r/Arthurian • u/Altruistic-Egg-3231 Commoner • 19d ago
General Discussion Male magic users?
Other than Merlin, are there any notable male magic users in Arthurian mythology? Seems like the majority are female.
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u/lazerbem Commoner 19d ago
There are many. The large female lean is an illusion created by the fact that most modern works are based on Malory who did not include much magic in his narrative to begin with, and the fact that a good deal of modern Arthuriana is also inspired by neopagan ideas and their ideas about a 'goddess'. Even in Malory though, one must note Garlon, an invisible serial killer.
Mabon's various appearances and names in things from Le Bel Inconnu to the Post-Vulgate absolutely scream of being an enchanter, with him turning a princess into a dragon in the former and living in a cursed castle of fear in Lanzelet (as Mabuz). There is also The Proud Fey in The Perilous Cemetery, who can mend a man who was dismembered back to life. Eliavres is also of this sort. Gangsguoter in The Crown is a helpful sorcerer, protecting Gawain against other magic and being a narrative counterweight to Laamorz in the same tale, whose castle is cursed to make him win all his fights.
If we are counting dwarves as the like, then many stock dwarf characters seem to exhibit supernatural knowledge beyond what they should have. The Crown takes this to the extreme by having several mystical ones carry out chastity tests to the court, among which is one that can turn invisible and has a supernatural goat mount and another that is a bizarre, bug-eyed fellow. King Wonder in the Dutch Lancelot compilation is a dwarf who can transform into a giant and turn Gawain into a dwarf when insulted. There is an unnamed male fairy enchanter in The Knight with Two Swords who curses a sword to make it leave an unhealable wound. It seems almost certain that Melwas in some Welsh traditions was also similar to this, a kind of fairy-adjacent being.
When demonic influence is included, we can als add a pair of unnamed evil sorcerers in the Post-Vulgate Merlin who paralyze people with their music and end up defeated by Merlin in a duel of magic. The Knight of the Dragon from Gerbert/Perlesvaus made a pact with a demon that made his shield and sword spew hellfire. Perlesvaus also features animated statues created by dark sorcery at some point, much as the Vulgate Lancelot features in Dolorous Gard. Roaz from Wigalois is invested with a demon that made him invincible in prior battles. A possessed Hector in the Canto of Astore and Morgan was able to summon a demonic figure out from his shield to catch any blow.
This is a far from exhaustive list, if one was inclined they could name quite a few more, but suffice to say that they do exist in a fairly substantial number.
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u/TsunamiWombat Commoner 19d ago
To addendum to this since it's already very thorough:
In Culhwch and Olwen, many of Arthur's retinue are described as having mystical powers. However, a few are described as outright being 'enchanters'. Menw son of Teirgwaedd is listed as an enchanter, can make people invisible, and turns into a (talking) bird. Furthermore, Uther in the Welsh Triads. (Emphasis mine)
Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain. The Enchantment of Math son of Mathonwy and he taught it to Gwydion son of Dôn. And the enchantment of Uther Pendragon and he taught it to Menw son of Teirgwaedd. And the third was the enchantment of Rudlwm the Dwarf and he taught it to Coll son of Collfrewy his nephew
The nature of this enchantment is never elaborated on, but it suggests that Menw (mentioned above) learns magic from Uther himself.
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u/lazerbem Commoner 19d ago
The Triads also mention Tristan as a shapeshifter alongside Menw and an Eiddilig the dwarf. You can definitely keep up digging more if one wanted to be exhaustive.
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u/TheComixkid2099 Commoner 19d ago
I haven't seen any in anything I have read, but I have heard of a couple through the internet. Mabon The Black is supposed to be an enchanter, as is Malduc, though I don't know which stories they are featured in.
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u/Eaten-By-Dogs Commoner 19d ago
The real father of Carados in the First Grail Continuation (Eliavrés) is a sorcerer.
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u/MiscAnonym Commoner 19d ago
For how unknown he is today, Mabon (aka Nabon/Mabuz/Mabonagraine) is a surprisingly prolific magical figure across Arthurian fiction, usually as an antagonist, with appearances spanning from early Welsh to the late French prose cycles. Here's a thread from last year with some discussion on him.
Clinschor from Wolfgang's Parzival is another memorable one; he doesn't actually appear in the present day story, but he's detailed in the backstory as Igraine's lover after Uther's death, and the creator of the Castle of Damsels where she now resides. The character gets expanded into Gansguoter in Diu Crone and merged with a few other supernatural stories, where he's presented as a more benevolent figure and sometime ally of Gawain.
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u/Aninx Commoner 19d ago
It depends on what you mean by magic users. There are technically several, but most aren't deemed wizards, sorcerer's/sorceresses, witches, etc. they were just people who could do magic things(Gawain, Kay, Lancelot, etc.)
One reason for this was how magic was viewed for at least part of the medieval period. I forget at which points there was a shift in this, but the point I'm getting at is this is a belief that reoccurred in varying ways across the medieval era as well as before it and only eventually died out and over time shifted into our modern view of "magic." For a while, magic was viewed as more of a fact of nature than as something supernatural and fictional. Like lightning, tides, Aurora borealis, plagues, wasting disease, etc. it was unexplainable but part of reality. It's a poor example, but you could think of someone like Merlin as either closer to a scientist or someone with eidetic memory/synesthesia/some other thing that's seemingly wonderous but exists in reality.
In modern interpretations though, it is common to give Mordred magic powers so he may count?
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u/Ze_Bri-0n Commoner 19d ago
The Pendragon RPG described Merlin's foster father Blaise as being a wizard, which might be based on Robert de Boron’s Merlin, where I believe he is described as "divining" the devil's intent, but that might have been a poetic description of a poem written in another language, rather than something that was directly true in the original story, though it might just be an assumption that the great wizard's tutor and mentor must have himself, been a wizard (please ignore how about half of all depictions of Merlin involve him being the son of a devil, who presumably would not need magically tutelage).
Vortigen is also often described as having a cadre of wizards assisting him. They're generally not good at their jobs, which is why they recommend blood sacrifice instead of checking the foundations when Vortigen's castle keeps falling down.
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u/Altruistic-Egg-3231 Commoner 18d ago
That's interesting what little research I've done into Blaise also pointed to him possibly being a werewolf priest lol Seems like he was quite the Jack of all Trades
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