CS Lewis Dances Among the Elves

Volume 9 Number 1 Article 4 4-15-1982 C.S. Lewis Dances among the Elves: A Dull and Scholarly Survey of Spirits in Bondage and ‘The Queen of Drum.’ Joe R. Christopher (emeritus) Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Christopher, Joe R. (1982) "C.S. Lewis Dances among the Elves: A Dull and Scholarly Survey of Spirits in Bondage and ‘The Queen of Drum.’," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 9 : No. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol9/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Scholarly Guest of Honor address, Mythcon 12. Discusses references to elves and fairies in the poetry of Lewis. Faerie provides a romantic streak in nature, and/or psychological symbols of escape, in the early poems. Faerie and Christianity vie in “The Queen of Drum,” and Faerie is virtually absent from his later poems. Additional Keywords Faerie in C.S. Lewis’s poetry; Lewis, C.S. Poetry—Symbolism; Lewis, C.S. “The Queen of Drum”; Lewis, C.S. Spirits in Bondage; Edith Crowe This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol9/iss1/4 MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 page 11 C.S. Lewis Dances among the Elves A D ull and Scholarly Survey of Spirits in B ondage and "The Q ueen of D rum " Joe R. Christopher Scholarly G uest of H onor at the 12th A nnual M ythopoeic C onference I. A n Introduction1 sphere. Of these the one is always Strange as it may sound, when individuals in danger of becoming useless by a are invited as scholarly guests of honor, they daring negligence, the other by a are expected to read dull and scholarly papers scrupulous solicitude. The one to prove they were appropriately chosen. collects many ideas but confused and Even when the theme is something as lively, as indistinct, the other is busied in mercurial and hard to hold onto, as faerie, minute accuracy, but without compass these individuals are expected to produce dull and without dignity.3 and scholarly papers. As C. S. Lewis said I assume that bibliographers are an example of under an analogous circumstance, I w ill do my the latter. We are concerned with page numbers b e s t .2 and whether we are supposed to punctuate our The mention of Lewis comes in appropriately listings by the University of Chicago style or for I want to consider his poetic references the MLA style—a matter, most of the time, of to fairies and elves. We often think of a colon vs. a comma. Only rarely do we lift Tolkien as being the expert on elves. Indeed, our heads from our stacks of books and Xeroxes being Mythopoeic Society members, we probably of articles to contemplate the world outside our studies. always think of Tolkien, whether or not it is about his connection to elves. But C. S. Lewis But you have summoned me to this strange was born in Ireland, back before it was world away from my desk where three large paper politically divided into Northern Ireland and sacks are filled with journals and copies of Eire, and the Irish, as everyone knows, are articles I haven't gotten to yet, where a born with second sight. (And if Lewis did not cardboard box holds large-sized books awaiting have second sight, I'm sure he had third.) reading, where I have a stack of doctoral What I want to consider are his few poetic dissertations in Xeroxy copies purchased by a examples of that sight. grant and not yet read, where I slowly but But first, a warning. Dr. Johnson—the inevitably get further and further behind on appropriate man to issue warnings—writes in the flood of m aterials appearing. What am I his forty-third Rambler essay: doing here? I should be reading and annotating! There seen to be some souls suited to great and others to little N evertheless, you have summoned me, and employments; some formed to soar I emerge like an owl into the light, blinking, aloft and take in wide views, and nervous, unhappy. What a strange world you others to grovel on the ground and have. An oriental dancer at your masquerade, confine their regard to a narrow a vampiress who reads a scholarly paper, a MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 p a g e 12 poet in a Scottish k ilt. And, strangest of No Dryads have I found in all our a ll, an initiation into the Grail Mysteries. t r e e s . You seem to take the wide views, while, in Dr. No Triton blows his horn about our Johnson's phrase, I grovel on the ground and s e a s concern myself with minutiae. Let me share And Arthur sleeps far hence in my littleness, my scholarly point of view, A v a lo n . w ith y o u . It is also obvious that these last two poems, at the surface level, contradict each other. II. Elves in Bondage and Elsewhere In one case, Lewis has seen an elf and in the next, the faeries are gone. It's a Before I consider the work I am primarily mysterious world. concerned with, "The Queen of Drum," let me offer a brief survey of Lewis's other poetic Most of the rest of the poems, I would references of faeries and elves. I start suggest, treat the faeries basically as a with the obvious place, Spirits in Bondage, symbol of the mysterious, the Romantic, the published in 1919 under the pseudonym of Clive dream of escape. In short, they are Hamilton. First, a lim itation. I really am psychological symbols. This has already been just interested in Lewis's references to elves seen in "Autumn Morning." For another and fairies. There are fascinating things in example, in "’Our Daily Bread'" (No. 32), this first book—Lewis's view of Ireland and Lewis writes of his experiences of Sehnsucht; one poem about' an Irish god; two poems about he begins with the mysteries around people, girls with red hair. There are references whether or not they hear the call of "Living to supernatural beings, some of whom may be voices" as he has; related to the elven kind. But these are ... some there are that in their n o t t o my p r e s e n t p u r p o se . daily walks Even with these lim its, there are eleven Have not met archangels fresh from poems in my category. One of these may be sight of God, eliminated at once. "Tu Ne Quaesieris" (No. Or watched how in their beans and 37) uses elf in the eighteenth-century poetic cabbage-stalks meaning of man. In this case, Lewis is Long files of faerie trod. speaking of himself. For Lewis in these early years, angels as well ... what were endless lines to me as faeries could be only considered psychologi If still my narrow self I be cal symbols. And hope and fail and struggle still, Even clearer is this psychological And b rea k my w i l l a g a in s t G od 's w i l l , projection in the poem "In Praise of Solid To play for stakes of pleasure and People" (No. 24). In this poem, Lewis, in p a in contrast with the unimaginative, suburban And hope and fa il and hope again, people he praises, is a dreamer: Deluded, thwarted, striving e lf... And soon another phanton tide But this leaves ten poems. Only one of the Of shifting dreams begins to play. others uses the term e lf, but it obviously uses it in the sense I am after. This is "The And d u sk y g a l l e y s p a s t me s a i l , Autumn Morning" (No. 21). In it Lewis writes Full freighted on a faerie sea; t h a t he i s I hear the silken merchants hail Across the ringing waves to me. One that has honoured well The mystic spell And then, suddenly, he awakes from the dream and is back in his room. Of earth's most solemn hours Wherein the ancient powers Two others which belong in this class are Of dryad, elf, or faun "Ballade Mystique" (No. 28) and "Night" (No. Or le p r e c h a u n 29), In the former, Lewis contrasts (or, at least the speaker contrasts, for it is not so Oft have their faces shown obviously Lewis this time) his contentment in To me that walked alone an isolated house with his friends' worry about Seashore or haunted fen him.

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