I started the present volume in the belief that it came before "Merlin's Godson" because the copyright date of this was 1974 and the latter was published in 1976. It soon transpired that this was a sequel and, on investigation, "Merlin's Godson" was a compilation of two earlier stories in the series. Presumably it was reprinted to make those available again as they had been published around the 1940s or so. So I put this aside to read that one first, though it was unfortunate that the first part of this is a big spoiler for the events of 'The Ship from Atlantis' which forms part two of "Merlin's Godson".

Although this sequel was written in the 1970s, the author's old school style is preserved including the unfortunate tendency to constantly head-hop and comment on things that the characters themselves do not know, especially as the action of this story occurs over several centuries. I found the style very "dry" and wasn't sure I would finish it, but I finally did.

The story follows on from 'The Ship from Atlantis". Gwalcmai, son of the ex-Roman legionnaire who became 'king' in the pre-Columbian New World, and the local woman he married, has been trapped in a glacier for about two centuries. During that time his love, Corenice, the Atlantean woman who has the knack of sending her spirit into other living things, has been hanging around as various creatures hoping that a human being would arrive just in time to prevent him being lost as the glacier melts and bits drop off into the sea. She manages to possess a Viking girl Thyra, so the girl's father and rather unpleasant betrothed, plus the much nicer Irish slave, do come to his rescue, and they live for a while with a pacifist community nearby, but soon the psychopathic betrothed is plotting to do away with the other men to possess Thyra himself.

Eventually, Gwalchmai, Thyra/Corenice and the slave who loves Thyra set out on Gwalchmai's long-interrupted mission to Rome (in 'The Ship from Atlantis' he set off to bring word of the Americas to the Emperor of Rome and offer the New World as a refuge for the people of Rome, beset by the barbarians), but it is soon interrupted when he receives a communication from the ring he wears, which is an heirloom from his godfather, Merlin. This tells him to go off to a spae-wife (someone who sees visions) and he will be told what to do. And so commences the long winded and torturous journey, performing one quest after another and sometimes spending a century or two in suspended animation while Corenice has to inhabit other bodies and hang around. Various supernatural beings are encountered along the way including fairies, the god Thor, Corenice's sea-goddess, and a dark and hostile being which was mentioned in the earlier volume as having descended from another planet.

Everything bar the kitchen sink is thrown in, including the court of the Mongol Khan, medieval Japan (and why should being knocked on the head cause Gwalchmai to lose a whole lifetime with the reincarnated Corenice?), King Arthur (where I found it hard to believe that Merlin had created an elaborate mausoleum complete with magical paintings in the time that Arthur's followers were hanging around at the bottom of the hill in 'The King of the World's Edge', part one of "Merlin's Godson") and Joan of Arc. It transpires that Gwalchmai and Corenice, while she inhabited a body with no spirit of its own, had a son who was born after Gwalchmai went off on his ill conceived journey to Rome, and they are therefore the ancestors of Joan.

One jarring note occurred a couple of times where Gwalchmai has the urge to use violence to put Corenice in her place. As I wasn't able to write this review until some days after finishing the book and the details have blurred, I can only recall the first incident: Corenice is playing along with a woman they meet who sympathises with her for her husband's lack of consideration for her pregnancy. Gwalchmail wants to hit Corenice and is actually looking around for a willow to cut a switch. Considering that he supposedly has a centuries-long devotion to her this was hard to fathom.

The book drags in places. The best feature is the cover: the flying swan ships of Atlantis do make a cameo appearance in an unexplained time travel sequence. Although it was clear in 'The Ship from Atlantis' that these vessels are of a gold coloured metal, the image of a fire-breathing mute swan is striking. For this and the occasional historical interest I am awarding this volume 2 stars. ( )

Not very good, and not even in the entertaining way I thought it wouldn't be good. Just kind of dull, with uninteresting characters, prose, and plot. ( )

Some inetresting character but the story is not simple. ( )

H. Warner Munn’s _Merlin’s Ring_ is one of the odder fantasies I have come across in my reading, but also one for which I have a deep affection. The book is equal parts pseudo-Arthurian Romance (in both the medieval and modern sense of the word), era-spanning historical fantasy à la [b:Phra the Phoenician|7493992|Phra the Phoenician|Edwin Arnold|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1267778332s/7493992.jpg|9643764], and epic hero’s journey; there is even some mild pulp sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Despite (or maybe because of) all of this melding and mixing, _Merlin’s Ring_ manages to be something all its own.

Written by one of the old standbys of the Weird Tales pulp magazine (Munn was an associate of Lovecraft and Seabury Quinn) _Merlin’s Ring_ was probably Munn’s masterwork. It is actually the second volume in a series of stories that purport to tell the tale of what happened to Arthur’s followers after the great King’s fall, but it can be read on its own quite easily. All one needs to know from the first volume (collecting two original novellas under the title [b:Merlin's Godson|3173143|Merlin's Godson|H. Warner Munn|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1314643795s/3173143.jpg|3064559]) is that it describes how the wizard Merlin and the Romano-British centurion Ventidius Varro fled Britain with their followers and sailed in Arthur’s ship Prydwen to the New World. There they became kings among the Aztecs and a son is born to Varro, Gwalchmai, who has for godfather none other than the famous Merlin. Varro sends his son back to the Old World on a quest to find the current emperor and offer to him overlordship of Varro’s new domain. On the way across the Atlantic Gwalchmai has many adventures and even comes across an ancient Atlantean Swan-Ship which houses a strange robotic statue inhabited by the transmigrating spirit of an undying Atlantean princess. The two of course fall in love, but as the tale ends Gwalchmai is trapped beneath a glacier with his love, Corenice, promising they will meet again.

This volume opens several hundred years later as Corenice, now inhabiting the body of a Viking maiden, forces her family to steer their ship towards the glacier that houses Gwalchmai’s body. Thanks to having drunk his godfather’s elixir of life, as well as having possession of his magical ring, Gwalchmai has been able to weather the centuries in the ice unharmed and no older than when he was first frozen. He is freed from the ice by Corenice and so begins his renewed quest to find the emperor to whom he can give the message of his father. What follows is a meandering journey from western Europe to the far East and back again which spans centuries (Merlin’s elixir exacts periods of a death-like sleep in order to pay for long life) and takes Gwalchmai into a variety of adventures. These adventures include a somewhat admittedly twee stay in Faery where he retrieves Arthur’s sword Excalibur, a journey to China (initially in search of the supposed Christian King Prester John) in a humourous style reminiscent of Bramah’s Kai Lung stories, a voyage to feudal Japan, and a return west where he comes across Joan of Arc (an apparent descendant of his and Corenice’s) and ultimately tangles with an old foe, the alien-god Oduarpa who had been responsible for the fall of Atlantis.

In many ways it is a strange tale and not every element of it works as well as others. Still, Munn has an easy prose style and was a meticulous researcher who brings vivid life to the era-spanning adventures of his hero. Gwalchmai’s ostensible quest is really little more than a macguffin meant to propel the hero forward through time and across space as he lives out his not-quite-immortal term. The lynchpin of the story is the romance between Gwalchmai and his transmigrating love Corenice. Sometimes this romance can be stretched to the point of excess, but ultimately Munn is able to pull the story back and make us care about these characters whose fate as semi-supernatural heroes seems to always get in the way of their true desire to simply live a simple life with each other. Munn creates an interesting world populated both with real historical figures (among them Kublai Khan, Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais and Christopher Columbus), alongside mythical figures such as King Arthur, the Norse god Thor, and the Fae, as well as his own inventions in the form of Corenice, last daughter of high-tech Atlantis, and their alien foe the dark lord Oduarpa.

I imagine this book will not be to everyone’s taste, but if you like historically flavoured fantasy with a strong dose of romance and optimism then I’d recommend giving _Merlin’s Ring_ a try (either with or without the companion volume [b:Merlin's Godson|3173143|Merlin's Godson|H. Warner Munn|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1314643795s/3173143.jpg|3064559]). ( )

My edition 1975 ( )