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Volume 11 Number 3 Article 10

Winter 2-15-1985

C.S. Lewis' Passages: Chronological Age and Spiritual Development in

Doris T. Myers

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Recommended Citation Myers, Doris T. (1985) "C.S. Lewis' Passages: Chronological Age and Spiritual Development in Narnia," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 11 : No. 3 , Article 10. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol11/iss3/10

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 Admires the ways the Chronicles balance the idea that chronological age of characters is relatively unimportant with the concept of “spiritual age”—tasks of spiritual development associated with particular stages in life.

Additional Keywords Lewis, C.S.—Characters—Chronological age; Lewis, C.S.—Characters—Spiritual development; Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia

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/vol11/iss3/10 MYTHLORE 41: Winter-Spring 1985 Page 52 C.S. Lewis' Tassages

Chronological Age and Spiritual Development in J^arnia

D oris T. M y e rs

In the essay "On Stories" C. S. Lewis praises l if e the major issue for Lew is's ch ild protagonists The Mind iji the Willows for the way the characters is whether to accept God or go against the grain of seem simultaneously to be both adults and children. the universe; but th is major issue takes different He says: "They are lik e children in so far as they forms at different stages in l if e and at different have no responsibilities, no struggle for existence, levels of spiritual maturity. no domestic cares. . . . But in other ways i t is the l if e of adults. They go where they lik e and do what Part of the complexity and beauty of the they please, they arrange their own liv e s" (Of Other Chronicles is the interplay of two kinds of age. On Worlds, 14). Although Lewis did not explIciTTy make the one hand there is the sense 1n which the connection, I believe that he admired th is chronological age is re lative ly unimportant, and the achievement of Grahame's partly because i t reflects a child protagonists experience flexibility of age. In deep conviction of his own about the importance— and one paragraph of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe unimportance— of chronological age. the four children become adults and live Tong Tn Narnia. Then they go back through the wardrobe, and Chronological age is unimportant in that in one paragraph become children again. There is a children and adults are e ssentially alike. Lewis similar flexibility of chronological age in all the cited as an example the instant sympathy he achieved subsequent books except perhaps The M agician's with a child in a restaurant on the basis of their Nephew. Like Kenneth Grahame in The Wind and the common hatred of stewed prunes: "We both knew that Hi 11ows, Lewis has succeeded in portraying characters prunes are far too nasty to be funny" (Of Other who are simultaneously child-like and adult-like. Worlds, 34). On the other hand, each one of the Chronicles Chronological age is also unimportant in that (with the possible exception of Dawn Treader) also people do not have specific ages in A slan 's country, presents a task of sp iritu a l development associated or Heaven. In The Last B a ttle , appears in our with a particular stage in life. This "spiritual world before the Seven Friends of Narnia. He sees age" is conveyed through images and narrative Polly and Digory as "very old," Peter and Edmund as d e ta ils, the elements which give each book it s "hardly fu ll grown, certain ly younger than Tirian p articu lar flavor and tone. him self," Lucy as younger than Peter and Edmund, and Eustace and J il l as "younger s t i l l " (The Last B attle . The Lion, the Wi tch and the Wardrobe presents 42).1 When Tirian meets them again in 's the sp iritu a l state oT- a very young cF lld . For country, Polly and Digory have been ''unstiffened," children born into a re ligio u s home, the f ir s t Edmund is a mature man with a fu ll beard, and J il l awareness of C h ristia n ity comes through it s two great "seems to have become older" (, 133, feasts, Christmas and Easter, and the experience of 134, 138). ------each feast i s p rim arily physical sensation, not a theological concept or an act of the will.2 This In th is handling of chronological age Lewis 1s is what we find in Wardrobe. The sadness of l if e following a Christian tradition that goes back at under the domination of the witch is "always winter least as far as St. Augustine. In his own "last but never Christmas." The children hear of Aslan, b attle ," the 22nd book of The City of God, St. but the one who actually comes is Father Christmas, Augustine speculates that all the saints will be bringing presents and a good dinner. In the same resurrected "neither beyond nor under youth, but in way, the coming of Easter is presented as physical that vigour and age to which we know that Christ had sensation: the delicious languor of the spring thaw; arrived" (p. 833), and that each person w ill rise in the early-morning romp and 11 on-back ride of A slan 's the prime that he or she either had attained in l if e resurrection; and the celebratory high tea after the or would have attained (p. 839). At the end of The b attle. One of the central contrasts between good Silv e r Chair, when Caspian Is resurrected as a young and evil is that of food— the junk food of Turkish man, Lewis comments, “Even in th is world, of course, Delight, which never s a tis f ie s , but merely whets the i t Is the stupidest children who are most child ish appetite, against the homely, nourishing tea with the and the stupidest grown-ups who are most qrown-UD" faun, or supper with the beavers. (The Silv e r Chair, 212). Another way the book depicts a very young stage Although chronological age is unimportant in of life is that the children simply accept the some ways, i t is important in that there are certain destiny that has been prepared for them— to be kings developmental tasks unique to each age. One of the and queens of Narnia— ju st as young children 1n our reasons Susan became a Narnia dropout, as J il l says, world accept the fact that baptism has made them is that "she always was a jo lly sigh t too keen on inh eritors of God's kingdom. , on the being grown-up" and Polly adds, "She wasted a ll her other hand, deals with a late r stage of sp iritu a l school time wanting to be the age she is now, and development— a time when children, even i f they do she 11 waste a ll the rest of her l if e tryin g to stay not actively doubt the fa ith , begin to be bored with that age" (The Last B attle , 135). At each stage of it . They lis te n to the sto rie s, but the woods are MYTHLORE 41: Winter-Spring 1985 Page 53

dead and impersonal, as i t were, and the beasts no community, for the Church, as Lewis said in another longer talk. They begin to realize that the events context, is not old-fashioned--it is just very old recounted in the Scriptures happened a very long time (, 146). ago, and that many people doubt whether they happened at all. This is the spiritual stage depicted in I f Dawn Treader i s defining images o f the Prince Caspian. The children come back to Narnia to Church, i t is appropriate that the s h ip 's company TTn<3 that the joy of childhood is past. As should be mostly human, and that i s what we find. Wordsworth put it , "The glory has departed." The talking animals are represented only by ; the Narnians of c la s sic a l and Northern Lewis conveys the sense of an older age by mythology— fauns and centaurs, dwarfs, e tc .— appear emphasizing re s p o n sib ility and the stru ggle for not at a ll . Lewis must have done th is in tu itiv e ly existence. In Wardrobe, when the children entered for the same reason that he consciously made human Narnia they were almost immediately met by Mr. beings the only rational species on Beaver, who guided them, gave them food, and — because the C h ristian community is explained the situ a tio n to them. In Caspian they founded on the Incarnation. What he does in Dawn must fin d th e ir own food, sh elter, and fresh water, Treader is not logical within the premises of^tfie and then figure out th e ir own situ atio n by observing , where C h rist i s incarnate as a lio n , but i t evidence and applying lo g ic . They do not meet feels so right that we actually don't notice it. In un til a fter they have solved a ll these Prince Caspian Lewis used the mythological Narnians problems on th e ir own. such as Bacchus and Silen us to dramatize the role of imagination in the revitalizing of faith; he omits The sense of faith buried in Indifference is mythology in Dawn Treader because membership in the conveyed by images of old, ruined, overgrown places, C h ristia n community 1s a matter of w ill rather than and esp e cially underground places. The overall imagination. impression is reinforced by the unused weapons and armor, things the children have to recognize as their Dawn Treader i s the exception that te sts the own and begin to use again. Just as these things rule in that i t does not focus on any p a rtic u la r become meaningful again as the children appropriate stage of ‘sp iritu a l development. The chronological them, so a lso do the trees fin d th e ir voices and ages of the main characters seem f le x ib le , ju s t as begin to dance as Lucy responds to the c a ll of Aslan. they are in the other books, but the story presents a range of spiritual stages. Eustace is at a very young stage of being rescued from his own The story of Caspian mirrors the experience of se lfish n e ss. Reepicheep i s at the other extreme of the Pevensie children. Caspian begins with a complete m aturity--a seasoned w arrior and courtier childish acceptance of Old Narnia through the who has been ca lle d to seek the b e a tific v isio n . trad itio n he receives from h is nurse and h is tutor, Caspian and Lucy are somewhere in the middle. This just as the Pevensie children accepted 1t in is a lso an image of the Church in the ordinary world, Wardrobe. Then he i s pushed out on h is own, becomes for i t contains "a ll so rts and conditions of men." responsible for himself, and is forced to exercise h is faith in the tra d itio n by daring to blow Queen Interrupts the developing Susan's horn. The reality of Old Narnia--not just histo ry of Narnia to go back to the Golden Age o f the belief in thg nistorlcal tradition of it— is finally rule of the four children, while re-established through the two fig h ts: the fig h t In concludes the reign of Caspian. LewTs wrote- Horse the dark against the forces of black magic, and the first, but decided to publish The Silver Chair as the fight in the daylight against the cynicism and fourth book (Green and Hooper, 245T For the purpose self-aggrandizement of King . The book ends of tracing spiritual stages it doesn't matter which appropriately with a final exercise of living faith Is f ir s t , for both deal with the sp iritu a l tasks of 1n Aslan by those who dare to go through the door la te adolescence and young adulthood. Horse deals between the worlds. with the choice o f lif e s t y le and the development of a sense of s e lf as the two horses and two humans leave A number of the d e ta ils c lu ste r around the the m orally d e ficie n t l if e of for the process of resto ring l if e and humor to what has North. The Silver Chair deals with the choice of a become dead: A slan 's rough joke of to ssin g Trumpkin philosophy. The children reject materialism and Into the a ir , the a n tics of Bacchus and Sllen u s, the positivism for trust in Aslan. Their choice is destruction of the bridge, and the disruption of dull analogous to one faced by many young people when they schools. Thus Prinee Caspian is directed toward the f ir s t go to college. age when young people say that everything, and especially religious tradition, is boring. The choice of lifestyle in Horse is presented p rim arily as a contrast in dress and manners. The The recovery of living faith 1n Prince Caspian Tarkaan who owned looked rather lik e a rock leads lo g ic a lly to The Voyage of the Dawn~Treader, musician with h is dyed red beard and h is load of gold which explores through Images and narrative d e ta ils and s ilv e r ornaments. Sim ila rly , the Tisroc wore the l if e of the Individual in the C h ristia n " f r i l l s and pleats and bobbles and buttons and comnunity. As Gibson has pointed out, the ship is ta s se ls and talism an s," and wore a It s e l f a tra d itio n a l symbol for the Church (168). "feathered and jeweled turban" ( Horse, 104). In Like the Church, the Dawn Treader has a hierarch ical contrast, the Northern n o b ility wear simple tunics in government, specialized manners and vocabulary, and a fin e, b righ t, hardy colours and "steel or s ilv e r m ission to seek the lo st. The deflners of membership caps" (Horse, 54). The Calormenes speak with in the Church are baptism and conmunion, and elaborate courtesy and many proverbs, their analogues of these appear in Dawn Treader. Finally, smoothness and ind irectness hid ing falsehood, Schackel's perception that a major theme of Dawn cruelty, and contempt. The Narnians a lso use Treader is modernism versus true progress (53-54) elaborate courtesy but make a great point of telling actually confirms the theme of life in the Christian the truth. It is a mark of their great danger in MYTHLORE 41: Winter-Sprint 1985

Tashbaan that they even consider using trickery and the confusing snowstorm 1n the ruined c ity and the equivocation. w itch 's use of a smokescreen and strumming music to make the protagonists deny Narnia. For , the encounter with the Narnlans provides the f ir s t In klin g that not everyone In the Several other narrative details suggest that world behaves dishonorably. He 1s lik e an adolescent this testing of philosophy takes place at the stage who finds out that h1s fam ily's way of liv in g Is not of young adulthood. First, as in Prince Caspian, universal. Bree knows that the Narnlans are there 1s an emphasis on the c h ild re n 's re sp o n sib ility different from the Calormenes, but he focuses on for catching and cleaning their own food. Second, superficial d etails of behavior such as whether Eustace's horror at seeing Caspian as an old man Narnlan horses r o ll. Despite h1s chronological age suggests the disturbance young people feel when they as a mature and seasoned warhorse, he behaves lik e a realize that their parents or older friends are typical sk ittis h teenager, f ir s t making Shasta feel aging, that the passage of time 1s Inexorable. In fe rio r and then worrying that he him self w ill be In fe rio r to Narnlan horses. The embarrassing but In The Silver Chair, as 1n Horse, the curative meeting with Aslan reveals the weakness of protagonists a ri a¥ an age when nobody is In h1s character under his teenager's b luff. As a authority over them, and both books make a point resu lt of his change in attitude, the d isaster that about the need for cheerfulness. When there 1s a every teenager fears most, making an ass of himself, higher authority, one may complain to It, but when happens to Rabadash rather than Bree. people are Independent, they must either change their situa tion for themselves or put up with 1t. This Aravls, who chronologically is the same age or a aspect of young adulthood Is represented by Hwln's l it t le younger than Shasta and certain ly not old sensible cheerfulness In Horse, and more vividly 1n enough to get married (Horse, 40), also behaves lik e The S ilv e r Chair by , who combines a a teenager In Fer snobbishness and HIpendable cheerfulness with a constant stream of self-centeredness. She Is Involved In the worst-case scenarios. developmental task of thinking about choosing a desirable marriage. Her experience In Tashbaan Both books also stress the Independent young demonstrates the emptiness of Lasaraleen's so c ially a d u lt's need for good manners. In Horse, the advantageous marriage, and Queen Susan's refusal of contrasting lif e s t y le s of Calormen and the North are Rabadash further contributes to th is motif. The book expressed to a great extent 1n manners. In The concludes with the Ideal of a marriage based on S11 ver C hair, the courtesy of the green lady and of friendly give and take: "when they were grown up the Harfang giants Is deceptive, as J il l and Eustace [ and Cor] were so used to quarrelling and learn from sad experience. The change 1n Prince making I t up again that they got married so as to go R lllan 1s also a change 1n manners. When he Is bound on doing It more conveniently" (Horse, 216). by the evil enchantment, his conversation 1s boorish; after h1s loosin g, “there was something In h1s face Although a ll of the Chronicles show people on a and a ir which no one could mistake" (The Silv e r quest— that is, after a ll, the kind of stories they Chair, 199). ------are— The Horse and His Boy Is the only one to explore the emotional content of leaving one's own home and From young adulthood the Chronicles seem to move choosing one's own life sty le . A young person who Is toward middle age 1n The M agician's Nephew. Perhaps leaving home thinks a good deal about the parenting because the quest 1s so b rie f, the chronological age he has received, and the book does present Images of of the children seems to remain at about twelve, the good and bad parenting: the abusive, exploitative age assigned them by the Outline of Narnlan history fathers Arsheesh and the Tisroc are contrasted with (Hooper, 298). But the Imagery of the story and the gru ff but gentle King Lune. Thus Lewis presents In developmental tasks are those of middle age. images and narrative detail the young a d u lt's choice of lifestyle. One preoccupation of middle aged people 1s nurturing and sustain in g the new generation and the The Silv e r Chair explores another developmental old. Dlgory's quest for the golden apple Is task of the young adult, the task of discerning truth undertaken 1n order to protect N a rn ia's youthful in the midst of confusing appearances. In Innocence and a lso to heal h is mother's sickness. chronological age the protagonists J il l and Eustace Jadis the Witch tempts Dlgory by tryin g to get him to are school-children, but the imagery of the story f u l f i l l h1s duty to the old at the expense of h is suggests young adulthood, and sp e c ific a lly the duty to the new. With her own face "deadly white, experience of going to the university and evaluating white as s a lt , " she promises him that the color w ill different philosophies. come back Into his mother's face. In cid e n tally, she also promises him that he w ill never grow old or Three of the dominant images of The S ilv e r Chair die— a conmon fantasy of middle age. have been discussed by John ~D.— jn "Epistemological Release In The Silver Chair": the The middle-aged person's concern with nurturing Hamlet-like dress of Prince Rlllan, rifTecting a others 1s admirably dramatized in the In s ta lla tio n of doubt and uncertainty lik e Hamlet's; the green lad y's Frank and Helen as the king and queen of Narnia. metamorphosis Into a serpent, which Is reminiscent of Frank promises to "raise food out of the earth" to the monster Error 1n Book I of the Faerie Queene; and sustain h1s fam ily, to "do n»y b it " 1f war should the silv e r chair it s e lf , which recaTTs" "the silv e r come, and not to have favo rites either among his chair of Mammon, and by extension materialism, 1n children or h1s Narnlan subjects. He promises, 1n Book I I of the Faerie Queene. He points out that a ll short, to be the Ideal parent, the kind of parent these Images convey the need for In tellectual middle-aged people aspire to be. This account of the discernment. J i l l ' s f ir s t perception that the f ir s t king and queen of Narnia 1s sometimes giants heads are p ile s of rock 1s a narrative detail c ritic iz e d because I t 1s Inconsisten t with the role that supports these Images (163). We might also add of human beings as explained 1n the first two books, MYTHLORE 41: Winter-Spring 1985 Page 55

but 1t Is remarkably congruent with the middle-aged The elderly person experiences the world as atmosphere of the six th book. changing for the worse and often responds by withdrawal. Although i t is almost axiomatic that the The 's Nephew depicts the sins of middle policies of any nation, university, or business age as well as it s tasks and lon gln gs— the sin s of enterprise w ill be planned by g u ile fu l, se lfis h lu st, self-indulgence, and an overweening desire for S h ifts and executed by good-hearted but fo o lish power or financial security. The portrayal of Uncle Puzzles, the old person increasingly realiz es that Andrew provides examples of a ll three of these sin s. th is Is what happens. Thus the world seems worse to As an example of lu st there 1s the scene of his him than I t did in h is innocent youth. Determined primping before the m irror, c a llin g him self "a not to be exploited again, the old person may narrow devilish well preserved fellow" In his foolish h is world and refuse a ll b e lie f, as the dwarfs did Infatuation for Jadls (76).3 Then there Is h1s when Puzzle was exposed as a fa lse Aslan. This se lf-ind ulgent weakness for brandy (a common withdrawal from the p o ss ib ility of renewed commitment middle-aged strategy for dealing with frustration). further diminishes resources. H1s plans for the “economic development" of Narnia present an Image of the middle-aged wheeler-dealer 1n The central image of the elderly person's the most unflattering lig h t. successive lo sse s and Inevitable defeat by death is the battle before the stable door. I t is stronger Finally, The Magician's Nephew captures and sadder than most c h ild re n 's sto rie s dare to be. adnirably the duTTness of middle age. I f middle age Just when 1t becomes unendurable, T irian finds Is the time when people stop holding th e ir stomachs himself In a large, happy place. The resignation In, I t Is also the time when they become a l it t l e expressed by Jewel and J il l before the la s t b attle is cautious about adventures. Thus 1n the f ir s t three vindicated when Aslan begins to call the stars home. chronicles, the protagonists begin their quest out of It becomes possible to believe that Aslan is in a desire for adventure; In the fourth and f if t h , out control of deaths, dlminlshlngs, and endings. of the need to escape an unpleasant, confining l if e Chlldren— and adults too— can grasp through the situ ation ; but In th is sixth book, Dlgory goes to the images of fantasy what they could not handle so well enchanted garden simply because he 1s sent. His In realistic fiction. origin al desire to explore has been soundly crushed by the disaster at . Thus both the f le x ib ilit y of chronological ages and the developmental tasks of various stages In C hristian l if e are depicted as one story grows out of The Interplay between flexible chronological another. This unified theme must have happened ages and the developmental tasks of a p articu lar without planning as Lewis responded in tu itiv e ly to spiritual state Is strongest In The Last Battle, the his own stories. book which picks up a ll the threads"and recapitulates a ll the m otifs of the Chronicles. The surface narrative, which deals with the death and rebirth of In making th is in tu itiv e response, Lewis was Narnia, Is compatible with the spiritual tasks of old probably Influenced by h is knowledge of Medieval age and death, and the f ir s t part of the book Is lite ra ry c ritic is m such as Bernard S1 lvestr1s' governed by Images of old age. King T lrla n , whose commentary on the f ir s t six books of the Aeneid. chronological age Is under twenty-five (B a ttle , 12) Sllvestrls s*ys that these first six books trace the speaks lik e an old man who sees the beautiful world progress of the human soul from b irth to death. T-he of his youth being destroyed. He says, "If we had tossin g of the ship on a stonny sea In the opening died before today we should have been happy"; and scene of Book I Is , says S llv e s tr ls , an image of Jewel the Unicorn re p lie s, “Yes, we have liv ed too man's stormy entry Into the world by b irth and of the long" (Battle, 20). The friendship of Tlrlan and Instability of early life. The love affair with Dido Jewel fe e ls elderly: "each had saved the other's In Book I I I 1s an Image of young adulthood with It s l if e 1n the wars" (B a ttle , 13), and they knew each passions. Thus S llv e s tr ls d istin guish es between the other so well that "they did not try to comfort one 'artificial" order of the telling, which begins in another with words" (B attle , 74). J il l and Eustace, epic fashion In medlas res, and the "n atural" order who In earth time are sixteen according to the of it s sign ifica n ce, which begins with b irth and ends Outline of Narnlan History (Hooper, 301) and who seem with death.4 even younger, are f ir s t seen participa tin g In one of the chief pleasures of the elderly, remembering old Like an epic, the series of Narnia books begins times with the other friends of Narnia. In media re s, and the e ffo rts of some c r it ic s to persuade people to begin by reading The M agician's Nephew makes no more sense than 1t would to begin Tlrlan and h1s companions experience many of the reading the Aeneid with the escape from Troy. d if fic u lt ie s of old age, such as dim inishing Reading the Chronicles out of order obscures the resources. The dark, sparsely-furnished tower which masterly wey that Lewis was able to convey through the companions use as a base camp 1s a good image of Imagery and the s h ift of tone from one book to th is. Old age 1s also a time of Irreplaceable lo ss. another the whole cycle of human development. In The Last Battle this occurs when the holy forests are cut down and the talkin g horses harnessed. The After all, a writer of children's stories has sense of dimlnishment and lo ss Is aggravated by the only three options: f ir s t , to ignore the way events seem to move too fast for the elderly. d if fic u lt ie s of real l if e and remain on the level of Thus the news of the trees comes before Roonwlt can suburban su p e rfic ia lity , creating a peaceful lawn on give Tlrlan the advice he needs. Then T lr la n 's which Spot, Dick, and Jane can run forever; second, e ffo rt to meet Roonwlt 1s stopped by the news that he to deal with r e a lis tic problems real 1st1 cally--Jud y 1s dead. Tne companions try to demonstrate that the Blume's approach— and ris k presenting either false Aslan 1s really Puzzle, only to be forestalled simplistic solutions or unrelieved pessimism; or by S h if t's new story that Aslan 1s angry because of third , to deal with r e a lis tic problems using the mode the Impersonation. of fantasy. M YTHLORE 41: Winter-Spring 1985

Lewis chose to write fantasy because i t was the Lewis, C. S. . Ed. , best form for what he had to say (Of Other Worlds, New York: Harcourt, Brace 4 World, 1966. 23, 37). Because i t is equally accessible to children and adults, the mode of fantasy enabled him Myers, D. E. "The Compleat Anglican: S p iritu a l to write about the most serious issues of human lif e Style in ." Anglican without preaching or talkin g down to either segment Theological Review 66 (1948): 148-160. of his audience— the ch ild who lis te n s or the adult who reads aloud. The subtle interplay between Schakel, Peter J. Reading with the Heart: The Way chronological age and sp iritu a l development which he into Narnia. Grand Rapids, MU WfTTTam B. achieved in the Narnia books is ample evidence that Eerdmans, 1979. he understood exactly what fantasy is for. A fter a ll, everyone, young and old, can see that witches S ilv e s t r is , Bernardus. Commentary on the F ir s t Six are even nastier than stewed prunes. Books of V i r g i l ‘s "Aeneid." Tr. Earl G. Schreiber and Thomas E. Maresca. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1979.

Notes

Hhe "Outline of Narnian History" published by Walter Hooper in "Past Watchful " shows Edmund to be only two years older than Lucy, and she only one year older than Eustace and J il l . I do not believe this chronology accurately reflects the differences in ages as described in The Last B attle— Tirian would not have perceived at a glance that Eustace and J il l were younger than Lucy, for example. Far from being helpful, I believe the chronology leads us away from an accurate perception of the a rt is t ic impact of the Narnia series.

2I have discussed the way the sp iritu a l experience of children brought up in a liturgical church d iffe rs from that of children brought up to expect a peak experience of personal conversion, and the effect of this difference on one's response to The Chronicles of Narnia in "The Compleat Anglican: Spiritual Style in the Chronicles of Narnia" (Myers, 148-160).

% le n Goodknight has suggested (personal communication, 18 August 1984) that Uncle Andrew's delusion that Jadis might fall in love with him is vanity rather than lu st. I agree with h is comment, but with the added observation that vanity is nearly always a large component of lu st.

41 am indebted to Paul A. Olson of the Task U niversity of Nebraska for the reference to Silvestris. Continued from page 29 individuals. Tolkien uses his novel to make a statement against the fact that modern man is progressively losing his own free will and identity to the modern Bibliography Mordor he is creating out of his world. The idea is a simple one. Man is and should remain one of the "free people." Augustine of Hippo. The City of God. Tr. Marcus Dods. New York: The Modern Library, 1950. NOTES

Cox, John D. “Epistemological Release in The S ilv e r 1 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Chair. In The Longing for a Form. Ed. Peter J (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966), p. 255. Schakel. Kent: Kent State- !! P, T377, 159-168. This book is a one volume work, however the book is commonly published in three volumes: The Fellowship Gibson, Evan K. C. S. Lewis, Spinner of Tales of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the Washington, D.C.: Christian UP, 19807 ------’ King- In later footnotes these divisions are referred to by their volume numbers: I, II, and III. Green, Roger Lancelyn, and Walter Hooper. C S 2 Agnes Perkins and Helen Hill, "The Corruption of L ^ : i g Ag Bioaraphy;. 1974. New York: “ A “Harvest Power," A Tolkien Compass. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1975), pp. 60-72. This footnote was included for those who would like to follow up on this point. Hooper, Walter. "Past Watchful Dragons: The Fairy 3 Paul Kocher, The Master of Middle-earth. (New York: Tales of C. _S. Lewis." In Im agination and the Ballantine Books, 1972), p.76. Spirit. Ed. Charles A. Huttar. "Grand Rapids!------4 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, The Sillmarillion Ml: William B. Eerdmans, 1971, 277-339. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977), p.15.