A - F | G - N | Q - Z

Gaelic:
An ancient, richly expressive language spoken in parts of Ireland, Scotland and (in the past) the Isle of Man.

Galator:
A pendant of great value. "It seemed to shine with its own light, not just the moon's. For the first time I noticed that the crystal in its center was not merely flat green, as it appeared from a distance. Leaning closer, I discovered violets and blues flowing like rivulets beneath its surface, while glints of red pulsed with a thousand tiny hearts. It looked almost like a living eye."

When Emrys decides to leave Branwen and the Church of Saint Peter, Branwen gives him the Galator. "And take this, from the woman who would have you call her Mother." Slowly, she reached into her robe and pulled out her precious pendant. "Despite my limited vision, I could see the flash of glowing green. ...She removed the pendant and squeezed its jeweled center one last time before placing the leather cord around my neck."

"Its power is great," she declared. "If it cannot keep you safe, that is only because nothing outside of Heaven can."

Garlatha:
Emrys and Shim set out to reach the notch and travel the blighted land to reach the Shrouded Castle. On their way, they spot a patch of green and decide to investigate. The orchard and garden are tended by T'eilean and his wife, Garlatha. Married for 68 years, they keep the garden alive by the seeds they find — as well as the love they share.

Emrys describes the couple: "...a pair of shapes, as gray as the stones in the wall, emerged from the hut. Taking wobbly steps, the pair slowly advanced toward the nearest bed of plants. They moved with a odd, disjointed rhythm, one back straightening as the other curved, one head lifting as the other drooped. As different as their motions were, however, they seemed unalterably connected. As they came nearer, I could tell that these two people were old. Very old. White hair, streaked with gray, fell about both of their shoulders, while their sleeveless brown robes hung worn and faded. Had their backs not been so bent, they would have stood quite tall. Only their arms, muscular and brown, seemed younger than their years."

Ghouliants:
"They used to stay underground, in their caves. But now they run free, and they kill just for pleasure. There are ghouliants—the deathless warriors who guard the Shrouded Castle...and Stangmar, the king who commands them all."

"The ghouliants themselves are part of the castle they guard. That is why they never venture outside the castle walls."

Deathless warriors, they were men whose bodies were raised from the dead by Rhita Gawr.

Giants:
Giants are the first and oldest people of Fincayra. "Giants from every land call Fincayra their ancestral home. Even before the rivers began rolling down from the mountains, the footsteps of giants marked Fincayra. Long before Arbassa first sprouted as a seedling, their rumbling chants echoed over ridges and forests.

"...They can grow taller than a tree, our giants. Or even a hillside. Yet throughout the ages, they've stayed peaceful. Except for the Wars of Terror long ago — when goblins tried to overrun the giant's ancient city of Varigal. Usually, unless someone makes them angry, they are as gentle as butterflies."

Stangmar issued an order to kill the giants wherever they were found. His soldiers have hunted the giants ruthlessly. "It's possible that a few giants still survive, disguised as cliffs or crags, but they must always stay in hiding, afraid for their lives."

Grand Elusa:
The one creature in all of Druma who might know how to save Fincayra.

The true identity of the Grand Elusa is secret, "even to Arbassa...the legends say she lives among the living stones of the Misted Hills. That she knows things no one else knows, including some things that haven't happened yet. And that she is old, very old."

Legend also tells that the Grand Elusa is always hungry and "fiercer than a cornered giant."

"There, amidst a massive curl of crystals, hung a delicate web. Its strands radiated out from the center like the light from a star. Upon this web dangled a single (white) spider, the size of a thumbnail. Its tie head and back were covered with miniscule hairs which glowed as white as the crystals themselves...are you — 'I am,' declared the spider, 'the Grand Elusa.'"

The Grand Elusa has the power to change size — which makes her all the more unpredictable.

"Do not be fooled by Grand Elusa's alarming appearance," said Cairpré. "The truth is, her love is as great as her appetite."

Gwri of the Golden Hair:
One of Fincayra's brightest constellations of stars, located near to the constellation Pegasus. While watching these stars, Rhia explained, "My constellations are not made from the stars, but the spaces between the stars. The dark places. The open places, where your mind can travel forever and ever.

She then described more strange wonders of the Fincayra sky: "How the broad band of stars across the middle of the night sky was truly a seam sewn in the two halves of time, one half always beginning, the other half always ending. How the longest patches of darkness were really the rivers of the gods, connecting this world and others. How the spinning circle of the stars was actually a great wheel, whose endless revolutions turned life into death, death into life."

Gwynedd:
This is the rugged land, part of Britain, where Emrys and Branwen washed ashore at the beginning of The Lost Years of Merlin. It is a place in torments where "everything, from the local gods to the local names, was changing. People were now calling this region, long known as Gwynedd, the country of Wales. But to call it a country at all was to imply a kind of unity that did not really exist. Given the number of travelers and dialects that passed through just our little village every day, Wales seemed less a country than a way station."

Hallia:
The deer woman Hallia, whose full name is Eo-Lahallia, belongs to the elusive Mellwyn-bri-Meath clan. Like her brother, Eremon, she knows how to run with the grace of wind, how to hear not just with her ears but with her very bones, and how to Circle a Story. Her deep brown eyes hold much wisdom, as well as deep sadness. When she first meets the man called Young Hawk in The Fires of Merlin, she is highly suspicious, as cautious as a deer. Later they grow to be friends — and, in time, much more.

Honn:
A ditch digger in the Blighted Lands who helps Emrys and Shim by hiding them from the Warrior Goblins. He gives Emrys a worn dagger with a narrow blade — which later saves the young man's life in the Shrouded Castle.

"Honn shook his head in disbelief. The gesture revealed his ears, somewhat triangular in shape and pointed at the top, beneath the mat of brown hair."

Ionn:
Young Merlin has only one vague memory from his early childhood, of a massive black stallion who ate an apple from his hand. By a surprising turn of events, they meet again—in Domnu's lair — in The Fires of Merlin:

"The black stallion ran over, keeping his distance from Donmu. Cautiously, he approached, his tail swishing. Gently, I laid my hand on his gleaming coat, feeling its silken surface. He whinnied softly in response. ...Then, on an impulse, I took an apple from the bowl on the table. The stallion nudged it with his nose, breathing warm air once again on my hand. ...'He knows you,' observed Hallia.

"I stroked his black mane. 'As I know him. His name is Ionn. Ionn y Morwyn. He was my father's horse, and my own first friend.'"

Ixtma:
The intelligent, fiercely loyal squirrel often found with Rhia in Arbassa. As Rhia explained in The Seven Songs of Merlin: "I found him once in a glade near here, squealing from a broken leg. I set it for him, and since then he often visits, helping however he can. Just now I asked him to refill the bowl for you, after he chops some more chamomile."

Ixtma takes responsibility for the ailing Elen while Rhia and Merlin seek the Elixir of Dagda, the only cure that can possibly save her life.

Jester:
Ah, poor Bumbelwy! "Ever since he was a child, when he first frightened away the birds with his singing, he has dreamed of becoming a jester. Not just an amusing frolicker, but a true jester, someone who practices the high art of dressing wisdom in the garb of humor."

Yet all Bumbelwy's efforts to be mirthful fail miserably. Young Merlin finally says, in a moment of exasperation in The Seven Songs of Merlin, that he will eat his boot if the would-be jester can actually make someone laugh. That is when they meet the sleeping dragon Valdearg — and the impossible happens.

"My friend, in dragon's mouth interred,
Was even robbed his final word.
For down he went into that hole,
His parting sentence swallowed whole.
O dragon, 'tis my friend you eat!
Alas, how sweet the dragon's meat."

Kreelix:
Of all the dangerous foes that young Merlin must face, none is more terrifying than the kreelix. Resembling a giant bat, this beast devours magic. As Cairpré explained after a kreelix attached in the opening scene of The Fires of Merlin:

"I tried to warn you. It all happened too fast. A kreelix lives on magic, you see. Sucks it right out of its prey, as a bee takes nectar from a flower. Since I, like everyone else, thought the last kreelix died centuries ago, I never bothered to tell you about them before. Foolish error, Greatest terror. ...For these creatures possess what the ancients call negatus mysterium — that strange ability to negate, or swallow up, the magic of others."

Living Stones:
The living stones, creatures of great age — and great danger, are found in the Misted Hills of Fincayra. The Grand Elusa lives among the living stones.

Lledra:
The Lledra is the oldest chant of the Giants. It is the first song that many of Fincayra's babies ever hear. Emrys heard Branwen sing this chant.

Mellwyn-bri-Meath:
This elusive clan of deer people made their ancestral home in southeastern Fincayra, in the region of the Smoking Cliffs. It was there that the misty threads of the Carpet Caerlochlann were spun long ago, and there that the terrible Wheel of Wye can still be found.

In The Fires of Merlin, the lad called Young Hawk meets two extraordinary members of the clan, who can run with the grace and speed of deer: Eremon, the brave friend who believes in Merlin's power even when Merlin himself does not; and Hallia, who ultimately helps Merlin choose his highest destiny.

Mer People:
Cairpré explains that Emrys' ancestors were "mer people," born with the "strange depths of the sea in their bones."

The mother of Treeclimber, she "was a daughter of the sea, one of those beings the Earth folk call mer people, though Fincayrans prefer to call them people of the mer."

Misted Hills:
The Misted Hills is an area of Fincayra located next to Druma Wood, west of the River Unceasing. In the Misted Hills you will find the Living Stones, the Crystal Cave of the Grand Elusa and Tuatha's Grave.

Myrddin:
One of the ancient Celts' most revered gods, who sometimes took the form of a hawk and soared through the sky. A shrine to Myrddin was erected in Caer Myrddin.

Nimue:
When Merlin battled this sorceress in the Haunted Marsh of Fincayra, he was trying to save the magical Mirror that had revealed his future. And more: He was fighting to save his own destiny. For he had just met someone from the distant future — someone he had never expected to meet — who had told him how to avoid being trapped forever by Nimue in a crystal cave on Earth.

As Nimue smirked at him malevolently, Merlin thought how much she had changed from the apple-cheeked girl he had met years before in Pluton's bakery during the quest of the Seven Songs. Yet perhaps only her outward appearance had changed. For during Pluton's explanation of the magic of Naming, she had tried to steal Merlin's staff. And how, in the Haunted marsh, she again wanted that staff...as well as his life.

It would take more than the young wizard's emerging powers to prevail. It would take the love of the deer woman Hallia, the loyalty of the dragon Gwynnia, and the surprising gratitude of marsh ghouls — whose arrows could douse the light of day. And it would take one thing more: the help of Merlin's disobedient shadow.

To learn more about Merlin - the Movie, click here.

For an interview with T. A. Barron about Merlin, click here.