Character Clues
Character Analysis
Direct Characterization
Stewart has zero problem telling it like it is. Check out this description of Belasius, Merlin's tutor under Ambrosius, for example: "He was half Gallo-Roman, half Sicilian, a tallish olive-faced man with long-lidded black eyes, a melancholy expression and a cruel mouth. He had an acid tongue and a sudden, vicious temper, but he was never capricious" (II.6.31.165).
Yeah. It looks like nothing good will come out of Belasius. (Spoiler: nothing does.)
We also get Stewart's straight-to-the-point insight on Dinias, Merlin's enormous cousin who bullies him in childhood. When Merlin returns to Maridunum from Brittany, almost the first person he runs into is his cousin:
About his whole person was that indefinable air of seediness which comes from relentless calculation from day to day or perhaps even from meal to meal. (III.4.44.252)
Dinias' poverty is a sign that karma's alive and well—but also that his questionable moral character can be seen from the outside. Fortunately for Dinias, the seediness is not permanent—he redeems himself nicely in the end.
Clothes
It's Erasmus who said that "clothes make the man." And although Erasmus would have written that line about eleven centuries after the lives of Merlin and crew, it's true enough for the characters in Stewart's book.
It's easy for us to tell about a character's inner life just by taking a look at his duds. Dinias, for instance, is a "seedy" character—a perfect description for the outfit he's wearing when he sees Merlin for the first time in five years:
He would hardly now be taken for a prince. Even in that fading light I could see that he was dressed, not poorly, but in clothes that a merchant might have worn, and he had only one jewel, an arm-ring of copper. His belt was of plain leather, his sword-hilt plain also, and his cloak, though of good stuff, was stained and frayed at the edge. (III.4.44.253)
Uncle Camlach—an evil dude if there ever was one—dresses only in black, even though everyone else in the fam wears blues and golds.
On the other hand, clothing can be deceiving. Merlin is so poorly dressed when he arrives at Ambrosius' house that Cadal literally throws out his cow-dung-caked sandals—and yet Merlin is "twice royal."
Merlin only looks like a real prince when he heads back to Maridunum, after five years at Ambrosius' court. His change in clothing signals a change in status:
This was not Myrddin, the runaway, but Merlinus, a well-dressed young Roman with money in his pocket, and servants in attendance. Where Myrddin had been locked naked in the hold, Merlinus had a comfortable cabin, and marked deference paid him by the captain. (III.2.1.237)
Merlin also has a super nice cloak, not to mention that red dragon brooch he's so proud of. The brooch is not just swag for him: it's his ID card. With it, he claims kinship with Ambrosius and Uther, something that was hidden before.
Niniane's clothing also hides her true mojo. She angers the fashion gods when she becomes a nun and gives up her royal swag. But even though she's stuck with a plain outfit, her nobility shines through: "She held one hand at her breast, fingering the little cross which she wore there as a talisman; the other lay among the brown folds on her lap. Even in her plain brown habit she looked royal" (III.7.13.275).
And then there's Ygraine, whose power and beauty are off the charts. Her dresses are nearly supernatural: "I watched the light beating round her, flowing up the white robe and the blue robe, light and shadow rippling upwards in waves like moving water or the wind over grass" (V.5.41).
Ygraine is clothed in both light and shadow, giving us the vibe that she might just be a little bit angel and little bit demon at the same time. Ygraine also has that whole power-of-the-natural-world thing going on (take a look at that moving water and grass): she's a force to be reckoned with.
Yeah. All that from clothes.
Names
Stewart has to work with the names that the Arthurian legends have handed her. It's lucky for her, then, that the legends are full of symbolic meanings.
Naming is a big issue in Merlin's life. For one thing, he has like ten names. First, there's his birth name: Myrddin Emrys. It's a good Welsh name that has good vibes attached to it. Camlach notes this when he first meets the little dude: "Emrys? Child of the light, belonging to the gods…" (I.1.26).
Camlach and Gramps thinks this is an ironic name, since Merlin's dad is thought to be a demon. But his name has a special function: it's a secret link to Ambrosius Aurelianus, whose name also means "light." Merlin doesn't learn this until he meets Ambrosius, but it functions as a passkey to his identity.