Part 5 (1/2)

Since the lecture was first published, many readers of Beowulf have dissented from Tolkien's view of the poem's structure But even one of the severest critics of his interpretation, his old tutor Kenneth Sisam, adance of expression' which distinguish it from so much else in this field

The Beowulf lecture and the paper on the Reeve's Tale were the only ical work published by Tolkien in the nineteen-thirties He planned to do much more: besides his work on the Ancrene Wisse he intended to produce an edition of the Anglo-Saxon poem Exodus, and indeed he nearly completed this task, but it was never finished to his satisfaction He also planned further joint editions with E V Gordon, in particular of Pearl (a natural coies The Wanderer and The Seafarer But Gordon and Tolkien were now geographically far apart In 1931 Gordon, who had been appointed Tolkien's successor as professor at Leeds, moved froh the two men met and corresponded frequently, collaboration proved technically less easy than when they had been in the sareat deal of work on all three projects, using Tolkien as a consultant rather than as a full collaborator, but nothing had reached print by 1938

In the summer of that year, Gordon went into hospital for an operation for gall-stones It seemed to be successful, but his condition suddenly deteriorated, and he died froe of forty-two

Gordon's death robbed Tolkien not only of a close friend but also of the ideal professional collaborator; and by noas clear that he needed a collaborator, if only to make him surrender any material to the printer1 As it happened, he had ist who proved to be a good working partner This was Silish with him for an Oxford BLitt early in the nineteen-thirties Tolkien contributed much to her edition of The Life and Passion of St Juliene, a ious ritten in the Ancrene Wisse dialect Indeed the d'Ardenne Juliene paradoxically containshe ever published under his own nae, and she and Tolkien planned to collaborate on an edition of Katerine, another Western Middle English text of the saroup But the war intervened and made communication between the was achieved by them beyond a couple of short articles on topics concerned with the h Tolkien was able to ith Mile d'Ardenne when he was in Belgiuress in 1951, she realised sadly that collaboration with him was now impossible, for his mind was entirely on his stories

But even if one is to regard his failure to publish ret, one should not fail to take account of his wide influence, for his theories and deductions have been quoted (with or without due acknowledgey is studied

Nor should one forget the translations he ht, and Sir Orfeo The Pearl translation was begun at Leeds in the nineteen-twenties; Tolkien was attracted to the task by the challenge of the poem's complex metrical and verbal structure He had finished it by 1926, but he did nothing about publishi+ng it until Basil Blackwell offered to put it into print in the 1 Tolkien intended to complete the Pearl edition, but he found hi The Lord of the Rings) It was eventually revised and completed for publication by Ida Gordon, theof E V Gordon, and herself a professional philologist nineteen-forties, in return for a sum to be credited to Tolkien's heavily overdue account at Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford The translation was set into type, but Blackaited in vain for Tolkien to write the introduction to the volume, and eventually the project was abandoned The translation of Gawain, probably begun during the nineteen-thirties or forties, was finished in time for it to be broadcast in dra a short introduction and a longer concluding talk Following the success of The Lord of the Rings his publishers Alien & Unwin determined to issue the Gawain and Pearl translations in one volume With this in view, Tolkien ain an introduction was required, and he found it extreht to be explained to the non-scholarly reader for whoain the project lapsed, and it was not until after his death that the two translations were published, together with aof a third poeinally translated for a wartime cadets' course at Oxford The introduction to the volume was assembled by Christopher Tolkien out of suchhis father's papers

These translations were in effect Tolkien's last published philological work, for although they are accompanied by no notes or commentary they are the result of sixty years' minute study of the poems, and ininterpretation of hard and ainals Most i these poelish For this reason they are a fitting conclusion to the work of a uist is to interpret literature, and that the prime function of literature is to be enjoyed

When Tolkien returned to Oxford in 1925 there was an ele fro of the TCBS in the Battle of the Somme, for not since those days had he enjoyed friendshi+p to the saree of emotional and intellectual co of the other surviving TCBS member, Christopher Wiseman, but Wiseman was now heavily involved with his duties as the headmaster of a Methodist public school,1 and when the two men did meet they now found very little in co of the English Faculty at Merton College A the familiar faces a new arrival stood out, a heavily-built y clothes who had recently been elected Fellow and Tutor in English Language and Literature at Magdalen College This was Clive Staples Lewis, known to his friends as Jack'

At first the two men circled warily around one another Tolkien knew that Lewis, though a medievalist, was in the Lit' camp and thus a potential adversary, while Lerote in his diary that Tolkien was a s No harm in him: only needs a smack or so' But soon Lewis ca-faced keen-eyed hter and beer, while Tolkien warenerous spirit that was as huge as Lewis's shapeless flannel trousers By May 1927 Tolkien had enrolled Lewis into the Coal-biters to join in the reading of Icelandic sagas, and a long and coun

Anyone ants to know so of what Tolkien and Lewis contributed to each other's lives should read Lewis's essay on Friendshi+p in his book The Four Loves Here it all is, the account of how Queen's College Taunton, which Tolkien's grandfather John Suffield had attended as one of its earliest pupils The two coht, how their friendshi+p is not jealous but seeks out the company of others, how such friendshi+ps are alreatest pleasure of all is for a group of friends to coolden sessions,' writes Lehen our slippers are on, our feet spread out towards the blaze and our drinks at our elbohen the whole world, and so beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim or responsibility for another, but all are freeo, while at the same time an Affection mellowed by the years enfolds us Life - natural life - has no better gift to give'1 This is what it was about, those years of coathered in Lewis's roohts It was partly the spirit of the tunes - youof the sas of Chesterton; and it was a feeling shared, though with less self-awareness, by many men of the day It has precedents in ancient civilizations, and closer at hand it was in part the result of the First World War, in which so many friends had been killed that the survivors felt the need to stay close together

Friendshi+p of this kind was remarkable, and at the same time entirely natural and inevitable It was not hoestion with deserved ridicule), yet it excluded woreat mystery of Tolkien's life, and we shall understand little of it if we try to analyse it At the same time if we have ever enjoyed a friendshi+p of that sort we shall know exactly what it was about And even if that fails us, we can find sos

How did it begin? Perhaps Northernness' was the shared insight that started it Since early adolescence Lewis had been captivated by Norse hted in the end it was clear that they would have a lot to share They began tofar into the night while they talked of the Gods and giants of Asgard or discussed the politics of the English School They also commented on each other's poetry

Tolkien lent Lewis the typescript of his long poe it Lerote to hies since I have had an evening of such delight: and the personal interest of reading a friend's work had very little to do with it -1 should have enjoyed it just as well if I'd picked it up in a bookshop, by an unknown author' He sent Tolkien detailed criticisly couched in the form of a mock textual criticism, complete with the names of fictitious scholars (Puested that weak lines in Tolkien's poem were simply the result of scribal inaccuracies in the inal poet Tolkien was aested emendations On the other hand he did rewrite ale that Lewis had criticised, rewrote so extensively, in fact, that the revised Gest of Beren and Luthien' was scarcely the same poem

Lewis soon discovered this to be characteristic of his friend He has only two reactions to criticisain fro or else takes no notice at all'

By this ti Tolkien's plans for changes within the English School The two ued and discussed Lerote conspiratorially to Tolkien: Forgive uised orcs behind every tree' Together they waged a skilful can, and it was partly thanks to Lewis's support on the Faculty Board that Tolkien et his reformed syllabus accepted in 1931

In Surprised by Joy Lerote that friendshi+p with Tolkieninto the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at lish Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist Tolkien was both' Soon after the second prejudice had been overcome, the friendshi+p moved into the area of the first Lewis, the son of a Belfast solicitor, had been brought up as an Ulster protestant During adolescence he had professed agnosticisht was to be found not in Christianity but in pagan ies Yet already he had receded a little fro thea First Class in the English School (and earlier a double First in Classics) and whileas a tutor, he had arrived at what he called his New Look', the belief that the Christian myth' conveys as much truth as most men can comprehend By 1926 he had moved further and had come to the conclusion that in effect his search for the source of what he called Joy was a search for God Soon it became apparent to him that he must accept or reject God At this juncture he became friends with Tolkien

In Tolkien he found a person of wit and intellectual verve as nevertheless a devout Christian During the early years of their friendshi+p there were e in one of Lewis's plain ardalen New Buildings while Lewis, his heavy fist grasping the bowl of his pipe and his eyebrows raised behind a cloud of s, suddenly swinging round and exclaiuo!' as the otheran assertion Lewis argued, butto adht By the summer of 1929 he had come to profess theism, a simple faith in God But he was not yet a Christian

Usually his discussions with Tolkien took place on Monday s, when they would talk for an hour or two and then conclude with beer at the Eastgate, a nearby pub But on Saturday 19 Septe Lewis had invited Tolkien to dine at Magdalen, and he had another guest, Hugo Dyson, whoe in 1919 Dyson was now Lecturer in English Literature at Reading University, and he paid frequent visits to Oxford He was a Christian, and a man of feline wit After dinner, Lewis, Tolkien, and Dyson went out for air It was a blustery night, but they strolled along Addison's Walk discussing the purpose of h now a believer in God, could not yet understand the function of Christ in Christianity, could not perceive theof the Crucifixion and Resurrection He declared that he had to understand the purpose of these events - as he later expressed it in a letter to a friend, how the life and death of Soo could help us here and now - except in so far as his exaht wore on, Tolkien and Dyson showed hi a totally unnecessary demand

When he encountered the idea of sacrifice in the ion he ad and reviving deity had always touched his iination since he had read the story of the Norse God Balder But frobeyond theappreciation of sacrifice from the myth to the true story?

But, said Lewis, h silver No, said Tolkien, they are not And, indicating the great trees of Magdalen Grove as their branches bent in the wind, he struck out a different line of argument

You call a tree a tree, he said, and you think nothing ave it that name You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball ofon a mathematical course But that isthe your own terms about them And just as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth

We have come from God (continued Tolkien), and inevitably the h they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fraght, the eternal truth that is with God Indeed only bystories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall Our uided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, whileabyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil

In expounding this belief in the inherent truth of y, Tolkien had laid bare the centre of his philosophy as a writer, the creed that is at the heart of The Silmarillion

Lewis listened as Dyson affirmed in his ohat Tolkien had said You mean, asked Lewis, that the story of Christ is simply a true myth, a myth that works on us in the same way as the others, but a in to understand

At last the wind drove them inside, and they talked in Lewis's rooms until three a hih Street, Lewis and Dyson walked up and down the cloister of New Buildings, still talking, until the sky grew light

Twelve days later Lerote to his friend Arthur Greeves: I have just passed on fro in Christ - in Christianity I will try to explain this another tireat deal to do with it'

Meanwhile Tolkien, invigilating in the Exa what he had said to Lewis He called it Mythopoeia', theof myths And he wrote in his diary: Friendshi+p with Lewis co constant pleasure and coood from the contact with a man at once honest, brave, intellectual - a scholar, a poet, and a philosopher - and a lover, at least after a long pilgrie, of Our Lord'

Lewis and Tolkien continued to see much of each other Tolkien read aloud to Lewis froed hi it Tolkien later said of this: The unpayable debt that I owe to him was not influence as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encourage et the idea that my stuff could be more than a private hobby'

Lewis's conversion to Christianity e in his friendshi+p with Tolkien From the early nineteen-thirties onwards the two men depended less exclusively on each other's company and more on that of otherthe necessary nuests that each friend added to a group brings out some special characteristic in the others Tolkien had experienced this in the TCBS; and the knot of friends which now began to coether was the ultie which Tolkien had felt since those adolescent days This group was known as The Inklings

It began to form itself at about the tune (in the early nineteen-thirties) when the Coalbiters ceased toall the principal Icelandic sagas and finally the Elder Edda The Inklings' was originally the name of a literary society founded in about 1931 by a University College undergraduate naye Lean

Lewis and Tolkien both attended its s, at which unpublished compositions were read and criticised After Lean left Oxford the club lived on; or rather its naly to the circle of friends who gathered at regular intervals around Lewis

The Inklings have now entered literary history, and a good deal has been written about them, much of it over-solemn They were no more (and no less) than a number of friends, all of ere male and Christian, and most of ere interested in literature Numbers of people have been stated to have been members' at this or that period, whereas in truth there was no systeularly at various periods, while others were only occasional visitors Leas the invariable nucleus, without who would have been inconceivable A list of other nas really were; but if names matter, besides Lewis and Tolkien (as al those who attended in the years before and during the ere Major Warren Lewis (C S Lewis's brother, known as Warnie'), R E Havard (an Oxford doctor who attended the Lewis and Tolkien households), Lewis's long-standing friend Owen Barfield (although, being a London solicitor, Barfield rarely cahly casual business One should not iine that the saies if they were to be absent Nevertheless there were certain invariable eleroup, or various enerally on Tuesdays in the Eagle and Child (known fa the hen beer was short and pubs croith servicehts they wouldsome time after nine o'clock Tea would be made and pipes lit, and then Leould boo to read us?' Soin to read it aloud - it ht be a poem, or a story, or a chapter Then would come criticism: sometimes praise, sometimes censure, for it was no , but soon the proceedings would spill over into talk of all kinds, sometimes heated debate, and would terminate at a late hour

By the late nineteen-thirties the Inklings were an i his own contributions to gatherings were readings from the still-unpublished manuscript of The Hobbit When war broke out in 1939 another roup of friends This was Charles Williams, orked for the Oxford University Press at their London office and ith the rest of their staff was now transferred to Oxford Willias - he was a novelist, poet, theologian, and critic - were already known and respected, albeit by a small circle of readers In particular his' spiritual thrillers' (as they have been called), novels which deal with supernatural and , had found a small but enthusiastic public Lewis had known and admired Williams for some time, but Tolkien had only met him once or twice Now he came to develop a complex attitude to hiel, half monkey, Lewis called it), his very un-Oxford-like blue suit, the cigarette dangling from his mouth, and a bundle of proofs wrapped in Tireat natural charm Tolkien recalled twenty years later: We liked one another and enjoyed talking ( to say to one another at deeper (or higher) levels' This was partly because, while Willias that were then being read to the group, Tolkien did not like Williams's books, or those which he had read He declared that he found them wholly alien, and sometimes very distasteful, occasionally ridiculous' And perhaps his reservations about Willias, were not entirely intellectual Lewis believed, and declared in The Four Loves, that true friends cannot be jealous when another co about Lewis, not about Tolkien

Clearly there was a little jealousy or resentment on Tolkien's part, and not without cause, for now the liht of Lewis's enthusiasm shi+fted almost imperceptibly from himself to Williams Leas a very i afterwards, and elsewhere he talked of the dominant influence' that he believed Williams had come to exercise over Lewis, especially over his third novel, That Hideous Strength

So Willia of a third phase in Tolkien's friendshi+p with Lewis, a faint cooling on Tolkien's part which even Lewis probably hardly noticed as yet So evenreputation as a Christian apologist As Tolkien had played such an important part in his friend's return to Christianity he had always regretted that Lewis had not becoun to at tend his local Anglican church, resuious practices of his childhood Tolkien had a deep resentland which he so that his appreciation of their beauty was marred by his sadness that they had been (he considered) perverted frohtful Catholicis the story of his conversion under the title The Pilgriht the title ironical Leould regress,' he said

He would not re-enter Christianity by a new door, but by the old one: at least in the sense that in taking it up again he would also take up again, or reawaken, the prejudices so sedulously planted in childhood and boyhood He would becoain a Northern Ireland protestant'

By the ood deal of publicity (too much,' said Tolkien, for his or any of our tastes') in connection with his Christian writings, The Problem of Pain and The Screwtape Letters Tolkien perhaps felt, as he observed his friend's increasing fame in this respect, rather as if a pupil had speedily overtaken his master to achieve alether flatteringly, as Everyhts were at all in Tolkien's mind in the early nineteen-forties they ell below the surface He still had an almost unbounded affection for Lewis - indeed perhaps still cherished the occasional hope that his friend s continued to provide s,' he wrote in parody of the opening lines of Beowulf, on aerdaguehierdon' Lo! We have heard in old days of the wisdoether in their deliberations, skillfully reciting learning and song-craft, earnestlyThat was true joy!'