Dracula vs King Arthur: Second Sight (Page 21) (Patreon)

There are some who theorize that Merlin is living backwards in time. Writer T.H. White in his book The Sword in the Stone explores this idea. His version of Merlyn says:

“Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too. This makes it quite easy for the ordinary people to live, just as it would be easy to join those five dots into a W if you were allowed to look at them forwards, instead of backwards and inside out. But I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind. Some people call it having a second sight.”

My take on Merlin is that he does indeed have the ability to perceive future events, but it is in a way that is clouded or muddled. In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur Merlin it is said he can "remember what is in our future", and to "have no knowledge of what is in our past". I do think the great wizard remembers things he has experienced (past, present, future?), but perhaps not in the same way we do. Perhaps going backwards in time to recall details taxes him, while what is in the future is where wisdom, the truly most valuable and magical quality a human can have, lies. It is also, or when he was most, alive. That is what most interests him.

That confusion, that amalgam of tenses, helps create the sense of mystery that surrounds Merlin. He understands that knowledge is powerful, and clairvoyance always comes with a price.

There's a reason why Merlin has fascinated people for centuries. He has inspired other beloved characters including Gandalf, Yoda and Dumbledore. There is a desire in humans to have second sight -- to know what will happen to us. How to avoid danger. How best to navigate uncertainty. The evil wizards take advantage of this gift. The good wizards give us just enough information to set us in the right direction. But the lessons we must learn, those are for us to come to understand on our own.