For centuries, a long-lost sequel to the legend of Merlin remained hidden within the binding of another book, its secrets locked away—until now. Thanks to cutting-edge technology, researchers have finally uncovered this forgotten chapter of medieval lore.
This fragment is the only known surviving piece of a vanished manuscript detailing the early heroic years of King Arthur’s court. In this telling, Merlin transforms into a blind harpist before mysteriously vanishing, only to reappear as a bald child who—rather unceremoniously—issues royal edicts to King Arthur while wearing no underwear.
A master of shape-shifting, Merlin owes his supernatural abilities to his unusual origins: he is the son of a woman impregnated by the devil. As the story unfolds, he asks to carry Arthur’s standard—a flag bearing the king’s coat of arms—into battle. Arthur agrees, a decision that proves wise, for Merlin soon unveils a powerful secret weapon: a fire-breathing dragon.
For over 400 years, this fragile relic of a legendary tale lay unnoticed, repurposed by the Elizabethans as nothing more than a book cover protecting an archival register of property deeds. Now, at last, its story has been brought back into the light.
#1A Long-Lost Manuscript Resurfaces After Centuries in Hiding
Now, a 700-year-old fragment of Suite Vulgate du Merlin—an exceptionally rare Old French manuscript, with fewer than 40 surviving copies worldwide—has been rediscovered. An archivist at Cambridge University Library found it folded and stitched into the binding of a 16th-century register, where it had remained unnoticed for centuries.
Using groundbreaking technology, researchers at the library successfully captured even the most inaccessible portions of the fragile parchment without the need to unfold or unstitch it. This approach preserved the manuscript in situ, preventing irreversible damage, while also allowing scholars to virtually unfold, digitally enhance, and read the faded text for the first time in centuries.
Previously, the fragment had been misidentified as a story about Gawain. "It wasn't properly inventoried," explains Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, the library’s French specialist. "No one had even recorded that it was in French."
#2Unraveling Merlin’s Mysteries: A Forgotten Tale Resurfaces
When Fabry-Tehranchi and her colleagues realized the fragment contained a story about Merlin and his shape-shifting abilities, "we were really excited," she recalls.
Originally composed around 1230, Suite Vulgate du Merlin emerged during a period when Arthurian romances captivated noblewomen. However, this particular fragment comes from a now-lost copy dated to around 1300. "We don't know who wrote the text," Fabry-Tehranchi explains. "We think it was probably a collaborative effort."
The manuscript serves as a sequel to an earlier text from around 1200, which details Merlin’s birth as a child prodigy with foresight. In that tale, he casts a spell to ensure King Arthur’s birth, leading to the young king proving his divine right to rule by pulling the sword from the stone.
"The Suite Vulgate du Merlin explores Arthur’s early reign, his bond with the Knights of the Round Table, and his heroic battles against the Saxons. It portrays Arthur as a noble young ruler—he weds Guinevere, establishes the Round Table, and maintains a strong relationship with Merlin, his trusted advisor," says Fabry-Tehranchi.
"Stylistic evidence in the text indicates the fragment was written by an unknown scribe in a northern French dialect understood by English aristocrats"
#3The Forgotten Link in Arthurian Legend
According to Fabry-Tehranchi, this sequel played a crucial role in preserving the legend of the Holy Grail and Merlin’s place within it. "If the sequel was written to facilitate that, it was successful. That became the main way the story was transmitted."
Stylistic analysis suggests the fragment was penned by an unknown scribe in a northern French dialect, one that would have been understood by English aristocrats. "These are Celtic and English legends that had circulated orally across the British Isles. But when they were written down, the language used was Old French, due to the Norman Conquest."
However, by the 16th century, Old French had lost its dominance in England. "There was a linguistic shift to English among readers of Arthurian literature," Fabry-Tehranchi explains. This shift likely led to the fragment’s repurposing—as the once-revered text was no longer valued, it was relegated to the role of bookbinding for an archival register. "The text had lost its appeal, so they wanted to reuse it."
#4Unlocking the Past: Cutting-Edge Technology Reveals Merlin’s Lost Tale
The library aimed to preserve the 16th-century register—created in 1580 to document the property of Huntingfield Manor in Suffolk—not only for its historical content but also as a rare example of Elizabethan archival binding practices.
In the past, accessing the fragment’s hidden text would have required cutting the binding, potentially causing irreversible damage. Even then, the most heavily faded sections would have remained illegible. Today, however, advanced technologies like multispectral imaging (MSI), CT scanning, and 3D modeling have allowed scholars to not only recover the text but also reconstruct how it was originally folded and sewn into the register.
The Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory at Cambridge University Library has gone even further, analyzing the different threads used by Elizabethan bookbinders and the pigments chosen by the medieval illuminator, whose role was to embellish manuscripts with intricate designs and vivid colors.
In the basement of the library, inside a small photographic studio dominated by a £100,000 ($125,000) multispectral camera, Amélie Deblauwe, the lab’s chief photographic technician, explains: "The specialist imaging techniques used on the Merlin fragment revealed details that would not be visible to the naked eye."
#5Illuminating the Invisible: How Cutting-Edge Imaging Revived the Manuscript
"Different inks and different papers react differently to different lights – Amélie Deblauwe"
The multispectral camera captures 49 images of each page, using various light wavelengths to reveal hidden details. It begins with invisible ultraviolet light, then moves through the entire visible spectrum—"all the colors of the rainbow," as Amélie Deblauwe describes—before ending with infrared. "All of these are measured in nanometers, so we precisely control how we illuminate the page and what we’re exposing it to."
By applying different wavelengths, even the faintest traces of ink—chemically degraded over centuries—become distinguishable. Technicians then process the image data using geospatial and open-source software to enhance the text’s readability. "That’s because different inks and papers react differently to various lights," Deblauwe explains. Some wavelengths are absorbed by the parchment and ink, while others are reflected, bringing out unique details that would otherwise remain unseen.
The technology can even detect microscopic scratches on the parchment by directing light at different angles, creating "surface shadows." This technique, known as raking light, reveals textures and indentations invisible to the naked eye, further uncovering the manuscript’s hidden history.
#6Revealing Hidden Clues: A Lightbulb Moment in Manuscript Study
An unexpected discovery emerged when the images revealed that the parchment was significantly lighter in the middle. "That was an amazing moment for me," recalls Deblauwe. "It was slightly noticeable in the color image, but it became really apparent in the MSI."
Upon closer inspection, she noticed the parchment also had a shinier, waxier texture in the center—suggesting that a leather strap had once been tied around the book to secure it. Over time, the friction likely wore away some of the parchment’s fibers, leaving behind this distinctive mark. "Sometimes you have a bit of a lightbulb moment, and that gives you a greater understanding of the history of the item," she says. "This is next-level manuscript study."
One of the most challenging aspects of the research was deciphering the text hidden within the folds, Fabry-Tehranchi explains. To solve this, conservators carefully handled the fragile parchment while technicians inserted an ultra-thin macro probe lens into the deepest crevices—using any accessible openings in the parchment—to reveal the obscured text.
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