McSporran, Cathy (2007) Letting the winter in: myth revision and the winter solstice in fantasy fiction. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5812/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Letting the Winter In: Myth Revision and the Winter Solstice in Fantasy Fiction Cathy McSporran Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Literature, University of Glasgow Submitted October 2007 @ Cathy McSporran 2007 Abstract Letting the Winter In: Myth-Revision and the Winter Solstice in Fantasy Fiction This is a Creative Writing thesis, which incorporates both critical writing and my own novel, Cold City. The thesis explores 'myth-revision' in selected works of Fantasy fiction. Myth- revision is defined as the retelling of traditional legends, folk-tales and other familiar stories in such as way as to change the story's implied ideology. (For example, Angela Carter's 'The Company of Wolves' revises 'Red Riding Hood' into a feminist tale of female sexuality and empowerment.) Myth-revision, the thesis argues, has become a significant trend in Fantasy fiction in the last three decades, and is notable in the works of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman. Despite its incorporation of supernatural elements, myth-revision is an agnostic or even atheistic phenomenon, which takes power from deities and gives it to mortal humans instead. As such it represents a rebellion against the 'Founding Fathers' of Fantasy, writers such as Tolkien or CS Lewis, whose works stress the rightful superiority of divine figures. The thesis pays particular attention to how the myths surrounding the Winter Solstice are revised in this kind of fiction. Part One Part One consists of my novel Cold City, with appropriate annotations. Part Two Chapter One compares and contrasts Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials with CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. It argues that Pullman's sequence of children's novels is an anti-Narnia, which revises CS Lewis's conservative Christian allegory into one supporting Pullman's secular humanist viewpoint. Chapter Two explores myth-revision in Elizabeth Hand's novel of adult Fantasy, Winterlong. It examines how Hand 'revises' the Hellenic myth of the god Dionysos, especially as it is related in Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae. The chapter argues that by blending the Dionysos legends with those of Winter Solstice, Hand takes power from the god and places it into human hands, and revises a Greek tragedy into a story with a comedic ending. Chapter Three examines the use of 'Ragnarok'- the ancient Norse myth of the end of Winter the world - in Cold City. It discusses how, as in Winterlong, the beliefs of the 'Solstice enable Ragnarok to be revised and the end of the world averted. 2 Acknowledgments With thanks to my supervisor Willy Maley, for years of support and guidance, To Lesley Mount for the thoughts on wolves, To Farah Mendlesohn for her sharp-eyed criticism of the Winteilong chapter, And, for everything, to my husband Stewart. 3 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgments 3 Part One: Cold City: a novel, 6 Prologue 8 Slipping One 12 Two 22 Three 30 Four 38 Five 42 Six 50 City of Wolves 58 Seven 59 Eight 70 Nine 77 Ten 80 Eleven 85 Twelve 92 The Harline Centre 110 Thirteen 111 Fourteen 120 Fifteen 129 Sixteen 135 Seventeen 140 Eighteen 145 Nineteen 163 The White Palace 172 Twenty 173 Twenty-One 189 Twenty-Two 213 Ragnarok 221 Twenty-Three 222 Twenty-Four 259 Epilogue 284 4 Part Two: Letting the Winter In: Myth Revision and the Winter Solstice in Fantasy Fiction 291 Abbreviations 292 Introduction 294 1) Reversing the Myth: CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia versus Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials 305 Absolute Rule: Irnages of God 308 The Devil's Party 315 Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Defiance in the Garden of Eden 320 Childhood and Adulthood 323 The Worlds of the Dead 328 In Conclusion 334 2) Who Will Let the Winter In? Reinventing the Myth of Dionysos in Elizabeth Hand's Winteriong 336 Dionysos as'Pharmakon' 338 Call Nothing Natural: Sex in Winterlon 340 Baal and Anat 343 Gender-Bending in Winterlon 344 Intoxication and Unreliable Narrators 346 Made in Our Image: Shaping the God 348 Who Will Let the Winter In? Death, Rebirth and the Winter Solstice 350 In Conclusion - 356 3) Revising Ragnarok: Rewriting Norse Myth in Cold City_ 357 The End of the World in Ice: Ragnarok, Nuclear Winter and the Apocalypse 358 Escaping to Hell: Madness & Unreliability 363 Is the Cold World real? 366 'Travelling to Narnia in your fucking sleep' : Transition Between Worlds367 A Spell of Winter: Winter Magic and Writing Cold City________- 372 Letting the Winter In: the Winter Solstice in Cold City 376 In Conclusion 382 Appendix: 'Ragnarok' 386 Bibliography 390 _ 5 Part One: Cold City: a novel That legend much discredited, of the following of the sledges, let us test it in the Cairngorms, in the winter playgroundswith their merrycries, in the white paths through the forest. It would be good to get not a fewscalps to crawl with fear when they hear that eerie arctic song as one by one the muzzles lift and open in the dark, and the dark is long. 'Wolf EdwinMorgan' Morgan, p.83. 7 Prologue Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered, Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls. The Poetic Edda 2.VOIUSpo: the Wise-Woman's Prophecy,. Bellows, The Poetic Edda, p.20. Two years ago my Dad died. Jamie was in bits about it. He was only twenty-two. Mum, less understandably, was in a worse state than Jamie. Some guilt thing, probably. I dealt with all the practicalities. I seemed to be coping well. Then, three weeks after his funeral, I saw my Dad walking along the pedestrian precinct on Argyle Street. It was a Saturday, so the place was mobbed; but it was him all right. He had his back to me, but then he glanced to one side and I saw his profile. I'd have known him anywhere. As soon as I recognised him, I felt something tear inside me. It was quite a gentle sensation, as if a membrane had been punctured but was still holding. I stopped walking and watched my Dad. He was heading for a tall building at the end of the pedestrian precinct -a tower of clean blonde sandstone. There is, of course, no sandstone tower on Argyle Street. I thought, matter-of-factly: I'm looking into a different world. Then a huge man loomed up and bumped into me. By the time he was out of the way my Dad and the new building were both gone. Calmly, I caught the underground to my GP's surgery. Then I sat in the packed waiting room and cried, until the doctor saw me. She was kind; we talked about stress and grief and coping. She gave me a sick line and a prescription. I went home, and didn't leave my flat for the next fortnight. It didn't happen again. I thought I didn't have to worry any more. But that's not true. Ever since Lewis left, I've been feeling cold. Not chilly, not draughty:co/d. Like the door's blown open in an Arctic wind. No-oneelse ever feels it. Lately, it's begunto happenwhen I'm falling asleep. I jerk awake-I can't let myself sink into that kind of cold, I won't survive! That's been going on for months. But it's only now - sitting at my desk, the fax burblingbehind me - that I understand how bad this is. Someoneis clatteringup a ladder before me - Christmasgarlands waft down to the floor. Someoneelse is saying a day late, it's bad luck! I can't rememberwho these people are. I am lookingout of the window,which only momentsago was streamingwith rain. Now it's piled high with snow. Only the top pane is clear; but I can see that the blizzardis still coming down. It's a whiteout. The membraneinside me rips open, like burnt but still-livingskin, from top to bottom. And I know that something, now, is going to come through. 9 10 Part One Slipping Freezing dusk is closing Like a slow trap of steel On trees and roads and hills and all That can no longer feel. Moonlight freezes the shaggy world Like a mammoth of ice - The past and the future Are the jaws of a steel vice. 'The Warm and the Cold' Ted Hughes' "Ted Hughes', Poetry Connection. One I'm wringingwet by the time I get to Bowies. The rain is still bouncingoff the pavements,and of course I left my umbrellabehind with my coat. My long skirt is plasteredagainst my skin. My office shoes are waterlogged. I always change before I come to Bowies,but tonight I haven't. I should be freezing,but I'm not. I push through the heavydoors. The lobby has changedfrom black to white and gold.