Hello! Sorry to bother you. I just recently became interested in Arthurian literature and I wanted to ask: do you know if the Vulgate Merlin is the same thing as the Prose Merlin? I know that they're(it's?) based on Robert de Boron's Merlin poetry in the late 12th century, and that that poetry was basically rewritten/adapted in prose sometime in the early 13th century & was featured in Vulgate; I thought that rewrite WAS "Prose Merlin", but whenever I look "Prose Merlin" up, sources keep citing it as an early-mid 15th century work (before Malory's Morte D'Arthur)? IIRC your spreadsheet of resources put the date of publication at ~1400. But there seems to be no copy of this text apart from the one that's featured in Vulgate, 2 whole centuries earlier?? So I'm just not sure.
Again, very sorry to bother you. I've been researching for a few hours but all the rewrites and adaptations have my head spinning. I thought you might be able to clarify :')
Hello! This is a great question and not a bother at all, I'm sure this will help clarify things for multiple people.
The simplest answer is that "Prose Merlin" often refers to The Story of Merlin portion of the French Vulgate Cycle from the 13th century, because it is a prose version of Robert de Boron's poem, titled Merlin (with additional material added by anonymous).
However, there's also another "Prose Merlin" written in Middle English in the 15th century, which is itself a Middle English retelling of the Vulgate Cycle's Prose Merlin, ie, The Story of Merlin. It's sort of like how the Welsh Mabinogion's Lady of the Well starring Owain is then retold by Chretien de Troyes's French Yvain The Knight with the Lion.
This is why when I talk about the the 12th century Arthurian epic, I say "the Vulgate," not Prose Merlin, nor Prose Lancelot, not Lancelot-Grail Cycle, Vulgate or Post Vulgate (even though I know that can also refer to Biblical texts, in an Arthurian context, it leaves no room for confusion)!
I shared links to the texts mentioned so you can take a look for yourself to help get your head around all of that, it's kinda convoluted but alas literary history is complex and interwoven with itself. I hope that helps clear things up for you and you're able to read these texts! I have a Vulgate Navigation Guide that may be helpful if you decide to tackle the Vulgate as a whole, alternatively a great place to start would be Norris J. Lacy's The Lancelot-Grail Reader with select passages in a single volume.
Take care! :^)
