{"podcast":{"title":"The Three Ravens Podcast","slug":"the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563","podcast_index_feed_id":6092563,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6404e1f4c5ea8c0011811194","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/threeravenspodcast","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/6404e1f4c5ea8c0011811194/1762731467101-0eb1042b-7eea-4cd5-b8b9-9f44f87aadbd.jpeg","author":"Three Ravens","episode_count":511,"summary":"Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux. In each weekly episode, released on Mondays, we explore a historic county, digging into the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Across our first six series we ventured around England's 39 historic counties twice, taking turns to tell a new version of a legend from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it may have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past. Our Bonus Episodes are then released on Thursdays ( Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Forgotten Melodies about folk song types with original performances from us, and Magus , which is about the lives of the most famous witches and wizards in history). On Saturdays, we then release episodes of our interview series Local Legends, with each episode featuring a chat between us and an acclaimed folklorist, author, podcaster or historian, deepening discussions about that week's county. In b…","last_synced_at":"2026-08-02T04:21:37.212610+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563"},"episode":{"title":"Magus #11: Merlin","slug":"magus-11-merlin","published_at":"2026-06-01T05:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563/magus-11-merlin","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563","url":"https://www.threeravenspodcast.com/","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6404e1f4c5ea8c0011811194/e/6a1c476fad55909da66c1633/media.mp3","summary":"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... Speak with you again on Thursday for another triple-bill of fairy tales and chats about them with The Ratcatcher and The True History of Little Golden Hood and The Three Dwarfs! Thumbnail cover art for this episode features \"Volkhv\" by…","meta_description":"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 developm…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4728,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563/episodes/magus-11-merlin/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-three-ravens-podcast-6092563/magus-11-merlin.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}