Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-184.88.25.24-20131112235645/@comment-24492510-20141107160536

ReganX wrote:

Maybe if we work backwards.

The Great Dragon was captured exactly twenty years before the beginning of the series, so the oldest Merlin can possibly be in the first episode is 19 years and 3 months.

The journey from Camelot to Ealdor takes no more than a couple of days but Hunith and Balinor presumably didn't fall into bed together the day they met. I'd say that we can subtract at least a few months from Merlin's potential age to give his parents time to fall for one another, which brings us to 19.

Balinor said that he had a life in Ealdor, which would suggest to me that he was there for more than just a couple of months but, given that he was hunted by Uther and that he and Hunith never married, he wasn't there for an extended period.

Balancing the two factors, I'd say that Balinor was in Ealdor for no more than a year, which would mean that Merlin is at least a few months past his 18th birthday when he first appears, turned 21 not long after the end of Season Three, and was 22 in Season Four.

This would more or less fit with your first estimate. We should also work with the time.

I don't think that every season last 1 year. There are probably only a couple of months between Series One and Two and, looking at the landspaces in the episodes, we can notice that both Series One and Series Two last not more of 4 months. Series Three, Four and Five seems to last around 6 months. Thus, Series 1 + Series 2 = 1 year. Considering Merlin 17 (almost 18), when he first appeared, he was 18 in Series 2, 19-20 in Series 3 and 21 in Series 4.