| “ | People like us, we have a gift. Do you not think it should be used to make this a better world? | „ |
| ~ Edwin Muirden |
Edwin Muirden is an antagonist in the Season 1 episode "A Remedy to Cure All Ills" of the 2008 BBC TV series Merlin (or The Adventures of Merlin in the US). After his parents were ordered killed by King Uther for practicing dark magic, he vowed to take his revenge on him.
He is portrayed by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Biography[]
Background[]
Edwin Muirden is the son of Gregor and Jaden Muirden. As a child, he was taught sorcery by his parents. During the Great Purge ordered by King Uther Pendragon, Gregor and Jaden were burned at the stake, and Edwin tried unsuccessfully to rescue them from the flames, being burnt on the face and permanently disfigured. He was treated by Gaius, Camelot's court physician, who had once been a friend of Edwin's parents.
A Remedy to Cure All Ills[]
Twenty years later, Edwin returned to Camelot under his mother's maiden name, Muirden, posing as a physician. He anonymously sent Lady Morgana a bouquet of flowers, hiding a deadly Elanthia beetle in the bud of one flower. The beetle entered the sleeping Morgana's ear and burrowed into her brain, rendering her unconscious and feverish, and even Gaius' best efforts could not revive her.
Two days later, when Uther and Arthur were becoming desperate, Muirden appeared at court and claimed to have a remedy to cure all ills. Arthur persuaded Uther to allow him to try and cure Morgana, and Edwin, alone in the room with an unconscious Morgana, removed the beetle from her ear. Afterwards, Edwin lied to the court, saying she had a cranial hemorrhage and that Gaius had been treating her incorrectly.
Gaius came to Edwin and recognized him as the boy who had leapt into the fire to save his parents. Having confirmed that Edwin was an illegal sorcerer, he made to tell Uther but Edwin, having discovered that Merlin was a warlock himself, blackmailed him into secrecy, saying that if Gaius revealed him to Uther, Edwin would in turn reveal Merlin's secret.
Sowing seeds of doubt in the King's mind, Edwin was enlisted to search through Gaius' previous medical records, and he then lied again, implying that Gaius had been growing haphazard and doddery with age. Uther regretfully discharged Gaius from his position as Court Physician, replacing him with Edwin, and the sorcerer's plan began to fall into place. As Gaius leaves Camelot, Edwin reads in the medical records that Gaius had been treating Uther for a bad shoulder caused by a battle wound, and claimed to have a malady more efficient. He gave Uther the potion, but instead of helping his injury it paralyzed him, and Edwin revealed his deception, gloating over the helpless Uther and how his would be the last face he saw, finally avenging his killed parents. He then sends a beetle into Uther's ear and he falls into the same catatonic state as Morgana before him.
Edwin returns to his chambers, but is met there by Gaius, who attempts to stop him using an incantation. However, he failed to say the correct words, and Edwin threw Gaius against a column using the correct spell. Magically encircling Gaius in a ring of fire, Edwin prepared to kill him, but Merlin burst in. Edwin telekinetically pulled an axe from the wall and threw it at Merlin, but he deflected it with his own magic, sending it flying back towards Edwin and killing him.