The Boy Merlin

I've been tracking down series and films that depict the origins of Merlin as research for my Kalamazoo paper next month. One work I had heard about but never tracked down is the British series The Boy Merlin (launched on the series Shadows in 1978 and then airing for six more episodes as a separate series in 1980). The story is very much inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and alludes to Merlin as a "fatherless" boy but never (at least not on the episodes online) reveals the truth or falsehood of the incubus story.

The series anticipates a lot of the ideas found in Shine Entertainment's more recent series (2008-2012) with Merlin training as a mage and working to prepare for Arthur and himself to discover their destinies. It is also very similar to Mary Stewart's novel The Crystal Cave published in 1970 (and adapted to film in 1991), but embraces the magical elements of the character rather than rationalizing them.

The pilot from Shadows and three of the six episodes from the series are available on YouTube (see below).

A trailer for the Region-2 DVD set is also online and includes footage from yet another episode. 

MAPACA Roundtable Update

I am pleased to announce the panelists for our roundtable on recent Arthuriana on screen. Registration information for the conference can be found at https://mapaca.net/conference. Hope to see you there.

New Visits to Camelot: Reflecting on the Contemporary Matter of Britain on Screen (Roundtable)

Session sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture for the Medieval & Renaissance Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association

Organizer/Presider: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Guy Ritchie and Michael Bay (Oh My): The Challenges of Contemporary Visions of Camelot on Screen

Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar) 

Michael A. Torregrossa is a medievalist whose research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. His founder of both The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and serves as Fantastic Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association.

Othering Pagan Archetypes: Reimaginings of Merlin and Morgan le Fay

Rachael Warmington (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Rachael Warmington is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in English from Montclair State University, M.A. in English from Seton Hall University, and her MFA at City College of New York, City University of New York. Rachael is also the editor-in-chief of the open source academic journal, Wachung Review. She is currently focusing on the ways in which early regional and generational variations of Arthurian legend influence contemporary literary, film and television adaptations and appropriations of Arthurian works.

Round Table Revival: The Order: 1886

Carl Sell (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Carl Sell is PhD student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in all things medieval and Early Modern, and his studies focus on the Arthurian Legend and modern adaptations of the legend as well as adaptations of Robin Hood.

 

Brennan on BBC's Merlin

From the latest number of Arthuriana:

Brennan, Joseph. “ ‘You Could Shame the Great Arthur Himself’: A Queer Reading of Lancelot from BBC’s Merlin with Respect to the Character in Malory, White, and Bradley.” Arthuriana 25.2 (Summer 2015): 20-43.

Accessible at Project MUSE at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arthuriana/v025/25.2.brennan.html.

TV Scholarship in Arthuriana

The latest number of Arthuriana is devoted to recent Arthurian-themed television. Contents are available (to subscribers only) at the journal's website (http://arthuriana.org/access/25-1Contents.html) and on Project MUSE (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arthuriana/toc/art.25.1.html).

Details as follows:

King Arthur in the Twenty-First Century: Kaamelot, BBC’s Merlin, and Starz’s Camelot
Tara Foster & Jon Sherman 3

Kaamelot’s Global Fifth Century
Tara Foster 5

Kaamelot’s Paradox: Lancelot between Subjugation and Individuation
Cédric Briand 22

From ‘Unthinking Stereotype’ to Fearless Antagonist: The Evolution of Morgan le Fay on Television
Cindy Mediavilla 44

Casting, Plotting, and Enchanting: Arthurian Women in Starz’s Camelot and the BBC’s Merlin
Jennifer C. Edwards 57
 
Source, Authority, and Audience in the BBC’s Merlin
Jon Sherman 82
 
Pendragons at the Chopping Block: Elements of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the BBC’s Merlin
Erin Chandler 101

Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Religious Tolerance in Modern Britain and the BBC’s Merlin
David C. Tollerton 113

Re-Posted: The Middle Ages on Television

McFarland is publishing a new book on medieval-themed television in 2015. Full details have posted on the Medieval Studies on Screen blog (http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/2014/12/coming-soon-middle-ages-on-television.html), but it is work noting here that the book will also cover Arthurian material, including Merlin, Camelot, and Mists of Avalon.

Arthuriana on Screen at Arthurian Congress 2014

Of interest if you're in Romania this summer:

XXIV Triennial Congress of the International Arthurian Society - University of Bucharest
(full program at http://arthuriancongress.unibuc.ro/programme/)

Friday, July 25th

Panel 1: 15.20-17.20
Thematic Pannel : Children of the (K)night: Arthurian Bad Boys and Mean Girls
Organizer : Kevin J. HARTY (La Salle University, Philadelphia)

Participants:
Christine NEUFELD (Eastern Michigan University), Bloodlines: The Sanguine Semiotics of Dracula vs. King Arthur
Susan ARONSTEIN (University of Wyoming), Thoroughly Modern Morgan?: Starz’ Camelot’s Arthurian Bad Girl
Martin B. SHICHTMAN (Eastern Michigan University), Subversive Sorority: The Naughty Nuns of Starz’
Camelot
Elizabeth S. SKLAR (Wayne State University), Queering Mordred
Donald L. HOFFMAN (Northeastern Illinois University), The Queering of Mordred Revisited
Kevin J. HARTY (La Salle University), Using the Arthurian Legend to Turn Bad Boys into Good Boys: The Boy Scouts and Thomas Edison Make an Arthurian Film, The Knights of the Square Table
Laurie A. FINKE (Kenyon College), Ghosts of Chivalry: King Arthur and the Ku Klux Klan


Saturday, July 26th

Section 2 : 14h30-16h10
Influence of Arthurian Myths and the Contemporary World
Dragos MANEA (University of Bucharest), The Magic of Merlin: Strategies of Legitimation in Camelot (Starz 2011) and Merlin (BBC, 2008-2010)
Nicoleta NEAGOE (Université de Bucarest), Le mythe du Graal à l’aube du IIIe millénaire. Étude de cas – The Da Vinci Code de Dan Brown
David JOHNSON (Florida State University), Reading Couperus Reading Walewein: Arthur’s world reimagined at the close of WWI.
Anca MANOLESCU (Université de Bucarest), Un symbolisme sans rivages : René Guénon et Heinrich Zimmer, décrypteurs de la matière arthurienne
Geert VAN IERSEL (Fontys University of Applied Sciences), Robots and Jets as Knights and Warhorses: The Transformers does Arthurian Britain
Eliana Ionoaia – Arthurian Heroism in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of
Narnia