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Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, is a work by the Norman-Welsh
author Geoffrey of Monmouth, composed in Latin around AD 1150. It
retells incidents from the life of the Brythonic seer Merlin, and
is based on traditional material about him. Merlin is described as
a prophet in the text. There are a number of episodes in which he
loses his mind and lives in the wilderness like a wild animal, like
Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. It is also the first work to
describe the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, as Morgen. Geoffrey
had written of Merlin in his two previous works, the Prophetiae
Merlini, purported to be a series of prophecies from the sage, and
the Historia Regum Britanniae, which is the first work presenting a
link between Merlin and King Arthur. The Vita Merlini presents an
account of Merlin much more faithful to the Welsh traditions about
Myrddin Wyllt, the archetype behind Geoffrey's composite figure of
Merlin. Whereas the Historia had Merlin associating with Arthur,
his father Uther Pendragon, and his uncle Ambrosius in the 5th
century, the Vita's timeframe is during the late 6th century, and
includes references to various figures from that period, including
Gwenddoleu and Taliesin. Geoffrey attempts to synchronize the Vita
with his earlier work by having Merlin mention he had been with
Arthur long before.
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