Listen before deciding
The novel’s character guide describes Myrddin as a grey-haired man of the western hills, called mad.
The phrasing gives a reader a useful distinction: a person and the description attached to him. Before deciding what a character knows, it is worth noticing who is allowed to sound credible, whose speech is dismissed, and what a familiar name makes us expect.
Those questions can accompany the reading without answering any of Myrddin’s mysteries in advance. His words and actions belong in their order on the page.
A question to carry
How much of a person do we think we know when all we have is a reputation?