Bardictale asked me to write a poem about a creature, being or setting from sci-fi or fantasy, but in it I’m not allowed to use words normally associated with the subject. Give it a read and let me know how I did in the comments.
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He had done his job, as second fiddle,
A footnote in another’s greater story,
Though greatness is more than glory,
And objectiveness is part of the riddle.
He came from nothing, as his student,
Rising up more from luck and chance,
Than due to desire or prophetic stance,
But writing him off would be imprudent.
He has been cast as the hero and villain,
And truly everything lingering between,
His influence more than what was seen,
Though none of his actions were a sin.
He stands at the pivotal crossroads now,
Fading in unimportance meets immortality,
Where the outcome is our responsibility,
But the decision’s no sweat off Merlin’s brow.
…..
…..
I think I failed this challenge: I mentioned “prophecy,” which I think definitely is usually associated with Merlin. Additionally, I mentioned “influence” and “immortality,” which I’ve seen used with his legend as well.
The Matticus Kingdom 
Since I am no Merlin expert, I think you did a fabulous job and could not guess. Goodbwork, this!
*good work
Great! Thank you! But… why aren’t you a Merlin expert?!? I believe you should remedy this: start with the Mary Stewart series, the first book is The Crystal Cave.
At the moment I have been too involved with monsters, alternative universes, and murder-mysteries. Ran out of room for magic, I am afraid 😉
What?! It’s magic!! You can’t run out of room… just magic up some more!
NOOOOO!!! Worst. Arthur. Book. EVER! Sorry, DJ, but last year I picked up the first book purely for the sake of checking out the inspiration to the Merlin TV series and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. I’ve read almost every Arthur legend out there and this was by far THE worst. 😦 I recommend Stephen Lawhead’s trilogy (Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur) to people coming to the legend for the first time; even Zimmer Bradley’s books trump Mary Stewart any day. I think it was her drab writing style that made the book so terrible for me. Lots of words that didn’t go anywhere. It astounded me that such a GREAT TV series Merlin arose from that! I tried to make myself read the rest of the books, but just couldn’t do it.
I think you knocked it out of the park!
Thank you!
Nope. No failing here- you did great!
The tales of King Arthur have many versions. Only in some of them does Merlin survive (death by tree) and his influence stays intact (he disappears for a while, doesn’t do anything besides hum etc). As for the use of ‘prophecy’: you didn’t say that he was the seer, so all’s good. There are many tales that include this element, but only ‘second fiddle seer’ could be attributed to Merlin. Most of the other seers disappear after a scene or two into the story.
As I said above- good job! Tea and cookies on the house^^
Hooray!! Thank you. I’m really happy you liked it.
I’m tempted to ask for another. Would that be greedy of me?
Send it.
Yay!
I had no idea until the end and I’m a bit of a fantasy nerd… I think you win!
Awesome, thank you!
Win…you are a poet. No fail regarding the challenge. Thank Bardictale cor submitting it!
For…
I’m a poet in training.
Your poem was great. I adore Merlin. You did him justice. 🙂
I saw the Sword in the Stone once…
Also, this is a fine piece of poetry.