Original novelizations?

[Zocha]

This is probably the wrong thread but - I want to purchase the original novelization of which Merlin was based upon, if not some great book on Merlin or something. I'm interested in reading about those tales but I don't know which kind to get; I'm assuming there are many books on Arthur and Merlin and stuff.

[Libitine]

Well I hope you are aware that the character Merlin is solely from Welsh (and some British) mythology, if you are looking more that route.

But if you are looking for books about the movie/miniseries, Jame Mallory has a lovely series for your enjoyment.

[Zocha]

Yeah, I want to look into the original mythology. I should take that up with my friend, seeing as she liked the series but said something about an original story being different ...

[Libitine]

Yes the original, traditional, mythology is far different from the story (movie story) even though everybody rants in the behind the scens how close it is. It isn't. I did my share of research.

[himiko]

To the best of my knowledge, there are many myths and legends relating to Merlin, and pretty much all of them are different in one way or another. Sam Neill apparently studied something to do with Merlin at school/university in New Zealand, if you can somehow get hold of his email address you could try asking him, LOL, he'd probably know more about it than I do.

But to answer your first query, I don't believe there is any original novel that Merlin is based on. Like pretty much every version so far, it did it's own thing with the legend a bit.

For more research, whilst I wouldn't advise using Wikipedia as a major and infallible source of information, here's the page on Merlin, to give a brief outline:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin

If you're looking for some novelisations, then there's a multitude to choose from, "Le Morte d'Arthur", "The Once and Future King", "Mists of Avalon" (not a great one for Merlin, though, the character bearing this title- not a name in this series- doesn't appear all that often) etc., not to mention non-fiction, of course, if you're interested in the research aspect.

[Lane of Magic]

Well, to answer your initial question, the novelisation itself was based on the movie (the Mallory version, that is). As for the story being accurate, I guess it depends on how you look at it. It's accurate - Guinevere did betray Arthur, Camelot did exist etc... It depends on everyone's take on the legend - this movie was meant as an overview, and I think it pulled it off really well.

[Merlins~Rose]

I'm halfway in 'The Once and Future King', and though I haven't read it in a while, it was really good, and I very much enjoyed the Merlin character. You should check out that book.

[Libitine]

I should?

Well then I will!

Is Mab in it??
No?
Yes?
Maybe?
;D

[himiko]

To my knowledge, Mab isn't really in any of the Merlin legends, at least not under that name. I've read the "Once and Future King" (haven't read the others yet, though), and the sequel to it is called "The Queen of Air and Darkness", but in this case, I believe it refers to Arthur's half sister, Morgause.

[Zocha]

I shall look all these books up the next time I'm in Barnes and Noble.

Any books with recreations of Mab would be nice too - I'd like to see how others perceive her to be, if others portray her as ... well, somewhat nice, like I do.

[Libitine]

Aw.

No Mab.

I once wrote a book (hand wrote . . . 200 pgs) of the story of Merlin (movie version) but from Frik's perception. It was weird. o.O

Just thought I'd share.

Yes, more books with Mab would be devine!!

[Lane of Magic]

Oooh, interesting! I don't suppose you still have it?...

[Libitine]

Well . . . . . . I have parts of it, because it was all in seperate notebooks. . . . but it is REALLLLLLYYYY bad and I don't have the strongest desire to type it all up.