- King Uther Pendragon: [having lost Excalibur] You've tricked me, Merlin!
- Merlin: Come, come, Uther. I'm a wizard, that's my business. The sword is yours, if you can take it!
- Vortigern: That is a mistake many of my enemies make. They think before they act. I act before I think.
- [Merlin takes Excalibur from Uther and puts it into a rocky outcrop]
- Mountain King: [comes to life] Who dares wake me?
- Merlin: I am Merlin! And this is Excalibur!
- Mountain King: Where did you get it?
- Merlin: A gift, from the Lady of the Lake!
- Mountain King: She was ever a friend of mine, since before the dawn of time...
- [laughs]
- Mountain King: If I can remember THAT, then I must be an old, old man...
- Merlin: I ask you to hold Excalibur for me, untill a good man comes to take it from you!
- Mountain King: [grips the sword] Then I will be holding it for ever, if not longer...
- [goes to sleep]
- Ambrosia: And you can tell Her Royal High and Mighty Queen Mab that magic or no magic, if she harms you in any way, I'll have her guts for my boot laces.
- Queen Mab: Where's Merlin?
- Ambrosia: You've lost him! Well, I must say that's typical. You've been sliding down the ladder of success so quickly these last few years, you must have splinters in your backside!
- Queen Mab: [boils Ambrosia's food to scald her] Don't provoke me, Ambrosia! I'm in no mood for your jibes!
- Merlin: They say that when you're unhappy, time crawls by. When you're happy, however... my childhood must have been very happy.
- Merlin: Oh, they hurt... memories. Memories of love, they hurt. Our world was tearing itself to pieces and I didn't care. Those were truly the happiest days of my life.
- [first lines]
- Merlin: Once upon a time... No, no, that's not the way to start. You'd think this is a fairy tale, and it isn't. It has elements of a fairytale...
- Merlin: [on Vortigern] Only one tear was shed for Vortigern, and his pride had cast it away. He paid for it with his life.
- King Uther Pendragon: Do you know what love is Merlin?
- Merlin: Yes Uther, sad to say, I know what love is.
- Merlin: Things fall apart, they say. Uther had betrayed me, killed Cornwall. But then, I'd betrayed Igraine by helping Uther seduce her. So the wheel of life turns - one betrayal leads to another and another. The innocent die. It haunted me for the rest of my life.
- Vortigern: That's what this is about, isn't it Mab? Uther will bring Christianity to the people and you'll be forgotten.
- [Mab sheds a tear]