Summer Challenge 2016 Sharing Thread

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Re: Summer Challenge 2016 Sharing Thread

Post by Ajnos » Tue Aug 09, 2016 2:44 pm

Chapter 11.1: Aslan Leads
"Hi! Lucy! Look out, for goodness' sake. You're right on the edge of the gorge. Come back - " and then, a moment later, Edmunds voice saying "No, she's right. There is a way down."

The passage where Aslan leads the Children along the side of the gorge and finally to Aslan's How is beautiful. It's a lovely symbol of how God will lead us by the best path, even though to us it might seem treacherous. He knows the paths so much better than we do and it was only when the children trusted Aslan that they could find a way through.

This is summed up in Peter's confession: "I've been leading them wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning." I love that Aslan doesn't chastise him. He accepts Peter's confession with the loving words "My dear son."

I don't know how many of you have read Lewis' A Pilgrim's Regress. It's a rather difficult book because unlike The Chronicles it really is an allegory and the symbolism is difficult. (Lewis confesses in the preface to the version I have that he hadn't realised not everyone had the same journey to Christianity as him and he assumed that people would understand his symbolism more easily). Anyway, in the story, the protagonist, John, comes to a huge canyon which he cannot cross and much of the book is about him trying different ways to get across it and failing till he eventually realises that he cannot do it on his own. The first time I read it, I remember thinking how it was a bit like this part of Prince Caspian. Pilgrim's Regress was published in 1933, long before PC, but I think perhaps Lewis was trying to reuse the same allegory in a simpler form here.

Chapter 11.2: Bacchus
I've shared some of this before (we had a thread on the old forum about it) but some of you won't have seen that discussion so I thought I'd share it again. I always found the passage with Bacchus really odd. When I was doing my undergrad in classics, we did a section on Dionysus (the more common Greek name for the same god - we even studied a Greek play called The Bacchae) and I was even more confused. Bacchus was the god of wine and revelry and, from a Christian perspective, represents some of the greatest debauchery of Greek paganism. I remember learning about Silenus and the Maenads too, which was cool because now I knew who they were. But I did find their whole inclusion really odd. (As an aside, I also remember when I was doing first year Greek and, in our text book, the characters all go to a festival of Dionysus and there's this bit in the passage where the revellers shout: "eleleu, iou, iou!" which was glossed as "untranslatable ritual chants" and I remember thinking "Ooh! that's where Lewis got that from!" He has a slightly different version, but it's similar enough, that I'm sure they're both associated with the festival chants). What really confused me was what on earth these characters were doing in a Christian book? Then, one day I was reading LWW and saw something I had never noticed before, which suddenly made a bit more sense of the whole thing.

When Lucy realises here who the strange wild people are, she says to Susan, "Don't you remember Mr Tumnus telling us about them long ago?" Obviously, these conversations must have happened after the coronation for Susan to have heard them, but that wasn't the first time Tumnus told Lucy about them. On Lucy's first visit to Narnia, Mr Tumnus tells her about the good old days, before the White Witch, when they would have midnight dances and hunting parties and feasts and treasure hunts. He also tells her "about summer when the woods were green and old Silenus on his fat donkey would come to visit them, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then the streams would run with wine instead of water and the whole forest would give itself up to jollification for weeks on end." He ends his tale with the sad line, "Not that it isn't always winter now."

When I discovered this passage, I suddenly felt like I understood a bit better what was going on in PC. The mention of Bacchus and Silenus in LWW might have just been a throw-away sentence. Fauns are closely associated with Bacchus in Greek mythology, so it makes sense that Mr Tumnus would mention their presence as representing the good old days of Narnia (days that no longer came now that the Witch made it eternal winter). Bacchus and Silenus belonged to a time before the Golden Age and before the White Witch's reign. In a way it symbolised the wild part of Narnia (the animals and mythical creatures) in their element. Lewis, for some reason, decides to harken back to this mention by Tumnus in the next book (remembering PC was published next after LWW). In the same way that the appearance of Father Christmas marked the Witch losing her power in LWW, so Bacchus' return here was a sign to the Old Narnians that things were being made right again. You might ask why Bacchus only returns now, and not during the Golden Age, and I don't really know the answer, but it seems rather fitting to have him appear here where the focus is on liberating the Old Narnians from repressive Telmarine rule.

One of the things Lewis seems to do with the Greek (and other) mythologies in Narnia, is "redeem" them. He was of the opinion that mythologies were based on partial truths that had been distorted. The Christian story was the "true myth". So he takes these pagan characters and creatures and puts them into a Christian setting. Bacchus and the maenads are no longer the decadent characters of Greek myth but something positive. They had been associated with drinking and drunkenness, but here they are associated with fruitfulness and plenty, making vines grow and allowing nature to reclaim what was taken from it. Instead of being associated with violence, they are simply wild (untamed). They are rather startling to Lucy and Susan who come from a world of order and a controlled society, but they are not bad. Also Aslan, is there to keep them safe (which is interesting, since he himself is "not a tame lion" - but in his untameness he is good and the girls know that).

I'd love to know what versions of the myths of Dionysus Lewis was familiar with. Were there stories he read as a child which already partially redeemed or put Bacchus, Silenus and the Maenads into a "safer" setting? How did he encounter them in school (school syllabuses in those days had far more inclusion of Classical literature and languages than they do now)? Or did he simply know about them from the days of his Classics degree? Whether it was from his own background or his own decision, it seems that Lewis' point here is to put mythical and pagan characters into a safer setting, at the same time elaborating on Mr Tumnus' passing comment about them in LWW.

Chapter 12: Nikabrik's Lies

I've noticed before that there are a few passages in The Chronicles where one of the bad characters tries to fool the heroes by cleverly formulated lies. They mix in enough truth to make it seem believable but then twist that truth. Lewis seems to have been strongly aware of how this kind of deception works and portraying examples of it. We see this best in Screwtape Letters where the demons describe how to trick humans. We also see it in the LotGK's speech about there being no such thing as overland or the sun in SC, in the way Shift tricks Puzzle into wearing the Lionskin (and in Shift's speeches on Stable Hill) in TLB and in the lies about Aslan as an evil lion that had developed in Calormen in HHB. Here, Nikabrik twists the truth by trying to make the others doubt what they knew about both the White Witch and Aslan.

That we should no longer be children, tossed about to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting (Eph 4:14)

But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you learned them. (2 Tim 3:13-14)
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Re: Summer Challenge 2016 Sharing Thread

Post by Ariel.of.Narnia » Wed Aug 10, 2016 12:47 am

@Ajjie: Bacchus is making more sense now. Thank you for that. I was kinda concerned about his inclusion in Narnia because, as you said, he's notorious for drunkenness and shameless wickedness outside of Narnia. I had, before now, just assumed that Lewis had cleaned him up as he had with centaurs (all but one in Greek mythology are rather like Bacchus) and used him as a representation of unbridled happiness and freedom. Which, from the way you paint him, he is, I just hadn't thought about the return of the old "wildness" of Narnia.
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Re: Summer Challenge 2016 Sharing Thread

Post by Ajnos » Wed Aug 10, 2016 8:50 pm

Glad it helped. The concept of "wildness" struck me a lot more this time than it has previously. Here are my reflections for Chapters 13 & 14. I wrote them out yesterday but didn't get to posting them because I got distracted writing a certain breaking announcement about the Silver Chair film ;) I still need to do something for Chapter 15, so I'll try get to that during my lunch break tomorrow.

Chapter 13: Treason
Sopespian and Glozelle's plot against Miraz is interesting. They are very clever in the way they use reverse psychology to convince Miraz to accept the challenge. It's curious that they hadn't plotted an overthrow before but perhaps it was only now they were growing weary of him. I think Miraz is a bit stupid (especially for a man who must have been really clever to pull off a successful usurpation) to make Sopespian and Glozelle his marshals (after they'd insulted him the way they did). Perhaps he was so arrogant and self-important that it hadn't occurred to him that they might be plotting against him rather than acting like cowards.

Chapter 14: Aslan Turns Up

"I wish Aslan had turned up before it came to this," said Trumpkin

I embarked on a little thought experiment about what it would have been like if Aslan had appeared before the duel. For one thing, the duel would have been unnecessary. The Telmarines quite possibly would have surrendered then and there and the war been over. At the most, a few more fool-hardy Telmarines might have tried to fight Aslan. They would have failed. Miraz would have been forced to surrender (if Glozelle and Sopespian hadn't found a chance to kill him anyway) and the Telmarines would have been given the same choice they were in the end. (Miraz, had he survived, would probably have been compelled to leave Narnia). So why did Aslan not come sooner? Well, I tried to think about what benefits there were of leaving Caspian and co. to their own devices for a while. If Aslan had come before the duel, Caspian would be made King, but only because Aslan approved of him as the rightful heir. Instead, Caspian was able to show something of his own abilities to lead a battle (even if it was under the ultimate leadership of Peter). The fact that Caspian had "called" Peter and the others by use of the horn (Aslan could have brought them anyway) also added to making it Caspian's decision and a sign of his leadership abilities. I feel that because Aslan waited, Caspian's claim to the throne ended up being more secure. Nikabrik said of Peter and the others, when he was questioning Aslan's resurrection, "A king who has just won a great battle can usually establish himself without the help of a performing lion." This is condescending but there is some wisdom in the comment. It's not that Caspian didn't need Aslan's help (any more than the Pevensies would have succeeded on their own), but by letting them take the lead in part, their followers were more likely to trust and respect their claim to the throne as they had proven themselves capable. The other reason Aslan wasn't there at the duel is that "there was other work for him to do". He was preparing the way for the Telmarine's ultimate defeat by freeing the oppressed Narnians (old and new) and destroying the bridge of Beruna. The Telmarines had hoped it would be their last stand but with the bridge destroyed, they were forced to surrender. He also sent the dryads and company to help in the battle. Sometimes we might think that God isn't helping us in the best way possible, but it might be that he's preparing something else which in the end will be of more benefit to all involved. (These thoughts are related to some thoughts I've had regarding "Aslan's" intervention in my SusanFic. Hopefully one day I'll get around to writing a conversation between Aslan and Susan that I have in my head relating to that).

[edit]

Chapter 15: Give honour where it is due

"Welcome, Prince." said Aslan. "Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?"
"I - I don't think so, Sir," said Caspian, "I'm only a kid."
"Good," said Aslan. "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not."

"Sir," said the Mouse, "I can eat and sleep and die for my king without one. But a tail is the honour and glory of a Mouse."
"I have sometimes wondered, friend," said Aslan, "whether you do not think too much about your honour."
"We are all waiting to cut off our own tails if our Chief must go without his. We will not bear the shame of wearing an honour which is denied to the High Mouse."

"I was wishing that I came of a more honourable lineage," [said Caspian].
"You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve," said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content."


The last quote is probably one of my favourites in all of the Chronicles. I think it's so powerful because although Aslan is speaking to Caspian, the truth applies to every one of us. We are honoured as humans to be the pinnacle of God's creation, the only beings created in God's image, and to have a relationship with him. But we are also a race that is inherently fallen, and by that dishonoured.

Like Reepicheep, one of our various sinful tendencies is to care too much about our own honour and glory. We seek the praise of others and feel deserving of respect (perhaps because we feel worthy, or maybe, like Reepicheep, because we feel we are owed something for the apparent injustices we think have been done to us - like being given an unfairly small stature). But we must remember who we are and where we came from. And we must remember that what honour may be granted to us is by no doing of our own. It is only because of God's grace shown towards us as a result of his love for us shown through the sacrifice of the Son on our behalf. Like Caspian, we need to remember that we are not worthy, but that worth is granted to us when we acknowledge this fact. We are granted worth and honour only through and from God himself.
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