Crystal Cave

People or events that appear very briefly in life may have dramatic effects on the lives of people they touch upon. Basketball coaches from the junior high school level often influence their athletes to take up playing basketball in their high school career. Dying friends often compel people to conduct research and dedicate their lives to the study of medicine. Galapas' short stint with Merlin turns Merlin's life around in the novel, The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. From the beginning, Galapas was an influential figure in young Merlin's life. Galapas is an old man with a mysterious past. He possesses great knowledge of the arts, sciences, and magic. Merlin first met him when he was wandering the countryside with his horse, Aster. Galapas soon becomes his teacher and mentor, in spite of Merlin's already having a conventional tutor. In time, he shares all of his knowledge and wisdom with Merlin. "He taught me practical things, too; how to gather herbs and dry them to keep, how to use them for medicines, . . . poisons. He made me study the beasts and birds, . . . and-with the dead deer-I learnt about the organs and bones of the body. . . The map Galapas showed me was a copy from a book by Ptolemy of Alexandria." (The Crystal Cave, Pgs. 59-60) Galapas also helps Merlin to put the meanings of his periodic visions of the future and of events far away into action. "'Go? But if I go back, they'll kill me, or shut me up. . . Won't they?'. . . 'You can no more be hidden now, than your merlin could go back into its egg." (The Crystal Cave, Pg. 100) At the end of Merlin's adventures with Ambrosius, his father and Emperor, he returns to the Crystal Cave to seek out Galapas. Nearby the cave, in a patch of grass, Galapas' bones are scattered about in the dirt. Merlin lays