The Songs of the Spheres: Lewis, Tolkien and the Overlapping Realms of their Imagination
Łukasz Neubauer and Gugliemo Spirito (editors)
Cormarë Series No. 48
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To celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the publication of Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (16 October 1950), the editors of this volume have invited contributions that aim at critically reflecting upon the similarities and, no less importantly, the differences in the two writers' approaches to the works that came to impregnate their vivid imaginations. The thematic axis of the papers is, therefore, Lewis's best-known work of fiction, The Chronicles of Narnia, either as a whole or as a selection of individual volumes and/or episodes set in the World Beyond the Wardrobe, always, however, in connection with Tolkien's own (sub)creative projects. The papers themselves deal with such diverse fields of academic research as literature, theology, philosophy etc.
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Łukasz Neubauer received his PhD in English philology from the University of Łódz. He is a researcher and lecturer at the Koszalin University of Technology, Poland, where he has taught courses on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Old English literature, and Arthurian romances. Apart from his publications dealing with various medieval as well as Christian influences and resonances in The Lord of the Rings, he has written papers on The Battle of Maldon, Beowulf, Hêliand, Icelandic sagas and the so-called 'beasts of battle' trope in, particularly but not exclusively, Old Germanic poetry. His most recent publications include Middle-earth, or There and Back Again, a collection of essays written by a group of Polish scholars, and a monograph The Long Shadow of Fáfnir: Dragons in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. A Christian Perspective.
Guglielmo Spirito is a Conventual Franciscan friar, and works and lives in Assisi. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1958 and studied Philosophy and Egyptology before joining the Order of Saint Francis. In Rome he obtained the Degree (Licenza) in Pastoral Theology of Health Care at the Camillianum and the Doctorate in Theology (PhD) with specialization in Spirituality at the Antonianum. He is professor at the Theological Institute of Assisi (ITA, aggregate at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University) and at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. He gives courses, lectures, spiritual exercises and retreats mainly in Italy, England, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Russia, Greece and the Holy Land. He has published essays, articles and books in Italian, Spanish, Polish and English.
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Table of contents
Łukasz Neubauer and Guglielmo Spirito
Foreword
Justin Keena
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien:
Friendship, True Myth, and Platonism
(abstract)
Piotr Anicet Gruszczyński
"What do they teach them at these schools?":
A Critique of Modern and
Postmodern Outlook in the Writings of Lewis and Tolkien
(abstract)
Giovanni C. Costabile
Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time is not Healing:
Pauline Law in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
(abstract)
Chiara Bertoglio
The Lion and the Pitch:
Creation Myths and Music in Lewis and Tolkien
(abstract)
Łukasz Neubauer
Ex nihilo or ex materia?:
The Acts of Sub-creation in J.R.R. Tolkien's Arda and C.S. Lewis's Narnia
(abstract)
Joanna Łękawska
The Interpenetration of Past, Present and Future
in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings
(abstract)
Gabriel Schenk
A Jumble of Unrelated Mythologies?:
Cohesion and
Consistency in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit
(abstract)
Hamish Williams
Dionysiac, Apolline, Orphic, or...?:
Nietzschean
Conflicts in Representing the Natural World in Christian Fantasy
(abstract)
Andrzej Wicher
The Liminality of J.R.R. Tolkien's Non-human Species:
A View through the Lens of C.S. Lewis
(abstract)
Franz Georg Árpád Klug
"Ye are of your father the devil":
Satanic Figures in Arda and Narnia
(abstract)
Kris Swank
The Nostalgic Fantasy of "Good Plain Food" in Narnia and Middle-earth
(abstract)
Abbreviations
Index
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Abstracts
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien:
Friendship, True Myth, and Platonism
Of the two major senses of 'true myth' used by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the first was a foundational principle in their respective approaches to fantasy writing, while the second was based on Classical Platonic metaphysics. The first part of this chapter describes and analyzes the three most significant appearances of true myth in their friendship. The second part distinguishes its two major senses, showing that the first meaning of true myth was a foundational principle in their respective approaches to fantasy writing. The third section explains the second meaning and identifies its metaphysical basis as Classical Platonism. The final section establishes four specific ways in which Lewis and Tolkien's idea of true myth in its second sense depends upon Platonic metaphysics.
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are indisputably among the most popular contemporary writers of fiction. Paradoxically, though, they never had great expectations of publishing success; nor are they really 'contemporary' in the sense that their books do not suit our times. In their works, both writers present an outlook that seems more characteristic of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Hence, it is often at odds with modernity and postmodernity, seeing modern thinking as a growing menace to mankind. The aim of the chapter is to demonstrate how this outlook manifests itself in the works that flowed from their pens, in the reality that Lewis refers to in The Discarded Image as 'the Model.' While dealing with the thought of Tolkien, it draws chiefly on his Legendarium and correspondence. When it comes to the ideas of his fellow Inkling, however, its main focus is on the two cycles of novels ‒ The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy ‒ as well as his theological and scholarly books, which often provide a context for Lewis's fiction. The first part deals with Lewis's views on opinions concerning three worldviews, namely: natural, modern and so-called 'moral nihilism.' The second one looks at the works of Tolkien, focusing on the struggle between the malevolent 'Machine' and the old-fashioned communities of the Shire, Rohan and Gondor. The last part reveals the two writers' intentions to use literature as a link between modernity and tradition in order to help mankind see the beauty of the world and find in it the meaning of life.
Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time is not Healing:
Pauline Law in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
All cultures enforce justice by means of law. Law is seen everywhere as the impartial judge determinining what is right and what is wrong. It is also common knowledge that society might never find its balance, peace and harmony unless given a set of laws. And yet, according to Saint Paul of Tarsus, even Divine Law, given by the Lord to Moses on Mount Sinai through the Torah, is a cause of sin, injustice, and death, meaning that only in Christ one may find liberation. In one of his letters, Tolkien praises his fellow Inkling's ability to deliver Christian sermons in wartime as a reparation undertaken "in a Pauline spirit," as "an imitation of St. Paul." Taking into consideration their shared interest in the Apostle, this chapter seeks to explore the possibility of a Pauline reading of Tolkien's 'Finwë and Míriel' and whether it may be reconciled with the more explicitly Pauline notion of justice as "deep magic from the dawn of time" in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
The Lion and the Pitch:
Creation Myths and Music in Lewis and Tolkien
At the root of Lewis's and of Tolkien's fictional worlds there are two creation myths, narrated respectively in The Magician's Nephew (the first volume of The Chronicles of Narnia) and in the Ainulindalë, the first part of Tolkien's The Silmarillion. These two myths have numerous points in common, intertwined with substantial differences. First of all, both myths are closely related to the Christian narrative and theology of creation, even though both do not aim at representing it or at re-telling it faithfully. Secondly, both myths describe in musical terms the act of creation: Lewis's Lion Aslan and Eru Ilúvatar, the Godhead of Tolkien's myth, call the creatures to Being through musical activities. Thirdly, there is a fascinating connection among the aural world (as symbolized by the divine music), the visible world, and the real world; the processes evoked by both Lewis and Tolkien can therefore be studied and analyzed also in connection with musical phenomena such as notation and interpretation. These common elements may derive both from common sources, arising from the cultural, religious, philosophical and literary background shared by both authors, and from the two writers' personal interaction. On the other hand, there are also important differences, partially arising from their different approaches to allegory and to the role of the Christian dogma in the literary world of fantastic fiction, and partially from the two authors' personality and style.
Ex nihilo or ex materia?:
The Acts of Sub-creation in J.R.R. Tolkien's Arda and C.S. Lewis's Narnia
The cosmogonic dramas that unfold in Tolkien's Arda and Lewis's Narnia easily rank amongst the most ingenious mythopoeic narratives of the twentieth century. Their ingenuity does not, however, arise solely from the authors' immense creativity and familiarity with various mythological systems, because at the core of their sub-creative efforts are always the biblical accounts of Creation as they appear in Genesis 1:1-2:25, complete with God's commanding fiats and the elemental forces brought about in their consequence. Yet another vital component in the rich cosmogonic mosaics of Tolkien and Lewis is the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, the notion that, by the Lord's command, the world came into being out of nothing, that is to say not out of any preexisting material. Its fundamental tenets may not always be so easily detectible in the Ainulindalë (Tolkien) and chapters 8 and 9 of The Magician's Nephew (Lewis), where the respective worlds are conceived, yet they are, in fact, not quite palpable even in the first book of the Hebrew Bible, where some forces already seem to be in existence prior to God's first Creative act.
The following chapter seeks to examine the interpenetration of past, present and future in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings as an interesting backdrop for the development of the plot in each of these works. Of the two writers, Lewis makes this interpenetration more explicit, with the shifts of setting from the primary world of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century England to the secondary world of Narnia, where the passage of time is markedly different. Furthermore, in the Narniad, Time also appears as a character, first in The Silver Chair, and then in The Last Battle, at the end of the world, when the temporal realms pass away and something new, atemporal or eternal, begins. The interpenetration of past, present and future in The Lord of the Rings is, perhaps, just as considerable as in The Chronicles of Narnia, but in a less explicit way. There is a historical depth in it that is significant to the plot at every stage, as the characters and the events are not only steeped in the history of Middle-earth, but also forge it at the same time.
The following chapter challenges the idea that Lewis's Narnia is an inconsistent muddle compared to Tolkien's Middle-earth. It first surveys the ways the two writers have been compared to each other as fantasy authors, and disputes the idea that Tolkien objected to Lewis's world-building in the Narnia series. Secondly, it analyses the levels of cohesion (elements fitting together seamlessly) and consistency (those elements being used in the same way throughout a book or series) in the works of Tolkien and Lewis, focusing, in particular, on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit.
Through their representations of the natural world, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis oppose Nietzsche's assertions of the death of God, the foundational truth of the Dionysiac, and the necessary illusion of the Apolline. In Prince Caspian, Lewis depicts the Dionysiac force of nature as built upon a Christian, 'Aslanine' foundation or divine order in Narnia; conversely, the Apolline attempts of the Telmarines to create order based on human, civilisational will alone, along with their scornful attitudes towards the divine order (and aesthetic beauty) of nature, lead to their destruction. Tolkien deviates somewhat from Lewis in showing notions of chaos and order in balance in the natural world, as aesthetic products of divine creation. Such a balance is best represented by the enigmatic character of Tom Bombadil in the Old Forest sequence of The Fellowship of the Ring. Tom, a kind of 'nature spirit,' opposes the Dionysiac chaos of the Old Forest (the devouring hunger of Old Man Willow) through the imposition of a shepherding, Orphic form of ordering, but such order does not try to assert its Apolline will to power over others (Sauron's One Ring has zero effect on Tom). Conversely, it is the precise fault – the evil – of Melkor, Sauron, the Witch-King and other wayward beings to not appreciate this balance: to despair at the Dionysiac void; to impose the illusion of Apolline will to counter this and control others.
The Liminality of J.R.R. Tolkien's Non-human Species:
A View through the Lens of C.S. Lewis
The following chapter intends to analyse what might be called the ontological status of Tolkien's non-human species, particularly concerning liminality. Remarkably, C.S. Lewis provides us with four medieval conceptions of fairies, two of which have a liminal character, while the other two are far less liminal, e.g. fairies are thought of as "a third rational species distinct from angels and men" (DI 134). Bearing in mind Tolkien's great familiarity with medieval culture, and also with Lewis's ideas, this paper will examine whether Lewis's classification of magical creatures works in the case of Tolkien's non-human and para-human species.
"Ye are of your father the devil":
Satanic Figures in Arda and Narnia
The main purpose of this chapter is to establish how far the major villains in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis such as, for instance, the dark Vala Morgoth and the White Witch Jadis might be viewed as satanic figures, in varying degrees inspired by the Christian tradition of the devil. In doing so, this chapter will highlight the similarities and differences between Tolkien's and Lewis's devilish archvillains, while investigating the different diabolical aspects of the characters in question. Examining in what manner Tolkien and Lewis have these evildoers influence their fictional worlds of Arda and Narnia might shed more light on this topic of investigation. The archvillains in those worlds do not only seem to pursue typically satanic activities, corrupting lands, nature and peoples alike, but they also appear to inadvertently act as eucatastrophic vehicles which, in contrast to their evil intentions, contribute to the triumph of the side of Good. In this spirit, the chapter at hand is also devoted to analysing how Tolkien's and Lewis's diabolic evildoers might reflect the two authors' respective conceptions of the nature of Evil. Finally, this chapter is concerned with the question of how far such satanic figures reflect Tolkien's and Lewis's distinctive approaches towards sub-creation.
The Nostalgic Fantasy of "Good Plain Food" in Narnia and Middle-earth
Meals in Narnia and Middle-earth feature an abundance of local, simple, natural fare. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien stated their own preferences for eating in just such a fashion. "Good plain food," Tolkien called it, while Warren 'Warnie' Lewis, describing his brother's tastes, used the similar term, "plain domestic cookery." Some commentators connect Lewis's and Tolkien's affinity for plain food to the food of their childhoods, as both men spent some time in idyllic rural settings, although those days ended for both in tragedy. Yet, before either author was born, the Victorians had effected radical transformation in the food supply: local fare had been supplemented, and even supplanted, by imported foods; homemade goods had largely been abandoned in favor of time-saving, cheap processed foods. By the time Tolkien and Lewis were creating meals in their secondary worlds, "good plain food" had been disappearing from English culture for over a hundred years. Like the homely fare of Narnia and Middle earth, similar food is depicted in fantasy classics from 'The Golden Age' of British children's literature by authors Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) and A.A. Milne (1882-1956). Like Tolkien and Lewis, these Golden Age authors spent some of their childhoods in rural idylls; they also experienced the tragic loss of those innocent childhood days. The use of nostalgically simple and natural food by all five authors fulfils a similar longing, not necessarily for their actual childhoods, but for an imagined time and space, an Edenic England as it might have been.
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Cover
Cover picture by Łukasz Neubauer,
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Announcements
Announcing forthcoming publication: The Songs of the Spheres: Lewis, Tolkien and the Overlapping Realms of their Imagination (29th March 2024)
Call for papers — Lewis & Tolkien
(9th July 2019)
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359 pages, Walking Tree Publishers 2024, Cormarë Series No. 48, Editors: Łukasz Neubauer and Gugliemo Spirito
, ISBN: 978-3-905703-48-1.
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