Down a Rabbit Hole: Inklings and Mythology

 

Wow, the first month of my 2022 reading year started off with a BANG!  I read seven books in January and half a dozen are nicely connected.  The connection started as a bit of an accident but became intentional around mid-month.

  In the last few years my affinity for J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis has grown immensely since I started to find out more about their lives through some fantastic reads.  I loved The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as the LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit as a kid and teenager, but I really knew nothing about the authors or their friendship until I was an adult.

 The last few years have seen a wealth of material about these fascinating men. The non-fiction text A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and the Great War released in 2017,  Tolkien, the movie, came out in 2019 and Patti Callahan released Becoming Mrs. Lewis in 2020.  I enjoyed all of these immensely and quickly became infatuated by the life stories of these two literary giants, their friendship while at Oxford, and their club The Inklings.  

 Naturally, I put Patti Callahan's new release Once Upon a Wardrobe on my Christmas and I was so excited to start it right after receiving it. I really loved this because it made me really happy. Getting a glimpse into the home life of Jack and his brother Wernie at The Kilns in Oxford was enchanting.  Plus, the story of Meg and her family was very touching.  It also had a very satisfying ending, although bittersweet.

 

 I was eager to read Sean The Hobbit as our homeschool monthly read aloud, especially since I got this beautiful illustrated edition!  Both of them were so good - I had forgotten this about The Hobbit.  I remembered it being so difficult to read aloud to my older boys (goodness, Tolkien is certainly found of the subordinate clause). However, I had forgotten just how action packed it was! We had a rollicking good time with it.  Reading the picture book, John Ronald's Dragons at the end was super fun, too!

I didn't think too much about the Oxford/Inklings connection at the time, but then I started reading The Silence of the Girls.  Song of Achilles was one of my favorite reads of 2021 and I wanted to see the Trojan War from the point of view of his slave, Briseis.  Briseis was a Trojan princess before her city was sacked and she was awarded as a prize to Achilles, but in the Iliad she is barely noted.  It was illuminating to read this after hearing Achille's viewpoint.  Like revisiting well known friends but just seeing another side of them. To be honest, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Song of Achilles, but it was still worth reading.

By this point I was well down the rabbit hole, and decided to pick up C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, his final and, some consider it to be, his finest work. This is a retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid through the lens of her older sister.  Out of all my January reads, this was the densest and most thought provoking.  It was a slow start, but by a hundred pages in I couldn't get enough.

I put The Penelopiad on hold at the library some time ago, and when I got the notice it was ready last week I couldn't get over to pick it up fast enough! We're back to the Trojan War, but this time we hear from Penelope, faithful and clever wife of Odysseus.  I read this in a day and was utterly riveted.  Most chapters open with a traditional Greek Chorus, and this one is sung by the twelve maidens.  These are the young women that Odysseus had his son kill at his homecoming for the crime of sleeping with his enemies - the unwanted suitors of his wife.  Their rhymes are so perfect, I had to write down several as I read.  

 

I had to also include The Gown.  I read it earlier in the month but oddly enough, there is a thread connecting it to my loose theme.  It is set in London after World War II, just like Once Upon a Wardrobe, and they both had mention of scarcity or rationing as well as losses from the lives lost during the War.  I was surprised how much I loved this one, but after all, it is not just a book about Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown.  The real story is about the friendship formed by two women embroiderers who were able to help each other heal from the awful losses they endured during the War. I know it's early, but I think it's going to be one of my top reads for the year.

I hope you have also experienced a pleasurable start to the new year!  Let me know if you've read anything wonderful!