- Alex: Who will join us?
- [no one responds]
- Young Merlin: How humiliating.
- Principal: This is instead of lessons today!
- [the students cheer]
- Miss Foster: Pay attention, everybody - we have a new pupil joining the class today. Why don't you introduce yourself?
- Young Merlin: Greetings, young academicians, my name is... Mertin. Yes, that's right, Mertin Ambrosius Caledonensis, and I am a perfectly normal, contemporary British school boy.
- [first lines]
- Adult Merlin: [narrating] A long time ago, Britain was ruled by King Uther Pendragon. But when Uther died without an heir, the land was torn apart by war. Many tried to claim the throne and fought bitterly and endlessly. People's hearts grew hopeless and hollow. The country became lost and leaderless. So the wizard Merlin conjured a magical sword in a stone called Excalibur and declared that only Uther's true heir could pull it free. Many tried, but only one succeeded. A boy named Arthur, who had no idea he was Uther's long-lost son. Arthur grew into a great king. He turned his enemies into allies and ruled at a round table, so that all were equal. He and his knights lived by a code of chivalry, their hearts pure and noble. But their greatest foe was Arthur's own half-sister, Morgana. Convinced she was the rightful heir, and desperate to possess Excalibur, she turned to dark sorcery. Arthur fought a fearsome battle against her, and bound her into the bowels of the earth. But not before she swore dark vengeance.