Addison's Walk, 19/20th September 1931

Just before 3am on the Sunday morning of the 20th September, Tolkien, Lewis and another Inkling, Hugo Dyson, took a stroll along the Cherwell in the grounds of Magdalen College. All the previous evening the men had been discussing their lifelong fascination with myths. It was sad, Lewis declared, to think that classic tales of courage, beauty, sacrifice and virtue are all untrue and ultimately worthless.
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Tolkien stopped his skeptical friend cold by forcefully arguing: No! They are not lies! Myths contain great spiritual truths.
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Lewis recalled later in a letter to a friend that whilst walking we were: "... interrupted by a rush of wind which came so suddenly on the still, warm evening and sent so many leaves pattering down that we thought it was raining. We held our breath..."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A few weeks ago, I walked Addison's Walk at Magdalen.

Some one tell me that they trimmed that snag of a tree (near the entrance gate) to look like Treebeard on purpose. Whoever did it was a fan of Tolkien/LOTR.

An appropriate setting for a unique tree trimming job well done. A salute and many thanks to you, Mr. Tolkien, Mr. Lewis, and Mr. Dyson.

I doubt the world will ever see your equals...