The Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature

Volume 12 Number 3 Article 11

4-15-1986

"And Clove the Wind from Unseen Shores": The Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature

Eleanor M. Farrell

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Recommended Citation Farrell, Eleanor M. (1986) ""And Clove the Wind from Unseen Shores": The Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 12 : No. 3 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss3/11

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Abstract Discusses the long history of the sea journey as a symbol in religious and secular literature, and its use in the work of more recent fantasy and mainstream authors.

Additional Keywords Arthurian romances; Journeys in literature; Sea in literature; Sea voyage in fantasy; Ships in literature; Paula DiSante; Paula DiSante

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/vol12/iss3/11 M YTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 Page 43

"And Clove the W ind from Unseen Shores" T h e Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature Eleanor M. Farrell

Humble voyagers are we, voyages. Ulysses (or Odysseus), the wily O'er l i f e ' s dim, unsounded sea.1 Greek creator of the Trojan horse, incurred the wrath of Poseidon, and the sea-god One of the most powerful images in thwarted Ulysses' attempts to return home to imaginative literature is that of the sea Ithaca for ten years. The wandering hero voyage. The significance of this theme encountered storms, shipwreck, cannibals, reflects, in part, our European cultural sirens and many other harrowing adventures inheritance. From its social and economic during his exile, including a descent into associations for civilizations bordering the Hades. Ulysses' character is unique in the Mediterranean, through the sea-carried spread classical epic, as he is noted for his guile of the cultures of northern Europe, the and curiosity as well as for the traditional historical importance of ocean travel virtues of generosity and courage. The hero permeated European narrative, both factual of Vergil's work, Aeneas, was a Trojan, and fictional, from the time of the classical exiled from Troy after the city's defeat. epics. The sea journey motif reached a His journey, however, was sanctioned by the height of popularity during the Middle Ages, gods (particularly Aeneas' mother Venus), who where it can be found in medieval epics, sent him to Italy to found a new nation poetry, romances, travel diaries, cultural there. Like Ulysses, Aeneas is shipwrecked, mythology, and pilgrimage literature. and the Trojan hero, too, makes a journey through the underworld. Both stories were Why was th is particular image so strong well-known and very popular throughout the to medieval minds? To answer this question medieval period. Dante, in particular, it is necessary to look at the traditions weaves the voyages of these heroes into the influencing the literature of this period, tapestry of the Divine Comedy, a tale of which reverenced the lore and learning of the journeying that involved, physically at past. There were three major sources for the least, no ocean crossings. literary products of the Middle Ages. The first of these encompassed the works of the The Old Testam ent of the B ib le d ea ls classical Greek and Latin writers: the epics, more with the desert than with the ocean, as the plays, and the philosophical treatises, it narrates the history of the Jews. There many of which were known only in second-hand are two oblique but important exceptions to or garbled forms. The collection of Judeo- this: the story of the flood in "Genesis" and Christian writings, including the Bible and the cr o ssin g of the Red Sea in "Exodus". the patristic writings of the Church Fathers, These sto ries were widely retold and adapted made up a second source. Finally, the oral during the Middle Ages as powerful religious traditions of the tribal cultures of the metaphors: the flood of baptism and rebirth, Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, and the other and the exodus of the earthly pilgrimaage of peoples se ttlin g Europe, traditions combining all men. The symbolic associations of water history, myth and religion, helped to form with spiritual life were extended in medieval cultural identities as different groups came literature to add a dimension of meaning to into contact with each other and with the stories of journeys, and sea journeys in monks who copied these works, too, onto their particular. parchments. The trading practices of the Celtic, Proportions of these traditions might Norse and Germanic tribes during the early change in various literary recipes, and Middle Ages assured the inclusion of blending was often uneven. Yet the seafaring adventures in their bardic conbination of in flu e n c e s can be seen more traditions. Combined with the elements of often than not: in the description of St. folklore and religious beliefs, sea journeys Andrew's preaching as "unlock!ing] his word- became a source of marvel and magic. Often the heroic epics, such as Beowulf, began with hoard"^ in the Anglo-Saxon poem "Andreas", the hero travelling to a strange land to seek for example, or in the tale of the voyage of Uilix Maic Leirtis, an Irish Ulysses. The his destiny; this journey was an essential bards and storytellers in the Middle Ages part of the hero's adventure. Celtic knew both a good story and how to maximize mythology celebrated the magical voyage, both in the Irish voyage of Bran and in the second its impact by making it apply to their branch of the Welsh Mabinogi. Here the hero audience. Bran and h is companions are led to an Earthly Paradise, where they feast unaging for eighty Probably the two most important years, until the memory of their former life classical voyage texts were The Odyssey of leads them to return home. There, they are Homer and Vergil's Aeneid. Both of these remembered only as legend. epics relate the adventures of survivors of the Trojan War, but there are important This theme was carried forward into two differences between the two heroes and their literary directions: the saints' lives Page 44 MYTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 narrative and the romance. "The Voyage of Cuckoo s dirge drags out my heart, St. Brendan" is essentially that of Bran, whets will to the whale's beat with Christian trappings. The hero of the across wastes of water: far warmer to me romance Tristan, after being wounded by a are the Lord's kindnesses than this life poisoned blade, is carried in a coracle to of death lent us on land.4 Isolde, the one woman who can cure him. Another striking depiction of the "magical Whatever the religious philosophy of these boat" motif is that in the lai of "Guigemar", Anglo-Saxon poets might have been, the strong composed by Marie de France. The hero, imagery in the poems makes them profoundly wounded in the thigh by a hart, is carried dramatic, emotionally intense, and very via magical ship to the woman who cures his personal. Their power and impact can be felt wound and then becomes his lover. The boats still by modern readers. in this type of narrative are potent metaphors of change, magic, destiny - the In the fourteenth century, Europe was very elements of adventure. bitten by a religious wanderlust, and thousands of people from all social stations The medieval romance tradition reached travelled to shrines across the continent and its culmination during the twelfth century in as far as the Holy Land. Many pilgrims wrote the body of literature centering on the quest accounts of their journeys, which became a for the Grail. The earliest elements of the sort of collection of medieval tour guides. quest, introducing Arthur as a Celtic In these, practical tips on travel and chieftain and warrior, are found in the body details of routes were interspersed with of Welsh myth, the Mabinogi. Wedded with the fantastic descriptions that were accepted by courtly love tradition of southern France, the medieval mind as readily as were reports Arthurian tales became the most numerous and of miracles. The Middle Ages were a time of popular romances. In time, Christian themes faith, and God could create gryphons and permeated this literature, and by the time of wine-bearing trees as easily as He could publication of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur in falcons and turnips. 1485, the Grail had evolved into a profound religious mystery. The ocean, of course, was not exempt from hyperbole. Sir John Mandeville, who The Grail stories are complex, combining claimed to be an English knight who had many and various streams of motifs which served with the Sultan of Egypt and travelled meander across the narrative landscape. One to Cathay, described in 1356 the dangers on of these is the voyage image. The search for the way to the isle of Prester John: the Grail is a voyage toward enlightenment, and frequently the knights of the quest are I was once in that sea, and I saw what carried to new adventures in mysterious looked like an island of trees and grow vessels requiring neither wind nor tide. In ing bushes; and the seamen told me that the climax of the Grail quest literature, the it was all great ships that the rock of pure knights Galahad, Percival and Bors reach adamant [which attracts iron] had at Sarras, City of the Grail, in a magical tracted and caught there, and that all craft, once belonging to Solomon; this voyage these trees and bushes had grown from symbolizes the ascent from the earthly to the the things that were in the ships. spiritual life. The power of the sea was also described by But the actual ship, the hollow of many travellers who watched horrified as Jerusalem, ships full of pilgrims were dashed against beyond the shapes of empire, the capes rocks or sank during storms because of poor of Carbonek, caulking or old age. over the topless waves of trenched Broceliande, The dangerous earthly waters tried by drenched by the everlasting spray of pilgrims are reflected in the imagery of the existence, greatest poem of pilgrimage, Dante's Divine with no mind's sail reefed or set, no Comedy. Very little of Dante-pilgrim s slaves at the motivated oars, journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise drove into and clove the wind from involves travel through or over water. Yet unseen shores. Dante's strongest metaphors of the spiritual journey, from the image in Canto I of the Hell where he describes himself as a swimmer Similar symbolism, but with a very just escaped from perilous seas, are those of different tone, can be found in the Anglo- the sea journey. Saxon elegaic poems "The Seafarer" and "The Having established this image, Dante Wanderer". Both poems speak of the exile of describes the entry into each of the three the poet from his society - losing the "mead- states of life after death in terms of hall" of his lord and companions to the voyage. The damned are ferried to Hell "care-hall" of the sea. Here the journey is across the River Acheron by Charon, the one of loneliness, and emphasizes the classical ferryman of the dead. Souls negative character of the ocean voyage: entering Purgatory are carried in the Ship of isolation, hardship, fear of the unknown and Souls, piloted across the width of the world the alien. However, in a spiritual context, from the mouth of the River Tiber by an the journey may also represent a turning Angelic Pilot. Finally, Heaven is reached toward God and away from the transitory for Dante and his guide Beatrice by ascent nature of life, companionship, or even fame: through a sea of light. M YTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 Page 45

Except for these incidents, most of literary works that use the old symbols, but Dante's journey is across an earth terrain - they often seem to reflect more "modern" though not quite an earthly one. Many of the themes. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels particulars of the visages of Hell were is more a political tract than a fantasy; adapted by Dante from the details of Aeneas' Herman M elville's Moby-Dick emphasizes descent into Hades (particularly fitting, as psychological torment over the descriptions it is the author of the Aeneid who is Dante's of natural history interspersed within. Both g u id e ) . When f i r s t t o l d he i s to jo u r n e y of these approaches are valid, but they tend through Hell, Dante protests that he is not to blur the images established through as worthy as Aeneas or St. Paul (who also earlier story-telling traditions. described an image of Hell). Thus, Aeneas, although not a Christian, is used as a model Modern man (except for those of us who of the true pilgrim: his life quest was the have lived with or studied the ocean) takes foundation of Rome, which in medieval the sea for granted. It is no more the allegory was often used as a figure of the holder of power and mystery, no longer the Eternal City. Frontier. That title has now been bestowed on space (outer, I mean), which may help to In contrast to the position of Aeneas account for the tremendous recent popularity and his voyage, Dante introduces, the the of films about alien encounters. (Films are bowge of Hell allotted to Counsellors of to our popular culture what bards were to Fraud, the figure of Ulysses. Dante did not medieval man's.) The magic, the adventure, know Homer's Odyssey, and the Italian poet's the stranger -- all lie beyond the shores of perception of the Greek hero might have been th e e a r t h 's a tm o sp h e r e . H.P. L o v e c r a f t , in colored by nationalism and Virgil's Trojan The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, artfully bias. For whatever reasons, Dante invents remolds journey symbolism to reflect this for Ulysses, in the most beautiful passage of change. Randolph Carter, the dreamer in his Hell, a last voyage. In this account search of the opulent city of Kadath, finds Ulysses, driven by pride and a thirst for himself on a black galley, which carries him knowledge, attempts to sail across the world beyond the lands of dream, shooting silently ocean to Mount Purgatory. Ulysses here into planetary space and onto the oily sea of becomes a false pilgrim, because his voyage the dark s id e o f the moon. to regions forbidden to living men was fueled Apart from authors with the bizarre by pride rather than by Christian piety and vision of Lovecraft, it is in the fantasy h u m ility . The attem p t ends in shipw reck and genre that we find the most recent return to death - the ultimate end of all false the medieval literary symbolism. A look at p ilg r im a g e s. The shipw reck o f Aeneas and h is some examples may help to illustrate how and crew, experienced as they fled Troy, might why t h is r e v iv a l has occurred. consequently be seen as a form of baptism: Aeneas, unlike Ulysses, is not killed, and he The religious allegory so popular during goes on to found Rome, the Eternal City. the Middle Ages is reflected in the Narnia Dante is quite aware of the power of the series of C.S. Lewis, in which the author water image from the Old Testament pilgrimage creates an imaginary world as a new vehicle passages, and strengthens it even further by for Christian ideals and doctrine. One of adding the dimension of the classical voyage the seven books in this series, The Voyage of to h is own rendering o f the "Exodus" journey. the "Dawn Treader", details the journey of Although it is questionable whether Dante had King Caspian of Narnia to the End of the any direct familiarity with the "magical World, accompanied through magical waters by ship" elements of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon Reepicheep the Mouse and three children from tradition, he had probably come into contact the world of men. The voyage leads to with their usage in the romances and lais of Aslan's land -- Paradise -- for Reepicheep, southern France. Such references are not, of who has fulfilled his earthly quests and like course, found in the Divine Comedy, but it is the Grail knights has turned to spiritual interesting to speculate on their possible fulfillm ent. Aslan tells Lucy, Edmund and influence in strengthening Dante's sea Eustace, the Earth children, that they must journey metaphors in his own mind. In this reach his country through their own world, respect perhaps it is wisest to heed the i.e., through living their own lives and poet's warning in Canto II of the Paradise: earning the way to heaven. Caspian, too, fails here to reach the utter East, because Turn back and seek the safety of the shore: his task of ruling Narnia has not yet been Tempt not the deep, lest, losing unawares accomplished. This voyage, then, represents Me and yourselves, you come to port no more.6 the spiritual life journey, with the journey's end being the Christian heaven.

Changes in social, political and J.R.R. Tolkien's universe also reflects technological conditions in the centuries his Christian beliefs, but he uses cohesively following the medieval period resulted' in a created images rather than allegory. The shift in the symbols of literature. The Lord of the Rings introduces the subtle role boundaries of the known world widened, and of the sea in the mythology of Tolkien's ship travel led more often to riches than to world, by showing the other inhabitants of adventure. The laws of science replaced the Middle-earth (including the reader) the r u le s of magic. Man's p h ilo s o p h ic a l concerns relationship of the elves to the sea. began to focus on more internal journeys: Legolas, on his return from following Aragorn braving the terrors of the psyche instead of down the Paths of the Dead, sees some gulls those of the deeps. There are, of course, flying over Minas Tirith, and mourns: Page 46 MYTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 The Sea! A las! I have not y e t beheld Master trilogy. Morgon, the hero of the it. But deep in the hearts of all my story, is Prince of Hed, a small, isolated kindred lies the sea-longing, which it and peaceful kingdom. However, Morgon is is perilous to stir. Alas! for the gulls. also a Riddle-Master, and the subject of an No peace shall I have again under beech unanswered riddle, and so his destiny lies or under elm. beyond his island home. Like the epic hero Beowulf, he leaves Hed and travels by sea to learn more about his fate; like Aeneas and In The S i1mari11ion, Tolkien describes Ulysses, he is shipwrecked, which event more fully how the Eldar, led by Feanor, went alters his identity. So the sea here would in exile from Valinor in search of the seem to be a vehicle for personal growth, silm arilli stolen by Morgoth. The elves destiny, fate: a theme quite common in •remained in Middle-earth but yearned for the medieval epics and romances. McKillip adds lands of the Uttermost West, from which they another facet to this symbol, however, in her were barred. Finally Earendil the Mariner, heroine Raederle's relationship to the sea half-elf and half-human, passed the Shadows dwelling shape-changers who are her through the power of the silm aril he carried ancestors. These Earth-Masters, forced into to ask for aid to overthrow Morgoth. He was the sea in a war with the High One, are the not permitted to return to mortal lands, but forces of Chaos, in conflict with the High the Valar set his ship bearing the silm aril One's Order. Thus Morgon and Raederle, in the heavens as a sign of hope to the elves joined in their love, have to reconcile the in Middle-earth. two forces that try to separate them. The beauty of McKillip's story lies in her images Valinor, in Tolkien's mythology, is the of nature, the land-laws that are so strong immortal land, home of the gods and the they bind the land's rulers unto death. In elves. It is curious that, despite the the midst of this ordered harmony, the author's strong Christian beliefs, he violence and discord of the people in the sea excludes men (and hobbits) from this land: makes a very powerful and evocative contrast. their ties and their destinies lie in Middle- earth. Death is called the "gift of Another quite effective use of the sea Iluvatar" by the elves, whose immortality is is that in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea a sort of doom when they become weary of the trilogy. In contrast to McKillip's world of world. More in concert with the Christian land-law, the sea is the universe in LeGuin's concept of an afterlife, The Silmarillion setting of tiny island archipelagos. The states that "of old the Valar declared to the three books in this series describe stages in Elves in Valinor that Men shall join in the the life of the mage Ged: coming of age, Second Music of the Ainur; whereas Iluvatar adult quest, and acceptance of death. All of has not revealed what he purposes for the these stories are centered around sea Elves after the World's end." 8 Whatever the voyages. The culmination of LeGuin's ultimate fate of the dwellers in Middle- philosophical’construct -- a Taoist cyclical earth, the men of the Third Age thought world as opposed to the Western linear little about it, and the sea journey was a concept -- is The Farthest Shore, the final yearning to only the elves. book in the trilogy. Here Ged must travel to the Dry Land -- the land of death -- to undo Of the Inkling fantasy writers, Charles the imbalance created by another mage. The Williams's works are the most mystical and story focuses on the relationship between symbol-laden. In his poem Taliessin through life and death and the great Balance, the Locoes, using the Arthurian material of Equilibrium of Nature. The sea is life, and Malory and earlier sources, Williams creates death is the Dry Land, but the boundary a vision of the spiritual life journey around between these is not sharp: "...neither pale the rise and fall of Logres and the Grail sand nor ocean, but a long slope of darkness quest. With the fall of Arthur, the Grail is going down into the dark."10 removed from the world by Galahad and Bors, in the last voyage of the Grail Ship: LeGuin's descriptions of the sea emphasize its power and beauty, in sharp Swept from all altars, swallowed in a contrast with the traditional European image path of power of power and terror. LeGuin's is an Oriental by the wrath that wrecks the pirates in view, and an islander's view. It makes one the Narrow Seas, wonder how our cultural traditions might be ...multiple without dimension, indivisible changed if our European ancestors had without uniformity, centered their lives on water instead of on the ship of Solomon (blessed be he) drove la n d . o n . Williams uses the entire body of Arthurian For many o f the recen t works o f fa n ta sy material, weaving together the threads of literature, the symbols created (at least in pagan magic, romantic quest and Biblical part) the stories, whereas our earlier -- imagery, to create a complex and difficult, tribal -- literature created the symbols we but profoundly affecting, mystical religious still use. Creators of imaginary worlds use m etaphor. the images already part of our cultural heritage to help the reader to recognize Finally, I would like to discuss two their creation, and therefore accept it. other modern works of fantasy that Metaphor springs from the roots of our incorporate the sea voyage motif. The first culture, while change is seen in the fruits. of these is Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle- Perhaps, one day, in (or on) a world without M YTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 Page 47 oceans, the symbolism associated with the sea B enet, W illiam Rose. The R eader' s E n cyclo will become meaningless, and all adventurers pedia . 2nd e d it io n . New York: Thomas and pilgrims will be directed through the Y. C rowell Company, 1965. ether. Somehow, though, I doubt that empty space co n ta in s as much v a r ie ty o f ter r o r and Brantl, Ruth, ed. Medieval Culture: The beauty as the sea has had for men throughout Image and the City. New York: George our long existence surrounded by it. Braziller, 1966.

FOOTNOTES Campbell, Joseph. The Hero w ith a Thou sand F a c e s . New York and C leveland: 1Bryan Waller Procter, "A Petition to The World P u b lish in g Company, 1956 (1949). Time", quoted in John Bartlett, Fam iliar Quotations, 11th edition Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. (Boston: L i t t l e , Brown and Company, Translated by Nevill Coghill. Harmonds 1946), p. 350. worth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1951. 2"Andreas", quoted in Charles W. Kennedy, trans., Early English Christian Demaray, John G. The Invention of Dante's Poetry (Oxford, London and New York: Commedia. New Haven and London: Yale Oxford University Press, 1963), p.134. University Press, -1974.

3Charles Williams, Taliessin Through Ford, Boris, ed. Medieval Literature: The Logres (Grand Rapids, Michigan: European Inheritance. Vol. 1^ Part Two. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Com The New P e lic a n Guide to E n glish L ite r a pany , 1974) . p. 102. ture . Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pen guin Books, Ltd., 1983. 4"The Seafarer", quoted in Michael Alex ander, t r a n s ., The E a r lie s t E nglish Ford, Patrick K,, trans. he Mabinogi and Poems ( Harmondsworth, M iddlesex: Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Berkeley, Penguin Books, Ltd., 1966), pp. 74-75. Los Angeles and London: University of Cal ifornia Press, 1977. 5M oseley, C.W .R.D., t r a n s ., The T ravels of Sir John Mandeville (Harmonds Hanning, Robert, and Joan Ferrante, trans. worth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., The L ais o f Marie de F ran ce. Durham, 1983), p. 168. North Carolina: The Labyrinth Press, 1978. Henry, P. L. The Early E nglish and C e ltic 6Dante Alighieri, The Comedy of Dante L y r ic . London: George A llen and Unwin Alighieri the Florentine: Cantica III Ltd., 1966. (Paradise), translated by Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds (Harmonds The Holy B ib l e . A uthorized King James worth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., Version. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zonder 1962), p. 63. van Publishing House. 7J.R.R. T o lk ien , The Return of the King Homer. The O dyssey. T ran slated by A lbert (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), Cook. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, p. 183. Inc., 1967. 8J.R.R. T olk ien , The S il m a r i l l i o n , ed Jones, G. Hartwell. Celtic Britain and the ited by Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Pilgrim Movement. London: Honourable Soc Houghton Mifflin Co., 1977), p. 42. iety of Cymmrodorion, 1912. 9Charles Williams, op cit, pp. 102-103. Kennedy, Charles W., trans. Beowulf. Ox fo rd , London and New York: Oxford U niver 10Ursula K. LeGuin, The Farthest Shore sity Press, 1971 (1940). (New York: Bantam Books, 1972), p .170. Kennedy, Charles W., trans. Early English C h ristia n P o e tr y . Oxford, London and New BIBLIOGRAPHY York: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Alexander, Michael, trans. The Earliest LeGuin, Ursula K. The Farthest Shore. New English Poems. Harmondsworth, Middle York: Bantam Books, 1972. sex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1966. LeGuin, Ursula K. The Tombs of Atuan. New Alexander, Michael. Old English Litera York: Bantam Books, 1971. ture . New York: Schocken Books, 1979. LeGuin, Ursula K. A Wizard of Earthsea. New Barber, Richard. The Arthurian L egends: York: Bantam Books, 1968. An Illustrated Anthology. Totowa, New Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" Jersey: L i t t l e f i e l d Adams and Company, New York: Collier Books, 1952. 1979. Loomis, Roger Sherman. The G rail: From Celtic Bartlett, John. Familiar Quotations. Myth to Christian Symbol. New York: Colum 11th edition. Boston: Little, Brown and bia University Press, 1963. Company, 1946. continued on page 60 Page 60 M YTH LO RE 45: Spring 1986

contemporary view on the matter, especially if the word von Strassburg, Gottfried. Tristan: with "feminist" is associated with a narrow and anti-male surviving fragments of the Tristran of point of view. But for many readers of the late Thomas. Trans, by A.T. Hatto. Harmonds- twentieth century it is almost impossible to understand worth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., this play and much else of Miss Sayers's life and 1960. career except through the lens of a generous-spirited feminism. No doubt other readers await this and other Williams, Charles. Taliessin Through Logres of Sayers's works in a now unimaginable future. That is and The Region o f th e Summer S t a r s . With why they w ill outlast both Mrs. Dale's flawed editing fragments of The Figure of Arthur and com and Mrs. Reynolds's spirited criticism of that editing. mentaries by C.S. Lewis. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Nancy-Lou Patterson Company, 1974. continued from page 47 L o v ecra ft, H.P. The Dream-Quest o f Unknown Kadath. New York: Ballantine Books, 1970.

McKillip, Patricia A. Harpist in the Wind. New York: Atheneum Books, 1979.

McKillip, Patricia A. Heir of Sea and Fire. New York: Atheneum Books, 1977.

McKillip, Patricia A. The Riddle-Master of Hed. New York: Atheneum Books, 1976.

Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d 'Arthur. New York and Scarborough, O ntario: New American Library (Mentor Books), 1962. continued from page 38 behind the God who made this imperfect world. He moves Matthews, John. The Grail: Quest for the then into his own gnosis ("Do you so far err, Peter, as Eternal. New York: Crossroad Publishing not to know that our souls were made by that good God, Company, 1981. the most excellent of a ll, but they have been brought down as captives into this world?") On the second day Moseley, C.W.R.D., trans. The Travels of of the disputation, stung by the saint's penetrating Sir John Mandeville. Harmondsworth, Mid cross-examination, he falls to a kind of agnosticism — dlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1983. "I know not whether I know" — becomes carping, and turns at last to simple'hedonism:

Pohndorf, S.L., Sister Marie Catherine. "You persuade many to embrace your religion, and Conceptual Imagery related to the Journey to submit to the restraint of pleasure, in hope of Theme in Dante s Commedia in te r p r e te d in future good things; to whom it happens that they lose light of the Medieval Exegetical Method. the enjoyment of things present, and are deceived with Univ. of Denver, PhD Dissertation, 1965. hopes of things future. For as soon as they die, their soul [sic] shall at the same time be extinguished." Sayers, Dorothy L. and Barbara Reynolds, tr a n s . The Comedy o f Dante A lig h i e r i the These meanderings are sufficient to exasperate a Florentine: Cantica I (Hell), Cantica II saint and they do. Peter, "grinding his teeth" and (Purgatory), Cantica III (Paradise). Har- making various gestures of frustration, cries out: "You mondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., wished to introduce many gods; but now, being confuted 1949, 1955, 1962. in that, you assert that there is not God at all. For by occasion of I know not what unknown God, you denied that the Creator of the world is God, but asserted that S ta n fo rd , W.B. The U ly ss e s Theme: A study He is either an evil Being, or that He has many equals, in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero. or, as we have said, that He is not God at all." Then, 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan after the apostle exposes some of the sorcerer's Press, 1978. sinister hidden practices, Simon at last spits forth his true creed, which is simply an egomaniacal claim of Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. power and a demand for his own exaltation: New York: Ballantine Books, 1965. "I am the first power, who am always, and without Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King. beginning.... I have flown through the air; I have been New York: Ballantine Books, 1965. mixed with fire, and been made one body with it; I have made statues to m ove.... I am the Son of God enduring Tolkien, J.R.R. The Silmarillion. Edited to etern ity.... but your words are all in vain; nor can by Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton you perform any real works such as I have now M ifflin Company, 1977. mentioned, ...he also who sent you is a magician, who yet could not deliver himself from the suffering of the Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers. New York: c r o s s ." Ballantine Books, 1965. He shouts blasphemies at the apostle till the Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro). The Aeneid. shocked crowd drives Magus forth. Translated by L.R. Lind. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1963. (to be continued)