The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Cowl's Identity [FPOTM2 11.2016]
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Lawgiver on November 16, 2016, 06:31:03 PM ---Not being contentious... just curious.
The "Merlin lives backwards" thing, as far as I remember, was the product/invention of T.H. White's Once and Future King and was later coopted by the Disney Corp. when they turned it into an animated film.Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(film)
I don't recall the "backwards" part actually being in the Disney film, nor do I recall the concept being embraced by Mary Stewart in her series which started with The Cristal Cave. The Arthurian legend has been a particular interest of mine for some time and I've read lots of stories (seen a lot of movies, too) of various levels of fact and fiction related to it but don't recall anything but White's story where Merlin is living in reverse time.
Do you have any references I can look at? I'd love to see what they have to say. tyvm
--- End quote ---
I once read a contemporary Arthurian series by an author named AA Antonasio told primarily from Merlin's POV, wherein Merlin was a demon/Fallen Angel that had been tricked into raping a woman and trapped in a human form which aged backward. Thereafter he forswore his sinful ways and started working toward redemption and attempting to earn his childhood and eventual (re)Birth. He was just aging backward though, not actually experiencing time backward or gaining knowledge of the future or anything. Was an interesting take on the whole mythology as it tried to set up a magical world that still mostly embraced the laws of physics. The Aesir, for example, were beings made of electromagnetic energy that inhabited the earth's magnetic field (which they perceived as The World Tree).
fwiw, according to tvtropes Gerald Morris' Arthurian novel The Squire's Tale uses this Merlin Sickness not for Merlin but for the hermit Trevisant. He ages normally but remembers less of the past and more of the future as time goes by,
Lawgiver:
--- Quote from: Quantus on November 16, 2016, 07:08:07 PM ---I once read a contemporary Arthurian series by an author named AA Antonasio told primarily from Merlin's POV, wherein Merlin was a demon/Fallen Angel that had been tricked into raping a woman and trapped in a human form which aged backward. Thereafter he forswore his sinful ways and started working toward redemption and attempting to earn his childhood and eventual (re)Birth. He was just aging backward though, not actually experiencing time backward or gaining knowledge of the future or anything. Was an interesting take on the whole mythology as it tried to set up a magical world that still mostly embraced the laws of physics. The Aesir, for example, were beings made of electromagnetic energy that inhabited the earth's magnetic field (which they perceived as The World Tree).
fwiw, according to tvtropes Gerald Morris' Arthurian novel The Squire's Tale uses this Merlin Sickness not for Merlin but for the hermit Trevisant. He ages normally but remembers less of the past and more of the future as time goes by,
--- End quote ---
Interesting. I've never been a fan of Antonasio... something about his writing style just rubs be the wrong way, so it's no surprise I missed that one. I'll probably have to look up Morris' stuff, though.
Thanks for the references.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Lawgiver on November 16, 2016, 07:11:26 PM ---Interesting. I've never been a fan of Antonasio... something about his writing style just rubs be the wrong way, so it's no surprise I missed that one. I'll probably have to look up Morris' stuff, though.
Thanks for the references.
--- End quote ---
Ill admit that it was the only series of his that I read, and it's been years since I touched them. The world was really interesting and well-done, and it started with Uther and built from there, which was nice. But as you say his style was weird and got more and more fringe as the the series went on. By the end it was written in the most chapters Ive ever seen, often only 1/2 a page long.
Wizardofnelson:
--- Quote from: Lawgiver on November 16, 2016, 06:31:03 PM ---Not being contentious... just curious.
The "Merlin lives backwards" thing, as far as I remember, was the product/invention of T.H. White's Once and Future King and was later coopted by the Disney Corp. when they turned it into an animated film.Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(film)
I don't recall the "backwards" part actually being in the Disney film, nor do I recall the concept being embraced by Mary Stewart in her series which started with The Cristal Cave. The Arthurian legend has been a particular interest of mine for some time and I've read lots of stories (seen a lot of movies, too) of various levels of fact and fiction related to it but don't recall anything but White's story where Merlin is living in reverse time.
Do you have any references I can look at? I'd love to see what they have to say. tyvm
--- End quote ---
??? :o ;D you actually asked me this last time I posted something on this, in days long past when I was simply wizard Nelson... T.A. Barron is specifically the Merlin story I remember, his older self tells his younger self in the 4th book of the young Merlin stories, the mirror of Merlin "Things will get more interesting when you learn to live backwards through time as well." Or something to that effect. It's also part of Maerlyn's story in the dark tower, Stephen King. That work up has a few thread that can be pulled at related to the DF, nexus points in time, the main guy drawing three 'people' from beyond his current reality(reminds me of Harry and the three walkers coming in for him), his connection to death, but not for himself. Other things I'll hold to the chest.... It's one of the stories I wonder at Jim making only coincidental connections to actually, not Intentional ones but by leu of expounding a book of similar metaphysical qualities. Like mortal combat, one guy uses ice, the other fire, two sides of a war between realities, ect. Intentional? Or just another piece of the all inclusive mythos scheme?
*i went lookingfor the source, to satisfy mine own curiosity. A question asked about T.H White's Merlin, How does Merlin experience time/where sourced from?
--- Quote ---This view of Merlin is canonical with the original written translation of the Arthurian cycle, "Le Morte d'Arthur" In it, Merlin is said to "remember what is in our future", and to "have no knowledge of what is in our past". He physically does not age, and this is never explained, only mentioned. There is never any reference to his perception of speech and motion being backwards as well. All in all, there is no reason to think that T. H. White’s Merlyn is any different from canonical Arthurian myth. Merlin living backwards is mentioned in "Excalibur", "Camelot", and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and a number of other stories.
--- End quote ---
TheJackel:
I think Cowl=DuMorne=Kemmler. I think Kemmler body snatched DuMorne to escape the wardens then brought himself back when Harry merc'd him and is now parading around as Cowl.
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