- As a storm approaches the wild woods of Broceliande, Vivien lays at Merlin’s feet before a hollowed-out oak tree.
- The story behind this unlikely pairing begins at the court of King Mark of Cornwall, where a traveling minstrel whispers a rumor of the love between Lancelot and Guinevere.
- At the prompting of Mark’s lover, Vivien, the minstrel tells how their example has inspired many of Arthur’s knights to pure love without hope of physical reward.
- Mark, always bitter about Arthur’s perceived slighting of him, challenges his lover Vivien to stir up trouble among his knights.
- Vivien responds by mocking the notion that anyone could be as pure and virtuous as Arthur and his knights are reputed to be. She promises to return to Mark with the hearts of the Order of Knighthood in her hands.
- Vivien travels to Camelot and tells Guinevere that Mark is making unwanted advances on her. Guinevere allows Vivien to live among her ladies.
- Vivien creeps about the knights of Arthur’s court, spreading rumors about sin and corruption among them.
- One day, Merlin witnesses Vivien making a pass at Arthur and laughs at the ridiculousness of the attempt. Hearing his mockery, Vivien vows to win over Merlin.
- Vivien’s flirtations make Merlin mildly tolerant of her at the same time that he senses his doom. Overcome by melancholy, he leaves the court, with Vivien in hot pursuit.
- Merlin crosses the ocean and arrives in the woods of Broceliande, in Brittany, the northwest corner of France. Vivien follows him, intending to work a charm upon him that renders the victim a lifeless statue.
- Vivien entwines herself around Merlin, begging him to speak his love for her. She wraps herself in his beard and calls herself a summer fly caught in the web of a tyrant.
- Merlin thanks her for lifting his melancholy mood and asks her what gift she wants from him.
- Vivien reminds Merlin how well she has treated him, with no thanks or kind word in return.
- Merlin tells Vivien that he felt as though a wave was about to break over his head, and that Vivien was that wave.
- Yet now he finds that Vivien’s flirtations have lightened his mood and asks her again what gift she desires.
- Vivien wants Merlin to teach her how to turn someone into a living statue. She asks this as proof of his trust and love.
- At Merlin’s refusal, Vivien sings a song about how even the tiniest lack of trust poisons a whole relationship.
- In response, Merlin tells a story about how he and the Knights of the Round Table once chased a male deer with golden horns starting from the very oak tree where they now stand, spurred on by the song of the youngest knight.
- When Vivien sang, says Merlin, he felt as though she was working on him the very charm she asks to learn, and could feel his “name and fame” ebbing away.
- Vivien responds that men think only of fame, while women live only to love.
- Merlin tells of how he once changed a knight’s motto from “I follow fame” to “Rather use than fame.” In other words, it’s better to be useful than famous.
- He explains that he fears giving Vivien power over him through the charm, not because
- he fears losing his fame, but because he wants to remain useful.
- He's afraid that sudden jealousy might cause Vivien to use the charm on him. Vivien responds that she’s sure she has a right to be jealous: Merlin’s probably using the charm to keep buxom women in thrall to him.
- So Merlin tells the story of the charm’s origin: A king married a woman who was so supernaturally enticing that even animals kissed her feet. Kingdoms went to war over her.
- The king was so jealous that he sought out a charm to make her his alone. He offered a huge prize to any wizard who could make such an enchantment, but they all failed because they, too, became captivated by the woman’s allure.
- Finally, the king’s men found a recluse whose diligent studies had put him so in touch with nature that he could summon storms or sunshine at will.
- They dragged him before the king, where he cast a charm that turned the queen into a lifeless statue, visible to no one but the king and able to see only him.
- The recluse rejected the reward the king offered him and went back to his life of solitude. Merlin inherited his book.
- Vivien says she will find this book no matter how well Merlin hides it. Merlin responds that she wouldn’t even be able to read its archaic language and tiny print.
- He warns her to stop asking for the charm. He won’t teach it to her because she might use it on one of Arthur’s knights just because she thinks he’s gossiping about her.
- The mere thought of Arthur’s knights gossiping about her sends Vivien into a rage. She tells Merlin all the gossip she’s heard about them.
- To the accusation that Sir Valence impregnated his kinsman’s wife, Merlin responds that, in fact, Sir Valence reunited his kinsman with his only child.
- To Vivien’s assertion that Sir Sagramore slept with his wife before marriage, Merlin tells a story of a wrong turn in a dark corridor, honor and virginity preserved intact.
- Merlin meets Vivien’s accusation that Sir Percivale deals with the devil with an acknowledgment that Percivale made a single mistake with a demonic shepherdess, but that he is not guilty of unrepented, habitual sin.
- Finally, Vivien asks Merlin about the rumors of Guinevere’s infidelity with Lancelot.
- To this, Merlin responds that Guinevere mistook Lancelot for King Arthur when he came to fetch her and fell in love with him. But doesn’t Vivien at least have a good word for Arthur?
- Vivien responds by asking what kind of man winks at the infidelity of his wife. Merlin blames it on Arthur’s pure sensibility, which causes him to find others pure and true as well.
- Vivien’s slander continues, causing Merlin to murmur to himself of how awful she is, and to call her a harlot.
- Partially hearing the insult, Vivien leaps from his lap in anger, then bursts into tears.
- She tells Merlin that her awful slander of Arthur and his court was prompted only by her worship of Merlin, who makes all other men seem small in comparison.
- A thunderstorm starts, and Merlin tells Vivien to take shelter with him under the oak tree. But Vivien refuses his embrace, telling him that only his revelation of the charm can prove his trust to her now and prevent her from leaving.
- She calls upon heaven to strike her with lightning if any bad intentions prompt her to ask for the charm. A bolt of lightning strikes the oak tree.
- Vivien shrieks with fright and leaps into Merlin’s arms. As the storm rages overhead, she continues her flattery and flirtation.
- Eventually worn down by Vivien’s wiles, Merlin teaches her the charm, then falls asleep.
- Vivien immediately uses the charm to imprison him in the oak tree. Good one, Merlin.