From Fantasies of Wilderness to Ecological Sovereignty: An Ecocritical Reading of the Vita Merlini

This article reads the Vita Merlini as a parable of Merlin's progression from ethical consideration of non-human Others within a fantasy wilderness to sovereignty over the Calidon Forest. This narrative of domination over Nature is complicated as Merlin's colonialist perspective is challenged by Ganieda's desire for a pre-Conquest British wilderness.