Merlin | Magus #11
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Show notes
This month on Magus we're discussing maybe the most influential wizard of all time, and a true original - it's only flippin' Merlin!
We track his development through prehistory via the archetype of the "Lord of Ecstasy" - a deific entity who appears in mythologies from all over the world.
In addition to exploring his British precedents in the form of the Northern and Scots Lowland wild man of the woods Lailoken and the Welsh version of that same character in the form of Myrddin Wyllt, we also marinade ourselves in the swell of "Arthurian" stories that rose and sloshed about across the Medieval era.
After he's given the name 'Merlinus' by Geoffrey of Monmouth though, Merlin becomes central to not just tales of Camelot but the propaganda of a slew of European kings.
We track how, across the British Isles, his identity continues to twist and mutate - befitting the Latin title of his forebears, homo silvaticus.
Though at the same time, across the English Channel, the French and central European courts thought of Merlin as one of the great masters of 'Natural Magic.'
Born of a demon and a virgin princess, to alchemists and occultists from Cornelius Agrippa to the Brotherhood of the Golden Dawn he was the first building block of an extensive and rigorous magical system which offered proponents God-like powers to shape reality.
From Thomas Malory to Alfred Lord Tennyson, J.R.R. Tolkien to the Disney corporation, he is a cultural emblem whose meaning has only continued to shapeshift.
Which is only appropriate really, when you think about it...
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Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.
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