition that merges the three variants. Only available in Old Friench. Recent doctoral thesis examined the story in the context of the chansons de gest, as well as providing a modern French translation. This paper compares Maugis with the figure of Merlin. Story is a Christianizing/crusader account of 2 twins separated as infants during battle, one of which is Maugis. The story includes fairies, dwarfs, giants, and other marvelous elements, as well as covering the standard quest/romance elements. Not much personal charcter development for Maugis, though the quest (for his lost family) concludes satisfactorily. Maugis as an infant is found by a mairy and then learns his magical craft (from his uncle) rather than it being part of his nature from birth (as for Merlin, as well as learning chivalric arts. Also: magical pony! Contrasting characteristics between the two magicians: inborn talent vs learned, Arthurian vs independent story, court culture vs questing, supernatural vs human birth, ambiguous/supernatural nature vs heroic character. Both share the characteristics of being part of a national epic, magical swords, presence of fairy women.
(Note: the author indicataed that this is her first conference paper. It was a bit too informal in presentation and was weak in terms of thesis, analysis, and structure, but the topic was interesting.)
ETA: I overheard a conversation after posting this that there had been a snafu over getting her paper text printed out and she had to improvise at the last minute. So please ignore the previous critique.
Guinebaut’s Enchanted Carol in the Lancelot-Grail Cycle: A Magical Prison of Love and Interlaces
Florence Marsal, Univ. of Connecticut
Enchanter who appears in the Lancelot/Grail cycle who creates a magical carol. Lancelot's uncle. His story includes echoes of motifs from Merlin's story, including the enchanted prison of love. Guinebaut is presented as an intellectual (clerc) and as such is a colleague of the (fictional) clerks to whom the stories of the knights are dictated for recording. He has ties not only to the court and royalty but to the church and to the intellectual community. But in contrast, Guinebaut is said to learn "jeux" (tricks, games) from Merlin, though he is presented as being more learned and eloquent even than Merlin's teacher Blaise. Guinebaut comes across a group of knights and ladies dancing in a clearing accompanied by the most beautiful lady in the world with whom he instantly falls in love. He says he will extend the dance magically until the most perfect knight comes along to break the spell which in some way wins him the lady's love. The event seems intended to frame this as the (enchanted) lady entrapping Guinebaut but this is lost in the following events. The expected "perfect knight" is Lancelot and there is a vaguely similar scenario in the Lancelot cycle where he does free a group of knights from an enchanted prison, but the connection isn't definite. There are parallels drawn between Guinebaut and Morgaine in that they both learn magical "tricks" from Merlin that they use to satisfy illicit lust. In Guinebaut's story, Lancelot does show up and, after being briefly trapped by the magic carol, he breaks the enchantment freeing the knights and ladies from their eternal magical dance. (The magic carol could trap people who had known "joie" at least once in their life, with some sexual implications to the context.) The dance is framed as the folly of obsessive love which becomes tedious when extended indefinitely. In te parallel episode in the Lancelot Grail story only the knights are happy to be freed while the ladies mourn the ending of the dance.
Eliavres, or, Merlin’s Dark Reflection
Anne Berthelot
There are actually relatively few "enchanter" figures in the romances and they can be hard to distinguish as individuals rather than reflections of the archetypal enchanter, Merlin. The character of Eliavres pops up in an isolated story, though he has family connections to significant Arthurian families. The "beheading trick" (cf. Gawain & Green Knight) shows up but as a deliberate trick to reveal the character's identity, and there context is never intended as deadly. Eliavres has an adulterous affair with a (married) niece of Arthur resulting in a son. (Note that the conjunction of a character being both a knight and magician is almost unprecedented in the romances.) Eliavres substitutes female animals (disguised magically as the lady) in his lover's marriage bed while he enjoys her favors. There are some parallels here with the begetting of Arthur where Merlin substitutes a disguised Uther in Ygraine's bed resulting in a son. But in the story of Eliavres the lady is clearly compliicit. (We now digress to question whether it was actually Uther disguised in Ygraine's bed when Merlin is the one with the ability to change shapes.) So anyway, the beheading game shows up as part of Eliavres revealing himself to his son, which latter doesn't seem to be entirely happy to discover that he's a bastard and the son of an evil enchanter rather than a king. The son seems to have inherited his own magical powers for he arranges for Eliavres to be punished by imprisonment in a tower, but further arranges for him to couple with three female animals (as in the initial illusion) but this time the result is three animal sons. (This suggests parallels with the Welsh tale of Math vab Mathonwy and the transformation of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy into pairs of animals that beget beast-children, again in punishment for illicit sexual activity.)
Merlin’s “Modern Colleague”: Louis Denizart Hippolyte Griffont, Gentleman- Magician
Elisabeth Buzay, Univ. of Connecticut
[We now pause for vast amounts of technical issues getting the last prenter to be able to Skype in.]
Discussion of a fictional character in a cycle of modern fantasy novels (the Ambremer Cycle by Perre Pevel). Early 20th c. century, parallel universes, tropes of the medieval fantasy world intersecting with a more modern "mundane" setting. These worlds now merge and the story focuses on three "circles" of magicians who are long-lived and use magic as an "alternate solution" to problems, contrasted with science. This world also seems to have female magical characters but who are framed as fairies who choose to live in the human world. (Unclear if there are any female "magicians" in the same sense as the protagonist.) Merlin shows up in the second book of the cycle. The modern "magician circles" seem to function similarly to Arthur's knights, being mostly gentlemen wth martial as well as magical skills. The novels also have elements of the detective/mystery genre. Three types of magic: instinctive, innate, an initiatory. Instinctive is spontaneous and reflextive; innate is inborn but requires training; initiatory is entirely learned. Griffont pratices relatively minor everyday magics for largely practical purposes. His larger magics tend to be more structured, relying on props/tools and more "scientific" in approach. One of the props is a magical stone into which he is able to transfer his soul when he dies, enabling him to be revived (by Merlin) at a later time. The second major feat involves enabling mirrors to "play back" events they have reflected, tying in to motifs of spiritualism and sympathetic magic. Overall, the character appears more as a "scientific" figure and one who doesn't always understand his own abilities. In contrast, Merlin (in these stories) is far more powerful (as depicted) but his magical act is confined to the revival of Griffont.
