Media Magic

Since history, myth and literature are devoid of intrinsic interest, it is customary for reporting journalists to spice developments up a bit and so facilitate consumption. Britain's leading liberal newspaper has smoothly applied this technique to the Myrddin Poetry Project, which has spent the past three years editing and translating mediaeval Welsh poems about the figure most commonly known as Merlin. While obviously incapable of holding a journalistic attention merely upon its merits, this achievement has been expertly packaged for modern values by presenting the character as an early environmentalist; and although one cannot fault the intention, yet the interpretation seems a little behind the times. In one text Merlin expresses fear that an orchard will be cleared by woodcutters, which surely makes him less an early environmentalist than a partisan of farmer-landlords over industrialists. In another piece he warns a white sow to be alert against one of his personal enemies; which, once appropriately construed, might easily qualify Merlin as a forefather of the Farage Falange.