This is to express my revulsion viewing the 
television movie “Merlin” aired 4/27/1998 by 
NBC.

NBC has topped all records for distorted, 
perverted and otherwise mangled versions of 
Le Morte de Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory.

Obviously none of the cast, producers, 
directors or writers bothered to read the book.  
(Le Morte de Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory). . 
However, they could have at least read the 
comic book which has a lot of pictures for 
people like them!

That is one theory.  The other is that the nazi’s 
at NBC hate Anglo-Saxon heritage and 
perhaps even fear the legend. 

Following are notes I took while watching the 
movie.  I watched it because I feel a very 
heart-felt connection with the Arthurian 
Legend.

1)  Excalibur was not the sword pulled from the 
stone.  Excalibur was given to the King later by 
the Lady of the Lake.  The movie presented
the two swords as the same.

2)  The Lady of the Lake was not Galahad’s 
mother, Morgan Le Fey was.  The movie 
got this wrong.

3)  Sir Lancelot was not pure, he knew this 
better than anyone.  Merlin, the movie
as well as a previous rendition of the 
Arthurian Legend both present a Lancelot
that demeans his almost Siddhartha like
transition from a heroic Knight to a Holy
Man.  NBC’s movie Merlin perpetrates the
Hollywood misrepresentation that Lancelot 
was anything but the ultimate gentleman in 
the presence of Queen Guenevere.  In their 
confusion they are constantly imposing their 
own sleazy behaviors on him.  He was in 
fact a very spiritual man who was tormented 
all his life by his one indiscretion which was 
his affair with Morgan Le Fey.


4)  Merlin had no mentors or teachers turned 
evil demons.  The only other person in the 
Legend with knowledge of magic was Morgan 
Le Fey, and she was never Merlin’s teacher.

5)  The importance of the Round Table is 
overlooked: a table which has no head or 
leadership position and where everyone’s 
place at the table is no more or less than 
anyone else’s.  

6)  They represent Galahad returning from the 
quest for the Holy Grail with the Grail.  He did 
not!!!  He found the Grail and was lifted to the 
heavens by angels never to be seen again.  

7)  The movie portrayed Merlin as rescuing 
Guenevere.   Sir Lancelot rescued
Guenevere from the pyre, not Merlin..  This 
is important as this resulted in the subsequent 
war waged by Camelot on Joyous Gard.  
Although ignored by the producers in 
Merlin, this was one of the three major events
that led to the fall of Camelot.

8)  The movie portrays Merlin as agonizing 
over the fall of Camelot, which is not the case.  
Merlin knew what would happen and knew that 
he had achieved to set out to.

The time of Arthur, about 300-400 AD, the 
Romans still tyrannized over much of Europe.  
Rather than allow the empire to consolidate 
by 400 AD, Merlin planned to drive the 
empire from Europe and introduce democratic 
principles to Europe, as an alternative to 
the corporate fascism of despots.  More than 
half the legend concerns itself with  
the stories of how Arthur unites Britain, and 
joins with forces in France to drive Roman
rule out of Europe.  This led to the dark 
ages. The tyranny of the empire was 
limited to inquisitions and the destruction 
of local religions, repressed by the
inquisitional forces of the empire and
intended to destroy traditional knoledge and
culture.  However, this set back for the 
empire also resulted in the Round
Table which came to represent democracy!  
While this concept was also intruduced in 
the Empire at the time of the Greeks, it 
was subverted and destroyed.  The basis for 
the ongoing empire returned to a hierarchal 
tyranny of power I term corporate fascism.

Merlin saw the tyranny-empire threatening the 
whole planet and put in place another empire
with no leader governed by consensus.  If not 
for the Arthurian Legend, the one world order
would have been established long ago under 
tyrants and humanity would know of no 
alternatives.  Merlin had no girlfriend and 
knew all had come about as he had hoped.  
Merlin knew that Camelot was only temporary, 
until the day when the King would return.

9)  Merlin’s last battle with a witch is all NBC 
perversion of the Legend.

10)  The ending with Merlin asking for money 
is totally out of character, and is a fiction 
created by the NBC nazi’s trying to make 
Merlin look like them.  In fact, they represent 
Merlin as having failed, when in fact he 
succeeded.  They represent Merlin as a petty
beggar, when in fact his powers freed him from 
the greed and small-mindedness with which 
they represent him.  If Merlin could see the 
movie he would be outraged at their characterization 
of someone using his name and pretending to 
be him.

11)  They falsely represent Merlin as 
concerned about having someone to watch 
over Camelot during the search for the Holy 
Grail.  In fact, King Arthur was there to watch 
over Camelot.  King Arthur was very sad 
during this time because the absense of the
Knights of the Round Table left Camelot a
ghost town, and he feared that they would
never all return, which is how it was.

Thus ends my 11 notes on the major
misrepresentations of the Arthurian Legend,
that makes this movie a complete fiction
totally out of character for the theme as
well as the hero's and villains.

These are some of the major malignments of 
the Arthurian Legend.  There are many others 
too numerous to detail here.

I guess I should point out what a mess they 
made of the death of Elaine, totally muddying 
the meaning and the situation, as well as the 
effects of her death on Lancelot and 
subsequently Camelot.  The death of Elaine
was blamed on Lancelot in gossipy circles,
as she died because he would not be her
lover although she was a beautiful princess.
Lancelot by this time had dedicated his life
to attaining a pure enough spirit to perceive
heavenly knowledge.  He was frustrated 
that his past prevented him from attaining
the purity of spirit that his son Galahad 
achieved.

Overlooking the drama in the trial of 
Guenevere is another shortcoming of the 
movie, but then there were so many, what is 
one more!  They show Mordred as being 
present at the Round Table, which he never 
was.  

An analogy of this movie foully named 
Merlin would be someone showing 
pornographic movies of Mickey Mouse doing 
Minnie as a representation of a historical view 
of the influence of Walt Disney in the 1960’s.  

This movie is the opposite of Star Wars.  Star 
Wars created a fiction with characters who 
become the archetypes.  Merlin takes an 
existing legend with characters who embody 
the archetypes, and reduces them to petty 
Hollywood 1990 nazi’s with no connections to 
any archetype at all!

In kindness I shall say that this redition of
the Arthurian Legend is the result of massive 
illiteracy.  They reduce Merlin to nothing 
failing to understand his character or his 
motives.  I hope Merlin awakens to defend his 
honor and his name.  

This exclamatory and incensed review of the 
that atrocious rendition of the Arthurian 
Legend titled "Merlin" is in no way intended 
to cast aspersions on the actors who did their 
jobs reasonably.

Eoroneth Pendragon   4/28/1998

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