MERLIN: THE LOST YEARS

MELIN: THE LOST YEARS by T.A. Barron

Merlin has always been a bit of an enigma. As a child one of my constant check outs from the library were books on Arthur and his Round Table knights which included glimpses of Merlin. I always wondered a bit about him and where his powers originated. There are a lot of varying ideas. Some are very dark and some say that he drank from the cup of Christ which then brought his powers about.

Barron takes a middle of the road approach. In The Lost Years we get a lot of the back story as Merlin searches for his origin. He has no memory of before he ended up tossed from the sea onto the shoreline in Wales along with a woman named Branwen who claims she is his mother. Branwen refuses to talk about where they've come from or who Merlin's father is. She is a great respecter of the Celtic, Druid, Greek, Jewish, and Christian faiths. While there are a lot of references to God and Jesus (in fact Branwen believes that God has gifted Merlin with his magic), she looks to the Celtic, Druid, and Greek faiths as older than the Christian faith.

Merlin hits a point where he must know about his past. He leaves Wales and begins a journey to Fincayra, which is a world suspended between Heaven and Earth. What he stumbles into is a land that is enchanted by an evil spirit named Rhita Gawr and desperately needs freed. At this point in the book there were definitely parts that reminded me of Tolkien's writing with Mordor, Sauron, and the ring. Merlin's quest ultimately will cause him to come to terms with where he is from and what his future holds.

HEADS UP- The book is squeaky clean. The big element to deal with here is magic. While acknowledging God, it is clear that there are a lot of other faiths mixed up together in a sort of hodge podge. For some that will mean this book isn't for them. For others it's a part of ancient folklore.