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Bright-Eyed Beauty: Celtic Elements in Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis

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Bright-Eyed Beauty: Celtic Elements in Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis Volume 10 Number 1 Article 3 4-15-1983 Bright-Eyed Beauty: Celtic Elements in Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis Nancy-Lou Patterson University of Waterloo, Canada Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1983) "Bright-Eyed Beauty: Celtic Elements in Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 10 : No. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol10/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Traces the influence of Celtic style and themes, though sometimes denied by Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams, on their works. Additional Keywords Celtic mythology—Influence on literature; Lewis, C.S.—Influence of Celtic mythology; olkien,T J.R.R.—Influence of Celtic mythology; Williams, Charles—Influence of Celtic mythology; Nancy-Lou Patterson 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/vol10/iss1/3 MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 page 5 Bright-Eyed Beauty Celtic Elements in Charles W illiam s, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis Nancy-Lou Patterson Although it was not to be published for forty world with it s broken designs which we are charged, in years, when it appeared after its author's death as The th is aptly-numbered thirteenth Mythcon, to explore. As Silmarillion, a version of the "Quenta Silmarillion" everybody in attendance here w ill know, works related was praised in 1937 by Edward Crankshaw, a reader for to The Silm arillion were read aloud to C.S. Lewis and Unwin. Crankshaw wrote that "It has something of that Charles Williams (among others) and these men in turn mad, bright-eyed beauty that perplexes a ll Anglo-Saxons read from their works to Tolkien, in that informal in face of Celtic art."'1 Tolkien was quick to reply gathering called The Inklings, which has inspired that his writings were "not Celtic!" He felt " a members of The Mythopeoic Society to read their works, certain distaste" for "Celtic things," he wrote to of comment, praise, and critical analysis, to one Stanley Unwin, because of "their fundamental unreason. another at gatherings like th is. In that sp irit (or as They have bright color, but are like a broken stained nearly as I can manage without tobacco, beer, or glass window reassembled without design. They are in masculine gender) I offer these comments, which I fact 'mad' as your reader says—but I don't believe I assure you are preliminary in every sense of the word! am." (Ibid.) When we speak of Celtic influences upon twentieth In spite of Tolkien's disclaimer, it is this mad century British writers in general, and Williams, page 6 MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 Tolkien, and Lewis in particular, we are thinking Traditional dates for these events range from 300 BC to primarily of the literature of the descendants of the 800 AD.3 Celtic tribes of Iron Age Britain and Ireland, Tacitus has given us the picture of these early people, and the The Welsh stories are gathered in the Four tones he uses should be marked well, for we shall hear Branches of the Mabinogion, in contents of the echoes of it in the remarks of all three of our Arthurian Cycle, and in poems including those authors. attributed to Taliessin, Merddyn, and others. Related to these various forms but reflecting a new tradition On the opposite shore stood the Britons, are the specifically Christian works, including saints' close embodied and prepared for action. tales, and poems of Celtic monastic life. Women were seen rushing through the ranks in wild disorder, their apparel funereal, their hair loose to the wind, in their hands Hie flavor of Celtic literature can be expressed flaming torches, and their whole appearance resembling the frantic rage of the Furies. succinctly by giving three quotations, each of which is The Druids were ranged in order, with hands in profound contrast to the others save for an uplifted, invoking the gods, and pouring forth horrible imprecations. The novelty of astonishing vigour and brilliance of detail: they are the sight struck the Romans with awa and the counterparts of Celtic art, pure gold and silver terror... Feeling the disgrace of yielding to a troop of women and a band of fanatic inlaid with intricate spirals and interlacements of priests they advanced their standards and rushed on to the attack with impetuous bright enamel work. fury.... The Britons perished...the island fell...th e religious groves, dedicated to superstition and badoarous rites, were In the Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of levelled to the ground.2 Cooley) , the "centerpiece of the Ulster cycle," the Hie "Britons" of th is passage are Walsh tribal tale begins with a pillow talk between King A illil and people and the Romans are under the command o f Queen Medb concerning their respective wealth, which Suetonius Raulinus. Tacitus' father-in-law Agricola leads to a raid upon King Conochbar to steal his fin est had been governor of Britain, and we have here the fu ll bull to make up their tally. Hie following passage imperial tone, in this vivid account of the slaughter describes the hero CuChulainn's battle-rage in the of women and p riests. conflict arising from this beginning. He goes into battle dressed in Is the literature derived from these peoples indeed "mad," "broken," and characterized by twenty-seven tunics of waxed skin, plated and pressed together, and fastened with strings "fundamental unreason?" Hie Celtic literature that we and cords and straps against his clear skin, have preserves in written form not only the folk-tales so that h is senses or h is brain wouldn't burst their bonds at the onset of his fury.4 of nineteenth century Ireland and Wales, but the oral traditions of various aristocratic cultures in which But this precaution fails: court poets wove together history, genealogy, and Hie fir s t warp-spasm seized CuChulainn, and shamanic ritual. Both poetry and prose are preserved. made him into a monstrous th in g .... His body All th is has been filtered through and expanded by made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and skins and knees switched to the Christian writers, for literacy and Chrisitanity came rear and his heels and calves switched to the to the British Isles together. front.... His face and features became a red bowl: he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe Irish prose is usually divided in four groups. it...the other eye fell out along his cheek. (Ibid. p. 150.) First is the Mythological Cycle, which tells of "Hie Peoples o f the Goddess Danann," the p re-C eltic Hie twisting of the body conforms to the conventions of occupants of Ireland. Second is the Ulster Cycle, Migrations Art, and the other distortions suggest the which describes King Conochbar's warriors, especially ornaments and animal elements in Celtic Art. CuChulainn. Third is the Fenian Cycle, te llin g of Finn Mac Qma i l l , h is warriors, and his son Oisin (Ossian) . Then, Fourth is the Historical Cycle, which gathers together ...the hair of his head twi sted like the tangle of a red thornbush...and the hero-halo tales of kings including the high-kings of Ireland. rose out of his brow.... Then, tall and MYTHLORE 35: Spring 1983 page 7 thick, steady and strong, high as the mast of a noble ship, rose up from the dead centre of his skull a straight spout of black blood darkly and magically smoking like the smoke from a royal hostel when a king is coming to be cared for at the close of a winter day. (Ibid., p. 153.) These images reach back through the continental Celtic past to the deepest wells of Indo-European mythology. After this we are not surprised to learn that on a good day, the hero is praised as "handsome" because he had "three distinct kinds of hair" (brown, red, and yellow)". (Ibid., p. 158.) "Fbur dimples in each cheek—yellow, green, crimson, and blue—and seven bright pupils, eye jewels, in each kingly eye." (Ibid.) Crankshaw's bright-eyed beauty and Tolkien's bright colors of broken stained glass are surely My final quotation comes from a tenth-century derived from passages like these. Irish poem in which a hermit (a monk pursuing the distinctive eremetic monasticism derived by the Celtic Church from its contacts with Eastern Christianity) My second quotation is from The Mabinogion, a tale describes his hermitage: called "Owein, or the Countless of the Ebuntain," which takes place when "The Emperor Arthur was at Cber Ll ion I have a hut in the wood, none know i t but my Lord: an ash tree on this side, a hazel ar Wysg [Caerleon on Usk] ."5 The narrator, who has on the other...6 desired to find a worthy adversary, tells of a Here the hermit lacks for nothing: wonderful encounter with a Court where people of unearthly beauty entertain him, and where the lord of Fruits of rowan, black sloes of the dark that Court directs him to go out to meet the "keeper of blackthorn; foods of whorts, spare b e r r ie s..
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