Original subtitles

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Pendragon Companion Podcast.

I'm Megan Basham, culture and entertainment writer at Daily Wire.

Now, if you haven't already watched the first episode, I do want to warn you

that there are going to be spoilers as we dive into all the myth, the magic,

the legend of Stephen Lawhead's epic hero's journey to really end all hero's

journeys. Each week, we're going to revisit an episode, drawing connections

historical, literary, and even... Theological undercurrents while also

into what this series contributes to the Arthurian canon. We'll be breaking down

the action. We'll be exploring all of these character arcs. And most of all,

we're going to be analyzing the story. Whether you're a longtime fan of the

Pendragon cycle or you're a newcomer that's just discovering this universe

the first time.

My goal is to closely examine this amazing narrative and really get under

hood a bit as we go, unpacking the lore, exploring inspirations, and asking what

it is about these ancient tales that still speak so much to our imaginations

today. So grab your cloak, steady your courage, and join me on the long road

from the lost lands of Atlantis to the throne of Britannia.

So I posted on X a few weeks ago that I couldn't wait to talk about Pendragon.

And I'm so excited that that day is finally here because I get to obsess on

every detail, every Easter egg to my heart's content.

And that's a lot of details and Easter eggs because the Pendragon cycle, Rise

the Merlin.

occupies a huge world. It's drawn from historical record, from British

and even from Greek allegory like Plato's thinking of the island of

really a lot to cover.

To zoom out for a moment, Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle is a seven -book epic

begins with the original trilogy, Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur. So it's

a straightforward retelling of Arthurian legend like you might expect from

Thomas Mallory or from T .H. White's The Once and Future King or even that

wonderfully weird cult classic from the 80s, Excalibur, which is a favorite of

mine.

But it's also not a, say, gritty, stripped -down version of Arthur like

Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles, for those who have read those, or even the

terrible anti -Christian 2004 film with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.

Personally, I thought that one was a revisionist crime against the canon.

But instead, what Lawhead does is he blends myth and history into a unified

vision. He really merges the enchanted world of Arthurian tradition with the

real Britain of the 5th and 6th centuries.

Now, it's a time of shifting beliefs and culture clash.

We have the Romans withdrawing and the barbarians invading, and we see

Christianity emerge and conflict with older pagan religions.

Through these narratives that begin before Arthur or even Merlin's birth,

Lawhead builds the cultural, political, and spiritual spiritual foundations that

are necessary for the prophesied king to rise, to claim that iconic sword, and

to unite the tribes of Britain in the fabled kingdom of summer. It's a lot to

absorb, to say the least. But thankfully, we have Merlin's prologue to

scene for us.

This is to be Arthur's story.

To understand him, you have to understand the land.

This land, this.

So I'm going to be really honest with you guys. At this first scene, I let out

major sigh of relief because I am a huge fantasy geek and I consume a lot of it

in all mediums. novels, films, television series.

So I have a lot of experience seeing how easily fantasy can become cheesy if you

don't handle it properly.

So even though The Daily Wire has obviously produced some fantastic films.

The Pendragon Cycle was an undertaking on an entirely different scale. We have

these huge vistas. We're building out, you know, several large worlds. We have

to fully inhabit all of these spaces with our extras and our costuming. So it

was really a lot to do. And I mean, we even hired a classicist to invent an

entirely new language here.

So I approached this series a little like you might if your cousin suddenly

invited you to hear her open mic performance at the comedy club. You're a

nervous to find out, okay, does she actually have the talent to pull this

And so this was the moment that I knew that I could just relax and enjoy the

show. I knew that the acting, the costuming, and the overall production

were going to meet my pretty rigorous expectations here.

And what we have in this initial scene is Merlin looking back from an

unspecified point in the future, and he's acting as our guide, and he's

delivering a sort of prologue that gives us an overview of the characters and

the storylines that we're going to be following.

And then we hear the name Uther.

Not that Uther ever was one for a scholar's poem.

Now, that's someone that anyone familiar with Arthurian lore is going to

immediately recognize.

We also hear a foreshadowing of the threats that Arthur's going to face, and

get a glimpse of Atlantean Princess Caris.

And, of course, the sword. But which sword? Now, that's a question that will

answered as the series progresses, but right now we're not sure.

Then the curtain rises on the arrival of the baby Taliesin.

And I love the biblical allusion here because he's something like Moses being

drawn out of the Nile by Pharaoh's daughter because we have the Celt

discovery of Taliesin there in the river.

How did Taliesin come to be there in the water? We don't know. And that's all

part of the mystery of who Taliesin, the bard of legend, is. And like many of

the other characters we'll meet, he was a historical figure. He was a Welsh poet

of the 6th century who's believed to have served the courts of at least three

different British kings.

And his work does survive today in the form of the medieval Welsh manuscript,

The Book of Taliesin. Something cool that you can actually go and look up.

he's also a mythic figure associated with Celtic tales of prophecy and magic.

really a proper father for someone like Merlin. And we get our first prophecy of

Arthur's Kingdom of Summer.

A bard the boy will be.

A maker with words like no other from the beginning of the world.

And in his voice will be born a kingdom of Donna.

And now we finally hit our title card, Island of the Mighty, which leads us

directly to Atlantis.

Now, Atlantis has a Mediterranean feel with its clean white coliseum and this

white -draped costuming. It's very appropriate for a location first

Plato. Now, in his dialogues, he presented it as a powerful island empire

the pillars of Hercules with advanced wealth and military might, but corrupt

ethics.

It was destroyed by earthquakes and floods as divine punishment for its

So essentially, it served as a cautionary tale for an ideal state

decadent state.

While some historians do believe it was inspired by real events, most of them

view Atlantis as a myth or a literary device.

But Lawhead uses this story as the perfect launching point for his tale,

an enlightened world of ancient classics with the dark enchantment of pagan

Britain. And here is where we meet Atlantean Princess Caris.

She's performing a dangerous acrobatic ritual that was inspired by Minoan

culture, where performers leap over sacred bulls as a religious act of

to their sun god, Bel.

Now, bull leaping, or torokathepsia as it's known, hopefully I said that right,

was primarily a sacred ritual of the Minoan civilization in Bronze Age Crete,

and it represents a spiritual connection between humans and the divine power of

the bull. And this dangerous acrobatic act possibly dedicated to an earth deity

or Poseidon, involved somersaulting over charging bulls. I'm not kidding. I love

the sort of biblical feel here with the golden bull. You can almost picture

Moses standing on a mountain somewhere.

And there's, of course, a Babylonian god, Bel, in the Bible. But it also

into Celtic myth, as they also have a number of pagan idols whose names start

with Bel, from which we get, for example, Beltane.

Ultimately, I would say the too long didn't read here.

Don't worship things called Belle. That's just never a good idea.

Charis, at this point, doesn't know any better. So we watch her pray to Belle

for strength before she goes out to, quote unquote, dance with this bull that

represents her God.

And it's obvious from her agility and from her athleticism that she and her

have clearly been training to do this for a large number of years.

And there's a lot of tension over wondering, is she going to survive this

worship? And Karis passes this ordeal with flying colors until she gets to the

white bull.

I just have to tell you that I love the symbolism of all of this.

In Greek myth, we know that Zeus transformed into a white bull to abduct

linking the bull to divine power, to seduction, and to the origins of Europe.

we combine that with Charis asking her false god what he requires of her.

And the answer, it just gives me chills.

Everything.

That's what he requires.

I won't go on a theological rant here, but I think that that is the

representation of every false religion right there. It takes everything from

you. You must sacrifice as opposed to the one true religion that we're going

meet later in the story where the sacrifice you don't deserve is made for

So I think this is just a great thematic scene here and great contrast to what's

going to come later.

Staying with that biblical theme.

We have the apocalypse, the destruction of Atlantis.

And then we flash forward 20 years, and I can't pronounce the Welsh name of this

place, but it's clearly not Atlantis anymore.

We go from the clean, white architecture of classic civilization to something

like thatched huts in the Dark Ages. And it's there that we catch up with

Taliesin praying to his Celtic gods.

And what I really love about this scene is the juxtaposition of Karis' prayer

and Taliesin. Because, of course, they're both praying to false gods. But

recognize that these first two major characters that we've met are both

sincere people who are looking for the truth.

I have not seen Taliesin in three days.

In fact, from Elfin's words, it sounds like Taliesin has been praying for at

least three days before he at last gets this vision that he's been seeking. But

it's a vision of a dark god called the Horned Lord, even older than his own

And we get a glimpse of human sacrifice in connection with this dark god. And

from there, an encounter with an otherworldly prophet and prophecy.

I haven't read the book, so I don't know yet what this scene portends, but I was

fully engaged here. I'm asking myself, is the hooded specter the old gods?

So, demons trying to reassert their dominion.

Is the old man on the stone chair their man, the old gods, or is he the true

gods? Now, the prophecy made him sound like he could be either, so I'm trying

get an answer to that one eventually.

Then we play witness to the last gasp of a dying world. We have the Romans

battling the barbarians before they prepare to pull up stakes from

and Roman Britain ultimately falls on the ash heap of history.

Fun fact, St. Patrick was actually a Roman Briton, but we'll get into that.

As a legend for another time. Here what we have are Lawhead and the series

setting the stage for Britain's great need.

Civilization is withdrawing. The Roman world is increasingly overrun by

hordes. So order is giving way to chaos. And only an enlightened king is going

to be able to set things right.

We also learn in this scene that the horned god was asking for Taliesin's

allegiance, but Taliesin refused, and his people are now worried that this

rejection could lead to, ultimately, their doom.

So next scene, we arrive in the Summerlands, and we see our first

Christian Britain.

Now, we know that Christianity has become somewhat established in Roman

It does have an organized church hierarchy. It includes bishops, but it's

widespread yet in Britain. It has what you might think of as a small footprint,

and that footprint is imperiled by those barbarians that Elphin is worried

about, though clearly Elphin and Taliesin's tribe have not yet met the

themselves.

Now, it's been 20 years, but we see that Caris is no older, so clearly she is

something more than human. And in just a bit, we're going to hear her people

referred to as the quote -unquote fair folk.

So Lawhead here is tying the myth of Atlantis to Celtic folklore about

or as Tolkien framed them, elves, because apparently an editor of his

that fairies sounded too effeminate, so he went with elves. But Lawhead goes

with the fair folk.

But our two monks mistake Caris for something else entirely, for a heavenly

vision of the Virgin Mary.

Though, I don't know, I think Mary might throw on a little camisole or something

underneath that robe, but that's just me. But Caris corrects their

misapprehension, and she leaves with one of those great scene -ending lines.

I trusted a god once.

What happened?

I killed him.

And now moving on to the court of Enos Avalac. Now, I don't know about you, but

I personally started getting big Rivendell vibes right about here, which

make sense as Tolkien and Lawhead were both drawing from some of those same

source myths.

An elfin is visiting, and we see Carys and Taliesin in the same room, and my

daughter and I might have let out a little bit of a squee when we saw them

together. Just great chemistry.

We're already shipping these two.

Now, you do also have to feel for Elfin in this scene, because his people,

besieged by the Picts, clearly need help. But you get a wonderful

from Doran Fulton -Brown, who's balancing his pride with this duty he

to see his people protected and provided for.

Now, this is our second meeting with one of our key villains,

Morgion. Caris's sister.

We saw her briefly earlier, but here we get a little bit more understanding of

her character.

She dabbles in sorcery, for one thing, and she's generally always depicted as

something of a seductress.

And I will admit that is how I played her when I played Morgan Le Fay in

in high school. So yes, I was a theater geek in addition to being a fantasy

geek. So my geekdom goes far back and encompasses most of my life. But here,

Morgan, in keeping with canon, hints that she'd be willing to trade, let's

romantic favors for the use of the Lea Fale.

If you're not familiar with that name, Leah Fale, if you've never been to

Ireland, It is a real place. It is a real stone called the Stone of Destiny.

I've been there. I've seen it. And according to Irish mythology, it was one

the four treasures brought to Ireland by the Tuatha de Danann. Those were the

original fair folk who sailed from over the sea from mythical lands, and it

served as the coronation stone for the high kings of Ireland.

Now, legend holds that that stone is going to roar whenever touched by a

rightful monarch. Unfortunately, it didn't make any noise when I put my hand

it. on it, so I guess I am not destined to be a queen.

Now, this next scene is subtle, but it was probably my favorite in this

We see Taliesin's tribe dining with the Atlanteans, and I think we could say

there's a little bit of a contrast in their table manners.

And it was a hilarious moment that seamlessly flows into our first bardic

performance from Taliesin. It was just sort of a gorgeous sequence encompassing

a lot of emotion and very reminiscent, again, of Tolkien.

Anyone who's familiar with Welsh mythology or the Chronicles of Prydain

say, may recognize a few names there, like Anuvin, the underworld.

And certainly the singing of Taliesin's people creates...

This somber, otherworldly atmosphere that casts Karis's mind back to her

encounter with her dark god and the destruction of her former life.

So now we know what happened in that Coliseum and just what it was that

her people to the shores of Britain. We also get a reminder of just how deeply

pagan Karis' culture is at this point. And I will say that one of the biggest

questions I received from Daily Wire fans after the trailer was released was,

about those costumes.

As a mom, I personally kind of wanted to throw a robe over Charis, but we have

to remember that she's coming from an idolatrous nation that doesn't prize

modesty in women as Christianity does. Now, as I said, I haven't read the

but a friend who has told me that this was very consistent with how Lawhead

portrays the Atlanteans in the novels.

Part of the way we shape character in film is through costume, so it's going

be interesting to see how Charis' clothing evolves throughout this story.

what we can tell is that she's haunted by Taliesin's song as it dredges up

traumatic memories of her cursing her god before he dies before her. And then,

the end of her world.

Does Belle's death bring about the end of Atlantis? Did Charis' victory as a

bull dancer doom her people?

These are the kinds of thoughts that are plaguing her mind as she listens to

Taliesin's song. And what I love here is that we see him recognize her pain,

even as he's singing.

It occurred to me, you know, how many men are that observant? I'm going to

Charis. He looks like a keeper to me, girl.

Unfortunately, when she flees and he goes after her, Taliesin finds Morgion

instead. Now, so much is revealed in this scene. Morgion's hunger for power,

effortlessly Taliesin wields his magic, yet also how little care he has to

display those great abilities.

We also see that she's going to be suffering from some unrequited love.

Poor Morgion.

Between that and her care for her horse, I do have to say that we feel a bit for

her here. It has to be hard to be the little sister of the savior of her

Come on.

Sorry, Morgan. The chemistry between Caris and Taliesin, that's too strong

anyone to overcome. Because immediately in this next scene where Caris says she

has no need of the company of a savage.

Yeah. Famous last words, girl. We've all been there. A handsome savage is going

to be the end of us all eventually, I think. It was for me. But I love her

in this scene.

Perhaps we're both just people.

I'm not just anything, singer.

I actually had to restrain myself, I think, from saying a little yes, queen

here. But a little less queenly is Morgan, scrabbling with her elderly

over the Lea Fale.

True power is killing what you love, little girl.

Not letting it kill you.

Now, this is not the kind of advice you want to give a character like this,

because you can be sure that she's going to take it. And that will play itself

out later.

Caris, meanwhile, continues to put up a good show of not caring whether Taliesin

stays or goes.

But I don't think anyone's buying it, princess.

And he continues to pursue her as a proper hero should. So well done,

But just as we think we're wrapping up this episode, two shocking things that

entirely reset the trajectory of where we're going next.

First, Taliesin stumbles on the shrine where these Christian monks have come to

pray. And he is hit with this blinding vision that is reminiscent of the

Paul on the road to Damascus.

But the scene then cuts off before we understand what impact this is going to

have on our now heathen bard.

He's already rejected the false god. If he has just met the true one, what is he

going to do with that revelation?

Paul became an apostle after this. So what will Taliesin be?

Now, Morgion may revile what I can now only assume is her former elderly lover,

but she does take his advice.

to kill the thing that she loves in order to acquire power.

And the way that Emery Franklin played this scene was so chilling. I love that

she didn't try to do something sort of sorcery looking, no flourishes, no magic

words, no hocus pocus. It's just one cold slash.

And it sets her up as the perfect foil to these two lovers who said no to the

dark power when it was offered to them. So there we have it. The inaugural

episode of Pendragon done.

And I got to say, that was a lot to pack into our first entry. We certainly went

to a lot of places.

We've got lost civilizations, star -crossed lovers, a woman scorned, and a

sacrifice. And all of this as we leave the ruins of Rome and plunge headfirst

into a dark age.

I'm eager to see where Caris and Taliesin go from here. And more

I'm ready to meet Merlin. So we'll see if we get the chance to do that in our

next entry. But in the meantime, have a question, a comment, a favorite moment

you want to discuss.

Comment below and we'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us.

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