Before there was Gandalf and Dumbledore there was Merlin, the legendary adviser to King Arthur. Shrouded in the magical mist of time, Merlin is the wizard that all other wizards are measured against. Collected here in one edition are the stories and legends that inspired a tradition, including 'Merlin's Youth,' by George Parker Bidder; ,'The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of Arthur,' by Sir James Knowles; 'Merlin,' by Beatrice Clay; 'The Prophecy of Merlin,' by Anne Bannerman; 'The Wisdom of Merlyn,' by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt; 'Wise Merlin's Foolishness,' by U. Waldo Cutler; 'Merlin I,' by Ralph Waldo Emerson; 'The Story of Merlin,' by Howard Pyle; 'The Egyptian Maid or The Romance of the Water-Lily,' by William Wordsworth; 'Merlin and Vivien,' by Lord Alfred Tennyson; 'Merlin II,' by Ralph Waldo Emerson; 'Merlin and the Gleam,' by Alfred Lord Tennyson; 'Excalibur,' by Sir Thomas Malory; 'Merlin's Song,' by Ralph Waldo Emerson; 'Merlin's Grave,' by Sallie Bridges; 'Merlin's Last Prophecy,' by George Darley; 'Merlin in Avalon,' by Geoffrey Junior; and 'Merlin's Tomb,' by Robert Buchanan.