In the History of the Britons, there are multiple accounts of Arthur fighting in multiple battles, which would have been impossible for him to physically do so. However, accounts like this add to Arthur's legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth added in the figure of Merlin which allowed for the birth story and background of King Arthur. It wasn't until some cultural intermingling in Europe that different writers' imaginations and political agendas got involved that King Arthur's legend became a complex story.
Merlin on the other hand is a less formed character with more limited background than Arthur. In Geoffrey's rendering of Merlin, Merlin is a Cambion: born of a mortal woman (Adhan) and sired by an incubus, who gives Merlin his supernatural powers. Also, Geoffrey writes that Merlin matures to an ascendant statehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later authors write that Merlin ends up serving as Arthur's advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake. An interesting note to Merlin's name is that in the original writing by Geoffrey, Merlin's Anglo-Norman origin would by Merdinus, which resembled the word merde, meaning feces. I find this funny because in the version of King Arthur in the Untextbook, Merlin knows everything that will happen, but still walks right into his own grave. For a guy who knows what's going to happen, he sure did walk into a crappy situation. Haha..
As for Merlin's backstory, Geoffrey provides us with some history. Merlin's character is based off of a bard who is driven mad by the horrors of war and goes into the woods to become a wild man. Apparently, Merlin is connected to an Aurelius Ambrosius, who is discovered by the British king Vortigern when trying to erect a tower. Long story short, Ambrosius tells Vortigern that the tower will continue to fall unless Ambrosius is given dominion over the tower. In later episodes of Merlin, he goes on to bring the Stonehedge stones from Preseli hills in south-west Wales and Ireland. He also is portrayed as a man with seemingly long life as these different episodes span quite a long time period.
After doing this research, I feel like writing about Merlin. By nature it seems that the original writers wanted to keep his background somewhat mysterious to keep that magical allure to his character. My plan is to expand on Merlin's background by writing in the first person narrative. By writing in this style, I hope to provide the missing details of Merlin's childhood/teenage years. Since these years are my focus, I do not have any big plans to integrate King Arthur into my story. The main focus of my story will be that of Merlin. Also, since Merlin is based on a crazy man who lives in the woods, I think I will work on the events that led up to him becoming that crazy wild man. I imagine Merlin's personality pre-wild man would be bold and courageous seeing as how he knows what will happen. This could be his motivation for joining the military and going to war, because he knew he wouldn't die and would be a hero. However, since there is a difference between knowing something and actually experiencing it, this event will ultimately change Merlin into the crazy wild man that he is based off of.
