Who was Merlin? Did he ever exist? Michael Dames shows us the many aspects of this elusive and mercurial figure - seer and enchanter, sage and madman, poet and god - in the royal court and in the wilderness, on land and in water. With illustrations of the art and artefacts that relate to the Merlin legend as well as the author's own evocative photographs of the mythic sites, this book guides us through the many versions of the story of Merlin and his sister/lover, Gwyndydd.