The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Theory - Cowl is the original Merlin

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Bad Alias:

--- Quote from: nadia.skylark on January 13, 2020, 12:47:01 AM ---there's no way Cowl would have lost any of the times we've seen him if he were Merlin.

--- End quote ---
Merlin did a lot of losing in the legends. What he's known for, Arthur & Camelot, was a failure.


--- Quote from: dagaetch on January 13, 2020, 01:49:18 AM ---The WoJ about his accent I don't have a good answer for. Maybe this is one of the cases where Jim is misleading us, or maybe he's using a translation spell or something. I dunno.

--- End quote ---
This WoJ was in the context of "the prisoner" in Demonreach having a British accent so, Merlin. So the response is that, in context, that WoJ isn't relevant.


--- Quote from: dagaetch on January 12, 2020, 07:52:12 PM ---Okay...now tell me why I'm wrong! :)

--- End quote ---
I think Cowl being Merlin seems more deus ex machina than Simon being Cowl.

Also, it contradicts one of my wags that Merlin did an ascension ritual, became Odin, and the that's where the rumors that Odin taught Merlin came from, or Merlin did an ascension ritual and took the original Odin's place. ;)


--- Quote from: g33k on January 13, 2020, 04:50:27 PM ---Merlin -- the guy who built the multi-temporal Demonreach prison -- knew enough to conduct a Rite of Ascension if he wanted to.

--- End quote ---
I will now pretend this proves my theory.

nadia.skylark:

--- Quote ---Merlin did a lot of losing in the legends. What he's known for, Arthur & Camelot, was a failure.
--- End quote ---

True, but I didn't say that Merlin wouldn't lose ever; I just said that he wouldn't lose any of the times that we've seen Cowl lose.


--- Quote ---This WoJ was in the context of "the prisoner" in Demonreach having a British accent so, Merlin. So the response is that, in context, that WoJ isn't relevant.
--- End quote ---

Not really irrelevant. It was certainly in response to someone suspecting that the British prisoner was Merlin, but that doesn't change the substance, which is that Merlin, if he appeared, would sound unintelligible due to language drift.

zetadog:
there are wizards with shapechanging powers.  presumably some of the ones that are good at that could maybe get good at healing and life-extension too.

morriswalters:
IMO the accent is a red herring.  Harry knows of no other Warden before him.  Yet the guy mentions new guys, plural.  Given that they are wizards, then two prior to Harry, would put them as far back as the 1700's and Shakespeare didn't speak the brand of English we know and recognize.

Bad Alias:
@morris: Well we really have no idea when and for how long any prior Warden served, so the last serving Warden could have been in the 80's or the 1480's. Though it does raise an interesting question of how did Wardens find Demonreach before the New World was discovered. I could imagine that there was a way known to some wizards that lead to Demonreach, and the wizards basically had no idea where they were. Even if they knew enough astronomy to know where they were, that probably would lead them to believe there was nothing but ocean between them and Europe/Asia. Or maybe wizards have known about the New World for basically ever. (I doubt this because the Indians would have probably been exposed to Old World diseases).


--- Quote ---Q:  Is the original Merlin still alive?
A:  Kind of… life… death… it’s kind of a squishy line in the Dresdenverse.
--- End quote ---
2010


--- Quote ---The original Merlin, does he sound British?
He’d probably sound so unintelligibly British that you wouldn’t be able to tell he was speaking English.  No, he’s not the guy in Demonreach.
--- End quote ---
2015 Jim's point is that someone who has been in stasis since the time of the original Merlin wouldn't sound like what we think of as "British."

So the original Merlin is in some sort of limbo and he's not the guy in Demonreach. He's likely to show up at some point because he's not all the way dead. When he shows up, his speech will be ineligible because what's the point otherwise. If he has shown up, his speech was intelligible.

Scottish Ebeneezer sounds American unless he's emotional (maybe just angry). It's likely that Merlin sounds like whoever he's been around for the past 300 years or so. (The past 300 years or so that he's experienced, that is).

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