Volume 3 Number 3 Article 9 1976 Homo Monstrosus: Lloyd Alexander’s Gurgi and Other Shadow Figures of Fantastic Literature Nancy-Lou Patterson Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1976) "Homo Monstrosus: Lloyd Alexander’s Gurgi and Other Shadow Figures of Fantastic Literature," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 3 : No. 3 , Article 9. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol3/iss3/9 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 Discusses Gurgi as the shadow archetype in Alexander’s Prydain Cycle and compares him to examples in other literature. Additional Keywords Alexander, Lloyd—Jungian analysis; Alexander, Lloyd. The Prydain Cycle; Alexander, Lloyd. The Prydain Cycle—Characters—Gurgi; Shadow (Psychoanalysis); Joe R. Christopher; Bonnie GoodKnight 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/vol3/iss3/9 BOOK REVIEW: THE NOT-WORLD many years ago and thought that Mr. Swann might be on his way to Charles Williams tradition. And the point to be made here is producing a masterpiece of fantasy some day. In short, if Mr. that if Ms. Laubenthal had written about a haunted forest near Swann's talent is still immature, it has been so for years, and Bristol, we would remember the forest as a haunting image. The may in fact be a case of arrested development. witches Ms. Laubenthal would evoke would be searing memories, Certainly "immaturity" can't be a completely satisfying because Ms. Laubenthal believes in the power both of the demonic way of describing the shortcomings of The Hot-World. I f we th in k and of the divine. of another fantasy w riter whose work shows signs of immaturity, Another question raised by Mr. Swann's unsatisfying novel for instance, we can see some immediate contrasts. Ms. Sanders is why the world of fantasy writing should be so dominated today Anne Laubenthal, for instance, is a young fantasy w riter, known by women. This is especially peculiar since so many of the to readers of M y th p r in t. Her first novel, E x c a lib u r , published great figures in the tradition of mythopoeic fantasy—Morris, late in 1973, was both a delightful romance, and one containing MacDonald, Tolkien, Eddison, Lewis, Williams—have been men. many faults: at times, Ms. Laubenthal seemed imperfectly in com­ Today, however nearly all the virile writing—if the ladies will mand of her style and her plot. But the romance was vigorous permit such an adjective—is being done by women: Evangeline and intense in its evocation of strange areas of the imagination, Walton, Joy Chant, Katherine Kurtz, Mary Stew art... The male despite its weaknesses. I would predict that in time Ms. Lau­ myth makers seem to be in retreat or other fields. benthal may be a powerful novelist in the George MacDonald/Lewis/ —Reviewed by Ed Chapman Homo monstrous: L loyd A lexander's G urgi a n dother Shadow F igures of Fantastic Literature b y Nancy-Lou Patterson IN HIS ANALYSIS of human dreams, C. G. Jung developed the technique Gurgi remains most vivid. Fflewddur and his harp become a of am plification, in which he single joke strained to the breaking point, Eilonwy exudes a faint perfume of the stereotype, so that her delightful traits searched the literature of mytho­ are gently patronized; and the old magician Dallben never rises, logy and folklore for parallels, in order to understand motifs as do Merlin in T. H. W hite's Once and Future King, and Gandalf which could not be explained in Tolkien's Lord o f the Rings, to the level of the numinous. in terms of memory or wish Even the splendidly-conceived trip le Goddesses—Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch—repeat a mildly grisly running gag about Orgoch's fulfillm ent. This method has appetite. It is a failure of taste, I think, or perhaps a given rise in literary criticism failure of nerve; in the end Alexander is a rationalist, whose to the seeking of archetypal hero must get on with real life, having rid himself of childish sources for characters and events; perhaps most notably in Northrop fantasies—all his magical companions pass away into the Summer F r y e 's Anatomy o f C riticism . Sometimes a very minor element in Country except for Eilonwy, his future wife, who is reduced in the process. a work of literature can exert a compelling power upon the reader quite out of balance with the space afforded to it, and when Perhaps this is the reason why Prydain for all its spec­ this happens, archetypal criticism can help to explain why it tacular variety is not always quite a secondary world, not d o es. always absolutely real: there is a certain swashbuckling dis­ Readers of Lloyd Alexander's five-volume fantasy cycle of regard of detail. On the one hand, events pour over us too P ry d a in —The Book o f Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle o f rapidly to be remembered, and on the other, comic effects are Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King— will be able to list simply repeated from volume to volume. There is a tendency to the companions of the youthful pig-keeping hero, Taran. He is exaggeration: when Taran is m ercilessly lashed by captors provided with a future wife, a musical friend, a wise old dragging him before the enchantress Achren in The Book o f Three, counsellor, and numerous acquaintances, mentors, enemies, and there is little sense of his suffering, of the experience being magical beings in the course of seeking out the secret of his more than a simple incident intended to lend drama and colour ancestry and becoming High King. The companionship is more to the tale. The same motif becomes one of intense pathos when casual than the Fellowship of the Ring in J. R. R. Tolkien's L o r d Frodo is trapped in the tower of Cirith Ungol in The Return o f of the Rings, and lacks the basis of physical relationship of t h e K in g (yet he receives but a single stripe). And when the the Pevensey children in C.S. Lewis's Narnian Chronicles, but claws of Aslan mark Aravis with ten stripes, in The Horse and it falls well within the traditional structure. A much more H is B o y , her whole life is changed. The "throw-away" effect of mysterious figure among those companions has not been mentioned: Alexander's narrative diminishes its realism. this is Gurgi. With the above comments I have exhausted my objections: they I read the Prydain series at one gulp in tandem with my are minor in the face of Alexander's achievement, which is a twelve-year-old daughter. It is certainly true that Alexander major and authentic work of fantasy, and my purpose is rather to is endlessly inventive—both of characters and events—sometimes show his undoubted power at work. The aforementioned negative breathlessly so. In pondering the whole experience, I find that assertions might also be made about Gurgi—and yet he sticks in the mind—why? As C. S. Lewis said, the argument a d h o m in em i s likely to mislead us, so I will not try to guess what Alexander SECTION INITIALS illum inated by Joe R. Christopher meant by Gurgi. Instead, I will look at what he tells us about him . 24 MYTHLORE 11 BRIEFLY STATED, G urgi i s a m o n s te r, face was wrinkled in misery and he shook his matted head so of a species well known in liter­ violently he nearly sprawled flat on the floor. "Poor Gurgi ature and folklore. He is an w ill be lone and lorn with whinings and pinings!" he moaned. ambivalent being, half animal and "Oh, he must go with master, yes! yes!"5 half human, half enemy and half Again there is a repetition: "Gurgi began snuffling loudly, f r i e n d . When he f i r s t m eets T aran whimpering and moaning more desperately than ever ..."(p. 14). he attacks him, but in the end of Finally, in The High King, The Book o f Three i t i s he who His companion Gurgi, shaggier than the pony he rode, pulled f in d s th e o r a c u la r p i g , Hen Wen. his weathered cloak around him, rubbed his frost-nipped ears, He a ls o f in d s th e m ira c u lo u s and began groaning so wretchedly that Taran at last reined cauldron for which T h e B la c k up the stallion.6 C a u ld r o n is named, and in T h e H ig h Gurgi's fearfulness (which gives overt expression to that K in g he finds the coffer in which which Taran not only feels, but fears to feel), is accompanied are hidden the secrets of human arts and sciences.