I nearly posted on this last night, but thought it was just me who couldn't see any poop or bird's nest! I search for other pictures of Merlyn by Alan Lee and found this pair for sale on ebay - useful because you can zoom right in and see more detail. I think the white is just the sheen on the velvet of Merlyn's robe:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alan-Lee-2-Sign ... 1128345963
Alan also produced this sketch of a younger Merlyn:
I think there is certainly some reason to believe Radagast was partly inspired by elements of the Merlin legend particularly the ability to change shape, the vagrant wildman of the woods look and affinity with wild animals - there are even elements in the descriptions below which could apply to Beorn!
The Prose Merlin contains many instances of Merlin's shapeshifting. He appears as a woodcutter with an axe about his neck, big shoes, a torn coat, bristly hair, and a large beard. He is later found in the forest of Northumberland by a follower of Uther's disguised as an ugly man and tending a great herd of beasts. He then appears first as a handsome man and then as a beautiful boy. Years later, he approaches Arthur disguised as a peasant wearing leather boots, a wool coat, a hood, and a belt of knotted sheepskin. He is described as tall, black and bristly, and as seeming cruel and fierce. Finally, he appears as an old man with a long beard, short and hunchbacked, in an old torn woolen coat, who carries a club and drives a multitude of beasts before him (Loomis, 1927).
The Prose Merlin later came to serve as a sort of prequel to the vast Lancelot-Grail, also known as the Vulgate Cycle. The authors of that work expanded it with the Vulgate Suite du Merlin (Vulgate Merlin Continuation), which describes King Arthur's early adventures. The Prose Merlin was also used as a prequel to the later Post-Vulgate Cycle, the authors of which added their own continuation, the Huth Merlin or Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin.
In the Livre d'Artus, Merlin enters Rome in the form of a huge stag with a white fore-foot. He bursts into the presence of Julius Caesar and tells the emperor that only the wild man of the woods can interpret the dream that has been troubling him. Later, he returns in the form of a black, shaggy man, barefoot, with a torn coat. In another episode, he decides to do something that will be spoken of forever. Going into the forest of Brocéliande, he transforms himself into a herdsman carrying a club and wearing a wolf-skin and leggings. He is large, bent, black, lean, hairy and old, and his ears hang down to his waist. His head is as big as a buffalo's, his hair is down to his waist, he has a hump on his back, his feet and hands are backwards, he's hideous, and is over 18 feet tall. By his arts, he calls a herd of deer to come and graze around him (Loomis, 1927).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MerlinThere is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
) pointed out that there is an illustration of the wizard Merlin in an edition of T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone showing Merlin with bird droppings on his shoulder and bird's nest in his hair, done by none of other than Alan Lee, who of course is one of the main conceptual artists for the films.
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