The Arthurian legends are some of the greatest stories ever told and have been told and interpreted in many ways, many times.

Some of the facts may have gotten lost along the way, but some key components are always essentially the same.

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Here are five of our favourite iconic moments in BBC One’s Merlin…

 

Starting in fifth place, we have the character of Mordred, first introduced in the episode ‘The Beginning of the End’ as a helpless druid boy.

In many of the Arthurian legends, Mordred is actually the son of Arthur and Morgana (his half-sister); something they changed for the BBC’s family-friendly show. The one thing they kept in common is that he betrays Arthur and is the one to fatally wound him.

When we first meet Mordred, Kilgarrah warns Merlin of the danger the boy will present in the future. The planting of this seed, allowed Merlin to have almost the same insight as the viewers, with knowledge of the Arthurian legends. A smart move by the show’s writers.

 

Coming in at Number 4 is the famous duo, Tristan and Isolde, whom we meet in ‘The Sword and the Stone: Part One’.

Originally, the pair were known as Tristan and Iseult, and weren’t always a part of the Arthurian legends but were in fact their own legend that influenced the Arthurian legends; the love story between Lancelot and Guinevere in particular. In Merlin, however, they were a strong couple with no love triangle getting in the way and interestingly they were also smugglers, instead of a knight and a princess.

 

Our third iconic moment is the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, which is hinted at throughout the series but truly acknowledged in ‘Lancelot Du Lac’.

The affair between Guinevere and Lancelot was one of the show’s biggest story arcs. In the BBC’s Merlin, there was always an underlying romance between the pair but the affair is later represented when Lancelot is brought back from the dead by Morgana and a spell is put upon him and Guinevere.

This always seemed to sell the love story short as it is such a classic, but perhaps it was influenced by the legends of Tristan and Iseult who suffered a love triangle but were under the spell of a love potion.

 

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