He is a master of ancient magic and he is loyal to the Fey cause, though many of the Fey revile him due to his seeming allegiance to King Uther Pendragon. Merlin is also revealed to be the biological father to the main character of the series, Nimue. He is portrayed by Gustaf Skarsgård.
In almost all versions of Arthurian legend, Nimue is the architect of Merlin's downfall. Nimue is often depicted as an apprentice of Merlin's, along with other familiar sorceresses like Morgan le Fay and Sebile.
She was friends also with King Uther Pendragon. Uther, desiring a son and heir, realised that Ygraine was incapable of providing one and asked Gaius to approach Nimueh with a request that she use the power over life and death to help his wife get pregnant. She did so, and as a result Arthur was born.
Nimue is the protagonist of Cursed Image. She is a Feyan with the power to control plant life around her. This power has made others fear her and call her a witch. She is the daughter of the Priestess Lenore, who before dying gives her the task of delivering the Sword of Power to the wizard Merlinus, her father.
In Malory's anthology, he writes that Nimue trapped Merlin under a rock after realizing he fell in love with her. As she was done with him constantly making sexual moves, she eventually gets rid of him and becomes Arthur's new magical adviser at the court.
She is tired of his sexual advances, and afraid of his power as "a devil's son", so she does not have much of a choice but to ultimately get rid of him.
She's a pretty nice, rounded characters. Nimue isn't 'evil' at all. Nimue takes Merlin's power because she loves him, and traps him in the cave/tree (depends which version of the Arthurian legend you have) because she wants to keep him for herself.
Merlin is in love with the Lady of the Lake despite his age, and every time she comes he promises to teach her magic in exchange for her love. Every time this happens, she binds him in the tree by using magical thread which the Norns had at one time taught her how to spin.
Guinevere is childless in most stories. The few exceptions of that include Arthur's son named Loholt or Ilinot in Perlesvaus and Parzival (first mentioned in Erec and Enide).
Over the course of the next several months, they fall in love, and Merlin reveals the truth about the Grail and how he acquired magic. He expresses a wish to reforge the grail into a sword that can destroy his immortality, so that he can live a normal mortal life with Nimue as his wife.
In this verse play, based largely on the Vita Merlini, Geoffrey's Ganieda is split into two characters, Merlin's sister Gwyndyth and Redderch's queen Langoreth. Their attitudes to Merlin in his madness are contrasted: Gwyndyth patient and comforting, Langoreth exasperated with how well he is being treated.
Vol. 1 of Merlin's Descendants. Arylwren (Wren) is Merlin's daughter and heir to all his magic. Arthur, Lancelot, Cai, and Bedewyr were her childhood friends.
The main antagonist of season 3, Morgause is a mighty foe and Camelot's most powerful magic user upon Nimueh's death. She is also a talented swordswoman, fierce enough to best Arthur in hand-to-hand combat. As one of the last remaining High Priestesses, Morgause is skilled in all forms of magic.
Merlin was first given demonic parentage by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey calls Merlin a “fatherless boy” because his mother is a nun who swears that she has never been with any man.
Assuming that he was dead, Nimueh began walking away, but Merlin recovered from the blow while her back was turned and struck her down with a bolt of lightning. In doing so, he not only killed Nimueh, but mastered the power over life and death to trade her life for Gaius' (Le Morte d'Arthur).
As the story plays out onscreen, a young nun named Sister Iris is desperate to become a Red Paladin and serve the order of God, only to be ridiculed and told that she would have to kill the Wolf-Blood Witch in order to achieve that goal… which she does, effectively shooting arrows at Nimue and seemingly causing her ...
King Uther Pendragon is the overarching antagonist of the 2008 BBC series Merlin. He is the father of Arthur and Morgana Pendragon and was the ruler of Camelot up until his death in season 4.
It should be noted that even before Morgause corrupted her into the evil sorceress she would later become, Morgana herself had become resentful on Uther since his crusade against magical beings or those whom possess powers or knowledge of sorcery.
Merlin did not, in any myth about him with King Arthur. He was betrayed by Nimue on Morgana's orders in Malory's version. In the alternative version, Nimue acted on her own decisions, and Morgana took advantage of Merlin's absence.
The two battled and Merlin was hit by Nimueh's magic, which appeared to kill him. He survived, however, and summoned the power of the old magic to strike Nimueh with a lightning bolt, killing her, and using her death to save Gaius (Le Morte d'Arthur).
Morgana is born in Camelot to Uther Pendragon and Lady Vivienne. Growing up in the household of Gorlois, Morgana and Gorlois are led to believe that they are father and daughter.
Merlin in the TV adaptation is black, which is strange for two reasons: First, Merlin is not black in the books. He is effectively a priest of a people that were almost entirely white, and an elder. I'm sure Nathaniel Martello-White is a fine actor, but he is also not old enough to play the Merlin from these books.
Avalon: In some versions of the legend, it is said that after King Arthur's death, he was taken to the mystical island of Avalon to be healed or to await his eventual return.
