Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages Peter H. Goodrich Stephen Knight , Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2009. Pp. xvii, 275. ISBN: 978-0-8014-4365-7. $27.95. The author, a well-respected professor at Cardiff University and author of a previous volume on Robin Hood published by the same press, has garnered prepublication praise from an impressive group of Arthurian experts, so one opens this volume with high expectations. Those expectations, for the most part, are readily met. At an unusually affordable academic book price and a relatively svelte 292 pages, including introduction, twenty-six black-and-white plates of illustrations, chapter notes, substantial primary and secondary bibliographies, and index, Knight encapsulates the development of the Merlin figure in an attractive and readable style. To achieve the feat of succinctness regarding such a multifarious figure, one must pursue a single main narrative theme, and Knight makes an appropriate choice indicated by the book's subtitle. In structuring 'the relation between knowledge and power' expressed by the mage's manifold appearances, Knight highlights 'Wisdom, Advice, Cleverness, and Education' as 'the major formations in the socio-cultural apprehension of the value' of knowledge, and Merlin as its representative to various kinds of power (xv). The overuse of prepositions and multisyllabic terms in that phrase—not really typical of the book's style as a whole—suggests what Knight is up against. Discerning any single coherent pattern in the unfolding of such a figure is problematic, especially since Knight must acknowledge so many exceptions in the course of applying these four rubrics to the works of different nations, genres, and periods. Nevertheless, his thematic dualism is itself important, because it can apply to all of the iconic dichotomies and counterbalancing tensions described in the Introduction of Merlin: A Casebook (2003). The plan of his book distributes Wisdom with Merlin's roots in Britain through Geoffrey of Monmouth, Advice with his subsequent development in medieval romance, Cleverness as the diminishment of his potency to the end of the Victorian period, and Education as the keynote of his popularity in the twentieth century. If one does not expect unwavering consistency from this approach and its applicability to individual works, but regards it as a loose guideline for representing Merlin's essential actions within narratives, it blazes a helpful path of broadly shifting emphases through the book. Knight implicitly recognizes its awkward but probably necessary artificiality when he notes that the acronym created from his categories coincides by 'some tricksterish force' with the name of one of the legend's early 'disseminators' WACE (xv). The challenge of generating a plan adequately to cover Merlin's guises through the ages is partially redressed by one of the book's most endearing traits—genuine respect for previous scholarship and steady application and acknowledgment of it throughout. Knight has done his homework; his bibliography is up to date and useful for scholars and lay readers alike. A not inconsiderable challenge for such a survey is to avoid idiosyncrasy while superseding previous survey monographs (most notably in this case, Christopher Dean's from 1992). Two good ways to achieve this are by referencing previously overlooked works from different periods, and quoting from or reexamining exhaustively discussed works more succinctly and [End Page 127] in a different light. Given the book's strong scholarly foundation, Knight succeeds at both. The first two chapters on the medieval legend provide particularly clear differentiation and treatments of the primary medieval sources in Welsh, Latin, French, and English, and the middle chapter on 'Cleverness' offers a particularly fine overview of Merlin's English literary fortunes in decline and reflorescence from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. The remaining two chapters, while still well-judged, demonstrate an inherent weakness of the chronological survey form: covering an increasing spate of works from multiple literary traditions and media results in increasingly brief discussions of individual landmarks, culminating with a dizzying parade of major and minor works in the final chapter—often with 'one-liner' commentary. In addition to the 'usual suspects,' Knight advances the Merlin repertoire by remarking several previous overlooked texts, such as the masques...