<P> Merlin (Welsh: Myrddin) is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry . The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures . Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt (Merlinus Caledonensis), a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano - British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius (Welsh: Myrddin Emrys). He is allegedly buried in the Broceliande forest, near Paimpont in Brittany . </P> <P> Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales . Later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard . Merlin's traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities . The name of Merlin's mother is not usually stated, but is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the Prose Brut . Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue . Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake . </P>

Where did the legend of merlin come from
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