The Legend Who does not know the legend of King Arthur, who reigned over Britannia with his sword Excalibur which he had pulled from the stone with the help of Merlin, the Magician. Together with his knights of the Round Table he united the country against the enemies. But not only his knights stood by his side – first and foremost Lancelot – but also Ginevra (Gwenhwyfar), his beautiful wife. At Camelot Castle, the centre of the empire at that time, there was the legendary  Round Table, where the liegemen gathered. Here all decisions were made commonly and in this place the knights made up their mind to seek for the Holy Grail. But the priestess Morgaine (Morgan le Fay), once Merlin´s disciple, thwarted a successful search at that time.     Preface Since the beginnings of time Excalibur has been standing for one of mankind´s foremost purposes, namely power. The one who has got this power in his hands is enabled to use it any way he wants to. That really means that power is something absolutely neutral gaining significance by its possessor only. Inqiring as to what is right or wrong and deciding to display power for good or evil solely depends on the one holding and being capable to employ it – perhaps merely for a short time. The songs The King Of Swords (LEGEND) / Excalibur (POWER) The sword Excalibur which was initially moulded by the tears and hopes of cultures gone long since has been preserved to this day by the Lady Of The Lake. It is moulded for the one worth possessing it. Once it was given to Merlin, the Magician, for a short time. He bestowed it on King Utha believing he was the right one. However, Utha failed and sank the sword into a stone which merged with it .There it was waiting patiently for the right one to come. But is not each of us the right one to some degree, being able purely and simply to make up his mind for himself whether he is employing the power he possesses properly? And is it not true that the individual´s potential of power is decreasing or increasing in proportion to his ability to distinguish between good and evil? Thus the one who employs his power for impure purposes quite automatically decreases his sphere of action. Then, very soon - and seemingly by chance - the power will be violently seized by another person. Now this one may prove whether he is worth it or not. From the wise use of Excalibur something of which people have been dreaming of can develop: a legend like the one of King Arthur and his Round Table standing for justice, pride and hope. Arthur embodies the one who knew how to use Excalibur properly. To this day he is an ideal with regard to virtues as honor, faithfulness and magnanimity. Magic (MAGIC) It was Merlin who stood by the young king´s side whenever his advice was needed. But also Merlin was vulnerable and Morgaine, the black priestess, was finally able to banish him into the underworld. Merlin stood for magic, something almost forgotten in our days. He was one of the last Druids who were experts at handling the energies of the universe. He was only attacked by those who were not able to understand him or who considered him a danger to themselves. Also nowadays people who do not fit into social norms are excluded and fought by those with limited thinking. Merlin did not know he was vulnerable by Morgaine´s intrigues and evil purposes. She and the likes of her stirred up those others´ animosity against people like Merlin who had got a far superior spiritual potential than most people in order to disown them. This was done by being scaremongers appealing to the imaginary fears of small-minded persons. For this reason Merlin had disappeared into the underground sleeping  for hundreds, almost thousands of years to this day… A Long Long Time Ago (INFINITY) Come round from the Mists of Avalon again, Merlin gets back into our world once more conceiving the closeness of the past, present time and future. Aren´t there things from the past we are burdened with in present time and that influence the future? Thus he remembers the time when the Round Table was still untouched, the time when all began and was working well. But he also remembers the later problems yet unsolved, such as betrayal and hatred, and he remembers the Holy Grail which was expected to give the longed-for answer to the question on existence. The Grail is the symbol for “truth” having been seeked for by so many religions for eons. Merlin realizes that his task has not yet been performed. For this reason he turns to present time, into today. Back Again (RETURN) Merlin starts seeking for the beings who were knights in the past, the heroes of the legend, to reunite them and get them together at one table. It is not easy for him to find the chosen ones and to convince them once more to tackle the heavy task without repeating the mistakes of the past. Merely by switching off the so-called “mechanism of forgetting” he is successful in  demonstrating the past identity and the task of every single protagonist of the legend. Leisure is over and finally Merlin finds one being after the other, in a new body and in a new life, but still burdened with the problems of the past. Thus Merlin points out to each one which trials he will have to undergo in the future. Stop (DISILLUSION) But also Morgaine, the priestress of the underworld, comes around. She remembers her deeds and so she starts the fight once again in order to realize her purposes. Treason and betrayal have been part of our civilization ever since. Isn´t there always treason in the very beginning of an argument and a war over and over?  Therein lies the cause for a break-up in a partnership or friendship – as Lanzelot could not help desiring Ginevra, King Arthur´s wife, and because of that he committed a serious breach of trust towards his best friend. On The Run (ESCAPE) And Ginevra? Instead of trying to confront herself with the problems, she escaped into a world of illusion: she doped herself with a drink that consisted of roots and deadly nightshades hoping this would help her to suppress reality. Also today there are means of all kinds – drugs – taken in to withdraw from reality and to suppress the experienced in this way. It is true, you do feel better for a short time in the beginning and seemingly you do get a grasp of  all your problems. Finally, however, the rude awakening always happens on a level far below any former experience. Afterwards the deadly cycle starts: you will need more and more of the drug and you will sink lower and lower. In actual fact nobody can ever steal away from himself, from his life and his problems. Dreams can come true/Now It´s Up To You (HOPE) But it would not be our life, if there were no hope, too – and if there were no chance to turn up everything. It would not be Merlin, if he did not open a new gateway to Ginevra to help her, as in present time the past is threatening to recur. But it is more up to oneself to take one´s course. Help is only with the one who seeks for it and who accepts it. Therefore it is Ginevra´s first step to make up her mind to take things in hand and not to hope everything will be handled by others. Even set-backs cannot keep Ginevra from following Merlin´s advice. There is no such thing as failure, there is only a “just- not-quite-enough-carried-through”. This bears fruit when applied. In spite of all losses this was definitely one of the main principles of the knights around King Arthur, because they never gave up. Goodbye (GONE) At any time – then as well as today, it is hard to lose something or to separate from somebody important to oneself and who you love more than anything. Whether by death or by other circumstances – losing is always omnipresent like pleasure and happiness are. Often it is hard on both sides - not only the one who has to leave suffers, but also the one who remains. How many friends of the Round Table left it and did not return? And how many people had to go at the wrong moment, as did Lancelot and so did Arthur himself finally… But future is in yet the lap of the gods, for the time being it is a matter of impeding the recourse of the past.   People Shall Be Free (FREEDOM) The greatest wish of all men is to be free, free from false rulers, free from hostile attacks, but also free from their own compulsions and their own prejudices. Freedom, security and prosperity, Arthur had provided all this for the people in his empire. Thus he himself and Camelot became a symbol for these values. Freedom – the greatest good worth fighting for. This is why it is one of the most satisfying tasks to help others freeing themselves. Fringe groups, people thinking differently, even whole races have been damned and deprived of their freedom more than once. Ever since race, skin colour, religion,beliefs or gender have been the false and put forward reason for slandering and hatred. Even after King Arthur´s time no better motives have been used as a pretext for persecution and warfare. It was one of the avowed purposes of the whole movement around King Arthur to bring peace and secure it. This also meant to seek for the Grail and – with that – to seek for and find “the truth”. Finally this would have brought everlasting peace to everybody in the world. Time To Change (RESPONSIBILITY) It is not easy for everyone to take this heavy burden of  responsibility for what happened. Nevertheless it is up to each of us to start changing things in our environment to the positive. The alluring material prosperity enjoyed by our society is treacherously  covering up decline like a non-transparent curtain. Only a common effort will accomplish to put an end to our wastefulness and not to forget our moral values. While Camelot was flourishing, it was already doomed. People forgot what prosperity had provided them with and simply began to give up their great ideas of morale and their decency. Combined with wastefulness and without appreciation for what they were given by nature, the end was only a matter of time. But today we know about it: we know how King Arthur´s Empire was destroyed and we know how  the thousand year old Roman Empire vanished as many other empires did before. Merlin  has chosen the present time to come back in order to break the eternal cycle of harm on earth definitely very consciously. Merlin, however, has got opponents, the Powers of Evil, in the form of Morgaine, who, with welltried deceitfulness and temptation, strives for slandering everything that can help. But Merlin has learned, he has learned to discern the evil, he has learned not to trust without looking, but to be cautious. And he has learned to distinguish  the human failings of his friends from the deadly poison of a Morgaine, full of hatred, who seeks to disguise her real purposes as best she can. Part Of Me, Part Of You (LOVE) There is hatred, but there is also love. And man and woman are only complete, when they make up a couple. Like two halves of an apple cut apart in its centre, eventually they become an entity after having been put together again. Love between two people has always been the source of our civilization. From it our children come and families grow, the pillars of our society. Thus love is the foundation of our future. Once having found the proper partner and knowing how to love him honestly in spite of his faults, temptations will not become a real danger to this partnership. Now Arthur has found a woman who really suited to and Lancelot is able to meet Ginevra, the love of his life, without the old burdenings. And once more it was Merlin, who helped them a little with making the lies of the past vanish by communication and – maybe – by a little magic…         Every Dream Will Have It´s Day (REALIZATION) The world is the same for everybody, though we have got as many different awarenesses as there are men. For the one it is dull and cold, for the other it is sunny and warm. Many problems seem to be already solved, many of them are still to come. But the community is brought into being again, to complete what it was founded for once. It is their day again and barriers and problems of the past are remedied. It is true, Morgaine is not defeated yet and the process of making peace is not completed yet, but the “Round Table” is united again ready to encounter new adventures together. Seeking for the Grail can be taken up again – and seeking for it is definitely of importance for each of us… Credits Story & Idea:  Michael Ernst German Editor:  Liane Hauser English Translation:  Liane Hauser English Editors:  André Wright & Jewell Carla Artwork:  Ingo Ertl Special Thanks to:  Helga Kauf & Esther Djahangiri