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The Fisher King in That Hideous Strength Volume 9 Number 4 Article 12 12-15-1983 The Fisher King in That Hideous Strength Ellen Rawson Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Rawson, Ellen (1983) "The Fisher King in That Hideous Strength," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 9 : No. 4 , Article 12. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol9/iss4/12 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 Notes how Ransom’s persona in That Hideous Strength as a modern Fisher King “contributes to Lewis’s idea of Logres versus Britain.” Notes parallels between the legend of the Fisher King and events of That Hideous Strength. Additional Keywords The Fisher King in That Hideous Strength; Lewis, C.S.—Characters—Ransom; Lewis, C.S. That Hideous Strength; Logres in That Hideous Strength 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/iss4/12 page 30 MYTHLORE 34: Winter 1983 The Fishr King in That Hideous Strength Ellen Rawson Logres, as both an idea and place, is We both like weather. Not this or that brought to life in C. S. Lewis' That Hideous kind of weather, but just weather. Strength. Within the novel is the- conflict (Ibid., p. 113) of Logres versus Britain. Derived from the Welsh word for England, "lloegr”, Logres rep­ The night that Jane, Dimble, and Arthur Den- niston search for Merlin is wild and windy. resents the England of King Arthur. It is a clean, unspoiled, spiritual England. It com- Camilla Denniston wishes that she was on a bines Christian and Celtic ideas. Celtic high hill. This is suggestive of Celtic cel­ ideas and philosophies are "christianized" in ebrations like Beltaine, which normally oc­ this ideal England. Britain, on the other curred on hills, on nights that might seem hand, represents evil. It is personified by wild with the celebration. all that tried to destroy Arthur, for example, Lewis' use of Logres in That Hideous Morgan Le Fay and Mordred. As time went on, Strength lends to its mythic structure, and it came to represent anything that opposed draws a comparison between King Arthur's and traditional England. Ransom's England, Ransom being the director of the Logres group. Adding to both the mythic After every Arthur, a Mordred; behind qualities of the work and the parallels be­ every Milton, a Cromwell, a nation of tween modern and Celtic England is the appear­ poets, a nation of shopkeepers. (That ance of Ransom as Mr. Fisher-King. Ransom be­ Hideous Strength, p. 369) comes a modern Fisher-King, the keeper of the grail, the keeper of a power which is old, The battle between Logres and Britain is spiritual, and true. He can also be seen as heightened in the twentieth century, when the the mythic fisher-king brought to the twenti­ N.I.C.E., a congromeration of all of B ritain's eth century. All in all. Ransom as the Fisher- evil, prepares to destroy Logres once and for King contributes to Lewis' idea of Logres ver­ a l l . sus Britain, as well as finalizing the Fisher- King story. Logres in That Hideous Strength is a des­ cendant of Arthur's Britain. Lewis has mod­ Basically, the Fisher-King legend is as ernized old ideas and applied them to our own follows. The young knight Perceval meets a violent world by "christianizing" them. He fisherman who invites him to rest at his takes away their wildness. An example is castle. He accepts, and upon entering the Jane's dream of the Titian painting come to castle, is greeted by his host, the fisherman. life. In the dream, there was a wild woman He is crippled, reclining on a couch in front who resembled Mother Dimble. Ransom explains of a fire. He presents Perceval with a sword. her presence to Jane: Perceval then sees a bleeding lance, but he does not ask about it. Later, a radiant gold­ Mother Dimble is friends with all that en grail is carried in. As each course of world as Merlinus is friends with the woods the dinner is served, the grail is passed be­ and rivers. But he isn't a wood or river fore them. Perceval is curious, but does not himself. She has not rejected it, but she ask about the grail. The next morning, Perce­ has baptized i t .. .You have put yourself val is unable to find anyone in the castle. w h ere you m ust m eet t h a t O ld Woman and After he departs, he meets a hideous lady who you have rejected all that has happened tells him that he spent the night with the to her since M aleldil came to Earth. So Fisher-King, a half human, half godlike figure you get her raw—not stronger than Mother who had been crippled by a wound through his Dimble would find her, but untransformed, thighs. She scolds Perceval for not having demoniac. (Ibid., p. 314) asked about the lance or grail. Because he did not, the Fisher-King w ill never have any S till, the natural essence of the old ways is peace. Total destruction and devastation w ill maintained. The Logres people can relate dir­ strike his lands. Perceval, however, does ectly to animals. An example is Ivy Maggs' gain something from this tragic experience. He attitude towards the bear, Mr. Bultitude. She finally realizes that his name is Perceval, and treats him as she would another human being. that the Fisher-King is his uncle, or in some They are all more at ease with the elements versions of the story, his grandfather. He had than are most modern people. As the Dennis- never known God prior to th is. He now becomes tons explain to Jane: a Christian. MYTHLORE 34: Winter 1983 page 31 Jane's first meeting with Ransom is sim ilar appearance and disappearance that many C eltic to Perceval's meeting the Fisher-King in his dwellings have. It does, however, seem to castle. Both Ransom and the Fisher-King are hide from passersby. crippled and are reclining on couches, in front of fires. Perceval sees the fisherman as a There were no houses on her (Jane's) left king, just as Jane ...She was on the highest ground in all that region. Presently, she came to a high tasted the word King itself, with all wall on her right that seemed to run on linked associations of battle, m arriage, for a great way: there was a door in it priesthood, mercy, and power. and beside the door an old iron bell-pull. (Ibid., p. 143) (Ibid., p. 51) On his last journey. Ransom's heel was se­ Jane exits by the main gate, which she had not verely wounded. He cannot walk and is often seen when she approached the manor. The sec­ in great pain. The Fisher-King is also fairly ond time she comes to the manor, it almost immobile, although his wound is in the thighs, seems to be rising out of the fog. rather than the heel. Bran, in the Welsh Mab- inoqion, is believed to have been the precur­ A few yards further and luminous blue sor to the Arthurian Fisher-King. In a battle was showing overhead, and trees cast against the King of Ireland, Bran is wounded shadows, and then all of a sudden the enor­ in the heel. The direct consequence of the mous spaces of the sky haid become v isi­ wound upon B ritain is its devastation. The ble, and the pale golden sun. king's health is directly linked to the land's (Ibid., p. 138) fertility . If he is not healed, the land w ill suffer. If Perceval was to have asked the It seems fittin g that the dwelling place of right questions, he could have healed the land Ransom, the modern Fisher-King, is situated and the king. He would have been declared the above the fog. rightful heir. The land would once again have a healthy heir. Both it and the Fisher-King Perceval is an outsider to A rthur's court, would be healed. the place generally considered to be the cen­ ter of Logres. He has only recently come to Ransom's wounds can only be cured once his court. According to most stories, he is sent land, Logres, is safe. When he refuses Mer­ on the grail quest to prove that he is capable lin ' s ^offer of'a cure, he says: of being one of A rthur's knights. Unlike the other knights, Perceval is not a C hristian, We have drugs that could cheat the pain and does not become one u n til after he meets as well as your earth magic or better, if the Fisher-King.
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