Merlin 2: Origins
/We told you the stories of Merlin but where did he come from anyway? From Myrddin, to Lailoken, to the warrior poet Ambrosius Aurelianus, we discuss all of the different versions of Merlin before he was Merlin! And as a bonus, we chat about WHO Merlin was after his origins!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, warfare, mental illness, religious persecution, impalement, drowning, and child endangerment.
Housekeeping
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Get our new Old Wives’ Tale Teller Corduroy Hat!
- Submit Your Urban Legends Audio: Call us! 617-420-2344
Sponsors
- The MultiCrew Drive, running from now through September 26! Check out all we have to offer at multitudeshows.com
Find Us Online
- Website & Transcripts: spiritspodcast.com
- Patreon: patreon.com/spiritspodcast
- Merch: spiritspodcast.com/merch
- Instagram: instagram.com/spiritspodcast
- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/spiritspodcast.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/spiritspodcast
- Tumblr: spiritspodcast.tumblr.com
Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
[theme]
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. And Amanda, as promised, we are back with Merlin 2: Origins.
AMANDA: I am so excited, Julia. I love an origins sequel. I loved our Merlin episode, and I can't wait to learn more about this figure.
JULIA: I'm really excited as well. I think that it was very fun to tell a lot of the stories around Merlin, his origins in terms of the mythology, but I really wanted to dig into how he was created as a character. And as I mentioned in the previous episode, there are a lot of instances and figures that seem to have coalesced into what we know today to be Merlin. So in this episode, we are going to cover the three-ish figures that inspired the modern day Merlin, and then talk about how different authors have interpreted the Merlin that we know and love, and how that creates the Merlin of, I don't know, BBC's 2008 Merlin series, for example.
AMANDA: Or the YA series I recently got back from my dad's storage unit, Pendragon by D.J. MacHale.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: Which is 100% just a retelling of Arthurian lore in a kind of like sci-fi, tiny, whiny way. I might genuinely reread this.
JULIA: I remember them being very sad and dramatic towards the end of the series.
AMANDA: They were quite sad and dramatic. If loss of a parent is a thing that you don't particularly want to dwell on right now, definitely avoid this series. But as a kid, I was— I felt very deep for reading them, if that makes sense.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. Yes, no, they had a certain depth that the author trusted a younger audience to be able to understand and appreciate.
AMANDA: And you know what?
JULIA: Much like the Animorphs.
AMANDA: Julia, just like the Animorphs, you're so right for this one.
JULIA: Shout out K.A. Applegate. We love that for her.
AMANDA: Love it.
JULIA: Yeah. Well, not about Merlin, the Animorphs series, surprisingly to everyone here.
AMANDA: Damn it.
JULIA: But let's dig in, Amanda, to perhaps the most established of the pre-Merlin inspirations, and that is Myrddin.
AMANDA: Julia, it sounds like you said Merlin in a slightly cooler way.
JULIA: Yes, and that is because the anglicized name of Merlin comes from this Welsh name that sounds very similar.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: For context, it is spelled M-Y-R-D-D-I-N.
AMANDA: Incredible. And I think that would be a great name for a horse.
JULIA: You know what? You're right? Well, Amanda, this was a character that was already, I would say, a well-known figure in Wales during the 12th century, which is when Geoffrey of Monmouth, a name you're going to hear a lot in this episode, first started writing of him. He was featured in many stories and many poems by the 12th century. So he was said, centuries before Geoffrey of Monmouth transformed him into Merlin, to have been the founder of the town of Carmarthen. Now, the name of the town is said to have been derived from Carmarthen or Myrddin's Fortress. But some scholars believe this was erroneous. And we'll talk a little bit more about that, but it is important to remember that for the most part, it was believed that this was Merlin's fortress, right?
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So most of what we know about Myrddin comes from a group of six poems that were said to be composed by the man himself.
AMANDA: Oh, by Merlin himself? He was just like—
JULIA: Yes, so—
AMANDA: —"Let me poem about myself."
JULIA: Exactly. Basically, it was a composition that was a verse-based autobiography. Obviously, it probably wasn't actually written by him, but like, isn't that incredibly sexy, Amanda?
AMANDA: Wow. I— my first reaction was, "Pretty bold of you to think you deserve a biography." But I mean, why not?
JULIA: Amanda, I mean, start right now. Start putting your inverse autobiography together today.
AMANDA: You know, you're right.
JULIA: You, much like Myrddin, deserve it.
AMANDA: Aw.
JULIA: Now, we don't actually have the original texts of this verse-based autobiography, but we do have copies that were basically perceived in manuscripts from the 13th century.
AMANDA: That's pretty amazing. That's like going on, you know, 800 years old.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. And we know from historians and scholars studying these texts that this particular writing style suggests that the poems were originally composed during the ninth or 10th centuries.
AMANDA: Do you think that eventually linguists and anthropologists are going to be able to say sort of exactly what, like, micro time period of the early 21st Century, various things were composed in because meme, you know, language comes into and out of fashion so quickly?
JULIA: I think it depends on how we go about archiving Internet content.
AMANDA: True.
JULIA: Because right now, we're not very good at it.
AMANDA: No, we are not.
JULIA: And a lot of archivists are like, "Hey, we need to be better about this, in general." So it's really going to depend on what survives into the future.
AMANDA: Very good.
JULIA: What is interesting about this proto Merlin is that Myrddin was not a wielder of magic, necessarily, or at least not in the way that Merlin is in later writings. But he does still have one supernatural ability that plays a very important role in both his and Merlin's story, which is, of course, the gift of prophecy.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Extremely important as we established in our previous Merlin episode. Merlin is all about the prophecy.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: In this case, Myrddin is described in a 10th century poem as a national prophet of some kind, who foretells a great war between the Welsh and their allies on one side, fighting against the English.
AMANDA: A very important prophecy, and something that came to pass lots of times.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. So there is a lot of sort of interesting geological border stuff going on in the writings about Myrddin. In some traditions, it is said that the whole island of Britain is described as Clas Myrddin, or Myrddin's precinct.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: That particular word, I think it's Clas, when used in this way and in this context, actually refers to a sacred enclosure or a cloister.
AMANDA: Huh. So not the fort, like we were saying earlier?
JULIA: Yes. So this, actually, kind of evokes this image, then, of the island being both enchanted and under Myrddin's magical protection.
AMANDA: Very cool.
JULIA: In others, however, such as these six autobiographical poems about Myrddin, it refers to him as being Hen Ogledd, or from the Old North.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Which, in our modern understanding of the area is made up of essentially Southern Scotland and some of the northern parts of England.
AMANDA: Makes sense.
JULIA: That kind of border between Scotland and England. This area is going to be extremely important to the origins of Myrddin and then Merlin.
AMANDA: I am watching my little mental map of the UK, which, oops, also matches lots of fantasy maps where—
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: —there is big, rugged stuff in the north and little fishies in the south.
JULIA: Or sometimes they just take the map and they go, "Whoops. Now, it's upside down."
AMANDA: Upside down.
JULIA: So during the time of those autobiographical poems, by the way, this area, this Old North area, was made up of several small kingdoms that were, at the time, occupied by the native Britons, with an O.
AMANDA: Britons.
JULIA: In these poems, Myrddin served as a essentially royal retainer to one of the kings of the Old North, whose name was King Gwenddolau.
AMANDA: Now that is a Welsh name if I have ever heard one.
JULIA: It is. So there is evidence that Gwenddolau was a historical figure, rather than this figure of folklore, right? So he lived during the sixth century, and there's evidence of him ruling the land on the western end of what today is the Anglo-Scottish border.
AMANDA: Okay, got it.
JULIA: So, again, where this Old North is historically.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: These poems are set after Gwenddolau and his wife's death during this savage battle that killed both of them, and also, like killed a ton of the retainers. It is a absolutely brutal battle, and it is actually a historical battle that occurred in 573.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Now, Myrddin makes reference to having been a part of the battle itself and emerged unscathed, lucky for him. However, the imagery of the war and the violence left him intensely mentally disturbed.
AMANDA: Yeah. I mean, normalize being disturbed by war, please.
JULIA: Yes. Exactly, exactly. And, you know, again, we're talking about a period of time where inter-fighting between kingdoms is extremely common. You're objectively observing a lot of violence and death around you when you are associated with fighting for certain kingdoms, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So in his grief and his horror, he recounts fleeing northward until he came across a great forest known in Welsh as Coit Caledon or the Wood of Coit. This was a ancient forest, a wilderness that made up a large amount of southern Scotland.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So he stayed there in solitude, basically trying to wrap his mind around the horrors of war that he had seen. And it is in the solitude that he was said to have found his gift of prophecy, as well as his ability to speak to the animals of the woodland.
AMANDA: Incredible. That is a great opportunity. "I am alone. I have just these squirrels for company, these birds. Hey, wait, I could— can you understand me?"
JULIA: "I can talk to these birds now. Wow. Wild."
AMANDA: "Yeah."
JULIA: "And they can talk to me." So in solitude, that is where he stays. He's kind of honing the craft of his prophecy. But at the same time, his grasp on reality is not exactly there, because, again, this idea that folklore loves to play with, which is like this idea of madness set in, but also like, "Ha, but the madness gave him a gift," which, you know, in some ways, is interesting, and, you know, normalizing mental health and dealing with that kind of issue. But at the same time, you're like, "Ah, he was driven mad." And you're like, "Oh, that's not really how that works, but okay. Sure." So from this point in the poems, Myrddin further explores that gift of prophecy and spends a good amount of his time attempting to evade the clutches of a king named Rhydderch. It's a very Welsh name. I'm going to try to pronounce it correctly the entire time.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Who essentially led the forces against Gwenddolau and wanted to capture Myrddin.
AMANDA: Okay. We got a baddie with a badass name.
JULIA: Got a baddie with a badass name. Has beef with the former king that Myrddin worked for, now has beef with Myrddin.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So it's also worth mentioning in these poems that there is a significant focus between Myrddin and his sister, who eventually, in the poem, goes and seeks him out in the forest. Now, when she finds him, she asks him, essentially, a bunch of questions about politics, both of the past, but also of the future.
AMANDA: I see. Is she working in statecraft perhaps?
JULIA: Hmm. Maybe, maybe. She also expresses some concerns about his health because he's living in the woods. That's fair.
AMANDA: You know, to be fair to her, he is living alone in the woods after enduring major trauma and probably talking to animals, so I too would be like, "Sib, are you good right now?"
JULIA: And that's a great point, Amanda. And you know what? She shows a lot of affection to him while she is there. She uses a few nicknames that are mentioned explicitly in the text. One of them is Llallawg and the other is Llallogan. [12:47] I know that's like, "Okay, he has cool nicknames." Those names are important later. Keep them in your mind.
AMANDA: Okay. I will, I will.
JULIA: However, what is interesting is that Myrddin in these poems, and the Myrddin referenced as the founder of Carmarthen, the Welsh city that he claims to get his name from, seem to be potentially two different people.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: They're both named Myrddin. They're both seers, but they're tied specifically to two different locations. But pieces of both end up being borrowed by Geoffrey of Monmouth to create his Merlin, a Merlin who prophesized but also wielded magic. And you can sort of see details of this in Geoffrey of Monmouth's poem, which is Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, right?
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: This, of course, is not the first time that Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about Merlin. His first was in the History of the Kings, which we referenced in our first episode. But Vita Merlini was written a few years later, and it sort of dove deeper into the lore of Merlin. It pulled heavily from the Myrddin poems of previous centuries that we've been talking about.
AMANDA: Dare we say it's Merlin Part 2: Origins?
JULIA: Exactly. Now, what's interesting is that the northern Myrddin, not the Welsh Myrddin, but the one from these autobiographical poems—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —does not seem to have these magical abilities before he fled into the wilds. There are some fragments of his lore from around the same time, but otherwise have been lost to time, that make reference to, for example, a gold chess board that he gave to Gwenddolau, which the pieces moved by themselves.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Great gift, by the way. Kind of cool.
AMANDA: Yeah. I mean, I guess in a world before television, I would just, like, watch it all day.
JULIA: Yeah, exactly. You're like, "Oh, this is how I can learn how to play chess better."
AMANDA: Right? Yeah.
JULIA: Still, there is another reference, Amanda, to— in the battle that essentially drives Myrddin mad, where his king is killed. There is a mysterious, quote, "battle fog" that envelops the field.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Now, these are not, like, outright references to Myrddin using magic, but it does sort of suggest a connection to him potentially being either some sort of shaman or druid, which during this time period is the terms you would use, rather than wizard or magician.
AMANDA: Makes total sense. And, yeah, I mean, their context clues, we're reading closely. And from a character perspective, I would imagine that using your power to such a scale that you impact and maybe end human life—
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: —would probably make me also want to go seek some solitude and maybe some woodland creatures, and sort of think about my situation.
JULIA: That's a great point, Amanda. I also think this is really interesting, because the fact that he potentially is this sort of shaman or druid figure, some scholars take this to mean that perhaps, like historically Gwenddolau, who we know was a historic king, his kingdom might have been one of the last remaining places where, like, Druidism resided as Christianity began to spread across the island. Like it might have been the one last bastion of folk religion before Christianity essentially took over the entire island.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: And I think I really like the idea of him being a, LOL, it's not pagan, it's fine" example here.
AMANDA: That's a very poetically fertile time to set an epic poem.
JULIA: Yeah. I agree, I agree. So most likely the Old North Myrddin came first, and then the Welsh Myrddin was, like, later added, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But the general consensus among scholars is that, essentially, a North British tale of a wild seer made its way down to Wales during the eighth century, and then that character was transformed into Myrddin of Carmarthen, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So who is this wild seer, then, that predates Myrddin?
AMANDA: I'd love to know.
JULIA: Again, the answer lies in the Old North, which, every time I say that, I'm having real, like, Game of Thrones flashbacks. And I'm like, "I know this is where George R.R. Martin pulled so much of his shit from," but I just want to say it out loud.
AMANDA: Yeah. I am feeling the same. I'm glad you said it out loud. It's like relieving the itch on my brain where I'm like, "Wargs, aaah, what are we doing?"
JULIA: In the Old North there are stories of this figure that have been preserved in these old medieval Scottish texts, right? So in these stories, the seer who utters prophecies, which are dismissed as the ravings of a madman at first, are spoken by a man not named Myrddin, but instead was known as Lailoken. Visually, looks very similar to the nicknames that Myrddin sister referred to him as.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So not as Welsh of a name, but potentially could have some origins there. Much like in the story that I mentioned earlier, Lailoken was also driven mad and fled after witnessing the carnage of a savage battle that killed his liege lord. And so he also flees to the forests in the Old North. We mainly know of him because of these three tales that have continued his legacy, and they are a part of a larger body of folklore that surrounds a man named Kentigern, who is the patron saint of Glasgow.
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: So Kentigern died in 1612, and until that point, had served as the chief bishop to, here's a name that you're going to remember, Rhydderch of Dumbarton, which is a mere 14 miles downstream from Glasgow itself, on the river Clyde.
AMANDA: Okay, okay. That is an easy kayak today. All right, we could do that.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That could be a daily commute. Maybe not daily commute, but—
JULIA: Downstream, I could just float, baby.
AMANDA: Float.
JULIA: I could just float. Now, Amanda, as you pointed out, if the name seems familiar, you'll remember that Rhydderch was the name of the king that appears—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —in the Myrddin poems.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: The man that is trying to capture him. We have three stories that have been preserved about Lailoken. The first is, again, a part of the life of St. Kentigern, which had essentially been commissioned by the Bishop of Glasgow. He was like, "Someone write this for me. I want to hear all about this guy who's the patron saint of our city." So in one chapter, Lailoken tells of a prophecy that his dreaded king, Rhydderch, will die within months of Kentigern's death.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Fortunately for Lailoken, the king doesn't attempt to kill him for this prophecy that is essentially saying, "You're gonna die, bitch."
AMANDA: I was gonna say, that is not the prophecy that you want to hear when you are a ruler commissioning some foretelling.
JULIA: I will say Rhydderch was not the one that was commissioning the writing, but rather this is like a history that was written several 100 years after the fact. It turns out to be true, shortly after Kentigern dies, Rhydderch does as well. Now, not much about Lailoken in that story, just like besides him doing the prophecy. But there are two other stories that come from a 15th century text called The Life of Merlin of the Forest. Now, in this tale, we hear more about that battle that drove Lailoken mad, and we also see something curious, which is he foresees his own death.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Which, if you'll remember from our previous Merlin episode, we did also see him do.
AMANDA: Some Odin vibes. That's right.
JULIA: Exactly. I— also, I want to give a quick shout out to Paul on Discord, which, hey, check out our Discord. It's really good.
AMANDA: multitude.productions/community.
JULIA: Yeah. But he was talking a lot about Merlin and his ability to kind of see the future, and do prophecy. He was saying, like, there's a way that prophecy is, like, time travel. And then we can make the analogy that, like, in time travel, like in Bill and Ted, there's like— it's a big loop.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Where whatever was going to happen is going to happen. That's sort of how Greek prophecy works, right? Where it's like Greek prophecy is destiny.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: It's what is going to happen to you. You cannot avoid it. And then trying to avoid it, just, like, ends up making the prophecy happen anyway, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And then there is also a sort of, like, Hebrew way to how prophecy works, which is we know what's going to happen and we can use that knowledge to change things. And Paul makes a great point that in Arthurian legend, and specifically talking about the way that Merlin uses prophecy, it's much like the latter, which you could potentially change the future, because you know what the future is. And Merlin, in many cases and in many stories, knows what the future is, but still chooses the path, even when it leads to his death.
AMANDA: Hmm, because I guess it's a time travel situation or a change the future situation, where parting from the path, even if there is a consequence I know will be bad, is worse.
JULIA: Not even that. It's just he chooses to do the thing even though he knows it will lead to his demise.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: And in a lot of ways, that is an extremely interesting and flawed view of Merlin. And I just wanted to point that out, because I tend to think of prophecy a lot of the time as a Greek scholar, as this thing that is destiny, that like you cannot get away from it.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And that's not always the case in a lot of different world folklore. So I think it's really interesting that Merlin still chooses to go down these routes that lead to his death, even though he knows he has the ability to change it.
AMANDA: Right on. And yeah, shout out Paul. I love logging into Discord every Wednesday and seeing what folks are saying. So if you're not as on social media these days, join us. It's totally free, multitude.productions/community.
JULIA: So we know that Lailoken sees his own death, right? He, in this story, tells Kentigern that he sees himself being beaten, impaled, and drowned.
AMANDA: Like in sequence?
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: That's a bad way to go.
JULIA: So essentially, Amanda, this all comes to pass, and it is just as gruesome as he saw it happening.
AMANDA: Oh, man. And you know what, Julia? I bet being forewarned was not being forearmed.
JULIA: No, apparently, not in this case. So, essentially, the death is a result of Lailoken exposing the adultery of a vengeful queen.
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: So he says, "Hey, by the way, kingdom, this lady be cheating on her husband."
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: And this queen, extremely vengeful, sends a gang of men, essentially, to beat him to death, right?
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: So the men beat him as he saw, and then as he is, like, mortally wounded, attempting to flee from these men, he falls onto some essentially sharp stakes that are sticking out of the river Tweed.
AMANDA: Now, I am always telling you, Julia, as an Irish person, you gotta be fearful of rivers. Okay? Any body of water, a puddle too deep, a well, whatever it might be.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Not only because can you drown in that water, but sometimes people are just leaving their sharpened stakes laying in the river bed. You never know what's gonna be down there.
JULIA: It's usually used as a form of defending the shoreline. You know what I mean?
AMANDA: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
JULIA: But I appreciate that you're like, "People just leaving sticks places."
AMANDA: You know that old cartoon thing where, like, you step on a rake at just the wrong angle, or a hoe, then it comes up and breaks your nose?
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That happens. That happens to people. Okay?
JULIA: So he falls onto this stake.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: He impales himself in doing so. And then as he is on the stake, he drops down, and his head drops below the surface of the river, which drowns him, hence, beaten, impaled, drowned.
AMANDA: All right. Well, to be fair, that happened in quick succession, which I would much rather have than somebody beating me, me almost recovering, then getting impaled, than being like, "Glad that wasn't the end of me," and then it's a freaking drowning.
JULIA: Yeah, it's not Rasputin. You're not doing the Rasputin thing.
AMANDA: Uh-uh. Julia, pop quiz, what would a three-part shot combo be called the Rasputin?
JULIA: You know what, Amanda? How about I make that our refill when we get back from our refill? But first, real quick—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —the similarities between Lailoken and Myrddin, I think, are super interesting. The implication that most scholars seem to take from these two figures, most likely is that they derive from the same story, one that originated in the Old North and then it spreads across the rest of the island. Now it seems, based on these stories, that the original story was Lailoken, who then became Myrddin when his tale reached Wales. Some scholars believe that Lailoken's name was changed to Myrddin when the story reached Wales as a way of sort of backfilling a naming convention.
AMANDA: What was that naming convention?
JULIA: So remember how I said that there was the Welsh town of Carmarthen?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Which was named after Myrddin's Fortress. It is implied that through that naming convention, it was a guy named Myrddin who built a fortress there and then that was the name, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: However, it is much more likely that the name derived from an ancient Celtic term meaning sea fortress.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Which was reflected in the Latin name for that town, which is Moridunum, which is the name that was given to it when it was a Roman settlement that was founded in the first century CE. Now, when Roman presence in Wales ended around 400 CE, the original name meaning was lost, and as such, the belief that the place name commemorated Myrddin circulated, giving Myrddin the role as founder of the area. So naming backfilling. There we go. Isn't that interesting? I think that's interesting. So we can see how these two stories sort of twisted together to create Geoffrey of Monmouth's Merlin. But there's one more figure, Amanda, that is worth mentioning in terms of the inspiration for Merlin. But before we get to this Roman warrior prophet—
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Let's go grab our refill.
AMANDA: Okay.
[theme]
AMANDA: Hey, everybody, it's Amanda. And welcome to the refill, where I'm so excited to welcome in our newest patron, Anne. Anne, have you been joining quips on Patreon? This is a whole new thing that Patreon is giving us, basically a way for us to post, like social media stuff, photos, polls, videos, things that we're doing with our days. I shared a clip from Traitors Ireland because there was a clue that tied into a very early episode of Spirits. And it's free for everybody to look at. So whether you are a free member, a paid member, or somebody who's like, "What's the deal? And how do I get to the midroll of this podcast, and can I look at them in visual form?" You sure can at patreon.com/spiritspodcast. Thank you as well to our supporting producer-level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Hannah, Lily, Matthew, Rikoelike, Scott, and Wil. And our legend-level patrons, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Michael, Morgan H., Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, and Bea Me Up Scotty. We are once again asking for your urban legends, folks. We need them in preparation of spooky month. So email us, spiritspodcast@gmail.com or you can even leave us a voice memo. We've gotten some very exciting ones recently. You will be hearing them in upcoming episodes. So if you are international, you can just send us a voice note, spiritspodcast@gmail.com, or if you're in the US, you can dial 617-420-2344. Folks, I have one very special announcement to share with you today, which is that the MultiCrew Drive is back, baby. If you are not familiar, the MultCrew Drive is our way of saying thank you for supporting Multitude via the MultiCrew, which is like Patreon, but for Multitude as a whole. Basically, making a sustainable living in independent media is really hard. It's been particularly hard this last year, and your support of Multitude via the MultiCrew lets us do all the things that capitalism usually makes us stop doing, like experimenting, learning, making art, resting, and sharing our knowledge with others. So instead of, like, setting a goal of wanting to add a certain number of new members of the MultiCrew, or whatever, we are just going to say thank you. So for the next week and a half, we are going to be thanking everyone who's a part of the MultiCrew via benefits that all of you can enjoy. That stuff like community events on Twitch, giving away cool prizes for a podcast scavenger hunt that I'm doing right now, and members of the MultiCrew are getting six brand-new exclusive bonus podcasts in their RSS feed. If you want to hear Moiya and Mischa discussing the world-building of the movie Sinners, or medieval battlefield ASMR from Claire, yes, really, or even the return of our fan-favorite Beginners Potluck, which is a cooking advice show, you gotta join the MultiCrew, y'all. This has been my full-time living for the last eight years, which is crazy, and I can't believe we have gone this long. But I want to go farther, folks. We are working on new member shows, new resources for the podcast community at large, all kinds of ways that we're trying to make the creator landscape more sustainable for more people. And your support is literally the backbone of what we do. Advertisers come and go. You know, trends come and go. People wanted to pay us to make them podcasts comes and goes, but what doesn't change is our community and your support of us. So thank you. I hope you feel really loved by the end of this drive as a person who listens to our shows and listens to my midroll plugs. Thank you. So join us at multitudeshows.com, where you can either join the MultiCrew if you haven't already, or just check out all the things that are going on. Make sure you follow us on social as well, Multitude Shows. Finally, we are celebrating all month long in the Discord. If you haven't joined the free Multitude Discord, that link is at multitude.productions/community. Thank you so much. Here in New York City, home of Multitude, we are in the midst of another chaotic mayoral election as everybody tries to wrestle the lead from my man leftist upstart, Zohran Mamdani. Can Andrew Cuomo's bold strategy of using millennial meme lord social media tactics actually pay off? Will Eric Adams know a single unindicted person by election day in his personal or professional lives? Is Curtis Sliwa actually Mamdani's most normal opponent? I think so, yes. The Hell Gate Podcast has you covered on all things mayoral election and more. This is a worker-owned, subscriber-funded publication called Hell Gate, and they are knee-deep in all things New York City. Once a week, the journalists at Hell Gate go into reverb podcast mode, reverb off. See what they did there? To detail what they have spent the week covering in our fair city. That's everything from what's happening with the ICE arrests and protests at federal court to which food is okay to actually eat on the subway, judging by the ethics of, you know, normal New Yorkers. Everybody has opinions, and they do, too. The Hell Gate Podcast, they're on the ground and in your ears. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
[theme]
JULIA: Amanda, we are back, and you tasked me with trying to think of what a Three Shot Combo for Rasputin would be. I'm going to turn this around. I'm going to make it a Myrddin Three Shot Combo, or a Lailoken Three Shot Combo.
AMANDA: Excellent. Now, there is, of course, the Chumbawamba, right, which is a whiskey drink and then a vodka drink, and then a [32:20] and then a— I've done them, not— don't recommend it. There's the beer shot combo, pretty basic. There is the one bourbon, one scotch, one beer, which I don't have a name for, maybe just the— what was that George Thorogood?
JULIA: I don't know.
AMANDA: That's where I'm coming from. What three spirits taken in succession represent Merlin?
JULIA: Now, I'm gonna actually suggest we do a shot inspired by the three figures that inspired Merlin, how about that?
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: So we have Myrddin, we have Lailoken, and we have who we'll talk about in just a second, Ambrosius Aurelianus.
AMANDA: That's a name.
JULIA: Let me think, what's a Welsh drink, Amanda?
AMANDA: What did I drink in Wales? They make great cider in Wales, there's certainly Welsh whiskey. I first had Ribena in Wales, the blackcurrant.
JULIA: Ooh. Actually, I love a blackcurrant shot. We'll do one of those for Myrddin. We'll do a Scotch shot for Lailoken, since he's, yeah, not fun, but we're making it happen. And then for the Romans, I think you just do a wine chaser at the end. Does that sound good?
AMANDA: Gotta say, among my least favorite shots to take, but we'll go for it.
JULIA: I think we'd have to start with the scotch, because Lailoken came first. And then we'll do the blackcurrant Welsh drink. And then a quick swirl and a shot back of some red wine.
AMANDA: Okay, okay. You know, I think there's a world where this is like a spiked mold holiday, you know, warm spice kind of thing. We'll work on that as we get into the cooler weather.
JULIA: There's time for everything. You know?
AMANDA: You know, I've never tried cleansing my palate with red wine, Julia, but there's a first for everything.
JULIA: All right, Amanda. So the last figure that we have to talk about is the Roman warrior prophet, a war leader who defeated the Anglo Saxons in the fifth century, who became a legend among the Britons. We know that he was a real person. We have historical record of him. But more importantly to us, he becomes a legendary figure, and then is taken by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who further transforms him, not just as an inspiration for Merlin, but also as the uncle of King Arthur and the brother of Uther Pendragon.
AMANDA: Oh, damn.
JULIA: So the real Ambrosius Aurelianus was described in his time, specifically after a battle with the Saxons by a British monk named Gildas, who described him as, quote, "A gentleman who, perhaps alone of the Romans, had survived the shock of this notable storm," the battle that I just described.
Certainly his parents, who had worn the purple, were slain in it." This implies that he was likely from aristocratic heritage, because—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —male patricians usually wore a purple band to denote their class.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: "His descendants, in our day, have become greatly inferior to their grandfather's excellence. Under him, our people regained their strength and challenged the victors to battle. The Lord assented, and the battle went their way."
AMANDA: And he's like, "Man, the grandkids, fucking ruining this shit."
JULIA: "This— the new generation. They don't understand—"
AMANDA: Uh-uh.
JULIA: "—what it was like for their grandparents."
AMANDA: With their TikToks and their Labubus.
JULIA: We were still doing this in the fucking fifth century, wild to me.
AMANDA: Yep.
JULIA: Basically, it was said that Ambrosius organized the survivors of the battle that almost wiped them all out, and then managed to achieve the first military victory over the Saxons. Now, Gildas, this monk, in his description of these battles and Ambrosius' military prowess, led to Ambrosius being referred to as the Last of the Romans.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Which honestly, pretty cool title, not gonna lie.
AMANDA: Very good title. Yeah.
JULIA: So this is where we start to get into the realm of the legendary. That's the historical man. Here's where we get into the legendary. Starting with the Historia Brittonum, which was attributed to a Welsh monk in the ninth century named Nennius.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: In this, we are told that Vortigern, you remember Vortigern? He's the one that's trying to pour child blood into the foundations of his towers.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: It is said that in the Historia Brittonum that Vortigern ruled in fear of Ambrosius, indicating that Ambrosius was considered a formidable threat more than northern invaders, more than the Romans attempting to restore their rule across the island.
AMANDA: He lived rent-free in that guy's head.
JULIA: It is said that this fear of Ambrosius is what leads Vortigern to make an alliance with the Saxons in the first place.
AMANDA: Damn. Powerful man.
JULIA: Yes, and this is only the beginning of Ambrosius' mentioned in the Historia Brittonum, right?
AMANDA: Side note, Julia. I love the idea that this monk is like, "Devoting my life to God, gonna, you know, think and pray and study and read, like, all day long." And throughout his life, he's like, "You know what I need? A full history of Britain."
JULIA: We need it. Now, this next story is gonna sound a little familiar.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: This is from chapters 40 through 42 of the Historia Brittonum. In this tale, Ambrosius is not yet a leader in his own right, but instead, is an adolescent boy. The idea is he's maybe about 13. He hasn't gone through puberty yet. He's an adolescent boy, but he is one who happens to have supernatural powers. Now, news of his powers spreads to Vortigern, where the king and his royal magicians are intimidated. In this tale as well, it is revealed that Ambrosius is the son of a Roman consul, which further intimidates Vortigern.
AMANDA: Yeah. Not only is his kid powerful and probably handsome, but his parents are powerful.
JULIA: Yes. So Vortigern's royal magicians convince him to cede to Ambrosius, the castle Dinas Emrys.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: As well as all of the kingdoms he ruled in the western part of England, while Vortigern flees up to the north.
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: Now imagine, Amanda, for a moment being so scared of a 13-year-old boy—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —that you give him half the island of England, and then you bounce.
AMANDA: Powerful. Julia, they— he had rizz. We didn't have that term back then.
JULIA: He had the rizz.
AMANDA: The rizz was palpable.
JULIA: By chapter 48, Ambrosius is described as, quote, "King among all the kings of the British nation."
AMANDA: Julia, there is a man on Survivor coming up this season, this is true.
JULIA: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: Season 49, who calls himself the rizz god. And I think—
JULIA: Oh, no.
AMANDA: —this might be the forthcoming of Merlin's predecessor.
JULIA: To be fair to Ambrosius, he's not the one calling himself that.
AMANDA: Nope.
JULIA: That guy on Survivor has a problem.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. I think so, too.
JULIA: So he's out there being king of among kings. He's doling out lands to various different lords who have shown him fealty.
AMANDA: I mean, good, yeah.
JULIA: Well-established at this point. Now, what I find interesting, Amanda, is how Geoffrey of Monmouth sort of handles the legacy of Ambrosius Aurelianus, or should I say, Aurelius Ambrosius, which is what Geoffrey of Monmouth calls him. Now, according to Geoffrey, he is the son of King Constantine, whose oldest son is murdered by Vortigern.
AMANDA: And this is the same kid, right?
JULIA: Now, this is Geoffrey of Monmouth's retelling of this story.
AMANDA: I was going to say, it's giving a little embellishment, because it went from his parents once wore purple to he was the son of a—
JULIA: King Constantine.
AMANDA: Basically, yeah. Like, this has been—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —a real glow up.
JULIA: Right. So this is where Geoffrey of Monmouth is starting to write his History of Kings.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Which is where we got our first, like, Merlin experiences from him, right?
AMANDA: Of course, because you can't just have the son of, like, a minor Roman nobleman.
JULIA: No, no, no.
AMANDA: You gotta be the son of a king.
JULIA: So Constantine, oldest son is murdered, his heir. So Constantine takes his two younger sons, which is Ambrosius and Uther, and he sends them to Brittany in order to avoid a similar fate.
AMANDA: I see.
JULIA: They, then, later return from exile. They raise a large army, and they defeat Vortigern, which is very Macbeth of them, I will say.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Extremely Macbeth of them. Out there being very Malcolm, which I love.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Now, Vortigern and his troops are destroyed, and then the two befriend Geoffrey of Monmouth's Merlin.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: So Aurelius Ambrosius is out there being like, "Oh, person who inspired my tale, or rather, I inspired your tale, I guess we're friends now."
AMANDA: "Weird that we're meeting up. Very convenient, but okay."
JULIA: So with Merlin's help, the two manage to defeat the Saxon leader, and Ambrosius is made king of Britain. However, before he can really sort of take control, enjoy his rule, he is poisoned by his enemies, and Uther becomes king.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: You remember what happens after that? Merlin has to—
AMANDA: I sure do.
JULIA: —have a prophecy. He has to make sure Arthur is born. Uther is trying to cuckold men that are under him. It's a whole thing.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So Geoffrey of Monmouth essentially takes Ambrosius, takes his traits and gives them to a few other people, right? So his magical abilities go to Merlin, his military prowess and rule go to Uther Pendragon, and that in turn, is sort of passed down to Arthur.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So we have all of these versions of similar tropes that then coalesce into the version of Merlin that we saw told by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
AMANDA: Very cool.
JULIA: But it wasn't as though Geoffrey of Monmouth was the last person to write about Merlin, right, Amanda?
AMANDA: I mean, come on, you gotta write about that guy. There's so many possibilities.
JULIA: Exactly. So in fact, many writers took the Arthurian legends and essentially made them their own, right? We talked about this in the first episode, but the Arthurian canon is one of those things that is very nebulous and changes a lot over time, depending on—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —the time period it is being told in and who is writing them. Now, Merlin, I would say, causes an interesting conflict for some of the writers.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So King Arthur, in Arthurian legend, is portrayed as a real king, right? A historic figure who existed.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: How does this wizard, this magical being fit into that?
AMANDA: It's not pagan. He's a saint.
JULIA: Unfortunately, Amanda, no, not really. So the issue is that Merlin's magic negates Arthur's realism. So in later stories—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —Merlin is a prophet, sure, but he was more of a political figure, right? He is more of an advisor.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Later, writers tend to shy away from the established origin of Merlin, that he was the son of a demon, the son of an incubus, someone who dabbled in magical arts or was born magical, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Or if they decided to keep magic as a part of the story, the magic was, in general, kept vague.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: There's nods to it, but it's never explicitly like, "And then Merlin cast a spell and a storm approached." You know what I mean?
AMANDA: Totally, because if it's vague enough, then it can be like, "Well, yeah, like, God favors the English clearly." And, like, you know, this is ultimately a legend that is used to undergird and to prop up a monarchy, even in the present day.
JULIA: But there are others, Amanda, who, sort of, I would say, embraced Merlin's demonic origins as well as his magical usage, right? So one of these who really helped define the wizard's magical abilities is the work of Robert de Boron. He was a French poet. He was the author of the epic poem that we mentioned in our previous episode, which was aptly named Merlin.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: You'll remember that in one of the origins of Merlin that I described in the previous episode. He was meant to be the AntiChrist, but he was baptized right after his birth, right?
AMANDA: Ah, dammit, dammit, dammit.
JULIA: So that was de Boron's version of the tale.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Very deft. That really gives him, like, the magic with the Christianity, with the—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Yeah. Hmm.
JULIA: Yeah. We were like, "We can say that he has powers because he was born of a demon, but that's okay, because he loves God."
AMANDA: He got that big dunk.
JULIA: So this is also the version of the story where he was born, like, intelligent and talking, and with all of his hair, remember?
AMANDA: Don't remind me.
JULIA: So de Boron also outlines a number of Merlin's powers, which are even further fleshed out by later romantic writers. So here's a list of powers that de Boron gave Merlin.
AMANDA: Oh, my God. Sick.
JULIA: The ability to shapeshift into any male of any age, and sometimes animals, most frequently a stag.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Disappear and reappear without anyone noticing that he is come or gone.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Travel far distances without a lapse of time.
AMANDA: Sick.
JULIA: Controls climate, summoning darkness, mists, storms, fire and smoke.
AMANDA: Watch me sleep anywhere if I could do that.
JULIA: Detect buried treasure.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Love that one.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Cast sleep upon an entire castle.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Okay. And then finally, create illusions to entertain his love.
AMANDA: This is really— it's capital M, Magician. Those are so many of the things—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —that I imagine a wizard like disappearing, making something out of nothing, turning into a bird.
JULIA: Exactly, exactly. And you're like, "Oh, yeah. Those are all things that it makes sense that Merlin can do, right?"
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: de Boron extremely influential in sort of creating, again, Merlin, as the proto wizard, right?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Now, following de Boron's Merlin, we should talk about the Vulgate Cycle, which— this is a Lancelot-Grail cycle, so a story that focuses on— particularly the character of Lancelot and also the Holy Grail Quest.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: This expands even further on de Boron's Merlin poem. Now, the Vulgate Cycle presents itself as a chronicle of actual events, while also retelling the story of King Arthur, with more of a focus on the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —the quest for the Holy Grail and important to us, at least, the Life of Merlin, right?
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: There are a few additional details about Merlin's life, as well as some, like, side stories that are added by the Vulgate Cycle, specifically how Arthur and Gawain were aided by Merlin early in their heroic deeds and in their wars against the Saxons.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: Which we love. Now, this cycle also features a tale of how Merlin disappeared because of the actions of the Lady of the Lake, which I outlined in the previous episode.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Happy that we got to talk about that. Next I wanted to mention Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, where Merlin begins to become, I would say, relegated to almost a side character.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Again, most likely this is because Arthur is supposed to be like a real historical figure, and having this magical wizard sort of, like, takes away some of his prowess as a leader, I would say. That, and also a magical figure in a predominantly Christian- focused story, not great, I would say.
AMANDA: Difficult to square those two things, for sure.
JULIA: In the story from Malory, Merlin is portrayed as subordinate to Arthur and his knights.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Merlin has his, like, supernatural powers in the story, but as Merlin, a case book puts it, quote, "Malory turns a long book about Merlin into a short book about King Arthur.
AMANDA: Incredible. Great jib.
JULIA: I think it's really— it's read to filth. Absolutely read to filth. So Malory starts his story with Arthur's origins rather than Merlin's origins. And while Merlin does play a key role in Arthur's conception and fostering an establishment as king, he's a counselor. He's more of a side character than anything.
AMANDA: He's almost like feminized in that way, like made subordinate, made almost like a midwife, sort of like put to the side. Interesting.
JULIA: Malory does not like Merlin. I would say that much.
AMANDA: Yeah. Or I'd guess women, just putting a guess out there.
JULIA: Well, I don't know. So, for example, his retelling of Merlin falling to the Lady of the Lake is extremely harsh against Merlin.
AMANDA: Really?
JULIA: He ultimately tells the story in a way that shows that Merlin is the catalyst that starts Arthur's rule, sort of, like, setting up his court, helping Arthur be conceived, et cetera, et cetera. But it is almost required that Merlin has to vanish in order for the court to work out its own brilliance, right? It has to work towards its ultimately tragic destiny, and it can only do so if Merlin is out of the picture.
AMANDA: Fascinating. Yeah, he's necessary to set it up, but not after that.
JULIA: Yes. Exactly, exactly. So, Amanda, Arthurian legend begins to fade towards the end of the Middle Ages, kind of making only very minor appearances until the 19th century rolls around, which means we don't have much more writing on Merlin until around the mid-1800s.
AMANDA: When everyone is like, "Industrialization solved all of our societal problems. I better get into weird shit from the past."
JULIA: Well, you know who got into weird shit from the past, Amanda? Tennyson.
AMANDA: Oh, Ten— I was like, "It's too early for Yates, but I know Yates is gonna get up in here."
JULIA: So Tennyson probably wrote the most about Merlin during this period with the Idylls of the King, which were published between 1857 and 1885. And Tennyson, in particular, really identifies strongly with the character of Merlin.
AMANDA: Oh, I bet he did.
JULIA: To the point, Amanda, where he's using Merlin as a pseudonym for some of his writing.
AMANDA: Ugh.
JULIA: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So Merlin played only a really supporting role in these early idylls, but he became a very important role as the major harbinger of the kingdom's demise and failure during the idyll titled Merlin and Vivien.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: Now that, as you might remember, Vivien is another name that we use for the Lady of the Lake.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: So Tennyson, in this, portrays him as the architect of Arthur's kingdom, the one who sort of prepared the way for Arthur, received him, and built his Citadel, as Tennyson puts it.
AMANDA: That's so interesting. So Tennyson was, like, Queen Victoria's favorite poet. He was a poet laureate for, like, almost all of her tenure.
JULIA: Thank you for the English literature background. I appreciate this.
AMANDA: No, I mean, just to say that, like, people were really shitty and misogynistic about Queen Victoria being actually controlled by Prince Albert. And so I'm curious if there was any kind of, like, political commentary, or just like it was in the air at the time—
JULIA: Oh, Amanda.
AMANDA: —in seeing the sort of like a person behind the scenes that's not the figurehead as the real architect of empire.
JULIA: Oh, Amanda, you're gonna love this next bit. In this retelling of the story of Merlin and the Lady of the Lake, you know, he calls her Vivien in this, there's various different names for her, but she is very clearly a seductress character.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: And she stands in direct opposition to what was the Victorian ideal woman at the time. This ideal—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: This idea that she is not domestic, she's not nurturing, she is not subservient to male authority.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And this leads to what Tennyson describes as her betrayal of Merlin, which, as we've talked about before, leads to his doom.
AMANDA: Fascinating.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: I'm certain there have been PhDs in literature written about this.
JULIA: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure there's something about, like, the misogynistic era of Queen Victoria and how Tennyson's portrayal of Merlin and Vivien ties into that.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Incredible. Thank you for that context, because I didn't have that. I just knew, like—
AMANDA: Hell yeah, dude.
JULIA: —Tennyson was writing about, like, the virtuous Victorian women.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And how Vivien was the complete opposite of that.
AMANDA: Oh, fantastic. So cool.
JULIA: So Merlin is featured in plenty of writing after Tennyson, sort of, I would say, revives his legacy, right? Mark Twain follows suit with a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in 1889, where Merlin is more of a comedic figure, I would say. He's sort of like a dolt that is trying to chase down this main character of Hank Morgan.
AMANDA: I'm gonna tell you right now, Julia, I'm reading the Ron Chernow biography of Mark Twain very slowly, page by page.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: It would've been too powerful to give Mark Twain vine—
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: —much less TikTok.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: So I am just grateful that we had him in written form, because the man was so prolific that I don't think I could have handled the, like, video mashup, because you say— like in Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, I noticed, like, the millennial women dressing up as Hamilton right now, like burying bodies as they sing "Alexander, go back to sleep."
JULIA: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: Anyway, it would have been too powerful.
JULIA: It's good that we don't have any, like, music.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Or like audio clips that we could be taking from Mark Twain.
AMANDA: We have his voice, which is hilarious, but maybe I gotta put that on TikTok.
JULIA: C.S. Lewis also later takes a crack at him in a story called That Hideous Strength.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Where Merlin is awakened and receives the spirit of what I can only describe as a space angel.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: That's a super weird run from 1945, if you have some time, read it. It's super weird.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: Then there's also The Once and Future King by T.H. White, which is probably the 20th century's most popular and influential image of Merlin. T.H. White is very critical of Malory's portrayal of Merlin in Morte d'Arthur.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: Because, as we remember, Malory hated Merlin, was not a Merlin fan at all. There's been plenty of others. I'm sure most of our audience probably is of an age where they remember, for example, the very Tumblr popular BBC Merlin show from 2008.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Whenever I tell people what episode we're doing next, that is what they ask about.
JULIA: So for people who may not know about this show, it is a, I would say, like young adult show where Arthur and Merlin are about the same age, which is like teenagers/young adults.
AMANDA: Shippable age.
JULIA: Exactly. And the focus of the show sort of pits like magic users/magic lovers against magic haters. That's like one of the show's main themes, which I think is really interesting when you think about how the different portrayals of Merlin historically either played up or played down his magical abilities.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: Isn't that neat?
AMANDA: I need to watch the show now with so much more Merlin context.
JULIA: And Amanda, that's what we have about Merlin. He is a figure that has changed dramatically from his origins to his various retellings. And as a result, you can see how he became this sort of prototypical wizard, an important magic wielding figure in Western society.
AMANDA: Julia, I'm so grateful to know more. I, for one, loved the dip into Arthurian lore. I think there is so much here.
JULIA: It scratched a real interesting itch for me, personally.
AMANDA: I'm so glad. So ConSpiriters, weigh in if you like this. Maybe this can be our next deep dive.
JULIA: Yeah. Amanda, that sounds to me like a Merlin-esque prophecy.
AMANDA: Ooh, I love it. Well, Julia, thank you very much. And of course, folks, like we say it a lot, but I really want you to remember that next time you see the Lady in the Lake, arm clad in pure shimmering samite, hefting forth from the bosom of the water Excalibur, remember in that moment—
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: —stay cool.
JULIA: Later, satyrs.
[theme]