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Inklings Forever Volume 8 A Collection of Essays Presented at the Joint Meeting of The Eighth Frances White Ewbank Article 2 Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends and The C.S. Lewis & Society Conference

5-31-2012 C.S. Lewis's Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay Joe R. Christopher Tarleton University

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Recommended Citation Christopher, Joe R. (2012) "C.S. Lewis's Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay," Inklings Forever: Vol. 8 , Article 2. Available at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever/vol8/iss1/2

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INKLINGS FOREVER, Volume VIII A Collection of Essays Presented at the Joint Meeting of

The Eighth FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM ON C.S. LEWIS & FRIENDS and

THE C.S. LEWIS AND THE INKLINGS SOCIETY CONFERENCE Taylor University 2012 Upland, Indiana

C.S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay

Joe R. Christopher Tarleton University

Christopher, Joe R. “C.S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay.” Inklings Forever 8 (2012) www.taylor.edu/cslewis

1

C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay

Joe R. Christopher Tarlton University

When C. S. Lewis was waiting for since the passage he quotes about — his first book—Spirits in Bondage—to be “a french clerke, well could he write”—is published, he wrote to Arthur Greeves on from (presumably quoted in the [2 March 1919]:1 introduction to Lewis’s Wace and Layamon book), so the misattribution is I have Layamon’s Brut [sic] and simply a momentary slip. Wace’s[,] translated in the one These works by these three authors are Everyman volume—or rather the told as histories of Britain—legendary parts of them about the Arthurian histories, of course—beginning with the period. Wace you remember was ‘a coming of the Roman Brutus and his French clerke, well could he write’ followers to Britain. The last two-fifths of who copied Layamon’s poem in Geoffrey’s work narrate the story of King French rhyming couplets, with Arthur, and hence about the same amount more style but less vigour. of the others do the same. Lewis’s copy of (Collected Letters, I, 439-440; They Arthurian Chronicles, Represented by Wace Stand Together 248) and Layamon, is a prose translation from Actually, Lewis’s statement has a factual French into English and a rendition of error and the situation is more Middle English alliterative meter into complicated than he makes it. Walter more-or-less modern English prose of Hooper, one may add, does not catch the those final, Arthurian parts of Wace and error in his notes in the Collected Letters. Layamon. Here is the situation. Three important The stories are not entirely the Arthurian sources are inter-related. same as the major tradition that comes wrote Historia down through Malory. For one important Regum Britanniae [A History of the Kings example, no - love of Britain] (1137). Contrary to Lewis’s affair occurs. Near the end of the story, statement, Wace, a Norman poet, wrote Arthur is in France, having defeated the his [Romance of Brutus] Roman Empire’s army in battle and (1155), retelling Geoffrey of Monmouth’s preparing to invade Rome itself, when Latin in his French; Wace was not copying Arthur’s nephew, Modred, at home, acting Layamon. Then Layamon (the “y” should as regent, rebels and Guinevere really be a yogh) translated, paraphrased, (“Wenhaver” in Layamon) has an affair and expanded Wace into Middle English with that nephew. This tradition as Brut [Brutus] (probably 1205). Lewis occasionally is followed in later writings: had to know the temporal relationship for example, in the alliterative Morte between Wace and Layamon—that Arthure (c. 1360) and in Diana Paxson’s Layamon followed Wace, not vice versa— The Hallowed Isle tetralogy (1999-2000).

2 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

One might add that Joy Chant did a Celtic- present purposes: “To Philip Sidney,” emphasized re-telling of Geoffrey’s “Ballade on a certain pious gentleman,” history, with this ending, as The High “Sonnet,” “Retreat,” and “In Venusberg” Kings in 1983. (King, “Lost” 195 n15).2 The first two of This background is enough to set these are certainly poems—perhaps the up the next step. In the letter to Greeves later versions of poems—that Lewis quoted above, Lewis also comments that wrote earlier: “To Philip Sidney” in 1916 he did not finish Layamon’s version (CL and “Ballade on a certain pious 1.440; TST 248), but he goes on, still gentleman” in 1917. Probably “Sonnet” is talking about Layamon, to make a one of four sonnets Lewis wrote in the contrast between the treatments of King 1915-1917 period. (For the Arthur’s burial in Malory and non-burial identifications and datings, King, “Lost” in Brut. No doubt, Lewis skipped some of 197-98.) But “Retreat” and “In the material in the middle of Layamon’s Venusberg” seem to have been written Brut (having already read it in Wace’s about the time Lewis was preparing his version)—and hence did not finish it— book for submission, in 1918. The reason but he obviously had read the ending. for this surmise is that the titles do not Lewis writes, loosely paraphrasing a appear in the copies of Lewis’s poems passage from Layamon (Wace and made by his friend Arthur Greeves in Layamon 264): 1917 (see King, C. S. Lewis, Poet, Appendix Six, 308-310). Therefore, they seem to be Brut [. . .] knows better [than later productions. Malory about the of Before a consideration of these Arthur:] ‘They say he abideth in two titles, one further complication needs with Argante the fairest of to be discussed. King, in that essay about all : but ever the Britons think Lewis’s early poems, says that William he will come again to help them at Heinemann twice requested the dropping their need’—a great deal of which I of five poems from the manuscript of copied in a poem rejected by (“Lost” 195 n15). This Heinemann—on whom ten Spirits in Bondage might complicate any discussion of the thousand maledictions. (CL 1.440; five poems just listed: “What were the TST 248, titles of the other five rejected poem?” one William Heinemann was the publisher might ask. But the situation—while who would fairly soon issue Lewis’s book complicated by a missing letter from of poems. Heinemann—is not as murky as that This is the lost Arthurian poem by suggests. What seems to have happened C. S. Lewis. is this: about the fifth of September 1918, And this is all that one factually Heinemann wrote to Lewis accepting his knows about it. The rest of this paper, as manuscript for publication; he said that the subtitle says, will be interwoven with he would go through the manuscript later, conjectures. for he thought a few of the poems were To begin with, Heinemann poorer than the majority and after due rejected five of Lewis’s poems, which he consideration he might suggest a few for considered weak. This is factual. Don W. omission. This is the missing letter, and King, in an essay, quotes the 8 October the reconstruction is based on what was 1918 letter from Heinemann, in which the said in subsequent letters by Lewis. editor has gone through the “revised Lewis wrote his father and Arthur form” of Spirits in Prison (the first title of Greeves about the acceptance of his the book) and suggests five poems for manuscript on 9 September and 12 omission. The titles are important for September respectively. An important

3 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

passage occurs in the letter to his father; influenced in his choice of the number by Lewis writes, “Wm. Heinemann thinks it the number of new poems that Lewis had would ‘be well to reconsider the inclusion already sent. His actual words are these: of one or two poems which are not I have read through your ‘Spirits in on a level with my best work’. I perhaps Prison’ again, in its revised form have sent him some new ones as [presumably with the five substitutes for these [. . .]” ( 1.396, CL additional poems, which Lewis stress added). Since Heinemann uses a must have sent with suggestions “perhaps” in the letter of 8 October about about their placement], and suggest omitting five poems, that seems to be his the following numbers might be usual diction in writing poets, in order to ommitted [sic], partly because they avoid hard feelings; Lewis picks it up in do not strengthen the book as a this letter and in the subsequent letter to whole, partly because they are less Greeves. Writing to his friend, Lewis original perhaps than the bulk of indicates more fully what has transpired. your work[.] (King, “Lost” 195 n15, He says, stress added). [William Heinemann] writes to say Thus, the sequence of letters makes sense that he ‘will be pleased to become without the assumption of ten poems [the manuscript’s] publisher’. He being dropped. (The appendix lists the adds that it may be well to re- Lewis’s correspondence about Spirits in consider the inclusion of some of Bondage, from submission through the pieces ‘which are not perhaps publication, to indicate the larger on a level with my best work’. I context.) wrote back thanking him and If the reader tentatively agrees telling him there were a few new that only five poems were dropped and pieces that he might care to use as replaced, that Don W. King is correct in substitutes for the ones he omits. identifying the three of the five poems— An answer came back this time two from their titles and the sonnet just from a man called Evans, the with probability as one of the earlier managing director[,] asking me to sonnets—and that therefore the send the new pieces and saying that Arthurian poem has to be identified as Heinemann himself was out of town either titled “Retreat” or “Venusberg,” for a week or so. I sent him 5 new then some further conjectures—or, poems by return[.] (CL 1.397; TST rather, alternate conjectures—can be 230, stress added) made. In neither letter does Lewis say clearly First, one may consider “Retreat.” that the poems have been dropped. In Since the William Heinemann Company one, Heinemann suggests “one or two was planning to release Lewis’s book as a poems” should be reconsidered; in the volume with other books by war poets, other, he thinks it may be well to one can surmise that a poem titled reconsider “some.” If Heinemann had “Retreat” might raise qualms in the editor. named particular poems, surely Lewis Of course, a poem about being in a would have given a precise number. military hospital might do well under the Heinemann did not respond for about a title of “Retreat,” treating the hospital as a month. When he returned or when he retreat from active war-front life. But found time to read the typescript, he could Lewis have used such a title with an wrote Lewis the letter above, of 8 Arthurian poem? Actually, several October, in which he names the five Arthurian possibilities present poems to omit. He seems to have been themselves. First, was

4 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

preparing to attack the Roman Empire in and, of course, a possible pun exists on Italy before the news of Modred’s going to spiritual retreats in monasteries treachery reached him—then he had to or nunneries. Layamon writes, turn to righting things in England. In The queen lay in York; never was Layamon, the events are told mainly with she so sorrowful; that was dialogue. “[A] brave man” comes riding, Wenhaver the queen, most with the news of Modred’s rebellion and miserable of women! She heard say Guinevere’s betrayal (258). After some sooth words, how often Modred discussion and some quiet depression of fled, and how Arthur him pursued; the knights, King Arthur announces, “Now woe was to her the while, that she to-morrow, when it is day, and the Lord it was alive! Out of York she went by sendeth, forth I will march in toward night, and toward Kaerleon drew, Britain; and Modred I will slay, and burn as quickly as she might; thither she the queen; and all I will destroy, that brought by night two of her approved the treachery” (260). With a knights; and men covered her head little helpful revision by the poet, a poem with a holy veil, and she was there a about King Arthur at war in Europe and nun; woman most wretched! Then to England could be developed retreating men knew not of the queen, where from this. For example, an episode in she were gone, nor many years England could be written this way: afterwards man knew it in sooth,

whether she were dead, or whether And Modred said, “This war is she herself were sunk in the water. spending lives, (263) Our young men’s lives; each one’s high dreams it skives; No final meeting of Guinevere and Arthur The general, my uncle, tells them to occurs in Layamon; that was an episode charge, invented by Tennyson for his Idylls of the To die in muddy fields, on muddy King. (“Guinevere,” ll. 398-656)—and marge.” Lewis would not have wanted his reviewers to have a direct comparison Of course, that is just a hypothetical with Tennyson. Again, a hypothetical passage, meant to suggest how the rendering: material could be shaped to echo World War I. Layamon, who is given to giving The queen, afraid of Arthur’s large numbers, announces that King burning ire, Arthur lost “five and twenty thousand” Afraid of fagots round her, heaped knights in his war with the Roman for fire, Emperor while fighting in France (257); Chose secretly withdrawing, that also would have resonance if it were disguised and lost, used in an echo of the Great War. (Lewis, In fear retreating; fine clothes, fine who in this period called Siegfried life the cost. Sassoon “a horrid man” [CL 1.403; TST She cried, “I’ve lived my life for 232], doubtless writing as a military moment’s bliss; officer and a brother of a professional And war surrounds me now to soldier, probably would not have written answer this.” a parody of King Arthur as a poor general, as suggested above; but he could have Perhaps Lewis, in his pre-Christian days, found some other application.) would not have written quite this Second, Guinevere’s flight to a moralistically, but the general idea of a nunnery could also be called a retreat—

5 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

retreat from the problems one has caused have seen that possibility for a pun, but a is a theme with possibilities. “retreat” (so to speak) on Arthur’s part to Third, an option exists for the be cured of his wounds would have been treatment of King Arthur’s leaving of this a possible topic. world as a retreat. Layamon says that, at The other title, “In Venusberg,” is the end of the battle between Arthur and actually a more likely title for Lewis’s Modred, only Arthur and two of his Arthurian poem than “Retreat,” although knights were still alive. Arthur was it may seem less likely when casually seriously wounded: considered. After all, Venusberg is a German myth about an underground And Arthur himself wounded with a world of sexual satisfaction, a Venus- broad slaughter-spear; fifteen ruled realm beneath a mountain. Would a dreadful wounds he had; in the German myth be allowable in a book of least[,] one might thrust two gloves! poems at the end of World War I? Lewis After a handing on of the kingship, Arthur obviously thought so, since this is his title is taken to Avalon (“Avalun”). Layamon (although Heinemann, for whatever describes the leaving this way: reason, did not). Lewis knew the myth [T]here approached from the sea from its use in Richard Wagner’s opera that was a short boat, floating with Tannhäuser. Three references to the the waves; and two women therein, opera appear in Lewis’s letters to Arthur wondrously formed; and they took Greeves in the first volume of his Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, Collected Letters (116,129, 281; TST 69, and laid him softly down, and forth 77, 169)—in fact, in the first of the they gan depart. (264) references, Lewis refers to the opera by Wagner’s original name for it of Again, it is easiest to present a sample of Venusberg (cf. Walter Hooper’s note, CL what could have been made out of this, 1.116 n36; not in TST). Those who know tied to the title of the poem: the opera, or at least know about it, are aware that the opera opens in Venusberg, The end of battle came at even tide, with Tannhäuser living with Venus; the With corbies feasting well on those ballet suggests an orgy, and then who’d died; Tannhäuser wants to leave—and And most were dead, across the manages his departure in the middle of meadows strewn, the act. The rest of the opera is laid Beneath the setting sun and above, in Germany. slightest moon. Why would this be appropriate While left the boat from off the for an Arthurian poem? One should British shore, consider two passages in Layamon. First, One soldier raised his bugle, clear when Arthur is speaking to , notes to soar; who will become king after him: Arthur In overtones he played the call says, in part: “And I will fare to Avalun, to Retreat, the fairest of all maidens, to Argante the The Sunset call, the end of age to queen, an most fair, and she shall make greet. my wounds all sound; make me all whole with healing draughts” (264). And then Of course, that passage is cheating when it the narrator’s words after Arthur has left uses “Retreat,” an American term for what in the boat: “The Britons believe yet that the British call the nearly identical he is alive, and dwelleth in Avalun with “Sunset.” The youthful Lewis would not the fairest of all elves” (264). When Lewis was writing to Arthur Greeves, in

6 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

the passage quoted before, he emphasized rejected the poem, whether titled “In the romantic nature of this passage in his Venusberg” or “Retreat,” whether paraphrase: “‘They say he abideth in amorous or military. Avalon with Argante the fairest of all Therefore, Lewis wrote an early elves[. . . .]’” But immediately Lewis adds, Arthurian poem. What happened to the “a great deal of which I copied in a poem” manuscript? Again, conjectures. Perhaps (440). This phrasing suggests it was Walter Hooper will eventually pull it, like either Arthur’s passing or, more likely, his a rabbit, out of his exhaustless top hat. stay in “Avalun” that Lewis described in But probably not; he has already his poem. One might add that Wace has published some early poems found in Arthur going to Avalon but he has no “The Memoirs of the Lewis Family,” so he reference to an elfin queen, so the source probably does not have other original of Argante, the “silvery” one from her lyrics. What are the other possibilities? name, is Layamon. Lewis had a tendency to burn Thus, if one puts these two manuscripts he thought poor. In his accounts together, Wagner’s opera and correspondence with Greeves, he tells of Layamon’s romance, one has a merging of such destruction. He writes on [18 Venusberg and Avalon: obviously a September 1919], for example, “On queen should live beneath a fairy mound, getting back to England [from Ireland] I and a mountain is but a fairy mound writ had the pleasure of looking over my large. No doubt in the land beneath the ‘Medea’ of which I told you and finding mountain may lie either a plain or an that it was all hopeless and only fit for the island, called Avalon. For the land of the fire! Nothing daunted however I bade it a fairy, and also the realm of Venus—like long farewell—poor still-born [. . .]” (CL most lands of the spirit—may be larger 1.465-66; TST 261). Perhaps, once inside than outside. Heinemann rejected the Arthurian poem, Lewis thought it weak enough to burn, Said Argante the Fair, “Come drink despite his later malediction on this draught— Heinemann for the rejection. Or he may It’s brewed by mine own hands, have burned all the manuscripts with skill and craft. connected to the book once the volume Your wounds will close, your heart appeared. will also mend; A third possibility is that Lewis No longer will Queen Wenhaver gave the Arthurian poem to Janie Moore, offend. particularly if it was an amorous We’ll spend a night together, only treatment of Modred and Queen one, Wenhaver or of King Arthur and Argante. To celebrate your cure with In that case, the poem was also probably payment done; burnt—but far later. According to Jill And if the hours run oddly neath Flewett Freud, who worked two years in the soil, for Lewis and Moore before her We’ll spend them all in our most advanced training in drama, pleasant toil.” When [Janie Moore] became ill [in the 1943-45 period,] she took all If Lewis wrote such a poem, perhaps even Jack’s letters, piles of letters she more explicit than this, his love affair, had received from him over a begun with Janie Moore about a year period of about twenty-five years, earlier, can be assigned as a partial and I think also the letters from her cause.3 However, William Heinemann son, Paddy—Lewis’s great friend

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who was killed in the First World unfinished Arthurian poems by Tolkien War—and threw them all in the and Lewis were also begun by friendly old-fashioned boiler in the kitchen. agreement: Tolkien’s “The Fall of Arthur” She burned the lot. (58) and Lewis’s “Launcelot” were both written in the early 1930s (for Tolkien, Of course, she was destroying the record Carpenter 168-69; for Lewis, Hooper’s of her affair with Lewis; but, if any Preface to Lewis’s xii). amorous poems were returned to her, Narrative Poems But Lewis’s earlier Arthurian poem, presumably she burnt them with the through Lewis’s reference to it in letters.4 discussions with Tolkien, may have This essay has traced the influenced Tolkien’s choice of topic. Arthurian poem’s creation time, its Again, a hypothetical: submission and rejection, and its destruction, all with plentiful conjectures. And Lewis said, “A decade past I And now an epilogue: one final conjecture tried, may end this discussion, for a report of In youthful folly, to write as the poem, a discussion, may have had an couplets glide after life. As is well known, C. S. Lewis Of Arthur’s days when spent in and J. R. R. Tolkien influenced each other, Avalon— particularly in the 1930s. The most A failure this, so burnt to oblivion. famous of these is their agreement to I should have writ of Guinevere the write thrillers with meanings—which Beauty, resulted in Lewis’s But didn’t understand her—her and Tolkien’s unfinished “Lost Road” and, loss of duty. finished, “The Fall of Númenor,” the latter Was hotter? Did Arthur the forerunner of “Akallabêth” (cf. Glyer fail in bed?” 58-59; Scull and Hammond 558-565, 665- Then, in a higher register, he said, 679). That one is a fact, not a conjecture; “’Dear wife, I’m sorry, sorry, you’ll but one may add a probability for a do without it!’” second example: in Tolkien’s Beowulf and And Tolkien: “Hardly heroic! . . . I’ll the Critics (not the same as his lecture think about it.” “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”), Tolkien quotes two poems about dragons What is known of Tolkien’s poem— side by side, his own “ Iúmonna Gold mainly from Humphrey Carpenter’s ” (A Text 56-57, B Text Galdre Bewunden biography, with the quotation of a few 110-112) and C. S. Lewis’s “The Northern snippets—indicates that Arthur was at Dragon” [ ] (the first dragon poem in sic war in Europe when Mordred attempted ) (A Text 57-58, B The Pilgrim’s Regress his coup. Mordred was troubled by Text [where it is titled “Atol inwit gæst,” lustful desire for Guinever (Tolkien’s probably by Tolkien] 113-114).5 Tolkien spelling); she was a “fell minded” woman, says that the two poems are “important not a woman moved by eros. Thus for -criticism,” but his afterpiece Beowulf Tolkien, writing in the alliterative meter, to them is ironic (in the B Text only), and seems to be in the tradition of Layamon probably his claim for their importance is and the later Alliterative Morte Arthure, partly so. At any rate, his quotation of both in verse form and in the omission of both poems suggests that they were Launcelot. Although Tolkien late in life written deliberately by the friends, was still talking of finishing the poem whether by agreement or by one (Carpenter 169), he never did. So twice a influencing the other. In a parallel way, modern poem in the tradition of Layamon one can also conjecture that the two was not successful—Lewis’s poem was

8 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

editorially rejected and seems to have (3) Lewis writes his father that his been destroyed, Tolkien’s was never manuscript has been accepted for finished. publication. “Wm. Heineman thinks This is an essay of conjectures, it would ‘be well to reconsider the made even more conjectural with its inclusion of one or two pieces hypothetical passages of a type of poem which are not perhaps on a level Lewis might (to a degree) have written, with my best work’.” 9 September but it begins from and elaborates on a 1918. fact: Lewis wrote a poem about King (4) Lewis writes Greeves that Arthur based on Layamon’s And a Brut. Heinemann has accepted his poems second fact: the poem is lost. for publication and has suggested

“some” poems be omitted (“some” Appendix is Lewis’s word). Lewis continues A Chronology of Letters by saying that he replied offering

some “new” poems and was The following chronology of the answered by Charles Sheldon references in Lewis’s letters to the Evans; Lewis has sent him “5 new publication of by Wm. Spirits in Bondage poems” [. . .]. Among other topics, Heinemann is meant to reinforce the he mentions Heinemann is “out of explanation of the probable omission of town for a week or so.” [12 only five poems from the original September 1918]. typescript; it also puts the reference to the lost Arthurian poem into the sequence (5) Lewis writes his father to of discussion, before the book itself was thank him for sending a telegram published. The dates of Lewis’s letters celebrating the forthcoming book. are from Walter Hooper’s dates of them in 14 September 1918. the first volume of Collected Letters, (6) Lewis thanks his father for a brackets are as in the book; however, letter, evidently celebrating the some minor variations in Lewis’s book; he discusses questions his th usages—e.g., “27 ,” not “27,” in no. 12— father has raised about the (first) have been regularized here. title, the subtitle, and the (first) (1) Lewis writes Greeves that pseudonym. 18 September 1918. Macmillan has rejected his (7) Lewis writes his father about manuscript of poems and that he is the subtitle again and about the use sending the manuscript to of a pseudonym. Postmark: 3 Heinemann next. Wednesday [7 October 1918. August 1918]. (8) Lewis writes Greeves, “I told (2) Lewis writes to Greeves about you that Wm. Heinemann was away his reason for not sending his for a fortnight, but he should be poems to Maunsel of Dublin for back now and I am expecting to consideration. [31 August 1918]. hear from him any day now.” [6? (H) William Heinemann’s lost October 1918]. letter to Lewis, accepting the poems (H) Heinemann writes Lewis, ”I [. . for publication and stating he might .] suggest the following numbers want to omit some poems upon a might [. . .] be ommitted [sic], [. . .] more carefully re-reading. partly because they are less original Conjectural: about 3 September perhaps than the bulk of your 1918.

9 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher work.” Five titles follow. 8 October account to his father. Saturday [2 1918. November 1918]. (9) Lewis tells Greeves that he is (14) Lewis writes his father again not correcting his proofs—he has about the financial terms of his heard nothing more from contract with Heinemann; he also Heinemann. (This lack of covers Heinemann’s terms of communication, following the letter praise. 10 November 1918. from Heinemann immediately (15) Lewis mentions to his father above, is explained in the next two that he expects the proofs of his letters.) Sunday [13 October 1918]. book “any day” and it should be out (10) Lewis writes Greeves that he by Christmas. (The book actually “got Mrs Moore’s sister in town to appeared on 20 March 1919.) [17? call on Heinemann[’]s, which she November 1918]. Lewis usually did on Wednesday last and they dated letters to his father, but not said they’d written the day before, always (as here). but it must have been lost.” (16) Lewis tells Greeves that his Teusday [ ] [15 October 1918]. sic book may be reviewed in the The previous Wednesday was 9 Christmas issue of the Bookman October, and the day before was 8 although the proofs have not come October, which matches the yet. Monday 2 [December 1918]. Heinemann letter. (17) Lewis writes his father, “Surely (11) Lewis writes his father, “I have Heinemann will get my book out just had a letter from Heineman’s before the next quarterly season which has taken some time to come begins? [. . .]?” [16?] December round through Ashton Court 1918. [Lewis’s previous military stationing]. He accepts some new (18) Lewis comments to Greeves, “I pieces I had sent him and mentions wish I could hear anything of my a few he wants rejected.” He also [book]: I am sure I will be white mentions some stylistic suggestions haired before it sees daylight!” [9 from Heinemann that do not appear February 1919]. in the portion of Heinemann’s letter (19) Lewis mentions to Arthur reprinted by King in “Lost.” He Greeves that Heinemann rejected discusses the second title and the Lewis’s poem based on Layamon’s second pseudonym for his poems. Arthurian account. Sunday [2 18 October 1918. March 1919]. (12) Lewis tells his father about his (20) Lewis writes to his brother, visit to Heinemann to sign the “Did you see the ‘very insolent’ contract for the book, with a fairly review of me on the back page of full discussion of the contract’s the Times Literary Supplement [sic] terms. Heinemann promised the last week?” [2? April 1919]. proofs in approximately three weeks. 27 [26?] October 1918. (13) Lewis describes to Greeves his visit to Heinemann and Company, with different emphases than in his

10 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

Notes

1The dates in brackets are as supplied by Works Cited Walter Hooper in Lewis’s Collected Letters and They Stand Together. Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkien: A Biography. 2King is quoting the surviving copy of the Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. letter, which appears in ’s typed Chant, Joy. The High Kings. Illustrated by history of the Lewis family (6.49). George Sharp. New York: Bantam 3The present author has provided evidence Books, 1983. for Lewis’s affair with Janie Moore in Section Christopher, Joe R. “From Despoina to .” II of “From Despoina to -30. Mythlore 30:3-4 (No. 117-18) 4A variant of this third possibility is that all (Spring-Summer 2012): 27-53.Δ Δ,” 28 the materials involved in Spirits in Bondage Drout, Michael D. C. Email of 29 May 2012. may have been given to Mrs. Moore and later Freud, Jill. “Part B: With Girls at Home.” In In burnt by her. Lewis had Arthur Greeves send Search of C. S. Lewis. Ed. Stephen to Janie Moore soon after 31 December 1917 Schofield. South Plainfield, New the majority of the poems which appear in Jersey: Bridge Publishing, 1983. 55- that book ( 1.350; 205). Lewis CL TST 59. obviously had them back as he worked on his book, but two of the poems—the Despoina Glyer, Diana Pavlac. The Company They Keep: poems (“Apology” and “Ode for New Year’s C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Day”)—were written about her, if somewhat Writers in Community. Kent, Ohio: indirectly. (For an argument to this effect, see The Kent State University Press, this author’s “From Despoina to .”) Thus, 2007. because of the two poems, the book to some King, Don W. C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of degree was “hers” and the materialsΔ may have his Poetic Impulse. Kent, Ohio: The been given to her. Kent State University Press, 2001. 5The title “The Northern Dragon” is —. “Lost but Found: The ‘Missing’ Poems of C. taken by Drout from the chapter in The S. Lewis’s Spirits in Bondage.” Pilgrim’s Regress in which the poem appears and Literature 53.2 (email from Michael D. C. Drout)—Bk. 10, Ch. (Winter 2004): 163-201. 8—not from a manuscript nor from a Lewis, C. S. Collected Letters: Volume 1: Family separately published version of the poem. Letters: 1905-1931. Ed. Walter Hooper. London: HarperCollins [sic], 2000. —. Narrative Poems. Ed. Walter Hooper. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1969. —. The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity[,] Reason and Romanticism. 3rd ed. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1943. Book 10, Ch. 8, “The Northern Dragon,” is on pp. 191- 194. —. They Stand Together: The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (1914-1963). Ed. Walter Hooper, London: Collins, 1979.

Lewis, Warren Hamilton. “Memoirs of the Lewis Family: 1850-1930.” Typed, in 11 volumes. Available in the Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

11 C. S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem · Joe R. Christopher

Paxson, Diana. The Book of the Cauldron. The Hallowed Isle, No. 3. New York: AvonEos, 1999. (Another source says Avonova, 2000.) —. The Book of the Spear. The Hallowed Isle, No. 2. New York: AvonEos, 1999. (Another source says Avonova, 2000.) —. The Book of the Stone. The Hallowed Isle, No. 4. New York: AvonEos, 2000. (Another source says Avonova.) —. The Book of the Sword. The Hallowed Isle, No. 1. New York: AvonEos, 1999. (Another source says Avonova.) Schmidt, Laura. Email of 23 May 2012. Scull, Christina, and Wayne G. Hammond. “‘The Lost Road,’” “The Lost Road and Other Writings,” and “Númenor.” The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: [Vol. 2] Reader’s Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 558-565; 665-679. Tennyson, Alfred. “Guinevere.” In . Many editions are available. Tolkien, J. R. R. Beowulf and the Critics. Ed. Michael D. C . Drout. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol. 248. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Reanissance Studies, 2002. Wace and Layamon. Arthurian Chronicles, Represented by Wace and Layamon. Intro. Lucy Allen Paton. Trans. Eugene Mason. Everyman’s Library, No. 578. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, [1912]. Note: This is Lewis’s edition, cited by Walter Hooper (Lewis, Collected Letters, 162 n9). The 1962 edition, with an introduction by Gwyn Jones, has the same translation with its same pagination.

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