Volume 6 Number 1 Article 8

12-15-1979

Dear Mistress Ellwood

Alex Whitney

Judi Davidson

Benjamin Urrutia

Margaret R. Purdy

Wendell Wagner Jr.

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Recommended Citation Whitney, Alex; Davidson, Judi; Urrutia, Benjamin, et al. (1979) "Dear Mistress Ellwood," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 6 : No. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss1/8

This Letter 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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Additional Keywords Tim Callahan; Karl Whittenberg; Bonnie GoodKnight

Authors Alex Whitney, Judi Davidson, Benjamin Urrutia, Margaret R. Purdy, Wendell Wagner Jr., Paul Torongo, Renée Haynes, Margaret L. Carter, Ruth Berman, Pierre H. Berube, Gord Wilson, Mary Kay Bond, and Mary M. Stolzenbach

This letter is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss1/8 Dear M istress Ellwood

Alex Whitney 66 Old South Road U r is the Quenya and Sindarin word for "heat, be hot"— Southport, Conn. 06490 and seemingly also for "fire", since U r o lS k i means "fire- serpent ." U r in Hebrew means "flam e, fire ." About the comments on the relationship between "Star W a rs" a n d The Lord o f the Rings, I think that the sim ilari­ That precisely these words should have such a strong ties are merely coincidental. I think that George Lucas sim ilarity in Hebrew and Eldarin puts us in mind of the was, as he said ("Star Wars" Souvenir Program by S.W. Ven­ words of Balan- Beor: "A darkness lies behind us, and we tures, In c.), inspired by Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon a n d have turned our backs upon it... Westwards our hearts Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series. (What have been turned, and we believe that there we shall find had sparked Burroughs off was a science-fiction fantasy Light." (S p. 141). For the Edain, the Eldar were the c a l l e d G ulliver on Mars, w ritten by Edwin Arnold and pub­ symbol and embodiment of th eir hope to find Light, and it lished in 1905.) The rest was probably influenced by would be expected that they would take into th eir own science-fiction and adventure action that he'd seen and language the word for lig h t, and related term s, that the r e a d . Elves taught them.

The ancestors of the Hebrews must have been a trib e of Judi Davidson Hinman Box 0843 the Edain (singular a d a n , "man", doubtlessly related to He­ Dartmouth College b re w A d a m , man, and Arabic A d a n , m a n ) . Hanover, NH 03755 The usual plural in the Elvish languages was formed by I would like to respond to A lbert Proudhain's le tter in the - r , but if the singular ended in r (e.g. words including A u g u s t M y t h p r i n t , as well as to all those fond of comparing the morpheme h i r , "m aster, lord"), then the plural was Tolkien with everything under the sun. Granted, anything formed with the suffix r i m , "great number, host." This has one reads and enjoys/adm ires can influence one in whatever survived in the Hebrew plural suffix - i m ( A r a b ic - i n ) . one does, but it is ridiculous to take certain character types, such as "infinitely wise and powerful old man" or The Arabic A r d (Earth) is probably related to A r d a . "one who does evil for the sake of being nasty," find them The equivalent in Hebrew is E r e t s (sometimes A r e t s ) , c o g ­ in two different stories, and say that one has influenced n a t e w i t h E r (Earth in Prim itive Indo-European). the other. "Star Wars" is an adventure story; it must therefore have its hero, v illain , and beautiful lady, and * * * these stock characters cannot be said to have been drawn from Tolkien alone. (Mind you, I like "Star W ars," but on The story of Turin should be rendered as an opera. its own m erits, not as a Tolkien take-off.) It is already an opera in all but the lack of music. I would call it by Verdi out of Wagner. That is, the ele­ There are many people, mostly editors, I suppose, who ments are W agnerian: A Dragon, a Dwarf, a Treasure, But the like to push any new work of fantasy as "The best since style is pure Verdi, as in Rigoletto a n d La Forza del Destl- Tolkien" or "comparable in power of scope to L o t R ." I am n o . This unusual combination gives the tale much of its sure you w ill agree that it takes a great deal of imagina­ power, just as the use of the traditional monsters of Gothic tion and attention to detail to come anywhere near Tolkien' s horror—Vampires and Werewolves—in a new and com pletely "scope," and a w riting sk ill matched by few to approach his unusual way, contributes to the gripping quality of the "power." I sincerely wish that new books, film s, etc. would unparalleled narrative of Beren and Luthien Tinuviel. be allowed to stand on their own m erits. Simply because a book deals with elves or the like, it is not neccessarily in * * * either the genre or the class of Tolkien. Thank you for y o u r t i m e . I have a review of S t a r W ars in the Fall 1978 issue of DIALOGUE (Box 1387, A rlington, VA 22210, $5 a copy), in Benjamin Urrutia N.Y. City Mission which I trace parallels to Tolkien and other sources. But 2 Lincoln Square one must be careful not to overdo it. Luke Skywalker, who 125 Columbus Ave is by nature adventurous, raring to leave home, and indif­ New York, NY 10023 ferent to his food, is not like Frodo or like any other Hobbit. Han Solo does not have A ragorn's-leadership Christopher Tolkien (in S p. 357) refers to "Carnim irie qualities. He follows the plans of Obi-Wan, Luke and Leia 'red-jew elled', the rowan-tree in Treebeard's ( s i c ) s o n g " without ever suggesting one of his own. Tolkien, let us (l). Outrageous. The song of the rowan trees was sung not face i t , would have no use for m an-like machines such as by Treebeard, but by Quickbeam, or Bregalad. The same re­ R2-D2 and C3P0. Their godfathers are rather Isaac Asimov grettable error is committed by Donald Swann in T h e R o a d (notice how faithfully they obey the three law s of Robotics) Gees Ever On. It behooves all of us Bregalad fans to send and Frank Baum. polite but firm letters to Mr. Tolkien and Mr. Swann re­ questing them to acknowledge and correct th eir error.

B r e g a la d translates into English as Quickbeam. Breg i s speedy, fast, quick (related to b r a g o l , sudden); and g a la d h is of course the Sindarin word for tree.

Bregalad achieved his name by saying "yes" to an Ent Elder who had not yet finished asking his question; but Quickbeam" in the English language is also a name of the rowan tree. J.R.R. Tolkien has here committed another pun. * * *

A u r e (Quenya) or a u r (Sindarin), "sunlight" becomes O r— when it "is prefixed to the names of the days of the week." (S p . 365). I would dare to suggest that it always takes t h e fo rm O r - when it is a prefix. Thus O r b e r e th would mean "kindler of sunlight" and O r d il "lover of sunlight". The w o rd O r in Hebrew means "lig h t." 25 Margaret R. Purdy 307 Kensington Drive THE LORD OF THE RINGS and used many of the same elem ents, but Ridgewood, N.J. 07450 I think it is going too far to say that he was "primarily inspired" by Tolkien. Remember that we are dealing with This letter is about movies: one present, and one to archetypes here, figures common in all kinds of fantastic come. The present one I w ill save for later. The one to fiction. Lucas himself has said in many articles and inter­ come is, naturally, the film version of THE LORD OF THE views that his primary inspiration, if any, came from old- RINGS b e in g c r e a te d by R a lp h B a k s h i ... fashioned "space opera" like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. And in saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi "is" Gandalf or that Darth By the time this letter is published, the movie w ill Vader "is" Sauron, we are falling into the same error that most probably be out already, and some of the points I Tolkien himself warns against in his essay on Fairy-Stories intend to make may be academic. However, I think that this (p. 18 of the essay), where he censures folklore students whole business about the movie has served to point up some who make statements like "The Black Bull o f Norroway i s Beauty rather unpleasant aspects in the thinking of some Society and the Beast." Given these restrictions, I'd like to draw members which sould be brought to task... a few p a r a l l e l s o f my own.

...Bakshi is not some sort of mercenary, know-nothing Luke Skywalker certainly resembles Frodo in many yahoo, but rather a creative artist who loves THE LORD OF respects, but bear in mind that not only is he a Tatooine THE RINGS as much as we do and cares enough about it to spend farmboy; he is also the son of a Jedi knight and (one great amounts of time, money, and effort to make sure that assumes) one of the last scions of that noble Order. In this the film is done right. It is true that his idea of "right" he is very much like the young Aragorn, hereditary chieftain may differ from ours, but one can pick up any issue of M y th - of the Dunedaln and a hero born. Or like the young King l o r e and see graphic demonstrations of the differences in Arthur, for that m atter. Alec Guinness has described his own different people's personal visulizations of the characters role (Ben Kenobi) as "a blend of the Wizard Merlin and a and scenes of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Despite the occasional Samurai warrior" ("and you can't beat that," he adds). discussion of such niggling matters as pointed ears, no one seems to think that these artists should be deprived of the Darth Vader is indeed like both Sauron and Saruman, but opportunity to share their conceptions with others. Ralph I would tend to lean him toward the Saruman side simply be­ Bakshi deserves the same consideration that our own M y th lo r e cause we haven't met the Galactic Emperor yet: I would guess artists receive, and he certainly has the right to have his that the "Sauron" role is already taken. The interpretation images looked at before they are judged. I plan to go and of his name as "Dark Father" is interesting; I have also see the RINGS movie. I may hate it. I may think that it seen it interpreted as "Dark Invader" or "Death Invader." makes the Brothers Hildebrandt look like the Revealed Truth. Probably a lot of different, unconscious elements went into But I think it is wrong for anyone to condemn any work that naming the character, as they did for C.S. Lewis when he was he or she has not even seen. Such prejudice is worse, than naming his devils. the obtuseness of someone like Edmund Wilson—at least he r e a d the book before giving his opinion on i t ! The other character parallels seem a bit far-fetched. I personally don't find much of Aragorn in Han Solo (yes, it's Glen GoodKnight—and possibly others—seem to think Han, not Hans!), and I find Princess Leia delightfully that Ralph Bakshi is totally unfit to make a movie of THE unique: in all of Tolkien there is no one like her. Further­ LORD OF THE RINGS b e c a u s e h e e n jo y s h o t dogs and p i n b a l l . more I must confess that I see nothing Elvish in either But should the movie prove to be a success, it would not be Threepio or Chewbacca the Wookie. the first instance in the history of the RINGS where a man transcended his background to create a masterwork. I seem STAR WARS and LORD OF THE RINGS a r e b o th w o n d e rfu l to remember a certain Oxford don, who led on the whole a works and I love them both (I have seen STAR WARS eight rather unremarkable, m iddle-class, humdrum sort of life , who and a half times now, and read the RINGS something like emerged nevertheless as the creator of a powerful mythos twenty times), and of course there are sim ilarities. But I with the ability to touch the hearts and souls of many think that the differences are also quite clear—and should different kinds of people, from esteemed poets and literary be enjoyed and appreciated. men to "pinball wizards" from the streets of New York. And who's to say that only the literati have the "right" inter­ Parting note: does anybody remember an article way back pretation of this work? The Mythopoeic Society hasn't got in one of the old M y t h l o r e s o r Tolkien Journals (I think it a monopoly on Truth, even truth as revealed in THE LORD OF may have been M y th lo r e t 1) in which the possibility of a THE RINGS. We might even learn something from Ralph Bakshi. movie was discussed? The Tim Kirk cartoon in a recent M y th - p r i n t was reprinted from it, I believe. Anyway, in this The concern has been voiced that many people w ill see article it was suggested that Alec Guinness should play the the movie and think that that's all there is to THE LORD OF role of Gandalf. Well, Ralph Bakshi may be doing THE LORD THE RINGS. Not only do I agree with Julie Watkins that most OF THE RINGS in animation, but Alec Guinness s till got to play of the people who think that would not have read the book in Gandalf... sort of... any case: I offer a more positive comment. A glance at the bestseller lists w ill show immediately that books connected Wendell Wagner, Jr. Columbus, Ohio with successful films, either novelizations or original works from which the films are made, are selling very well these days. If the Bakshi film is a success, there w ill be many While reading David Murphy's letter in Mythlore 18 people who w ill read the book (who would probably never have on the resemblance between Middle Earth and European read it under normal circumstances), simply because of its history and geography, I was reminded of a notion I have connection with the movie. Once they start reading, I think had for some time of the resemblance between the history we can trust the Master Wizard to cast his spell without any of Gondor and the history of Israel. In both cases, a extra effort from us. And if he fails, how could we hope to "chosen" people return from exile to form a kingdom succeed anyway? which soon breaks up into a Northern and Southern kingdom. In the larger kingdom the descendants of the original Let's face it: considering the popularity of THE LORD royal line eventually die out, while in the smaller OF THE RINGS, it was inevitable that someday a movie would kingdom the royal line continues even after the end of be made of it. Judging from the various articles I have read, the kingdom. Finally, a descendant of the royal line I would say that Bakshi's is the best approach to the subject comes out of obscurity to be, in some sense, a king and that I have heard of so far. And if worst comes to worst, we a saviour. Note that this sets up the equation can always wait thirty years or so, and then do a remake! "Aragorn = Christ". In another sense, Frodo, Aragorn Any volunteers to try it? and Gandalf are all Christ figures. Note also that the Fellowship sets out on Christmas and the Ring is destroyed Well, enough of the rhodomontade for the present. Now on approximately Easter. This also sets up as a relation­ to move on to a happier subject, STAR WARS. I read with s h ip "The Silmarillion — The Old Testament" and "The Lord great interest Albert Proudhorn's letter in the August issue of the Rings = The New Testament". (Many have noted the o f M y t h p r i n t . I agree that George Lucas undoubtedly read resemblance between the styles of the first two books.) 26 were teenagers, whereas actually Frodo was about 35 and the younger hobbits in their early twenties in terms of human m aturity. (1 am assuming that hobbits mature two- thirds as fast as humans since hobbits come of age at 33.) Finally, there were a couple of careless mistakes. Saruman was several times called Amman and Isengard was pronounced with a long "i".

I would be interested to know why Joe Christopher's Inklings Biography is usually cut in length every issue (as is clear from sentences saying "See elsewhere in Bibliography" when the reference given does not appear elsewhere in the Bibliography). I think the Bibliography is more interesting than some of the articles.

The Inklings Bibliography has been c u t v e r y little, and that with Mr. Christopher' s consent. It has been divided between issues because we wanted to publish as many of the articles in our backlog as possible.

Paul Torongo27628 B a rk le y Livonia, Michigan 48154

[About] the movie by Bakshi: [at] the beginning, the animation was a bit rough, but this soon disappeared as the film went on. The little history I though was excel­ lent. The backgrounds of the Shire were beautiful, but in the beginning of the film the characters kept walking so close to the camera that a ll we could see were their legs I There were a few interesting parts around here, such as Sam's "Don't let 'im turn me into anything unnatural!" Then Gandalf goes off to see Saruman, and this is what made me mad: the characters kept referring to him as Aruman!! All anger aside, why was Saruman's cloak red?

Now when the hobbits leave the Shire, we see my favorite nasties, the NSzgull Excellently done, with beautifully accenting background music! Now in Bree they started using humans/animation film , which at this point didn't look so hot. Aragorn seemed (to me, anyway) to be too much like Conan. On Weathertop the humans/ animation was used, this time very well, to show the Nazgul's negativity. Okay, so far so good, Bakshi hasn't done anything too awful. But...Legolas.. .was the worst Elf I had ever seen! A cross-eyed tw it!... Skipping to Moria, I think Bakshi's caverns were great. And for the first time we see ores. Very nice.... When I went to see the movie of The Lord of the Rings, I had more confidence in Ralph Bakshi than Glen GoodKnight The battle scenes were very well done, but no one (judging from his review of Wizards) apparently had. To ever bled, that is, until Gandalf came and ripped out judge from his best work (Heavy Traffic is still probably orc-backs in slow motion. his best movie), Bakshi is a genius of some perverted sort, and while he might either do justice to the book or tho­ All in all, the film was quite good. roughly mess it up, he would not just trivialize it, as mere competent workmen like Rankin and Bass did to Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with The Hobbit, Renee HaynesThe G arden F l a t the result. Granted, there was probably no way for Bakshi 41 Springfield Road to get money to make the movie any longer, but in several London NW8 OQJ ways he could have made better use of what time he did have. E n g lan d His technique for integrating live action with animation in battle scenes was very well done, but he appeared to About Charles Williams, he and I contributed to Time be so fascinated with it that most of the fight sequences and Tide in the 1930's and the literary editor, Ellis went on far too long. On the other hand, his exposition Roberts, initiated a series of short religious essays of scenes introducing places and characters were so truncated which Charles wrote one (He Cams Down From Heaven) an d I that someone unfam iliar with the book would probably be another (Pan, Caesar and God), and we met at a dinner for lost much of the time. Some places where live action and contributors, and there got to know one another. He was a animation were integrated, as in the scene at "The Prancing tall man, with very bright blue-grey eyes, and a curious Pony", weren't even interesting but just disconcerting. sort of quiver about him, like the air over a road on a very hot day. I do not know whether it was physical, or a sort Generally the animation was very well done indeed, of parapsychological impression or projection, of one's avoiding both the cartoonishness of Wizards and the wax- awareness of his intense intellectual excitement - intense work realism of the Hildebrandt brothers' drawings. and continuous. He had a passion for M ilton's epic which I Bilbo, Boromir, Gimli and all the Elves seemed particu­ did not share, and he once spent an entire lunch time (I larly well done. Galdalf should perhaps have been a bit Suppose he must have eaten at intervals, but I don't recol­ more dignified and Aragorn a bit less rough looking. lect it!) in reciting, by heart, the first canto of Para­ Some people thought Gollum the best acted of the charac­ dise Lost, to the great interest of the little Bloomsbury ters (in terms of voice, I mean), but I thought he restaurant at which we had met! An interest whetted by the should have been treated more as desperate and p itiful fact that he had an extremely strong Cockney accent, in­ rather than witty and resourceful. A more subtle point creasing under the stress of his enthusiasm! I was not is that Frodo was drawn and spoken as though he was in c o n v e r te d . his early twenties and Merry and Pippin as though they 27 I liked his poems and his serious work more than his Re: David Murphy's letter on Tolkien's use of novels, which gave me what I can only call transcendental racial stereotypes — I don't think it's been pointed creeps! I particularly enjoyed The Descent of the Dove out that on one point Tolkien carefully played against a n d The Figure of Beatrice. In the late 1930's, I thought the stereotype. The blond, Aryan-like Rohirrim are a of w riting a book comparing his poems with those of Rilke lesser breed" than the dark Dunedain. and of Paul Valery, because I was so much intrigued by the fact that all three of them seemed to feel some sort It is sad to note that one line of Lee Speth's of mystical significance in mathematical symbols; but review is out-of-date: Ruth Plumly Thompson is not before I could get very far - I should have had to study alive. She died April 6, 1976, at the age of 84. German before getting down to Rilke, whom I had only read in translation - the war broke out, and everyone was scattered. My husband, who could have helped me with German, worked in Pierre H. Berube St. Johnsbury, Vermont the North of England with the Censorship, and then succeeded in his efforts to join the Army. I went with our two small I have mislaid the reference, but several editions sons to ...liv e with my mother at Burford and Charles was ago a reader wrote in to enquire the source of the lines evacuated with the Oxford University Press to Oxford (but (referring to the Myth of Evolution) quoted by went home every weekend to his w ife, who loved London as C. S. Lewis in his essay "The Funeral of a Great Myth": much as he did, and would not leave it. She is the Michal of the poems.) It has great allies Its friends and propaganda, party cries I did see him once or twice in Oxford, but the book And bilge, and Man's incorrigible mind. project had to be abandoned (quite apart from the question of Rilke, no publisher would have considered that kind of This is a parody (very likely by Lewis himself) of book during the paper shortage, and X had various War odd the concluding lines of Wordsworth's sonnet addressed to jobs until I got full time work with the British Council in the great Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture: January '41.) ... thou hast great allies ...I had hoped we might all meet again after the war, Thy friends are exulations, agonies, but as you know, Charles died in 1945, of a hernia. ... And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

Annette Harper's work is far and away the best Margaret L.Carter10439 L en C o u rt Tolkien illustration I have ever seen. Can she not find a Lakeside, Californiapublisher? 92040 What a magnificent Tolkien calendar this would make, and what an improvement on the execrable H ildebrandts!

[The] poem..."Star Calls" evokes the quest of Joy as Does anyone know of a good critical work on E. R. so often described by Lewis and also reminds me of the Eddison? This magnificent author has been sadly neglected, quest for the unattainable lost homeland described so despite being second only to Tolkien himself in modern poignantly in some of Lovecraft's Dunsanian tales — a romantic epic. His one major flaw is that he glorifies perfect example of a hard-headed atheist who yet feels the m artial adventure for its own sake: his heroes are lure of the Source from which we are estranged. Boromir's, not Faramir's. Perhaps the two excellent illu­ strations in the last Mythlore w ill mark a turning point. As for "Ms.", I don't think women need to lose m arital designations; I think men need to gain them. (I'm Three parallels to Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's son, whose beginning to see some sense in Lewis' view of relations excess of chivalry led his followers to their deaths: between the sexes.) The ideal would be to adopt the Roland at Roncesvalles delaying to blow his horn till the archaic "Goodman" and "Goodwife" to identify married people. battle was lost. Prince Igor leading his host in a Well, society would never go for it.... glorious but doomed raid against the Kumans, having failed to coordinate with his brother princes. Earnur Last-King taking up the treacherous challenge of Angmar and riding Ruth Berman 5620 Edgewater Boulevard to his death. M inneapolis, Minnesota 55417 We have been deluged by concordances and bibliogra­ phies to Tolkien. Where is the scholar who w ill give us In #16 Paul H. Kocher asked if there were examples a n annotated Tolkien, tracing the plot elements, the of Biblical influence on Tolkien's name-inventions, themes, and often the very words to their sources? aside from Gilgal. The only letter commenting (Judy Tolkien's triumph was to digest and unify and transmute Cole's in #17) read the question as asking for other nearly everything in myth or epic that had preceded him. sources, and cited Malory. Apparently no one who really Like a good m edievalist he sought not to originate, but knows Hebrew has answered. to re-tell; and his masterpiece casts a light on all that had gone before. We who have not his erudition miss I know only a smattering of individual words in most of this, and a source-book would be an invaluable Hebrew, and I have difficulty looking up words in the h e l p . Hebrew alphabet, so I haven't attempted any full check of Tolkien's names in that sense. However, I've noticed Mythlore ... is as good as ever; I wish you every the following sim ilarities: Abraham's Mount Moriah continued success. (accented on the second syllable) and Tolkien's Moun­ tains of Moria (accented on the first syllable); Tom Bombadil's Elvish name, Iawain ben-Adar suggests "ben" (Hebrew for son of), although Adar is only the name of a month in Hebrew, and I don't think there is any such word in Hebrew as Iarvain (as it would probably have to be if it were anything in Hebrew, or perhaps Yarvain) , as if the Elvish "oldest, fatherless" could be construed as "oldest, sen of no one"; "baruch" means "blessed", a sim ilarity ironically inappropriate to the Dwarf battle cry "Baruk Khazadl" (I don't think there is a "khazad" in Hebrew — although "khazak" means "courage"); the Elvish "El" root apparently meaning "star" and Hebrew El", a "god" or name of God (a root found in such names as Michael or John Ronald Reuel). Probably most of these sim ilarities are coincidental. They don't suggest any pattern of definite influence.

28 materialismI Yet that is how the Divine Word t a l k e d ." "The price of heaven, hell or earth is sim il­ ar," says the Skeleton in Thomas Cranmer o f Canter­ bury, "always a broken heart, sometimes a broken neck." Gnostics au contraire, it is clearly in this world that we live and more and have our be­ ing, in this world that we have to work, to behold the Beloved, to exchange courtesy and love.

Mary Kay Bond 1918 Marc Salina, Kansas 67401 Re; "A Note on Charles W illiams’ The place of The Lion I'm indebted to Michael Haykin for spurring me to some interes-ting digging. His interpretation didn't ring true to me—which meant I had to think and reread to see what I thought! First, of course, the request for St, Ignatius' Gord Wilson1248 Humboldt S t r e e t treatise against the Gnostics is a ploy. It neatly Bellingham, Wash.gets 98225 the conversation begun on the right track, does not obligate Anthony to buy a (nonexistent) Michael Haykin’s clarifying note on The Place of book, nor commit him to a too-deep discussion with The Lion was quite appreciated, and the explanation an unknown person. he offered. We would certainly not want readers put Richardson's "grave" reply does not imply that off from Williams, as are students of higher crit­ he thinks such a treatise exists, but that he takes icism from the Gospels. "Gnosticism," as Henry th e su bject seriously. He cannot sell what he Chadwick points out in The Early Church (Pelican, doesn't have, but implies there is more to be said— cf. pp 34), was a catch-all phrase referring to a perhaps on both sides. Recollect Anthony has just variety of theosophical, heretical adaptations of had an experience of the balancing intelligence of Christianity. As most Gnostics claimed for them­ the eagle. This reaction of Richardson's makes a selves a secret knowledge or private revelation, good impression. He may not be an ally, but w ill they differed little from the proliferation of anc­ not be an enemy. ient magical cults, each with its own initiations This all said—there are interesting implica­ and esoteric knowledge for its adepts. This was in tions for the reader who knows a little (I know marked contrast to the early Christian's free and unguarded proclamation of "the Good News." Theo­ only a little) about Ignatius. His surname, Theo- logically, Gnostics tended to over-spiritualise re­ phorus, meaning God-borne or God-bearer, again ech­ ligion, adopting the Platonic superiority of the oes Anthony's experiences with/within the eagle. soul over the body, frequently relegating the body His fight against the Docetists, who would say to merely esoteric significance. Christ had no real body, no physical passion, is I agree with Haykin that Anthony is quite ob­ Anthony's struggle with Damaris, who plays with viously and simply a controversialist. What oc­ ideas as with a deck of cards and does not know Abe­ curs between him and Mr. Richardson is simply con­ lard is real. His method of dealing with the heresy is also Anthony's—personal and hierarchical auth­ troversy. But for Williams, it was controversy of o r it y . a seminal kind, between the Gnostic view of the But his thirst for martyrdom is Richardson's. body as merely a means of divination, and the sac­ He therefore combines some important features ramental view that accepts the body as itself, and of both the young men and is, therefore, a perfect good because of the "true gnosis" of the Incarna­ meeting ground for them. tion. The phrase "true gnosis" is Clement's of Alexandria. It refers, in Chadwick's words, to the spiritual knowledge given "to those humble Mary M. Stolzenbach enough to walk with God as a child with his father." Williams' neglected view of "the index of the , . .And someone else shares my preference for body" is the more amazing in light of the modern "Mistress," as our colonial ancestors used it, in­ tendency to equate the spiritual with the non­ stead of that abortion "Muzzz!" It is also ob­ material. He restores the sacramental, figural vious that business letters need a new salutation view o f n a tu re by ju x ta p o sin g th e human body w ith to replace "Gentlemen" and "Dear Sirs." I am geography (not unlike Blake's Emanations), in con­ strongly in favor of "Gentlefolk;" but they w ill tinual correspondences between mathematically pre­ undoubtedly come up with some horror instead. cise forms and severely defined dogma, and in By­ ("Dear Gentlepersons"?) zantium, where "the streets repeat the sound of the Throne." Williams resists the Gnostic tendency to divin­ ise through the flesh. In his life-long attempt to formulate a theology of romantic love, his "Kierke- But Don't Shut the Door gaardian integrity" is clear; he does not "spirit­ ualise" the body. "It's no good trying to be more religious than God," he once wrote. In marriage, On Sunday and Monday, April 1 and 2, CBS Tele­ his sexual ethic was "play and pray, but on the vision w ill show an animated version of The Lion, whole, do not pray while you are playing." The the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a joint production of the pattern is one of revelation; more than that, of Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation and the Children's superfluity; more than that, of enjoyment. He Television Workshop (of Sesame s tr e e t fame). David could celebrate D. H. Lawrence's discovery of "feel­ Connell, Vice President for Production for the ing with the blood” as he could the ecstasies of St CTW, has announced that if the sponsor is pleased Theresa. To Williams, life is all of a piece, and and the ratings are high, work w ill begin on ano­ material creation perhaps unjustified, but sensu­ ther of the Narnia stories. ous, lush and aboundingly good. It is here he locks horns with modern day Gnostics. Satirising Victor­ Stay tuned to find out whether Narnia sells ian stand-offishness, he once wrote on the "scandal" enough air freshener and cold remedy to be worthy of the Incarnation; "Handle me and see." Repulsive of continued existence on the small screen.