This month on Magus, for our penultimate episode of the series, we're exploring the life and work of the father of Western esotericism, Cornelius Agrippa!

Born into a Europe wracked by wars, he attends university in Cologne at thirteen, earns his MA by sixteen, and then he abandons the Holy Roman Empire for France.

There, under the noses of the House of Valois, he begins to establish a hidden brotherhood of occult learning stretching from England to Catalonia to Italy and Switzerland.

Influenced by Erasmus and Martin Luther, and mentored by the court necromancer of Emperor Maximilian I, Agrippa then pioneers a new, coherent, rational model of the universe which bridges the gap between Medieval and Renaissance thinking, combining esoteric learning from the ancient world with cutting edge humanist philosophy.

Was he really accompanied everywhere he went by a demonic magical hound that aided him in his research?

Were his writings cursed such that if an unwitting person read from them alive they risked being strangled by demonic spirits?

Also, how did Agrippa not realise that embarassing the Inquisition, and then insulting your patrons in print, might be hazardous to the health?

We'll be answering these questions and many others - but fair warning going in: these are knotty concepts that Agrippa himself would argue should not really be known to common people like thee and we...

Speak with you again on Wednesday for our monthly Update Episode all about the folkloric fun of July, if not our Patreon Exclusive Flim Club episode about Black Narcissus, all before a new double bill of Lang fairy tales and chats about them on Thursday!

Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

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For this episode, we go where no podcast has gone before - welcome to Three Ravens Live @ Great Dunmow BookFest!

During a one day festival where an entire Essex town famous for giving out sides of bacon to married couples turned itself into a bookshop, we were warmly welcomed to Jack's 1952, an outdoor goods shop who gave us a space in their basement and several dozen camping chairs to record a free 45 minute show.

Our audience ranged from newborn children gurgling away up to retirees, along with hardened Three Ravens fans, and plenty of people who had never heard of us before!

With regular interruptions from the beeping sounds of the shop's door being opened upstairs, and customers popping by to purchase hiking boots, we carried on regardless, with Eleanor joined by our friend and regular collaborator Katie Sommers to sing a capella versions of Three Ravens, Sumer is icumen in, and We Gets Up In The Morn.

Between these musical highlights we dig into some of our favourite bits of Essex's folklore, including the ghostly goings-on at Borley Rectory and the legend of Old King Cole, the county's six distinct dragon tales, the Canvey Island Monster, Boudica's rampage, and the sad fate of Anglo Saxon queen Edith Swan-neck.

Also including Eleanor's telling of the tale of the weather witch Sarah Moore of Leigh on Sea in the form of Three Knots, it's a slightly mad show, and hopefully an interesting listen!

We really hope you enjoy the episode, and will speak to you again on Monday for the penultimate episode of our Bonus Series Magus, all about the magical life of 16th century occultist, scholar, and theologian Cornelius Agrippa!

Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England or Wales' 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of a traditional story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county - and Live Shows come out on Saturdays.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

REGISTER FOR THE TALES OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND TOUR

Visit our website

Join our Patreon

Social media channels and sponsors

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Lang Fairy Tales episode we have another triple-bill - though these ones are all slightly wonky...

We begin with Rapunzel, a tale with its roots in ancient Persian mythology, although what the Langs do with it leaves a little to be desired!

Next up it's The Nettle Spinner, another Charles Deulin legend out of Flanders which seems to speak to the power of the Protestant work ethic in the face of villainy!

Last then comes Farmer Weatherbeard, a story drawn from Norse mythology that gets completely muddled in translation, missing the point of the original and focusing not on the apprentice who undoes his master, but on the apprentice's father, who has very little to recommend him as a protagonist...

Collectively, it makes for an episode of slightly broken stories - and, in turn, some really interesting chats about them which we hope you enjoy!

Speak to you again on Saturday for our Essex-themed Three Ravens Live Show from Great Dunmow BookFest and, as soon as it's not too hot to sit and record it, our Patreon Exclusive episode for June all about The History and Folklore of Boardgames!

If you are unfamiliar with the Lang Fairy Tales, these seminal collections were assembled between 1889 and 1913 by a married couple, folklorists and translators Nora and Andrew Lang, with most of the work done to compile them completed by Nora, also known as Leonora Blanche Alleyne.

Assembled and published in 12 colour-coded "Fairy Books," the corpus the Langs put together included 798 fairy tales from across cultures, many of which had never before been translated into English.

They were amongst the most influential books of their time, changing the course of children's literature - although they're hardly just for children, and often deal with quite challenging concepts.

Today, purchasing a complete set of the Lang Fairy Books in good condition costs over £4,000 ($5,000+).

Thankfully, the collections are all out of copyright, meaning that we can now tell these stories, in podcast form, many for the first time, and share them with a global audience, for free.

Our plan is to release the stories between main series of Three Ravens, performing them straight (though with plenty of silly voices) letting the tales speak for themselves in all their madcap, sharp-edged, often quite bizarre glory.

The only edits we have made are to amend some culturally-insensitive epithets, which typically pertain to ethnicity, with any such edits made by Eleanor Conlon.

Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

REGISTER FOR THE TALES OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND TOUR

Visit our website

Join our Patreon

Social media channels and sponsors

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.