Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)

Merlin
by Robert de Boron
Merlin dictating the story of his life for Blaise to record in a 13th-century illustration for the prose version, Estoire de Merlin
Written	Est. 1195–1210[1]
Country	Kingdom of France
Language	Old French
Series	Little Grail Cycle
Subject(s)	Arthurian legend, Holy Grail
Preceded by	Joseph of Arimathea
Followed by	Perceval

Merlin is a partly lost French epic poem written by Robert de Boron in Old French and dating from either the end of the 12th^[2] or beginning of the 13th century.^[3] The author reworked Geoffrey of Monmouth's material on the legendary Merlin, emphasising Merlin's power to prophesy and linking him to the Holy Grail.^[4] The poem tells of his origin and early life as a redeemed Antichrist, his role in the birth of Arthur, and how Arthur became King of Britain. Merlin's story relates to Robert's two other reputed Grail poems, Joseph d'Arimathie [fr] and Perceval.^[1] Its motifs became popular in medieval and later Arthuriana, notably the introduction of the sword in the stone, the redefinition of the Grail, and turning the previously peripheral Merlin into a key character in the legend of King Arthur.^[1][5]

The poem's medieval prose retelling and continuations, collectively the Prose Merlin,^[2] became parts of the 13th-century Vulgate and Post-Vulgate cycles of prose chivalric romances. The Prose Merlin was versified into two English poems, Of Arthour and of Merlin and Henry Lovelich's Merlin. Its Post-Vulgate version was one of the major sources for Thomas Malory in writing Le Morte d'Arthur.