1 00:00:02,930 --> 00:00:08,380 Welcome to this podcast about C.S. Lewis and the Wind in the Willows. 2 00:00:08,380 --> 00:00:15,280 My name's Simon Horrigan, and I'm a tutor in English Maudlin College in Oxford. 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:21,460 I want to begin this talk with the famous opening scene of the Wind in the Willows, 4 00:00:21,460 --> 00:00:29,710 in which the Moors suddenly abandons the cosiness of his underground home to embark on a series of adventures. 5 00:00:29,710 --> 00:00:37,990 As it's a useful way into understanding the importance of the book both for C.S. Lewis but also for J.R.R. Tolkien, 6 00:00:37,990 --> 00:00:46,980 since it may have inspired the opening of The Hobbit, in which Bilbo leaves his snug hobbit hole to go on an unexpected journey. 7 00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:51,510 For Lewis, this opening with spring moving in the air, 8 00:00:51,510 --> 00:01:01,720 creating in the mould a spirit of divine discontent and longing comes close to capturing the emotion that he referred to as joy. 9 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:12,240 The search for which was central to his spiritual journey, as described in his biographical study, surprised by joy. 10 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:17,790 While most longing speaks to the spiritual side of Lewis's personality. 11 00:01:17,790 --> 00:01:24,350 There are other aspects of Lewis's character in the books. Three central figures. 12 00:01:24,350 --> 00:01:34,600 Brat is an aspiring poet. When Mo finds him brooding miserably, he tactfully slips in a pencil and a few sheets of paper. 13 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:45,790 It's quite a long time since you did any poetry, he remarked. You might have a out at this evening instead of, well, brooding over things so much. 14 00:01:45,790 --> 00:01:53,380 I have an idea. You feel a lot better when you've got something jotted down. If it's only just the rhymes. 15 00:01:53,380 --> 00:02:03,790 Lewis, of course, began his writing career as a poet and saw writing as a highly effective way of dealing with life's problems. 16 00:02:03,790 --> 00:02:15,430 He wrote, Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago. 17 00:02:15,430 --> 00:02:21,310 Mr. Toad reflects the gregarious and hospitable side of Lewis's personality. 18 00:02:21,310 --> 00:02:31,220 His love of dining, drinking and talking. But alongside this sociability amongst members of his tightly knit circle, 19 00:02:31,220 --> 00:02:39,900 Lewis shared Mr Badger's dislike of society and exchanging small talk at large formal gatherings. 20 00:02:39,900 --> 00:02:49,600 As a teenager, he revelled in the lack of company and the few social demands placed upon him as a student at the Kirkpatrick household. 21 00:02:49,600 --> 00:03:02,090 Writing to his friend, Arthur Greaves in 1914, he notes that the people whose society I prefer to my own are very few and far between. 22 00:03:02,090 --> 00:03:07,730 This rat says in answer to his suggestion of inviting Badgett to supper. 23 00:03:07,730 --> 00:03:15,810 He wouldn't come Badger hates society and invitations and dinner and all that sort of thing. 24 00:03:15,810 --> 00:03:24,380 Lewis noted the same reluctance to be sociable and his older brother warning, even likening him to Mr. Badger in this way. 25 00:03:24,380 --> 00:03:29,300 It would be perfectly splendid if you could sometimes get Big Brother to lunch with you in midweek. 26 00:03:29,300 --> 00:03:33,230 He writes, it would do him a world of good and give him a lot of pleasure. 27 00:03:33,230 --> 00:03:43,000 If here's the snag. If you can only get him to do it, he's as evasive as Mr. Badger. 28 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:49,940 We even find Louis ventriloquism, Mr Bashir, and the reasons he offers in favour of subterranean living. 29 00:03:49,940 --> 00:03:59,540 No builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows looking over your wall and above all, know whether. 30 00:03:59,540 --> 00:04:04,190 Writing to his brother, Warnie, who was at that time serving overseas. 31 00:04:04,190 --> 00:04:12,610 Lewis touches on the subject of the climate. I suppose I'm not allowed to write you about the weather in England beyond saying that I 32 00:04:12,610 --> 00:04:21,840 endorsed Mr. Badger's view and are more thoroughly sick of all weather and all news every day. 33 00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:29,880 It was not so much the different facets reflected by the individual characters in the wind in the Willows that influenced Lewis, 34 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:40,020 but rather the way the book offers us a vision of a union between these four very different and most unlikely of friends. 35 00:04:40,020 --> 00:04:45,690 In a lecture given in 1945 to a group of Christians wanting to build bridges 36 00:04:45,690 --> 00:04:51,540 between eastern and western branches of the church published as membership, 37 00:04:51,540 --> 00:05:03,830 Lewis used the trio of rat, mole and Badger as symbols of the ability of extremely different persons to live in harmonious union. 38 00:05:03,830 --> 00:05:13,210 In the four loves, Louis drew upon the bond between all four animals as evidence of the first love affection. 39 00:05:13,210 --> 00:05:17,680 Which he categorises as the least discriminating of laughs, 40 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:27,610 suggesting that where there are some people who are incapable of love or friendship, all can become an object of affection. 41 00:05:27,610 --> 00:05:32,580 The ugly, the stupid, even the exasperating. 42 00:05:32,580 --> 00:05:44,820 He emphasises that those bound by affection often have remarkably little in common since it can cross barriers of age, sex, class and education. 43 00:05:44,820 --> 00:05:57,700 The bond between Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad suggests the amazing heterogeneity possible between those who are bound by affection. 44 00:05:57,700 --> 00:06:01,450 Despite having been a voracious reader as a child, 45 00:06:01,450 --> 00:06:10,190 Lewis did not read The Wind in the Willows when it first appeared in 19 08, when he would have been nine years old. 46 00:06:10,190 --> 00:06:18,470 This is all the more surprising when we recall his fondness at that age for the Beatrix Potter stories of Peter Rabbit and friends. 47 00:06:18,470 --> 00:06:29,240 And that he was at that time compiling his history of boxing, a world populated by dressed animals of the kind that appear in Wind in the Willows. 48 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:39,040 Lewis first read Graham's story in his 20s. Although he claims that his enjoyment of it was no less because he was older. 49 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:47,330 He continued to go back to the story throughout his life. Particularly when he was laid up in bed with an illness. 50 00:06:47,330 --> 00:06:55,200 Minor illnesses were a source of some delight to Lewis since they allowed him to sit in bed all day reading. 51 00:06:55,200 --> 00:07:04,420 Responding to Ruth Pitre, who had written to tell Louis that she always read his books when laid up with the flu, the West wrote. 52 00:07:04,420 --> 00:07:09,250 I'm greatly flattered to be read in flu since for my own flu. 53 00:07:09,250 --> 00:07:18,880 I always go back to the wind in the Willows while the temperature is really high and progressed to Scott or William Morris laced with trollop, 54 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:22,920 as I get saying. 55 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:33,990 Having encountered the book at this later stage in his life, Lewis was influenced by it both as a critic and as a writer of children's stories. 56 00:07:33,990 --> 00:07:43,890 In his essay on Stories, Lewis argues that where most people have claimed that the key attraction in a story is excitement. 57 00:07:43,890 --> 00:07:52,480 His interest is in the atmosphere. What Michael Ward has helpfully christened the quality of Donegal, Italy. 58 00:07:52,480 --> 00:08:00,610 To the extent that Lewis claims to be more familiar with fictional locations than the real places in which he lived. 59 00:08:00,610 --> 00:08:03,370 As a social historian, he writes, 60 00:08:03,370 --> 00:08:16,270 I'm sounder on Toad Hall and the wild wood or the cave dwelling selenite or Rothko's court or water guns than on London, Oxford and Belfast. 61 00:08:16,270 --> 00:08:24,560 And here he brings together two of the principal locations of Wind in the Willows Toad Hall in the Wildwood, alongside those of H.G. Wells. 62 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:36,180 This sci fi story, The First Men in the Moon and the Courts of the Legendary Kings of Arthurian Romance and the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. 63 00:08:36,180 --> 00:08:42,030 Particularly interesting for understanding the animals that populate his own books are Lewis's comments 64 00:08:42,030 --> 00:08:50,500 on grains decision to cast his characters in animal form and the specific animals that he chose. 65 00:08:50,500 --> 00:08:59,560 But this suggests that selection of a toad was driven by the specific resemblances of the toads face to that of some humans. 66 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:05,260 A rather apoplectic face with a fatuous grin on it. 67 00:09:05,260 --> 00:09:10,120 Although what appears to be a permanent grin on the toads face is nothing of the kind, 68 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:19,780 its resemblance to the fixed grin of a particular kind of vain and self-satisfied individual neatly encapsulates Mr. Toad's arrogant and 69 00:09:19,780 --> 00:09:30,730 conceited personality in a light hearted and comic form that allows his friends and readers to treat him with patience and forgiveness. 70 00:09:30,730 --> 00:09:42,370 Similar ideas are expressed in a somewhat more defensive tone in a poem published in 1953 under the title in Penitence. 71 00:09:42,370 --> 00:09:51,010 The poem begins with Lewis defending his passion for the man like Beasts of the Earth, three stories Badger or Mowgli. 72 00:09:51,010 --> 00:09:57,100 While he is not so crazed as to think that these are realistic depictions of the animals 73 00:09:57,100 --> 00:10:02,230 there is draws attention to the elements of certain animals appearance or behaviour. 74 00:10:02,230 --> 00:10:09,250 The cool premise of cat and mouse is twinkling adroitness calls out to be used as a symbol. 75 00:10:09,250 --> 00:10:16,420 Masks for man. Cartoons. Parodies by nature formed to reveal us. 76 00:10:16,420 --> 00:10:22,240 Dismissing those fusty killjoys who critique such uses loose ends with the exclamation, 77 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:29,230 here's a health to Toad Hall, here's to the beaver doing sums with the butcher. 78 00:10:29,230 --> 00:10:34,830 Like many of Lewis's poems, it was first published in Punch magazine. 79 00:10:34,830 --> 00:10:46,770 And in the original publication, it is accompanied by illustrations of the animals being referred to by the punch illustrator E.H. Shepard, 80 00:10:46,770 --> 00:10:52,110 who was also responsible for illustrating the Wind in the Willows in 1931. 81 00:10:52,110 --> 00:10:58,170 Although best known, of course, for his illustrations of the Winnie the Pooh books. 82 00:10:58,170 --> 00:11:05,280 Lewis notes that the animal disguises in wind in the Willows do not go very deep since Mr. Toad is described as 83 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:13,810 combing the dry leaves out of his hair and lives in a manor house with all the comforts of a country squire. 84 00:11:13,810 --> 00:11:19,650 This fact prompts him to raise the question of realism in relation to the animals lifestyles. 85 00:11:19,650 --> 00:11:27,390 And Mr. Batter's Kitchen paper plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, but who kept them clean? 86 00:11:27,390 --> 00:11:32,240 Where were they bored? How were they delivered to the Wildwood? 87 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:38,600 Similarly, most snug underground home has tables marked with rings that hinted at beer mugs. 88 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:48,390 But where did he get his beer? These observations are interesting because they shed light on the use of animals in the Narnia stories. 89 00:11:48,390 --> 00:11:54,960 Here we meet Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, whose home is furnished in a way that raises similar questions. 90 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:59,680 Where did they get their kettle frying pan and barrel of beer? 91 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:05,920 Questions of provenance are most striking in relation to the food that Mrs. Beaver cooks for the children. 92 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:12,540 Since there it has been winter for 100 years. We might ask where she got her potatoes. 93 00:12:12,540 --> 00:12:17,490 And what about the marmalade? Did she buy it? If so, where and if it's homemade? 94 00:12:17,490 --> 00:12:26,910 Where did she get the oranges? The trout is, of course, explained since Mr. Beaver catches it with pizza, although he carries it home in a pail, 95 00:12:26,910 --> 00:12:33,090 showing a similar blend of the animal and the human found in wind in the Willows. 96 00:12:33,090 --> 00:12:40,440 When water comes across Noel having a lavish picnic, he looks jealously at the contents of their hamper. 97 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,170 Greedy beggars? He says. Why didn't you ask me? 98 00:12:45,170 --> 00:12:54,530 Moments later, Otto spots an errant may fly on the surface of the water with a sudden splash is seen no more. 99 00:12:54,530 --> 00:13:02,970 So while Otto was clearly partial to a ham sandwich, he could also make do with a mayfly. 100 00:13:02,970 --> 00:13:06,450 A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh Stories, 101 00:13:06,450 --> 00:13:16,230 summarised this slipperiness regarding Graham's depiction of the animals in the introduction to his stage play adaptation of the book Toad of Toad, 102 00:13:16,230 --> 00:13:30,790 who he wrote. In reading the book, it is necessary to think of Mo, for instance, sometimes as an actual mo, sometimes as such a mole in human clothes, 103 00:13:30,790 --> 00:13:38,800 sometimes as a mole grown to human size, sometimes as walking on two legs and sometimes on four. 104 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,800 He is a mole. He isn't a mole. What is it? 105 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:53,760 I don't know. And not being a matter of fact person, I don't mind, at least I do know and still I don't mind. 106 00:13:53,760 --> 00:14:01,120 For Milne, and this uncertainty is part of the book's charm and not something to be criticised. 107 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:12,220 Indeed, he saw the book as beyond criticism. Instead, the book is a test of the reader's character, not the other way round. 108 00:14:12,220 --> 00:14:14,220 As he goes on to say. 109 00:14:14,220 --> 00:14:25,200 When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgement on my taste or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. 110 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:37,870 You are merely sitting in judgement on yourself. You may be worthy, I don't know, but it is you who are on trial. 111 00:14:37,870 --> 00:14:42,490 The focus on the home in Wind in the Willows is a place of comfort, 112 00:14:42,490 --> 00:14:54,430 and security is especially apparent in Mr Badghis series of underground chambers in which mole and rats seek sanctuary from the snow-covered Wildwood, 113 00:14:54,430 --> 00:15:03,120 where they find themselves lost in the dark. Lewis made particular reference to this in Spencer's images of life. 114 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:08,010 Similarly, we can say that we go back to the wind in the Willows for a sense of the sinister mounting and 115 00:15:08,010 --> 00:15:16,390 friendliness of the wild wood and of its sheer contrast with the holiness of Badgers house. 116 00:15:16,390 --> 00:15:26,630 Lewis creates a similar contrast in our first glimpse of Narnia, where Lucy emerges from the wardrobe into the midst of a snowy wood. 117 00:15:26,630 --> 00:15:35,000 Just as the fur coats give way to fur trees. So is the wood of the wardrobe exchanged for the wood of Narnia? 118 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:41,090 There are, of course, many menacing words in literature that could have fed into Lewis's portrayal. 119 00:15:41,090 --> 00:15:46,730 But of particular importance is the wild wood of wind in the willows. 120 00:15:46,730 --> 00:15:57,960 In which Mo's initial excitement at entering a world that has been explicitly forbidden him by the water that quickly turns to fear and panic. 121 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:06,660 As the dusk advances and the light starts to fade, more will begin seeing faces everywhere he looks. 122 00:16:06,660 --> 00:16:15,930 But when he turns to confront the evil looking faces and hard eyes that peer at him as he passes, they quickly disappear. 123 00:16:15,930 --> 00:16:20,370 Quite suddenly, he feels as if every hole he encounters possesses a face, 124 00:16:20,370 --> 00:16:28,460 all fixing on him glances of malice and hatred, all heart eyed and evil and sharp. 125 00:16:28,460 --> 00:16:33,860 Mole and rat escaped the perils of the Wild West by stumbling upon the home of Mr. Badger, 126 00:16:33,860 --> 00:16:40,590 which offers an oasis of security and comfort from the dangerous outside world. 127 00:16:40,590 --> 00:16:46,880 Badgers Underground Cave has a floor of well-worn red brick with a log fire. 128 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:54,270 Seating consisted of a couple of high banked settles facing each other on either side of the fire. 129 00:16:54,270 --> 00:17:00,010 Offering sitting accommodations for the socially disposed. 130 00:17:00,010 --> 00:17:08,190 Lewis explicitly draws upon this scene when describing Thomas's House in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 131 00:17:08,190 --> 00:17:21,750 Here, Lucy finds refuge from another dangerous snowy wood, where one must be wary even if the trees, which might be spies for the White Witch. 132 00:17:21,750 --> 00:17:32,610 And to try clean cave of Reddish Stone with a carpet on the floor and two little chairs, one for me and one for a friend. 133 00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:42,540 The centrepiece of both rooms is a table with a dresser. Banjo welcomes rap more with the promise of a first rate, fire and supper and everything. 134 00:17:42,540 --> 00:17:49,580 Thomas similarly offers Lucy a roaring fire and toast and sardines and cake. 135 00:17:49,580 --> 00:17:55,010 One detail not paralleled in Thomas's cave is the hands bundles of dried herbs, 136 00:17:55,010 --> 00:18:00,710 nets of onions and baskets of eggs that hanging from the ceiling of badgers dwelling. 137 00:18:00,710 --> 00:18:09,820 In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, these turn up in the beaver's home, where there are hams and strings of onions hanging from the roof. 138 00:18:09,820 --> 00:18:14,500 The beaver's house differs from Thomas's cave and that there were no books or pictures, 139 00:18:14,500 --> 00:18:21,300 and instead of bunk beds, they were bunks like on board ship built into the wall. 140 00:18:21,300 --> 00:18:29,520 For the detail of the bunks built into the wall, we can compare Mulholland as described by the enthusiastic rant. 141 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:35,310 What a capital, little house this is. He called out cheerily, so compact, so well-planned. 142 00:18:35,310 --> 00:18:40,440 Everything here and everything in its place. We'll make a jolly night of it. 143 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:45,540 The first thing we want is a good fight. I'll see to that. I always know where to find things. 144 00:18:45,540 --> 00:18:49,710 So this is the parlour splendid. Your own idea. 145 00:18:49,710 --> 00:18:58,760 Those little sleeping bunks in the war capital. Despite Wind in the Willows being published in 19 08, 146 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:05,770 it looks back to a pastoral it'll that Graham felt was being destroyed by the advent of the motorcar. 147 00:19:05,770 --> 00:19:12,950 Whose dangers are highlighted by toads terrorising of the countryside and various roadside smashes. 148 00:19:12,950 --> 00:19:23,210 In Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this drive to modernisation and industrialisation at the expense of the countryside is symbolised by Edmund, 149 00:19:23,210 --> 00:19:25,610 who, having been corrupted by the white witch. 150 00:19:25,610 --> 00:19:33,710 His promise of his regal status makes plans for his reign that involves the construction of decent roads, 151 00:19:33,710 --> 00:19:40,920 assembling a fleet of private motor cars and installing a railway system. 152 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:45,510 Kenneth Graham's concerns for the way that they tripping city dwellers were disrupting 153 00:19:45,510 --> 00:19:51,420 the solitude and peace of the countryside are captured in his essay The Rural Pan, 154 00:19:51,420 --> 00:20:03,190 published in Pagan Papers in 1894. As the iron horse bringing with it, commercialism stunts, the hills with stucco and rocks, 155 00:20:03,190 --> 00:20:09,460 the streams with the gutter grain fears for the future of the rural pan. 156 00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:21,010 Where will this kindly got this? Well, wish it had man turn when the every last common spinney and sheep down has been invaded. 157 00:20:21,010 --> 00:20:25,990 Lewis's poem Pens Purge, published in 1947, 158 00:20:25,990 --> 00:20:37,010 takes up a similar theme recounting a dream in which Pine is crushed by man's determination to cover the Earth with bungalows in funfairs. 159 00:20:37,010 --> 00:20:49,100 But in Lewis's vision, Penn has his revenge since reports of his demise turned out to be baseless rumour that God returns to destroy mankind and 160 00:20:49,100 --> 00:21:00,500 restore the Earth to a pre-industrial age in which flowered turf swallows up towered cities and where untainted rivers run. 161 00:21:00,500 --> 00:21:07,790 Graham returned to the image of Penn as a benevolent helper and wind in the Willows in the chapter. 162 00:21:07,790 --> 00:21:11,300 The piper at the gates of Dawn. 163 00:21:11,300 --> 00:21:21,140 In this chapter, Rats and Mole set out late at night in search of portly, the son of their friend, the otter, who has gone missing. 164 00:21:21,140 --> 00:21:26,660 Drawn down a backwater to a secluded island by the sound of haunting music, 165 00:21:26,660 --> 00:21:37,320 the pair find portly slumbering contentedly under the beneficent eye of Pan, whose sweet piping had led them to this secluded spot. 166 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:44,620 Coming into the presence of the guard has a powerful physical and emotional effect on the two animals. 167 00:21:44,620 --> 00:21:55,210 Then suddenly, the mole fell to great all fall upon him, and all that turned his muscles to water out his head and rooted his feet to the ground. 168 00:21:55,210 --> 00:22:02,110 It was no panic terror. Indeed, he felt wonderfully in peace and happy. 169 00:22:02,110 --> 00:22:12,540 But it wasn't all that smoked and held him, and without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some August presence was very, very near. 170 00:22:12,540 --> 00:22:23,700 With difficulty, he turned to look for his friend and saw him and his side count stricken and trembling violently. 171 00:22:23,700 --> 00:22:29,280 This passage was a personal favourite of Graham's, although it baffled many of his critics, 172 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:34,090 including Tolkien, who thought it quite out of place in a children's story. 173 00:22:34,090 --> 00:22:43,450 Lewis, by contrast, found it deeply moving and cited it in the problem of pain for the way that it evokes the quality of the numinous, 174 00:22:43,450 --> 00:22:51,560 a spiritual experience that excites a kind of war that is similar to but distinct from fear. 175 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:57,800 This episode also supplied Lewis with a highly charged and emotional language for describing the 176 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:05,000 visceral reaction that the heavens 7z children experience on first hearing Aslan's name in The Lion, 177 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,970 the Witch and the Wardrobe. 178 00:23:07,970 --> 00:23:18,110 While both rap mogul struck with or by the presence of the deity, they experience very different reactions instead of experience, 179 00:23:18,110 --> 00:23:28,580 panic and deliberate play on the word pan from which panic derives, mould finds inner peace and contentment. 180 00:23:28,580 --> 00:23:36,520 Right, by contrast, experience is an overwhelming sense of terror and dread, leaving him shaking with fear. 181 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:42,520 We see a similar range of responses in the children to the name of Aslan. 182 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:53,380 The first mention of Aslan's name is in a hushed whisper in which Mr. Beaver tells the children that they say Aslan is on the move, 183 00:23:53,380 --> 00:24:04,040 perhaps has already landed. Although the children know nothing of this figure, no more than the reader who has heard the name for the first time, 184 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:11,240 hear the words evoke a series of different yet highly charged responses. 185 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,200 Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. 186 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:25,190 Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous, Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. 187 00:24:25,190 --> 00:24:34,760 And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realise that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer. 188 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:43,790 Graham's plan is both majestic and kindly, the rippling arm muscles and the broad chest are intimidating. 189 00:24:43,790 --> 00:24:52,910 But the half smile on the bearded mouth and the gentle protection offered to the baby otter testified to his kindly nature. 190 00:24:52,910 --> 00:25:02,970 Lewis also drew on this evocation of a gold, both frightening yet trustworthy in his characterisation of Aslan. 191 00:25:02,970 --> 00:25:12,150 When they discover that Aslan is a lion and not a human. Susan admits that the idea of meeting a lion scares her. 192 00:25:12,150 --> 00:25:17,160 Mrs. Beaver reassures her that this reaction is entirely appropriate. 193 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:25,780 If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly. 194 00:25:25,780 --> 00:25:34,300 Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. Safe, said, Mr. Beaver, did you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? 195 00:25:34,300 --> 00:25:39,490 Who said anything about safe? Corsi isn't safe, but he's good. 196 00:25:39,490 --> 00:25:49,040 He's the king. I tell you. This exchange echoes a similar one between rat and more about their response to their 197 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:56,070 close encounter with Pan and the mixture of fear and love that the guard evokes in them. 198 00:25:56,070 --> 00:26:00,350 Right. More from breath to whisper shaking. 199 00:26:00,350 --> 00:26:05,080 Are you afraid? Afraid, murmured the rant. 200 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:11,080 His eyes shining with an unalterable love. Afraid of him? 201 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:20,340 Oh, never, never. And yet and yet almost, I am afraid. 202 00:26:20,340 --> 00:26:27,120 It's apparent from these close similarities that Lewis had the Wind in the Willows episode in his mind when writing this passage in Lion, 203 00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:32,930 the Witch and the Wardrobe. But there's a clear and important difference between the two, 204 00:26:32,930 --> 00:26:39,490 which I suggest lies at the heart of Lewis's use of this passage in mind the witch and the Wardrobe. 205 00:26:39,490 --> 00:26:46,870 And Wind in the Willows, the guard whose presence inspires the two animals to bow their heads in worship is a pagan god. 206 00:26:46,870 --> 00:26:53,630 And in Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan represents the Christian deity. 207 00:26:53,630 --> 00:26:59,620 But of course, Putin is not entirely replaced in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 208 00:26:59,620 --> 00:27:09,840 He appears as Thomas the phone. Subject to the authority of Aslan, just as all the other inhabitants of Narnia. 209 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:19,970 In his characterisation of Thomas Lewis draws upon conflicting literary traditions in order to evoke an uncertainty over his trustworthiness. 210 00:27:19,970 --> 00:27:25,690 You can't always believe what phones say, as Edmund notes. 211 00:27:25,690 --> 00:27:31,000 On the surface, Thomas appears to be the kindly helper of Graham's pen, 212 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:36,960 whose beautiful piping needs more than wrap to the young daughter they are seeking. 213 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:48,100 But Thomas is piping is a means of bewitching the helpless and trusting the U.S. to buy him time to report her to the White Witch. 214 00:27:48,100 --> 00:27:51,550 In his role as self-confessed kidnapper, 215 00:27:51,550 --> 00:28:02,190 Thomas is located within a more sinister literary tradition in which Penn figures as a tempter and abductor of children. 216 00:28:02,190 --> 00:28:07,890 Louis is often criticised for the way he brought together elements drawn from various different 217 00:28:07,890 --> 00:28:14,370 mythologies and literary traditions in The Chronicles of Narnia and to the various inconsistencies. 218 00:28:14,370 --> 00:28:23,940 This these appear to create. But I want to suggest that this was a deliberate policy and one which he inherited from the wind in the Willows, 219 00:28:23,940 --> 00:28:32,430 and which he used to achieve particular effects and to present a vision of the Christian faith which encompasses, 220 00:28:32,430 --> 00:28:39,112 fulfils and transcends pagan myths like that of the Greek God.