On A Sunny Saturday and Monday Morning.....

Suliad!! from Wotan. Yesterday I attended The Tolkien Society UK Oxonmoot 2011 at Lady Margret Hall in Oxford. It was a day of meeting fellow Tolkienists and hearing some really exciting papers including

• Bob Blackham - Tolkien and the War Years

• Murray Smith - Two Masters? A Possible Journey from Birmingham to Laketown

• Colin Duriez - What made Tolkien Tick and Why Was He Called Reuel?

• Dr Lynn Whitaker - Corrupting Beauty: Rape Narrative in The Silmarillion

• Andrew Morton - Tolkien, WH Auden and the Age of Anxiety

• Dr Dimitra Fimi - Kipling, Tolkien and their mythology for England - From Puck of Pooks Hill to The Book of Lost Tales

All were brilliant and much to think about - anytime Dr Fimi speaks I am there, upfront and taking notes (and her Tolkien and Fantasy online courses are must takes)

Oxonmoot also had a sales room and I went eagerly with much money in the wallet to go Tolkien shopping!!! And lo and behold I found an edition of a book I have been looking for for some time And that is Inkling Charles William's Arthurian Torso containing the posthumous fragment The Figure of Arthur and commentary on the poems by fellow inkling C.S. Lewis
When Charles Williams died in 1945 he left two works unfinished on his thoughts on the Arthur cycle (interesting that Tolkien also worked on an unfinished Arthurian poem called The Fall of Arthur which except for a brief quote in Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, has yet to see the light of day (Tolkien Estate are you listening?!))

After Williams death C.S. Lewis published the unfinished works with his notes and commentary. As I travelled back from Oxford to London last night I read the preface in which Lewis indicates "The first two chapters had been read aloud by the author to Professor Tolkien and myself." Lewis then ends the preface with one of the most illustrative descriptions I have read of a gathering of the Inklings setting the scene for Williams reading this poem to them - Lewis writes


"Picture to yourself, then, an upstairs sitting- room with windows looking north into the 'grove' of Magdalen College on a sunshiny Monday Morning in vacation, at about ten o'clock. The Professor and I, both on the chesterfield, lit our pipes and stretched out our legs. Williams in the arm-chair opposite to us threw his cigarette into the grate, took up a pile of the extremely small, loose sheets on which he habitually wrote - they come, I think, from a two penny pad for memoranda and began as follows....." (Williams, p.2)



Oh to have been a fly on the wall in that room on that bright sunny Monday Morning.......

Williams, Charles (1969) Arthurian Torso, Containing the Posthumous Fragment of The Figure of Arthur with notes and Commentary by C.S.Lewis (Oxford, OUP)

Link to The Charles Williams Society


Posted from Andrew Higgins IPAD asthiggins@me.com

Looking for the King -An Inklings Novel By David Downing - A Review

Looking for the King - By David Downing

SPOILER ALERT - If you have not read this book this review may give away some key plot points! 

During the recent but now seemingly long past Christmas holidays as I scanned more books to download onto my IPAD and read with my trusty Kindle app, this title caught my attention and I became even more interested when I read that the book was about King Arthur, the holy spear of Longinus and included as characters Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis and Professor J.R.R Tolkien himself!!!  What a combination, I thought, a must read and onto the IPAD it went. 

Overall I enjoyed this book which towards the end does become a bit of a page, or screen, turner. I did get the feeling in the early parts that I was reading two books. One,  a rollicking good Dan Brownesqe (although much better written) thriller set in Britain in the 1940's with two Americans visting some of the key Arthurian sites in the U.K. in search of a lost relic of primeval power that others evil elements are looking for (shades of Indiana Jones).  The other, a "lets meet the Inklings" novel where we through the hero and heroine of the adventure meet Lewis, Williams, and Tolkien and the other Inklings usually in their favourite haunts -- a pub or restaurant. 

But the genius of this book is how Downing combines these two strands together by having the Inklings comment and indeed shape the search which is based in messages in dreams around King Arthur and "the spear of destiny"  Indeed in the first couple of chapters Lewis informs our hero that there is a recent theory " by Professor R.G. Colingwood backed up by a colleague of his named Tolkien" on the real Kng Arthur (referring to Collingwood's book Roman Britain and its English Settlements).

Also after reading Downing I feel I know Charles
Williams a bit better (an Inkling whose works have alluded me and need further exploration).   One moment of a slight chuckle comes towards the end of the book when some of the Inklings are musing on how they will be remembered in the future and C.S. Lewis says to Charles Wlliams we shall end up as footnotes in your biography - interesting that of the three major Inklings Charles Williams is the least well known (Tolkien says nothing in that scene) Also when the hero tells of the adventure, one of the Inklings exclaim "it sounds like the plot of one of your books Charles" perhaps referring to his holy grail mystery The War in Heaven 

Downing's description of Tolkien is an interesting one.  He clearly has done his research and very helpfully includes in the appendix a line by line reference to quoted remarks. I felt while he does capture some of the donish, elegiac and "I am in fact a Hobbit" character of Tolkien, what we get is very much a rehash of what we know of Tolkien through letters, interviews, etc. So we hear him describe how we know (or how he wanted us to know)how he started writing the Hobbit, we hear the recurring great Wave engulfing all nightmare, etc.  There is a wonderful scene when the two main characters go to visit Tolkien and are greeted at the door of 20 Northmoor Road by his young daughter Priscilla who escorts them into Tolkien's book lined study.  its 1940 and Tolkien is working on the "new Hobbit" and spends some time talking with them about the new darker adventure which has reached a crossroads tavern and met a "walker in the woods (is he Strider or Trotter?")  Also I thought it was interesting that Tolkien set an alarm clock so his visitors would not overstay their welcome (he had to get that writing done sometime!) But it was hard not to read that scene and think - yes you are talking about the new Hobbit, but in a file or drawer you have the notebooks of The Book of Lost Tales and the Quenta Sillmarillion and all that work on Elvish linguistics that you have stopped writing to work on this much desired sequel. 

For Tolkien and Lewis lovers this scene and an earlier one when our hero is invited to spend a morning at the Eagle and the Child (Bird and the Baby) pub with the Inklings are ones that as you read makes you think what would it have been like?  i think Downing captures the boisterous quick rapid banter of the Inklings (these were no bookish dons) and the welcoming nature they would have had for a colleague interested in their pursuits.

The actual thriller?? Fine, although the denouement is a bit obvious and the ending does have echoes of that final moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the source of all potential divine power is literally warehoused.  it is interesting when the hero decides not to take advantage of what he has uncovered for power or gain he says it is not for him to take such a thing on himself and leaves it for others to decide what to do with it (shades of the ring?).  Then Downing has Tolkien say  "We indeed endure things But the martyrs endured to the end." and the Tolkien comments to the puzzled Inklings "It is an elvish saying." 

I think what Downing does succeed at is bringing the Inklings to life not as active heroes out saving the world but as scholarly advisers in the background of the action.  Indeed, it is thanks to Tolkien's pursuits of the Northern Spirit and his focus on pre-Norman Saxon culture that a great part of the mystery is solved. 

Downing masterfully has Lewis recount his conversion by Tolkien and Dyson on that long evenings walk and he later weaves it into the story and character development of the hero. Downing also creates a real sense of the worry and stress in Britain in 1940 on the eve of Dunkirk and the movement of the war from the phoney phase towards the defeat of France (Lewis comments that they are taking all the signs down in the Southern part of England in case the Germans invade)and the looming Battle of Britain.  Downing has Tolkien talk about the "animal horror" of the last war and the fears and concerns he has for his two sons both currently in midst of battle (as well as C S Lewis for his brother Warnie). 

Of course there is room left for a sequel and the mind boggles on who would play the Inklings if this book were made into a movie (Sir Ian perhaps as J.R.R?). 

With another book with Tolkien as a character on the horizon it looks like this may be the start of a trend. I applaud these efforts if they are done with care and attention and understanding of the real lfe characters and their work.  I wonder what the Professor himself would have thought of being a character in some one elses sub-creation?? 

While a bit thin on plot I think Downing has succeeded in bringing the Inklings to life and I look forward to more of the adventures they become mixed up with.  

Who knows my idea for a series of mystery books with the composer Richard Wagner has a solver of murders may not be so far fetched!!! 


Posted from Andrew Higgins IPAD asthiggins@me.com 

Layers upon Layers

Recently back for Portugal were we had a great time visiting some of the most historical sites of its history including the founding city in the north Guimares (a name derived from a Germanic based word meaning the "the rich ones" because that is where all the wealthy land owners lived - which is what made it very attractive to the Spanish. We stayed in a beautiful 12th century monastery that was converted by the government (called a Passada). It was there in the 12th century that the warlord Don Alfsono Henriques defeated his own mother in the Batalha de S.Mamede and started the foundation of Portugal. In Coimbra (the Oxford of Portugal) we say the great Library of Joao V as well as the fascist like statues the dictator Salazar has erected at the University of Coimbra. We also toured one of the largest Roman sites - Conimbriga (a Roman summer resort with one of the largest bath houses in the area). Going further back we went to the Celtic site of Britarieos which was excavated in the 19th century and has some of the most extensive pre-Roman Celtic remains including many foundations of Celtic round houses. The site also contains Roman and Medieval remains (perched a high on a hill it became a place for hermits in the 10th century (I go down to the moors, collect me berries, chastises myself - sorry lapsed in Monty Python...). Also returned to Lisbon (where we had been before) and took a trip back to Belem - to have their speciality Pastleis de Belem and a dinner in the Barrio Alto of Bacchaleu (Salt Fish). In Lisbon, we stayed in a hotel right above the famous coffee house - The Braseliera - where the famous 20th century poet Pessoa used to sit and write (and where after a drinking bout he apparently died). There is nothing like a bica in the morning.

So I have fallen in love with the country and the language which I am learning - there is so much great Portuguese literature and very little in translation and the other interesting thing I find is the amount of literature on the Knights Templar who found refuge in Portugal towards their end - and when we return I want to go to Tomar - one of their major strongholds. So in the coming months I hope to dig into this wealth of literature and of course, eventually, read Lord of the Rings in Portuguese.

On another front I am getting increasingly interested in this concept of "The Great Chain of Reading" which Nagly put forth in the recent book on Tolkien and the Middle Ages. I am interested in studying authors who did what Tolkien did in terms of developing an "original" piece of connected literature out of a series of layered stories, annuals, chronologies,etc - I am currently re-reading Roger Loomis's volume on Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages and seeing the many layers of stories that make up what eventually became the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table has "fixed" in Malory and Tennyson - another interesting one that I picked up while reading the excellent book Lord of the Rings and the Western Narrative Tradition is the Hellenistic poem The Argonautika by Appollinious of Rhodes who was himself a librarian and had access to many sources of books on the gods and heroes that make up the story of Jason and Medea (and what of Homer and the layers we can find in that - could the Cretan lies of Odysseus in the later books of the Odyssey be an earlier layer of the story? All very much worth investigating.

Of course, life is busy and my partner and I have of late been doing marathon Lord of the Rings Online games (I'm a level 17 elf - he a level 20 hobbit) - eats up time but its fun - anyone interested in joining a fellowship quest into the great barrow of Ongenthow (thought that was Beowulf's father??).

Will be at the UK Tolkien conference next week - and will report on next week.