ex-susieoh941.livejournal.comhuzzah! i am glad i found this community. i've been obsessed with arthurian legend (mostly the figure of merlin, actually) for ages, i'm very nerdy about it. :D i keep stumbling over books about him, and i even found an outofprint copy of merlin's dreams by my favorite illustrator alan lee (he's also illustrated the lord of the rings and the mabinogion.
apparently lee identifies with merlin:
"To draw a tree, to pay such close attention to every aspect of a tree, is an act of reverence not only toward the tree, and toward the earth itself, but also our human connection to it. This is one of the magical things about drawing -- it gives us almost visionary moments of connectedness. Every element -- hair, wind, rocks, water -- is portrayed with one material -- graphite, ink, paint -- which binds it all together, bringing out the harmony we know exists in nature (created as it is, as we all are, by particles that have existed since the dawn of the universe.) This is the power of myth as well, binding us to the natural world. There have always been mythic tales of figures whose function is to act as an intermediary between humanity and nature -- the shaman, the shape-shifter, the trickster. . .an embodiment of creative powers who appears in myths, fairy tales and medieval legends all around the world. Often they have a touch of "divine madness" -- like Merlin, during his years in the wild through which he gained his divinatory powers. It is interesting to me that in our century it is often artists who fulfill this function. And who, in popular stereotypes, are given the licence to be a bit mad... The power of both myth and art is this magical ability to open doors, to make connections -- not only between us and the natural world, but between us and the rest of humanity. Myths show us what we have in common with every other human being, no matter what culture we come from, no matter what century we live in. . .and at the same time, mythic stories and art celebrate our essential differences."