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Welcome back to our breakdown and
analysis companion podcast for The

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Cycle, Rise of the Merlin. I'm Megan
Basham, culture and entertainment writer

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Daily Wire.

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We're experiencing the show together,
then digging deeper into each episode.

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Spoilers and all. So if you are not
caught up on episode three, hit pause

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because we are going to be jumping
straight into the fifth century where

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world has now changed.

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Rome is gone. Britain is fractured. And
stepping out of the mist to meet us is

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an adult Merlin. He's goldenized. He's
ageless. And he's already spoken of in

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half whispers and half legends.

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Merlin Emrys has returned to the land of
the living.

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Now, the first thing I want to note is
that Tom Sharp is absolutely crushing

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this role. So this is not the whimsical
wizard of later medieval romance.

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I'm Merlin.

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But it's also not the doddering old man
of Disney pop culture. What we really

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have here is this otherworldly warrior
prophet.

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He's someone who's ancient, he's
restrained, and he's very clearly

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Fun fact, Sharp snagged this breakout
part after a massive worldwide open

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casting call, and obviously he nailed
it. He brings all the mystery, the

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gravity, and just... the right touch of
menace. And we immediately see that as

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the son of Vortigern brings the wizard
to his father, Vortigern's men all know

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Merlin's name. They say Merlin is of the
fearful, my king.

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They call him Emrys, immortal.

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So his legend has clearly not been
forgotten.

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Now, Bede describes him as a king or
warlord whose reign coincided with

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Britain's unraveling.

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after Rome's withdrawal.

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And here, he's confused, because the
Merlin he thought should be ancient.

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Instead, Merlin appears young, and we
know that that's Merlin's Atlantean

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heritage coming out.

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Time has marched on, and Taliesin and
Charis are now names from the fog of

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legend. They're figures who are already
slipping into myth.

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Taliesin was no mortal. He was an
otherworldly being, as had been used to

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mother.

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Now, the Druids, bless their hearts,
have apparently never heard of Occam's

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Razor because they have decided that the
reason Vortigern's fortress walls keep

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collapsing is not because of something
obvious like poor engineering, but

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because of a curse requiring human
sacrifice.

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And that is extremely on brand for the
fifth century. You can think of it a

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little bit like that Parks and
Recreation episode with Fred Armisen as

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American general, bread gone moldy.

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human sacrifice.

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Walls falling down, human sacrifice.

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Flu outbreak, believe it or not.

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Human sacrifice right away.

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So that's their answer to everything.

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But Merlin, even as a chained, quote
unquote, prisoner, radiates this calm

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authority. And he tells Peleus that
nothing will happen to him that is not

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appointed. It's left unstated who does
the appointing, but that echo of Christ

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before Pilate is fairly unmistakable.
You would have no authority over me

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it had been given to you from above.

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And that really brings us to one of my
favorite visual moments in this episode.

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As the fight between Peleus and
Vortigern's son, Passion, is happening

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Merlin, he just casually keeps working
his pickaxe until he reveals the cause

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the construction problem, a hidden
spring collapsing the walls.

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So now Vortigern knows that his druidic
counselors are not to be trusted and he

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executes them.

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Then comes Merlin's confrontation with
Vortigern. And this is where the episode

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really sharpens its teeth because Merlin
decries Vortigern for equating peace

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with accommodation.

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and he charges the king with giving the
Saxons safe harbor to plunder the

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British lands.

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And again, that dovetails with the
historical record.

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Gildas, writing in the 6th century,
blasts a quote -unquote proud tyrant who

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widely taken as Vortigern for inviting
Saxon mercenaries to fight Picts and

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Scots. only for those Saxons to then
turn on him and begin carving out their

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kingdoms as Vortigern fled to North
Wales.

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Now, Bede names Vortigern explicitly as
the British king who kicked off the

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Saxon incursion around 449.

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So Lawhead is masterfully blending myth
and actual historical record here. And I

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think what's really intriguing is that
Vortigern is far more of a flawed

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pragmatist than, say, a cartoon villain.

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Because he's complex.

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He's even likable in the way that he has
the self -awareness of his failures.

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Though, of course, he's no less
deserving of Merlin's pretty Reagan

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chastising here. You traded strength for
peace.

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But there'll be no peace without
strength.

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True in the 1980s, true in the 5th
century, and true today because that is

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rule of nation building and it never
changes.

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I had a vision.

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Then we get to the vision.

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The white dragon and the red dragon,
locked in combat beneath the collapsing

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fortress. Now, this is classic Arthurian
imagery, again, pulled straight from

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12th century cleric Geoffrey of
Monmouth's History of the Kings of

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The white dragon represents the Saxons.
The red dragon represents the Britons.

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Merlin prophesies that a high king will
rise, a king who will unite the land,

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but he doesn't yet know who that king
is.

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I do not know.

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We also get another indication of the
passage of time here.

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Doffid, the young man who stood with
Taliesin on the day of Merlin's birth,

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now old, very old.

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Yet we see from Vortigern's reaction to
their appeal to Christ that Britain is

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overall still pagan.

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Now, in part, that's because petty kings
like Vortigern have kept missionaries

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like Dauphid from doing their work. So
the Christian kingdom Taliesin foresaw

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has not yet come to pass. That promise
lingers, but it's not yet realized.

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We also confront the question of
unrealized promise in this flashback to

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Merlin's youth.

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Clearly, he was being trained to rule,
and he expected to be a king.

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So what happened? Why isn't he?
Hopefully, that's... something that

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some answers to soon, and we'll get a
little bit more information about where

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he's been and what he's been up to. But
it's certainly an intriguing reference

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to whether he will earn the name
Ambrosius, meaning eternal or divine.

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Seems like he did live up to that
expectation.

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And finally, the end of Vortigern as
Merlin predicted.

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Another British tribe that we don't know
yet attacks, and it's a brutal fight

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scene. Vortigern proves himself less
than heroic. He hides and abandons his

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so that there's an almost poetic irony
when the very child that he ordered to

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watch the archers back is the one who
kills him.

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But I do hate that that little boy died.

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War is cruel.

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Hey, Luther.

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Son of Constantine. Then we move into
the forest and we hear that name again

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that should ring bells for anyone who's
even casually familiar with Arthurian

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legend. Uther, the predecessor to
Arthur's throne.

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But it's interesting because right now
it's not Uther who's pursuing kingship.

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Instead, it's his brother, Aurelius.

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Aurelius Ambrosius is another figure who
straddles both history and legend.

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Gildas, once again, a 6th century
British cleric, described him as a war

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who resisted the Saxons and restored at
least some measure of order.

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And then we have later writers who
folded him into Arthurian genealogy, and

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Lawhead then follows that tradition.

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Now, Aurelius is honorable and
compassionate. He clearly wants to be a

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kind of king, the kind of king who works
for the good of all and sees himself as

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the protector of his people, not just
their ruler.

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But we also know that there will be a
fight over the High Throne, so we have

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wonder if his decision to show mercy to
Passant is eventually going to come back

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to haunt him. But in the meantime, it's
fascinating that he recognizes Merlin in

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some way that we don't understand yet.
It may be that he simply means he's

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Merlin from the stories, or it may be
that something more mysterious is going

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here.

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Then, as promised in our Episode 1
discussion, another sword.

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Now, from Merlin's vision, we know the
last time he saw this sword, it was in

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the possession of the Roman commander
Magnus Maximus, the Roman general who

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declared himself emperor in Britain in
the late 4th century.

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Historically, Magnus Maximus was real.
He ruled Britain and Gaul before being

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executed in 388 AD.

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In Welsh tradition, he becomes a heroic
legend, so it's appropriate that Merlin

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calls it the Emperor's Sword.

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What we don't know yet is how Magnus
Maximus came to have it, or how it ended

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in the hands of Aurelius' father.

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We know that Merlin says this sword
represents Britain. And we know the

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he had as a child of the sword rusting,
as the kings of the realm argue, is

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disquieting. But how does that
differentiate it from the sword that

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mother gifted to Taliesin? That we don't
know yet.

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But as we move on with the story, we see
that distrustful Uther is not a fan of

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Aurelius' plan to bring Merlin in as
counselor. And he doesn't like Merlin's

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plan of allowing the southern kings to
desert and go home so they can

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what living under Saxon rule will mean.

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But Merlin does believe that he can
rally support from the northern and

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kingdoms.

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Now, Peleus doesn't love Merlin's plan.
We see him many times in this episode

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questioning his master's judgment.

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But Peleus is also smart. So like Elisha
and Elijah in scripture, this situation

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is one where even though he doesn't
understand, he's going to continue to

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and follow his master. And to comfort
Merlin, Peleus brings out his harp. And

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learned something really important about
him in this moment. He's been carrying

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this harp for 50 years.

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So even though he looks about 19,
clearly he must have some of that

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ancestry.

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Next, we move on to a slightly confusing
scene where Uther approaches Merlin's

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tent at night.

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And it's a little unclear what his
motivation is. Is he trying to rob him?

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trying to kill him, wake him up, protect
him? The show leaves that ambiguous.

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And personally, I don't mind that
because the overall sense that we're

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is that Uther is a man of action, not
introspection. So his intentions may not

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always be clear, perhaps not even to
him.

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Then we move on to the Saxon raid. And
it is immediately clear that Uther is

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lethally effective.

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This is not a man destined to be a
philosopher king. This is a man forged

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war. And it's a good thing, too, because
finally we meet Hengist, the Saxon war

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leader. And there is some debate among
scholars over whether Hengist was merely

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a legendary figure or if he was real.
For what it's worth, J .R .R. Tolkien,

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did make a great study of these
materials and also, of course, drew on

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The Lord of the Rings, believed that he
was historical.

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Either way, Lawhead treats him as both a
symbol of invasion and also a man of

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flesh and blood.

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I'd say we've proven ourselves more than
capable on our own. You slew the

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usurper, Hartigan.

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Now, Uther may not like Merlin, but he
and Aurelius are going to need some

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serious help because time is very
precious now as the Saxons are taking as

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of Britain as they want. And after all
the bloodshed and prophecy, we return to

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something small, something human and
profoundly grounding, Caris. We find her

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prayer in that old humble shrine after
all the kingdoms and swords and dragons.

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This is where the heart of the story
still lives.

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Britain is broken.

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A new man is championed as king, but not
crowned yet.

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The Saxons advance. The promised high
king has not yet appeared. But

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Merlin walks the land.

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And that, more than anything else, tells
us that this story is far from over.

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Episode 3 masterfully bridges
generations.

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It blends gritty history, things like
Vortigern's doomed pact, Aurelius'

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resistance, Hengist's rise, with this
soaring myth.

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So what grabbed you most?

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Merlin's unflappable cool?

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The dragon prophecy chills?

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Or the legend of the Sword of Britain?

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Hit us with your thoughts and join us
next week as the pieces continue to move

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towards Arthur's birth.

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Thanks for joining us.