The Inklings

A place for an occasional examination of the work of the Inklings... and to marvel at, in Charles Williams' words, "... the staff work of the Omnipotence".

Childhood's End

Dear Joy, As far as I can remember you were non-committal about Childhood's End *: I suppose you were afraid that you might rai...

The Baby and the Bird

Old Rome had many taverns, Devoted to the vine, Where Ovid pledged each new love ...

The Rabbit Room

Prologue Memorabilia adorns me now. Quiet photographs of the legends I once accommodated. A plaque commemorating their presence. Ho...

9/11

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has a passage which may remind us all of the way recent events have affected the lives of everyone in the ...

Food Parcels and Stationery

Following the Second World War, the peoples of Europe had been left hungry and miserable, with the economies of most European countries i...

Tolkien and languages

I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it), but perhap...

Mere Mortals?

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and thei...

Tash, in 1931?

[Do I detect a whiff of Tash in this passage from Charles Williams?] Her voice failed; she heard herself making grotesque noises in ...

Fingolfin at the Gates of Angband

[Image: Sam King] Fingolfin like a shooting light beneath a cloud, a stab of white, sprang then aside, and Ringil drew...

The original Bag End

This ancient trackway leads to Bag End Farm. The farm was owned by the Tolkien's Aunt, Jane Neave, and in 1923 the young Tolkien, rec...

Wild Beasts

[Another Charles Williams excerpt - for which I certainly do not apologise. I have been re-reading "Place of the Lion" after m...

Another passage that seems, well, Narnian

[Illustration by Pauline Baynes for "The Wood Between the Worlds"] "Now this world in which they exist is truly a re...

Savage Beliefs?

Medieval man shared many ignorances with the savage, and some of his beliefs may suggest savage parallels to an anthropologist. But he ha...

The shapes of the Greater Trumps

Henry took a few steps forward, slowly and softly, almost as if he were afraid that those small images would overhear him, and softly a...

Writing and writers...

I am sure that some are born to write as trees are born to bear leaves: for these, writing is a necessary mode of their own development. ...

What happened to the power of the Rings once the One Ruling Ring was destroyed?

The most widely held position is that with the destruction of the One Ring all the remaining rings also lost their power (including the ...

A Carol of Amen House

Over this grave* a star Shines in the heavens high, Beauty remote and afar, Beauty that shall not die; Beauty desired and dreamed, ...

The Novels of Charles Williams

The Novels of Charles Williams (Thomas Howard, Ignatius Press, 1983) Originally published by Oxford University Press What B...

The Elves of Nargothrond

The Hills of the Hunters Beren saw with bare tops bitten bleak and raw by western winds; but in the mist of streaming rain...

Tolkien on the death of Lewis

I am sorry that I have not answered your letters sooner; but Jack Lewis's death on the 22nd has preoccupied me. It is also involving...

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