.jpg){kind=link}
The Jewel Box (or Merlin's Box) is a special magic item in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. There are actually two of them, one for the Crown Jewels in both seasons and another one for the Wizard Jewels in the second season.
It is where the seven Crown Jewels of great wild magic had been placed together in by the good wizard Merlin, connected by a magical matrix, until it was stolen and opened by the evil Lady Kale who wanted Merlin's magic for herself, unleashing uncontrolled wild magic into Avalon. The box is vital for the Jewel Quest and can be accessed only using Merlin's Key. A new and different Jewel Box for the Wizard Jewels is introduced at the series' very finale.
Crown Jewels box[]
Long ago, Merlin found the seven Crown Jewel and, working his magic, he bound used them to bound each of the lands of Avalon to goodness. He then placed all of them in a box, where they were connected by a string magic matrix. Merlin himself used to be magically bound to the Jewel Box by his magic key so only he could open it. But when he gave up on that bond to stop the evil Lady Kale when she tried to seize the jewels (the bond summoned him briefly when she opened the box), Merlin also broke his ties to the physical world and now cannot return to the world. And once the jewel matrix was then broken, magic all over Avalon will be unstable until all the stones are found by the Jewel Riders in their Jewel Quest and replaced in the Box by Princess Gwenevere. Until the balance is restored, the jewels belong to their lands and now are causing wild magic outbreaks.
The Jewel Riders hope that if all seven stones are found and replaced in the Jewel Box, Merlin might be transported out of the wild magic, fully restored, and brought back home. Through most of the series, the Jewel Box remains in Queen Anya's keeping and appears to the Jewel Riders on their missions to retrieve the Crown Jewels only when Gwenevere uses the Merlin's Key to summon it. The more lost Jewels that are found and brought to the Jewel Keep in the Crystal Palace, the more Avalon can resonate with the power of good.
The Crown Jewels magic in "Full Circle"
At the end of the first season, Lady Kale manages to seize the Box, stored within the Jewel Keep with all the Crown Jewels. However, it turns it she still cannot open it and access the Crown Jewels without summoning Merlin again, which happens every time she tries. When Kale works to find and destroy Merlin, he pulls her into the Wild Magic to let the Jewel Riders bind the Crown Jewels to themselves. When Kale returns to Avalon and at last opens the Jewel Box, she is then trapped and destroyed by the magic of Crown Jewels and by the great good power of the Crystal Palace itself.
With Avalon made mostly safe from the wild magic, the Box is then stored at the Jewel Keep, now firmly bound to the Jewel Riders, during the second season. (When Kale again gets into the Jewel Keep in "Fashion Fever", this time she stays away from it.) In "Morgana", it is seen opened when Queen Anya connects it to the jewel amplifier device.
Outside the show itself, the Jewel Box also came with Gwenevere's second action figure.
Wizard Jewels box[]
In Morgana's hands in "The One Jewel"
A new Jewel Box is introduced only during the second season's finale, already containing the secured Wizard Jewels of six of the ancient wizards. The box is given to Princess Gwenevere by Queen Anya and King Jared to get it to the Heart of Avalon for the last battle against the returned Lady Kale and their new enemy Morgana. Gwen and Ian soon face and finally defeat Kale by using the Wizard Jewels in the box and the mystical Staff of Avalon, but then Morgana succeeds in stealing the box away. This leads to the events of "The One Jewel" in which the Jewel Riders need to win each of the Wizard Jewels from Morgana again, so in the end Merlin can use the fused jewels as the titular One Jewel against her.
Behind the scenes[]
The first Jewel Box used to look quite different during the series' pre-production (as seen on the left). The draft script for "Lady of the Lake" described the second one as a golden case, however in the show it is a square-shaped emerald box with a glass dome cover.[1]
References[]
| Magic |
|---|
  Magic, Wild Magic, Jewel Quest, Jewel Armor |
