On the Subject of Merlin and Pants: An Essay

It will come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with both the television show Merlin and the Harry Potter novels that a common exclamation of surprise in the Harry Potter world is "Merlin's pants" or "by Merlin's pants". This may be rather confusing to the casual reader until one delves deep into the mythology surrounding the famous Merlin himself. Until the premiere of the television show, which has cleared up much of the confusion surrounding Merlin, no one was entirely sure what the significance of Merlin's pants was. Were they magical? Were they enchanted? If so, how? Allow me to explain.

As shown as early as the first season of Merlin, the titular character grew up in a modest subsistence farming village, rather poor and likely as not unable to afford many changes of clothing. Now, as any historian knows, in Medieval Times, cleanliness was not particularly an issue. However, size certainly was. You see, Merlin grew rather fast for a young boy, and he was constantly outgrowing his pairs of pants until his mother decided that enough was enough and discussed the matter with him. After much deliberation, he decided to take a risk and use his magic to make the pants fit him perpetually, no matter how much he grew.

During his time as Arthur's servant, Gaius began to notice the curious case of Merlin's ever-the-same pants, and how he didn't seem to own another pair. He advised Merlin to enchant his pants once more, making it so that they not only changed size to fit him, but changed appearance at his will, allowing him to give the impression that he was wearing a different pair of pants each day.

Here, the legend fades. Somehow, the pants themselves passed out of Merlin's possession – perhaps when he died, their secret was foretold to his successor, or perhaps they were stolen at some point. No one truly knows. What is known, however, is that the pants are also magically durable, and have lasted until today, being passed down from wearer to wearer, always changing size and appearance to suit whoever they belong to. Although this was always considered fact, the actual trail of the pants has long gone cold.

Until now.

Recently, reports have arrived at Hogwarts from the secret government agencies that go through international mail looking for anything suspicious. They have been tracking a strange pair of blue jeans that, every week, seem to circulate between four girls in their late teens, spread across the globe.

Are these suspiciously magical 'Traveling Pants' truly the same pair that once belonged to the great Merlin Emrys? Has the wizarding world's most beloved pair of historical trousers finally been uncovered from the depths of myth and legend? Perhaps only time will tell.