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Nimlin is the het ship between the Lady of the Lake (Nimue) and Merlin that is represented in multiple fandoms, including BBC Merlin and Once Upon A Time.
Canon[]
It is theorized that the story between Merlin and the Lady of the Lake was added to the original text through French revisions. Merlin provided the sword Excalibur to King Arthur through the Lady of the Lake, which is one explanation where the sword came from besides Arthur pulling it from the stone. Some later revisions try to explain this by having the Lady's sword be a different one or having Merlin be the one who caused the sword to get stuck after retrieving it from her lake, enchanted to only allow the rightful king to be able to pull it free. It also serves to explain why Merlin disappears from Arthur's story after Arthur grows up and is now capable to rule on his own, Merlin was incapacitated by the Lady in some way. In most versions of Merlin being captured by her, he already knew it would happen through his foresight and saw no reason to resist it.
Most of these stories start with her as his last student, only capable of capturing him after he taught her everything he knows. Though often seen as a love story, many of the French texts depict the Lady as unloving towards Merlin, sometimes killing him while he's in her captivity. Others end with her leaving him to his doom and ending up with another man, having enchanted herself specifically so Merlin wouldn't be the one to deflower her. However, other variants of the story lend a lot of evidence that the Lady did love Merlin, having her trap him in an impossibly high and magically hidden tower that she regularly visited every day. Merlin often ends up dying or otherwise being removed from the story by the end of their encounter, though some stories do end with Merlin being able to reunite with Arthur after he managed to escape her prison.
The Once and Future King[]
The Queen of Air and Darkness[]
At the beginning of the book, Merlyn lets Arthur know that he will be away for 20 years, being trapped in a cave by a woman named Nimue. Arthur thinks this is awful, but Merlyn sees no reason to resist it, knowing that he will fall in love with Nimue. The end of the book has him prepare for said fateful trip, ready to accept his destiny.
The Ill-Made Knight[]
By the time Merlin met Lancelot for the first time, he had already met Nimue. In fact, he introduces her to him as the woman he loves. Nimue is later mentioned again by Arthur when he frets about his situation with Lancelot and Guenever, but then he remembers that Merlin is trapped in Nimue’s cave by now.
The Book of Merlyn[]
At the beginning of the book, Merlyn had returned to Arthur from his 20 year stay in Nimue's cave. He seems to be far more well-adjusted than he should be after such an experience and only addresses Nimue to Arthur in a sly "Remember her?". When Arthur is later inspecting Merlyn's arm, he finds a poem for Nimue written on it, decorated by multiple kiss marks.
Fanon[]
This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it.
On AO3, the ship ship has 20+ fics in its Arthurian tag, 22+ under its Merlin tag and only 12+ fanfics in the Once Upon A Time tag.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Merlin/Nimue tag on AO3
- Merlin/Nimueh (Merlin) tag on AO3
- Merlin/Nimue (OUAT) tag on AO3
Variations[]
- Freylin refers to the ship between Merlin and Freya, the BBC series' more myth-accurate version of the Lady of the Lake
[]
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| BBC Merlin Ships • BBC Merlin Characters | |||
| SHIPS | het | Arwen • Gwencelot | |
| slash | ArLance • Merthur • Perelyan | ||
| femslash | Morgwen | ||
| poly | Arwencelot | ||
| CHARACTERS | male | Arthur Pendragon | |
