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Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View of <I>The Lion, The Volume 31 Number 3 Article 4 4-15-2013 Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Josh B. Long Independent Scholar Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Long, Josh B. (2013) "Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 31 : No. 3 , Article 4. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol31/iss3/4 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 Addresses the perennial question of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dislike for C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, carefully analyzing numerous first- and second-hand accounts from biographies, interviews, and letters. A previously unpublished letter from Tolkien to Eileen Elgar adds a new and more nuanced element to our understanding of this issue. Additional Keywords Elger, Eileen. Correspondence with J.R.R. Tolkien; Lewis, C.S.—Friends and associates—J.R.R. Tolkien; Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia—Attitude of J.R.R. Tolkien towards; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Attitude toward the Chronicles of Narnia; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Friends and associates—C.S. Lewis 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/vol31/iss3/4 D i s p a r a g i n g N a r n i a : R econsidering T o l k i e n ' s V i e w o f T h e L i o n , t h e W i t c h a n d t h e W a r d r o b e J o s h B . L o n g It is well-known that Tolkien dislikes The Chronicles of Narnia, but what were his reasons? They appear to be complex and manifold. Part of the problem lies in the fact that we have only one (published) statement from Tolkien on the matter, and it remains ambiguous at best. Writing in 1964, he observes, "It is sad that 'Narnia' and all that part of C.S.L.'s work should remain outside the range of my sympathy, as much of my work was outside his" (Letters 352). This tells us almost nothing. My intention in this article is to come to terms with why Tolkien disliked Narnia. Many reasons have been offered, but it is not always easy to separate the facts from the fancy; more often than not, the lines between the two have been blurred. I will begin by reconsidering the secondhand accounts of Roger Lancelyn Green, Nan C.L. Scott, and George Sayer; Tolkien evidently told each of them at different times why he disliked Narnia. Second, I will defend Humphrey Carpenter's accounts in Tolkien and The Inklings, although several scholars have called them into question. Finally, I wish to introduce and analyze an unpublished letter in which Tolkien briefly discusses Narnia. The most well-known secondhand account is certainly Green's. In 1974, he published a joint biography with Walter Hooper entitled C.S. Lewis: A Biography. In it, Green recalls that after Lewis had shared the opening chapters of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Tolkien, "who had disliked it intensely," Lewis then read it to Green. Shortly after, Tolkien saw Green and remarked, "I hear you've been reading Jack's [Lewis's] children's story. It really won't do, you know! I mean to say: 'Nymphs and their Ways, The Love-Life of a Faun'. Doesn't he know what he's talking about?" (qtd. in Green and Hooper Mythlore 31.3/4, Spring/Summer 2013 31 Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 241).1 Green provides no explanation of what Tolkien meant; however, this has not prevented critics from interpreting Tolkien's comment. Joe R. Christopher observes that Nymphs and their Ways is one of the books which appears on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase in Chapter II of The Lion. According to Christopher, Tolkien was bothered by this scene because Lewis was distorting and sentimentalizing the myth ("Narnian Exile" 41). He suggests, "[I]f Lucy had really met a faun—that is, a satyr—the result would have been a rape, not a tea party" (Christopher, C.S. Lewis 111). Hence, the reason Tolkien alludes to The Love-life of a Faun—a book that doesn't actually appear on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase but is absurd all the same. In short, Lewis failed to maintain the mythical archetype of fauns as lustful. From an aesthetic standpoint, Christopher's argument certainly seems valid. In contrast to Lewis, Tolkien preserved the traditional qualities of his races in The Lord of the Rings. In Appendix F, he notes that dwarfs have "at last" been relegated "to nonsense-stories in which they have become mere figures of fun"; he has employed the unconventional plural dwarves to "remove them a little, perhaps, from the sillier tales of these latter days" (1137). He comments similarly on the notion of elves: "This old word was indeed the only one available, and was once fitted to apply to such memories of this people as Men preserved [...]. But it has been diminished, and to many it may now suggest fancies either pretty or silly, as unlike to the Quendi of old as are butterflies to the falcon" (1137). Rather than adopt the modern notions of these races, popularized in such works as J.M. B arrie's Peter Pan and Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tolkien sought to restore the historical integrity of these beings, found in such works as the Volsunga saga, Beowulf, an d Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.1 2 1 Green also mentions in C.S. Lewis (1963) that Lewis "then set aside [The Lion] owing to criticism from one of his older friends by then rather out of touch with children and their books, and wedded to different modes of thought where fairy-tale and fantasy were concerned" (37). Green is evidently referring to Tolkien. Although this doesn't specify why Tolkien disliked Narnia, this remains the earliest known account of this incident; it even predates Tolkien's 1964 letter. Green also published an article entitled "C.S. Lewis" in the first Puffin Annual (1974). Interestingly, the article is more detailed than Green's joint biography about his meeting with Lewis; most notably, he provides several direct quotes from Lewis. The only reference to Tolkien is when Lewis says, "But Tolkien doesn't like them [the two chapters] . What do you really think?" (104, ellipsis in original). Green "pointed out how natural it was that Tolkien should not like it: for his fantasy world, the world of The Hobbit, was so very different—with a different greatness" (104). 2 Tolkien once said in an interview, "By writing about elves as tall as men I am restoring tradition, trying to rescue the word from the nursery" (qtd. in Cater 10). Tolkien's most adamant defense of traditional archetypes can be seen in Smith of Wootton Major, in which the antagonist Nokes believes fairies are small and cute. 32 Mythlore 121/122, Spring/Summer 2013 Josh B. Long Lewis did not take the same approach towards his stories. In A Preface to Paradise Lost, he suggests that "mythical poetry ought not to attempt novelty in respect of its ingredients" but "[w]hat it does with the ingredients may be as novel as you please" (54). In other words, the archetypes of a myth should remain the same (i.e. giants, dragons, and gods); however, the way an author depicts them may be original.3 Thus, Lewis felt completely justified in remaining true to the faun's appearance, but refashioning its nature. Tolkien would have been bothered by such reworking. Tom Shippey notes that "Tolkien thought, indeed he knew, that he could distinguish many words and word-forms into two classes, one 'old-traditional-genuine', the other 'new-unhistorical-mistaken'" (The Road to Middle-earth [Road] 55). Lewis's faun certainly falls into the latter. Rather than a lustful, rural god, as portrayed in Roman mythology, Lewis's faun is polite, domesticated, and sensitive. Joseph Pearce provides another explanation for Tolkien's remark to Green; he believes that Tolkien was displeased with the clash between the "mythical creatures worthy of respect" and "the descent into the vulgar vernacular" (125). Thus, fauns and nymphs are paired with "Love-life" and "their Ways." Tolkien's main issue seems to be that Lewis was not taking his secondary world seriously enough. The titles on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase confirm this—they are parodies of real-life books.
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