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

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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

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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 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 ; 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. He describes the visions he has seen, Or mountain glen. and "L'Envoy" concludes; This is typical of several poems in that it The friends I have without a peer4 mixes the classical beings (the dryad, the Beyond the western ocean's glow. faun) and the Anglo-Irish (the elf, the Whither the faerie galleys steer. leprechaun). Lewis, of course, continued They th is human friends] do not to mix his myths in this later life, know: how should they know? specifically, in Narnia. In "Night" Lewis describes a "Druid wood" in Another poem with a catalogue may be which he would spend the titular period; there considered with this one. In "Victory" (No. th e o w ls 4), the poem begins three stanzas of the decay Hear the wild, strange, tuneless sonq of ancient matters, only to contrast their Of faerie voices, thin and high loss with man's spirit which goes on striving; As the bat's unearthly cry. . . . here is the second stanza: A verv odd comparison. The owls also hear the The faerie people from our woods are sound of the faery dance all night long. The g o n e . faeries seem to be the group called "The windy MYTHLORE 31: Sprint 1982 p age 13 people" in this poem; at any rate, Lewis sing as the Muse's impulses move them. further identifies them with supernatural Perhaps we gain something by calling the beings living under the sea, probably in a Muse the poet's inner psyche, perhaps not. borrowing from Irish myth. The here in the But for this study, the important thing is second line of this excerpt may refer to the that this foreshadows the division of grove with which the poem began or it may, by realms found in "The Queen of Drum." this time, refer to "some flowery lawn" where the faeries dance: Three of these early poems remain to be considered. Two of them present arguments, Kings of old, I've heard them say, "Song" (No. 26) and "Hymn (for Boys' Voices)" Here have found them faerie lovers (No. 31). The first begins: That charmed them out of life and k is s e d Faeries must be in the woods Or the satyrs' laughing broods— Their lips with cold lips unafraid, Tritons in the summer sea. And such a spell around them made Else how could the dead things be That they have passed beyond the Half so lovely as they are? m is t And found the Country-under-wave.... Thus, it says, only through the participation of lesser spirits can nature be given its This poem, after beginning with the psychologi­ beauty in the eye of human beholders. Probably cal wish for escape, it sounds like, turns this should be read in a very Romantic context: more descriptive than thematic: the details the only way out of an egotistical position, are elaborated, rather than the theme stated— in which the Romantic observer projects meaning which is, after all, one of the bases of art. into nature, is an affirmation of a spiritual One more poem belongs to this dream of essence in nature. Wordsworth, in "Lines escape I have been tracing. In "Song of the Composed a Few M iles above Tintern Abbey," Pilgrims" (No. 25), the speaker is on a journey found "A motion and a spirit, that... rolls to escape back of the North Wind, to reach that through all things". Lewis writes later in the mysterious far land far to the North. For poem: Lewis th is Hyperborean dream may have come partially from George MacDonald's children's Atoms dead could never thus book, although we are more likely to think of Stir the human heart of us an "invented" myth in Ursula K. LeGuin's The Unless the beauty that we see Left Hand of Darkness. At one point Lewis The veil of endless beauty b e.... describes this land and presents The other poem with an argument is more like ... poets wise in robes of faerie Shelley than Wordsworth. In "Hymn (For Boys’ g o l d [ w ho] Voices)", Lewis begins: Whisper a wild, sweet song that first All the things magicians do was t o ld Could be done by me and you Ere God sat down to make the Milky Freely, if we only knew. Way. Human children every day So far, all of these poems of escape Could play at games the faeries play have associated faerie with the place of If they were but shown the way. escape. But Lewis is not consistent. In one This is something lik e the thesis of poem, "World's Desire" (No. 39), Lewis Prometheus Unbound: the revolution can be describes a castle which the speaker and his produced by a change in mental attitude. love w ill flee to, a place with gardens and In his usual identification of faerie—who "lovely folk"—but are mentioned in the foregoing passage—with the land of desire, Lewis writes later in the Through the wet and waving forest poem: with an age-old sorrow laden Singing of the world's regret We could reach the Hidden land wanders wild the faerie maiden. And grow immortal out of hand Through the thistle and the brier, If we could but understand! through the tangles of the thorn, The parallelism of the stanzas provides the T ill her eyes be dim with weeping identification. and her homeless feet are torn. Often to the castle gate up she looks Finally, there is a curious poem—"The with vain endeavour, Satyr" (No. 3). It begins with two stanzas For her soulless loveliness to the on the setting and action: castle winneth never. When the flowery hands of spring Here, obviously, is a touch of the later Forth their woodland riches fling, Lewis. The important term is the faerie's Through the meadows, through the "soulless loveliness." Despite the fact v a l l e y s that Lewis was antitheist at this time, Goes the satyr carolling. as is clear in many of the poems which I From the mountain and the moor. have not discussed and as is clear from his Forest green and ocean shore summary of his life in , All the faerie kin he rallies nevertheless the faerie is excluded from Making music evermore. this castle of the world's desire because she has no soul.5 Of course, it is given After three stanzas'describing the satyr— to philosophers to be consistent, if they Freudians w ill be interested in the emphasis can, while poets have often been known to o n his horns in the third of these—the poem MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 p a g e 14 ends with this stanza: Standing straighter as the strain Faerie maidens he may meet l o u d e n e d . Fly the horns and cloven feet, ... Either shoulder But, his sad brown eyes with Was swept w ith wings; sw an's down w o n d e r t h e y w e r e , Seeing—stay from their retreat. E lf-bright his eyes. (11. 516-518, 528-533, 536-538) As with all sexual poems, it is tempting to read the verse in terms of Lewis's sexual He is later called an elf by the magician in biography— so much are we influenced by Freud. the story (1. 683) and by the narrator (1. 711), But, despite the tem ptation, I think something even though in the last reference to the,elf else is of at least equal interest here. The he is called "that winged boy" (1. 727).6 I emotional appeal of the satyr here is various: trace these references—fu lfillin g my promise an image of energy, of singing, at the first; to be thorough and scholarly—but I do not a combination of the humane and bestial in think they add much to my theme. Lewis here the description I have om itted; and a sadness is doing something very special with the elf at the flight of the faerie maidens at the end. figure, and he is not pure elf. Indeed, to It is no doubt tempting to draw analogies to be brief, he is half angel, as the wings show; the humanization of the fauns in Narnia, but at the end of the poem he is playing the role that too I find m isleading. of the angel guiding the ship of saved souls to Mount Purgatory in D ante's Divine Comedy. What I see here is a typical V ictorian As I said, I have to say much about this poem sp lit between-the sexes, which I assume Lewis or very little ; what I need to say in this catches out of his childhood environment. That paper is only this: the elf does not function is, men are half intellects and noble emotions, here as the emblem of escape. This poem is and half beasts below. But women, if we read dated, as was said, in 1930, which was in the this poem w ithin the context of Spirit of m idst of Lewis's return to C hristianity; he Bondage, are ideals, for they are called is trying to reshape the elfin figure to his faeries; further, they do right to flee new beliefs. I w ill return to this point men, but they may be caught—with all of the l a t e r . bestiality that im plies—by their sympathy for the man's psychological pain. This is IV. "The Queen of Drum" very V ictorian, and most of us, if not all of us, would say it is very wrong. But it shows I finally reach "The Queen of Drum." Let Lewis as a product of his tim e, and for my me give a summary of the poem for those who purposes it has the proper emphasis on the have not read it recently. faeries as ideal figures. The women here are A fter a brief opening section suggesting not erotic sylphs. dreams and waking (N arrative Poems, p. 131), the rest of Canto I tells of the King of Drum III. A Brief Comment on being gotten up, of his meeting the Queen in 'The Nameless Isle' the halls of the castle, she being just back from a night of roaming the countryside and of This survey of eleven poems in S pirits in him calling her a Maenad (p. 133), which is the Bondage has, I believe, established the land first of several classicc __references. Later, of faerie as an ideal of Romantic escape and the K ing's Council meets, at the end of which the faeries, with one or two clear exceptions, the Chancellor denounces the Queen; she as the attractive inhabitants of this golden appears, and says that they have all so realm. This still applies in "The Queen of wandered at night in their dreams (Canto I, Drum." But first I would like to briefly pp. 131-140). Canto II. That afternoon the mention "The Nameless Isle" (w ritten in 1930 King and Chancellor m eet, drink wine, and and published in N arrative Poems in 1969). discuss the Queen, who was taken from the The reason I briefly mention i t is t h a t I meeting by the Archbishop, the King and the must either say almost nothing or a great Chancellor saying she travelled bodily rather amount. I have an unpublished paper at home than just in dreams. For their own political on it, saying the latter. Here, I w ill have purposes, they decide to get Jesseran, a to pass it over quickly. At the end of this fortune-teller—or his corpse—out of the poem, which is Lewis's retelling and m odifi­ dungeons beneath the castle (Canto II, pp. cation of M ozart's The Magic Flute—and one 1 4 1 - 1 4 7 ) . of the most archetypal works Lewis ever w rote, Canto III. As the King and Chancellor outside, perhaps, of —at the end of descend into the dungeons, the Queen and this poem, a dwarf who has been involved in Archbishop talk in a tower; with her the action of the poem turns into an elf with insistence on his inform ation about another feathery wings. I quote some passages: realm of experience, he has to abandon his He laid his lip to the little flute. w orldliness and speak of the C hristian Long and liquid,— light was waning— understanding of Hell and Heaven. She rejects The first note flowed. his views, but before the argument is settled, ...it sang so w ell. guardmen appear to conduct them to the General F irst he fluted off his. flesh away (the General who first appeared in the Council The shaggy hair; and from his meeting) who has taken over Drum (Canto III, shoulders next pp. 148-55). Canto IV. The General has Heaved by harmonies the hump away; locked the door of the dungeon behind the Then he unbandied, with a burst of King and Chancellor— so they w ill stay down beauty, his legs. there—and he informs the Queen she w ill MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 page 15 become his wife; she says that she cannot Not to such purpose was the plucking submit in front of all his men—but w ill a t my h e a r t discuss the matter later. He sends her Wherever beauty called me into lonely under guard to her tower, and she knocks p l a c e s , down the one guard and escapes from the Where dark Remembrance haunts me with palace. Meanwhile, the General asks the eternal smart, Archbishop to run a state church, supporting Remembrance, the unmerciful, the well his rule; the Archbishop refuses and is o f l o v e , killed—beaten to death—by the General's Recalling the far dances, the far- men (Canto IV, pp. 156-165). Canto V. The distant faces, Queen flees, pursued by men with dogs; she Whispering me "What does th is—and finally reaches the mountains, after having this—remind you of?” offering herself to Artemis; there, where How can I cease from knocking or three roads diverge in a valley, she meets forget to watch— ' an elf who urges her to take the center path— (p. 153, 11. 190-201) in a vision she sees the Archbishop, who She calls them "immortals" because the elves urges her to submit herself to God, but she lived until the Day of Judgment (at least, in refuses, and takes the middle path to the most accounts). The call of beauty here is realm of the elves (Canto V, pp. 166-175). earlier called by the Queen an "unbounded In this summary, brief and inadequate as appetite for larger bliss / Not born with me, it is—if I had more time I would read but older than my mortal birth" (p. 150, 11. passages from’ the poem to give you its flavor— 75-6). Bliss may not be quite the same as in this summary, you w ill have caught the Lewis's use of joy in Surprised by Joy, but I essential points in the pattern we have been believe he is pointing to the same phenomenon. following. The Queen goes to the far h ills The Queen's actual moment of decision, of in a quest for some sort of night-time final decision, when it comes in Canto V, is meaning. Finally, chased by men and dogs, established with a traditional image. She she goes toward them in the daytime but reaches a moonlit valley: reaches them in the night. I w ill quote the significant passages in a moment from the Down i n t o i t , and s t r a i g h t a h ea d , conclusion. A single path before her led, —A mossy way; and two ways more First, the poem needs a context of Lewis's There met it on the valley floor; life. Walter Hooper has traced the sequence From left and right they came, and of the poem's composition, from its first r i g h t mention in Lewis's diary in 1927, which And left ran on out of the light. traced it in various forms back to 1918, when (p. 171, 11. 163-8) Lewis was twenty-one. Walter Hooper thinks the poem was completed about 1933-34 (Narrative The "elfin emperor" who meets her there Poems, Preface, p. x iii); certainly it was identifies them for her: finished by 1938 when Lewis read parts of it 'Keep, keep,' he bade her, '[ o] n th e at a summer program in Oxford. Thus it was midmost moss-way, written during the period of Lewis's conversion Seek past the cross-way to the land but over a longer period than with "The you long for. Nameless Isle." In this poem, however, Lewis treats differently than he does Heed not the road upon the right— before or after. 'tw ill lead you Let me begin with the identification of To heaven's height and the yoke the Queen's search with those I have traced in whence I have freed you; Spirits in Bondage. In the conversation Nor seek not to the left, that so between the Queen and the Archbishop, the you come not connection is clear. It is the Archbishop Through the world's cleft into that who identifies it with the elves: world I name not.' (pp. 172, 11. 199-200, 'How can i t p r o f i t u s t o t a l k 2 0 1 -4 ) Much of that region where you say you w a lk . These three roads are the same three the Queen We are not native there: we shall of Elfland points out to Thomas in the Scottish n o t d ie ballad "Thomas Rymer" (Child Ballad No. 37): Nor live in elfin country, you and "O see not ye yon narrow road. I .’ (p. 149, 11. 59-62) So thick beset w i' thorns and The Queen, in a reply to his presentation of b r ie r s ? Christian other realms, identifies her search That is the path of righteousness, with the call of beauty: Tho after it but few enquires. 'Where is my home "And s e e n o t y e yon b r a id b r a id r o a d . Save where the immortals in their That lies across yon lilly loven exultation. [ g la d e , la w n ] ? Moon-led, their holy h ills forever That is the path of wickedness, roam? Tho some call it the road to What is to me your sanctity, grave- h ea v en . clothed in white, "And s e e n o t y e t h a t bonny ro a d . Cold as an altar, pale as altar Which winds about the fernie candle light? brae [hillside] ? MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 p a g e 16

That is the road to fair Elfland, image." But the Queen's rejection of Whel[re ] you and I t h i s n ig h t Christianity is final, and she is allowed to maum g a e ." have her w ill. That emphatic "No" at the end of the line shows her clear decision; a Lewis combines this with another motif— refusal of the Christian position with a full the eating of supernatural food which keeps understanding of the im plications. the mortal (or immortal, for that matter) in the supernatural realm. The most widely known The Archbishop, in his speech to the Queen use of this motif in the West is the myth of in Canto V, mentions a danger in her choice: Persephone. Here the elf gives the food to 'Daughter, turn back, have pity yet th e Queen: upon yourself .,. 'Eat, eat' he gave her of the Go not to the unwintering land where loaves of faerie. they who dwell 'Eat the brave honey of bees no man Pay each tenth year the tenth soul enslaveth.' of their tribe to Hell.' (p. 172, 11. 201-2) (p. 174, 11. 256-8) And later the reader is told, "She has tasted And this motif is repeated at the end of the elven bread" (p. 175, 1. 290). Just as, in poem: "Thomas Rymer," Thomas tastes the bread which the Elvish Queen carries: And so, the story tells, she passed away "But. I have a loaf here in my lap, Out of the world: but if she dreams Likewise a bottle of claret wine, to -d a y And now ere we go farther on, In fairy land, or if she wakes in W e'll rest a while, and ye may H e ll, d in e ." (The chance being one in ten) it Presumably, as with Persephone, once Thomas doesn't tell. and the Queen of Drum have eaten of the super­ (p. 175, 11. 291-4) natural food, they are tied to elfland— The source is again a Scottish ballad—this although, for Thomas, the binding only lasts time "Tam Lin" (Child Ballad No. 39); in the seven years. ballad Tam tells his lover, Janet: I mentioned the Archbishop in the summary "... pleasant is the fairyland, and his ghostly reappearance at the end of the But, an eerie tale to tell, poem, urging the Queen to choose the path to Ay at the end of seven years Heaven instead of that to Faeryland. The We pay a tiend [ tax, tithe] Queen, after the urging of the elf, is at the t o h e l l ; moment of decision of which of the three paths I am sae fair and fu o flesh, to take. She feels as if she is being pulled I'm feard it be mysel." a p a r t : The reason that Tam is "full of flesh" is that Yet to the sagging torment of that he is a human who has been taken by the elves; dissolution presumably they prefer to pay over humans She clung, contented with the rather than their own kind (an unquieting v a n is h in g thought for the Queen of Drum, but in Lewis's If only the fear'd moment never poem she seems to have the same odds as the would arise elvish born). Why Lewis shifted the seventh Of being commanded to lift up her year to the tenth year is not certain; e y e s possibly to reinforce the idea of the tithe, And t o s e e t h a t w hose d i s s i m i l i t u d e possibly for the rhythm and parallelism of To all things should, in the first th e l i n e . s t a r e Of its aloofness, make the world What, then, is a reader to make of Lewis's d e s p a ir . ballad-haunted narrative? Obviously Lewis does (p. 173, 11. 232-8) not see Sehnsucht as leading to God, as he w ill in Pilgrim' s Regress and Surprised by Joy. In other words, she fears to see God's face. In light of his earlier poems, one would tend The Archbishop's face she sees instead, and to identify Lewis with the Queen; in light of he urges her the traditional repentance, which his later Christian essays, with the Arch­ she rejects: bishop. Probably it is safest to say that 'You would not see if you looked up Lewis in "The Queen of Drum" projects the out of your torment Romanticism of his youth against his new-found That face--only the fringes of His Christianity, not in the sense that he had outer garment ... found them at odds ultim ately, but as a Run to it, daughter; kiss that hem.' projection of what he had felt during his years She answered, 'No. of atheistic Romanticism. This, of course, I f you a r e w ith Him p ray t o Him t h a t is reading the poem in the authorial terms He may g o . which Lewis disparages in . Dr pray that He may rend and tear But it would just as easy to read the poem in me. terms of the history of ideas: the Queen of But go, go hence and not be near Drum stands for the type of nineteenth-century me.' (p. 174, 11. 263-8) Romanticism found in Shelley's "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" and the Archbishop for The Archbishop's appearance here is as what the traditional, orthodox, supernatural Charles Williams later called "a God-bearing Christianity. Or it would he possible to read MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 page 17

the poem in terms of personality types: the elf or faerie— and it is probably no error dreamer vs. the moralist, both projected in both of these are the word elf. In "The Day terms of the supernatural. Lewis later, in with a White Mark" (1949) Lewis describes an , will again picture souls extremely happy day and asks what caused it: being urged to seek salvation and (all but "Was it an elf in the blood? or a bird in the one) refusing it: but never again will he brain?" (1. 2; see also 1. 23). show so clearly one who denies God for the sake This is making an elf psychological in of an alternate ideal, and who does it (while the extreme! But it does not seem to be taking with some fears) with such a clarity of elves very seriously qua elves. Again in an understanding of what she is refusing. epitaph (No. 13), Lewis describes a woman who However one considers it, "The Queen of on the Day of Judgment will be startled to see Drum" is an odd work in Lewis's career. Never her virtuous speech praised; Lewis describes again will he admit a third pathway: all roads the woman hereafter will lead to Heaven or Hell; Lewis is a great writer for making sharp distinctions. with her old woodland air But somehow, in this poem, he was moved to (That startled, yet unflinching stare, follow the model of a ballad: "And see not Half elf, half squirrel, all surprise) ye that bonny road, / Which winds about the This may be even worse than the former, for the fernie brae?" Only for a moment is it parallelism with the squirrel suggests Lewis visible. Even the name of the country— Drum— in thinking of the small, diminutive elves of is unexplained. Perhaps Drum suggests that literary tradition— and, it must be admitted, just under the surface of the world— under the of some folk tradition. But it is more cute drumhead— lies dark, resonating mysteries? than dangerous. (Most people are content with surface know­ ledge.) Or did Lewis pick it because of its Therefore, when we see what Lewis made consonance with dream? Let me conclude by of faeryland early and his near suppression of printing the passage in which the faery lord it later, outside of scholarly writings, we can appears to the Queen: I will stress the only conclude that the suppression was deliber­ internal rhymes in the lines with underlining, ate. He could encourage Tolkien who knew much thus somewhat distorting them; but these many about that land, but surely Lewis decided that internal rhymes, with enjambment, tend to for himself, faeryland was too dangerous for make the ear lose the line pattern in the further visits. His Romantic blood could not welter of echoing sounds anyway— which was be trusted within the edges of that place. presumably Lewis's intention, since he does Instead, he would create his own realms— not rhyme the lines, using only feminine Malacandra, Perelandra, Narnia— perhaps some­ endings to them: what like to but never to be identified with faerie; he would not take that third road again. And lo! it was a horse and rider, His dance with the faerie was over. Breathing, unmoving, close beside her... Footnotes More beautiful and larger Than earthly beast, that charger, 1This introduction was written for Mythcon, Where rode the proudest rider; but it was cut at the last minute. I had — Rich his arms, bewitching only forty-five minutes for my paper, and in His air— a wilful, elfin revising the paper in the airplane on the way Emperor, proud of temper. to California and in spare minutes (usually late In mail of eldest moulding at night) at Mythcon before it was read on And sword of elven silver, Monday morning, Mythcon XII's last day, I had Smiling to beguile her. . . .(11. filled up my time. 181-91) 2Dull and scholarly papers always have many Whatever we say about Lewis's intentions in footnotes. In this case, cf. the opening to this poem, his verse shows the emotional appeal Lewis's "The Inner Ring." of the faerie. 3The Rambler, Everyman Library, No. 994, V. Afterwords 1953, p. 98. I have reached and now have passed the high point of my paper. But a legitimate 4In this line— "without a peer"— a punning question remains: what does Lewis do after­ explanation of why Lewis does not address the wards about faerie? We now have him converted. envoy to a "lord" (one of the two meanings of He has used faerie as a symbol of Romantic peer) as is traditional? It sounds like the Longing for many years, even through "The cleverness a young poet might appreciate. Queen of Drum"; he has tried to Christianize the faerie people in "The Nameless Isle." 5It is true that the poems in the third As We know, in such books as The Pilgrim's section of Spirits in Bondage tend to be more Regress and Surprised by Joy, Lewis shifts from orthodox than those in the first section; but, the three-fold path of "The Queen of Drum" and unless Lewis being completely hypocritical in says that such longing leads to God, ultimately. the last section— writing poems to project a But surely faeries make poor symbols of God. false, more traditional image of his beliefs— they must reflect some vagrant moods of ortho­ The answer to my rhetorical question, so doxy in his attitudes of the time. far as Lewis's poetry is concerned, is that Lewis drops faerie from his poetry. In reading 6The island in the poem, left by the through Poems (1964), I find only two uses of continued on page 47 MYTHLORE 31: Spring 1982 p a g e 4 7

Morris, Kenneth by Joe R. Christopher) 11. Finder of the Welsh (Dainis Bisenieks) (n o te in M yth lore 12) V ergil 20. The Influence of Vergil's A e n id on The Lord of the Morris, William R in g s (David Paul Pace) 1 3 . Golden Wings and Other Stories (reviewed by George C o lv in ) Wain, John 18. How the Isle of Ransom Reflects an Actual Icelandic 1 5 . Feng: A Poem (reviewed by Joe R. Christopher) Setting (Mara Hasty) (sources of The G littering P la in ! Watts-Dunton, Theodore 21. William Morris' The Wood \Beyond the World: The V ic ­ 25. Cavalier Treatment (Lee Speth) (Aylwin) torian World vs. the Mythic Eternities (Clarence W o lfsh o h l) W ells, H.G. 3 0 . Worlds Beyond the World by Richard Mathews (reviewed 24. Lewis' Time Machine and His Trip to the Moon (Rabert E. by Nancy-Lou Patterson) Boeing) fThe Time Machine an d The F ir s t Men in th e Moon) Peake, Mervyn White, T.H. 20. Cavalier Treatment (Lee Speth) (Titus Groan) 16. Images of the Numinous in T.H. White and C.S. Lewis 30. "Felicitous Space" in the Fantasies of George Mac­ (Ed Chapman) fThe Once and Future King) Donald and Mervyn Peake (Anita Moss) 2 4 . T .H . w h ite by John K. Crane (reviewed by Joe R. Chris­ Pearl to p h e r ) 18. Levels of Symbolic Meaning in P e a r l (Laurence J. Krieg) 28. Bird Language in T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone (Marie Nelson) Pennington, Bruce 19. E sc h a tu s (reviewed by Robert S. Ellwood) Worlds of Fantasy (magazine) 1. Introduction to Worlds of Fantasy (Bernie Zuber) Rico, U1 de 2 4 . The Rainbow Goblins (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) ALL BACK ISSUES OF MYTHLORE Sayers, Dorothy L. ARE AVAILABLE 1 2. The Emperor Constantine: A Chronicle (reviewed by If you wish to order back issues, you can use the form George Colvin) included in the mailing of this issue, or you can request 13. Dorothy L. Sayers and (Joe R. Christopher) an order form which is free upon request. 1 4. Adventure, M ystery, and Romance by John G. C a w elti (reviewed by Joe R. Christopher) 1 4. Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection edited by Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler (reviewed by Joe R. Christopher) 17. Trying to Capture "White Magic" (Joe R. Christopher) (on poem, "White Magic" Meditation I For 1 9. Wilkie Collins: A C ritical and Biographical Study ( r e ­ viewed by Joe R. Christopher) my Lady of Grace 21. Head vs. Heart in Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night (Marg­ aret P. Hannay) I closed my eyes. 0 let me no more fight 2 1 . The Whimsical Christian (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) But seek within a dwelling-place of Light. 2 1 . Maker and Craftsman : The Story of Dorothy L. Sayers by And lo ! my Lady came in form so b rig h t Alzina Stone Dale (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) My inward eve was dazzled. 0 that I might 2 2 . As Her Whimsey Took Her: C ritical Essays on the Work of Dorothy L. Sayers edited by Margaret P. Hannay (re­ Sing forth my joy in words of wonder quite viewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) As fair as ever ooet sang in height 2 2. Dorothy Sayers: A Literary Biography by Ralph E. Hone Of soaring praise, and kneel her humble knight (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) Content to rest, made gentle in her sight. 22. The Repose of Very Delicate Balance (William R. But I stood dumb before my flaw less Oueen Epperson (marriage in Sayers' detective fiction) Like one who waits the judgment of his lord 2 7 . Dorothy L. Sayers, A Pilgrim Soul by Nancy M. She sDOke no word, but smiling took my hand Tischler (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) And led me out into a timeless land... 2 8 . Dorothy L. Sayers: Nine Literary Studies by T revor 'Tis words I lack, not love for my Adored H. Hall (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) Wherewith to tell what these closed eyes have seen. 2 9 . Dorothy L. Sayers by Mary Brian Durkin (reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson) 3 0 . Dorothy L. Sayers by James Brabazon (reviewed by —Mark A llaby Nancy-Lou Patterson) Shakespeare, William 21. Cavalier Treatment (Lee Speth) (Macbeth) continued from page 17 24. Cavalier Treatment (Lee Speth) fMacbeth) narrator, the heroine, and the elf-with-wings, is called Sp en ser, Edmund "Elf-fair" (1. 726) 3. T olk ien 8 Spenser (Nan Braude) fThe F a ir ie Queene) 7Walter Hooper, in his preface to Narrative Poems, says Spielberg, Steven the poem was written in the 1929-1931 period (p. x!). 2 9 . Raiders of the Lost Ark (reviewed by Benjamin Urrutia) 8At Mythcon the movie based on "Tam Lin" was shown Swann, Thomas Burnett and of course one of Dr. Elizabeth Pope's novels — The 1 1. The Not-World (reviewed by Ed Chapman) Perilous Gard— was based on the ballad. T orrens, R.G. 9Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene turned elves into 13. The S e c r e t R itu a ls o f th e G olden Dawn and The G olden moral beings, but they ended up being much like human. Dawn: The Inner Teachings (reviewed by Joe R. Christ­ (Who would think of Sir Guyon as an elf?) Spenser may just op h er) have indentified the Welsh and the elves. Hut it should have been possible in the Kanaissance, which could use Jupiter Underhill, Evelyn as a symbol of Jehovah, to use Oberon the same way. Per­ 13. Evelyn Underhill (1S75-1941): An Introduction to Her Life haps, for the English, the faeries were closer to live pagan and W ritings by Christopher J.R. Armstrong (reviewed belief than the Homan deities were.