Adam Ardrey's FINDING MERLIN in Los Angeles Times

Nick Owchar's "The Siren's Call" column the Los Angeles Times examines a new book on the historical Merlin, the 6th century magician, prophet, and counselor to Arthur. The legend is famous but the truth is less well known: Merlin was a real historical figure, a champion of the old way of the Druids, a British man who hailed not from England or Wales, as traditional wisdom would have it, but from Scotland. Finding Merlin, by Adam Ardrey, says Owchar, "is fascinating stuff . . .The author's foray into this subject was the unexpected result of a personal search -- to trace his family's lineage in a Scottish clan. Ardrey draws on a variety of texts and fragments probably unfamiliar to even the most enthusiastic Arthurites -- the "Black Book of Carmarthen," "The Life of Kentigern," "Dialogue Between Myrddin and His Sister" and many others. In this book, he applies as rigorous an exegesis as you might find in John Meier's scholarship on the historical Jesus. In the process, what emerges in Finding Merlin is a fascinating picture of the British Isles after the Romans."