1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:10,389 [Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.] Welcome back once again, everyone, for, uh, last but certainly not least of our sessions, 2 00:00:10,390 --> 00:00:14,740 um, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Doctor Katie Harling Lee, 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:20,349 whose career has had a remarkably interesting trajectory, one I'm very fond of hearing about. 4 00:00:20,350 --> 00:00:24,700 Um, she began in my field as an Old Norse scholar. 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,790 So. And is currently a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh, 6 00:00:30,850 --> 00:00:34,600 researching a fascinating project at the School of Divinity on silence. 7 00:00:34,810 --> 00:00:43,510 I'm correct. And she is also speaking today on what I consider one of the most underrated and unspoken of authors when it comes to the fantasy genre. 8 00:00:44,050 --> 00:00:48,280 McDonald. Uh, I love McDonald, and I think more people should speak about him. 9 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:53,919 So thrilled to hear what you got to say. You can thank you very much for the introduction. 10 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:59,920 Um, so good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for still being here today, so late in the day. 11 00:00:59,980 --> 00:01:03,250 Um, so I'm just getting all my time isn't thing set up here. 12 00:01:03,250 --> 00:01:12,550 So, um, essentially today my talk is titled 19th Century Fantasy the influences of Morris and McDonald. 13 00:01:12,910 --> 00:01:15,819 Um, and there is a dual meaning behind this title that I've got here. 14 00:01:15,820 --> 00:01:22,210 So I'm going to refer to some of the earlier texts and cultural traditions which influenced William Morris and George MacDonald. 15 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,360 But I'm also going to be looking forward to the 20th century as well. 16 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:31,360 And fantasy authors who were themselves influenced by these two foundational authors in the world of fantasy fiction. 17 00:01:31,630 --> 00:01:36,070 Hence these kind of two meanings of influence we've got going on here, moving between past and future. 18 00:01:36,580 --> 00:01:43,059 And just in this, um, introduction, it was mentioned my kind of intriguing trajectory here. 19 00:01:43,060 --> 00:01:48,459 So I started off north. I went into contemporary fiction looking at music in contemporary fiction. 20 00:01:48,460 --> 00:01:54,340 Then I've been covering, um, the reason I'm here is I was covering a class on the making of modern fantasy. 21 00:01:54,340 --> 00:01:57,880 So with that, I'm bringing my Old Norse interest to look at Morris. 22 00:01:58,300 --> 00:02:02,260 And then I've recently started a new project at the School of Divinity in Edinburgh. 23 00:02:02,260 --> 00:02:05,649 So which is in religion and literature. And so that kind of bringing up to MacDonalds. 24 00:02:05,650 --> 00:02:12,120 So I hope you enjoy my kind of slightly. Um, lots of little different pieces we're going to look at today. 25 00:02:12,230 --> 00:02:18,410 If you understand the world of 19th century fiction. So, um, here we go. 26 00:02:18,420 --> 00:02:23,190 So first of all, trajectory for today. Um, the idea is this is very much a bridging talk. 27 00:02:23,220 --> 00:02:29,130 I'm trying much more to bring you, um, to finish the day today, as you've been hearing a lot of the history, all these legacies. 28 00:02:29,430 --> 00:02:33,240 And then as we move tomorrow into kind of Lewis and Tolkien and beyond. 29 00:02:33,810 --> 00:02:39,650 Um, so just going to have kind of a whistle stop tour today that we're going to take, but this is where we're going. 30 00:02:39,660 --> 00:02:45,030 So first of all, we'll have just a brief overview of the context of the 19th century. 31 00:02:45,270 --> 00:02:49,950 This is to help place us in a context often dominated by Victorian realist novels. 32 00:02:50,460 --> 00:02:54,300 Um, but it was also a foundational moment for modern fantasy literature. 33 00:02:55,350 --> 00:03:01,230 I will then briefly introduce you to William Morris and George MacDonald, who are the two authors I will focus on today. 34 00:03:01,620 --> 00:03:06,030 Um, though I will be making reference to other well-known fantasy authors as and when relevant, 35 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:12,659 the talk proper will then begin as I focus first on William Morris and his use of Old Norse heroics, 36 00:03:12,660 --> 00:03:17,040 and one of his novels, The Glittering Plane, which was first published in 1891. 37 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:24,420 And as Morris had many interests, I will also cover some of these briefly, just to give you an idea of his very polymath tendencies. 38 00:03:24,930 --> 00:03:32,489 Um, for Morris, we then turn to George MacDonald and he wrote two informative essays on the imagination, 39 00:03:32,490 --> 00:03:37,920 which I'm going to refer to alongside, uh, quite a wild and wacky 1895 novel. 40 00:03:38,190 --> 00:03:46,740 Lilith is my example. I, I'm also going to refer to MacDonald's Christian religious perspective, which is central to his fantasy fiction, 41 00:03:47,100 --> 00:03:52,470 which makes him as a precursor and in fact a key inspiration for C.S. Lewis and his, 42 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:56,340 for example, more religious fantasy series lion, the witch and the wardrobe. 43 00:03:58,140 --> 00:04:04,100 Um, and then I'm going to finish what I'm calling my concluding remarks as I draw together some of the key points of interest in my talk today, 44 00:04:04,110 --> 00:04:10,410 bearing in mind the work of Morris and McDonald as we look forward to the burgeoning fantasy literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. 45 00:04:11,070 --> 00:04:16,860 Now, amidst this trajectory, um, we're also going to briefly. 46 00:04:17,460 --> 00:04:23,070 So I've also interspersed my discussion of Morris and McDonald with a number of moments I've titled Looking Forwards. 47 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,510 So these sections will allow us to briefly glimpse how the popular fantasy texts 48 00:04:27,510 --> 00:04:31,620 that we might know today can be traced back to these early 19th century authors, 49 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,850 who were at the forefront of a period that's often considered to be the birth of modern fantasy. 50 00:04:35,850 --> 00:04:42,960 Even if some of you may not have actually come across that work. So, first of all, 19th century context. 51 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:49,020 So when we first in the 19th century in literary studies, it's often in reference to what is known as the Victorian period. 52 00:04:49,290 --> 00:04:55,739 So this in turn, we likely encourage you to think of the realist works of famous Victorian authors like Charles Dickens, 53 00:04:55,740 --> 00:04:57,330 George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell. 54 00:04:58,260 --> 00:05:06,540 But in contrast to this kind of dominant literary tradition of realist novels in an age which valued scientific and logical approaches, 55 00:05:06,990 --> 00:05:12,450 the Victorian period is also the time of significant development in the genre of fantasy literature as we understand it today. 56 00:05:13,410 --> 00:05:18,840 So many identify the 19th century as a key, foundational moment for the making of modern fantasy, 57 00:05:19,380 --> 00:05:26,070 even as scholars may also note that the broader concept of the fantastic has existed in world literature and myths centuries before that time, 58 00:05:26,070 --> 00:05:27,750 as we've been hearing about today. 59 00:05:28,710 --> 00:05:37,110 So it's therefore the fantasy genre that was kind of being formed, which itself stemmed from three popular literary traditions of the time. 60 00:05:37,500 --> 00:05:41,370 So we have going on in the 19th century, we have fictional private histories. 61 00:05:41,550 --> 00:05:47,890 So, for example, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Uh, we then have gothic romances as well. 62 00:05:47,910 --> 00:05:53,639 So thinking about the Brontes. And then there's also, as we've been hearing, a renewed interest in folk and fairy tales. 63 00:05:53,640 --> 00:06:02,879 So thinking of the Brothers Grimm, for example. However, this Victorian period, while it was witnessed like this to these development of genres, 64 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:08,730 it was also witness to the counter development of fantastical literature, in contrast to the dominant realist fiction of the day. 65 00:06:09,270 --> 00:06:14,190 And this fantastical literature, however, was often sidelined, and then a further tension developed. 66 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:22,530 So we have this question where for when fantasy literature was considered successful at the time, it was often asserted children's literature. 67 00:06:22,890 --> 00:06:27,060 So we have Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Charles Kingsley's Water Babies. 68 00:06:27,070 --> 00:06:32,050 Um, and often if it's successful, it's for children. And so attention arises is it for children? 69 00:06:32,070 --> 00:06:39,550 Is it for adults? Can it be for both? So in response to this marginalising of adult fantasy literature, 70 00:06:39,790 --> 00:06:45,850 I present to you today two authors who passionately argued for the value of adult fantasy alongside children's fantasy. 71 00:06:46,300 --> 00:06:50,060 William Morris and George MacDonald. So let me introduce you to them. 72 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,370 Now, we've had a little bit of William Morris Day already, but here we have William Morris on the left. 73 00:06:54,820 --> 00:06:59,750 He was a remarkable polymath. So you may be more familiar with his wallpaper designs. 74 00:06:59,860 --> 00:07:04,400 I got some people more aware of that. Yeah. So it's the same William Morris. Um, he did lots of things. 75 00:07:04,420 --> 00:07:12,190 He was also a poet, an author, a translator of Old Norse literature, an active socialist, and just to name kind of a few of his many colleagues. 76 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:16,250 Um, then so that's really Morris on the right. 77 00:07:16,270 --> 00:07:20,710 We have George MacDonald. So he was a Scottish, also a poet and a Congregational minister. 78 00:07:21,130 --> 00:07:27,850 And this an important detail which influences fantasy. What to fancy work, as we'll see later in today's talk. 79 00:07:28,690 --> 00:07:33,940 Now, despite some differences in style and also a more kind of atheist theist philosophies and ethics, 80 00:07:33,940 --> 00:07:41,770 both authors did share a core belief in the value of fantasy or fairy stories, as they called them, for adults as well as children. 81 00:07:42,190 --> 00:07:50,350 So, as MacDonald wrote, there's a quote at the top here. I do not write for children, but the child, like whether a five or 50 or 75. 82 00:07:51,730 --> 00:07:56,810 This idea was later echoed by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. 83 00:07:56,830 --> 00:08:02,830 So we come here first to my first looking forward moment to see how these ideas are beginning with Morris and MacDonald. 84 00:08:03,130 --> 00:08:05,130 But then we can see this in the 20th century. 85 00:08:05,140 --> 00:08:13,710 So, um, I've included quotation from each author here, um, both in the Essays on Stories or fairy fairy stories. 86 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:16,000 This is first from C.S. Lewis who wrote. 87 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:25,090 It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one's adult enjoyment or what other what are called children's books. 88 00:08:25,660 --> 00:08:27,070 I think the convention, the silly one. 89 00:08:27,490 --> 00:08:34,240 No book is really worth reading at the age of ten, which is not equally and often far more worth reading at the age of 50. 90 00:08:34,900 --> 00:08:41,470 So that's C.S. Lewis opinion there. And then we have J.R.R. Tolkien, in my opinion. 91 00:08:41,770 --> 00:08:45,280 Fairy stories should not be especially associated with children. 92 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:54,520 Fairy stories offer fantasy, recovery, escape, consolation, all things which children have, as a rule, less need than older people. 93 00:08:55,420 --> 00:09:00,360 So these quotations are demonstrating kind of a shared theme here that originate in the 19th century, 94 00:09:00,370 --> 00:09:04,710 concerning the value of fantasy literature, a topic which is still debated today. 95 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:09,670 Today, we can probably agree. Now, these quotations also bring me to another point. 96 00:09:09,670 --> 00:09:15,880 Just to be aware of. We've heard a bit of this in Rose's talk just now, but the use of fairy stories rather than fantasy here. 97 00:09:16,300 --> 00:09:20,170 So the authors I'm speaking about were at the forefront of modern fantasy. 98 00:09:20,230 --> 00:09:26,470 The term fantasy was not pervasive, and the authors in their essays often refer to fairy stories as well. 99 00:09:26,890 --> 00:09:30,510 So for simplicity's sake, I'm referring to the Texas fantasy. 100 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,960 Today, just in my attempt to show you briefly how these foundational works can be read 101 00:09:35,260 --> 00:09:39,490 as forming the foundation of what we consider today modern fantasy literature. 102 00:09:40,030 --> 00:09:44,350 But it is useful to be aware of the shifting terminology in the fantasy genre and its history. 103 00:09:45,750 --> 00:09:49,510 So I turn now to my first auto focus. 104 00:09:49,530 --> 00:09:50,460 William Morris. 105 00:09:53,470 --> 00:10:00,730 So as I was just mentioning the debate about whether fantasy stories were for children or adults or both was growing in the 19th century. 106 00:10:00,940 --> 00:10:04,300 And Maurice is one of those who argued for the value of adult fantasy fiction. 107 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,140 He did this in one way by writing his own fantasy works. 108 00:10:08,470 --> 00:10:12,220 And the one I'm speaking about today is still called The Story of the Glittering Plane. 109 00:10:13,180 --> 00:10:21,250 So the cover is just up here. Morris, befitting his polymath tendencies, was interested in the entire object of the book. 110 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:27,910 So it's not just writing the text, but also designing and crafting the physical object which contained his text, including illustration. 111 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,820 And this led to a number of editions in Glittering Plain, 112 00:10:31,150 --> 00:10:35,710 which was also the first book to be published by the Kelmscott Press, which Morris co-founded. 113 00:10:36,340 --> 00:10:40,560 So I'm going to be talking about that a little bit more a bit later as well. 114 00:10:40,570 --> 00:10:41,680 But I just wanted to flag that up, 115 00:10:41,680 --> 00:10:47,890 because you can see this very intricate design coming up on the drawings here to kind of demonstrate the art of bookmaking. 116 00:10:49,310 --> 00:10:52,640 So first, though, I'm going to focus on the heroic plot of the novel. 117 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:58,190 So has anyone here read The Glittering Plan? I'm expecting view of model two. 118 00:10:58,220 --> 00:11:06,810 Okay, great. So, um. Essentially his the in brief for those who haven't read it, which is most of us here. 119 00:11:07,380 --> 00:11:14,910 So the story of The Glittering Plain tells the heroic tale of Hall Blythe, of the House of the Raven, who travels to the Isle of Ransom, 120 00:11:14,910 --> 00:11:22,620 and the Acre of Undying, also known as the Glittering Plain, to save his kidnapped fiancee, who is known simply as The Hostage. 121 00:11:23,820 --> 00:11:31,450 Um. So the tale is chiefly concerned with a tension between human mortality and then the common desire for immortality. 122 00:11:31,470 --> 00:11:34,110 Hence the glittering plane, this acre of the undying. 123 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:42,330 Maurice approaches this through a heroic ethic, which is both a seed for our contemporary understanding of heroic deeds and fantasy literature, 124 00:11:42,690 --> 00:11:45,450 as well as being directly inspired by medieval sources. 125 00:11:46,590 --> 00:11:53,100 Most importantly, heroic deeds became more powerful in Morris's work precisely because of one's mortality. 126 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:59,969 It is through a sense of peril that heroic actions can be taken, and then one's immortality can actually be achieved, 127 00:11:59,970 --> 00:12:06,210 not physically, but through the heroic stories of myth and legend which can be passed down the generations. 128 00:12:07,260 --> 00:12:13,919 So I mentioned in my introduction, the fancy literature of the 19th century draws from three popular literary traditions, 129 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:19,140 often merging them, and one of these included this revived interest in folk and fairy stories. 130 00:12:19,530 --> 00:12:20,339 But for Morris, 131 00:12:20,340 --> 00:12:28,470 this also included the heroic literature of from Old Norse traditions um also in Old Icelandic and the broader genomic Germanic Norse as well. 132 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:33,239 So Morris developed his interest in older literature by translating it himself, 133 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,450 although with the help and guidance of an Icelandic scholar, Erica magnusson, 134 00:12:37,260 --> 00:12:45,570 and almost literature generally consists of two key genres we can say about prose sagas, and then we can talk about who are we call mythic poetry. 135 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,850 Morris was fascinated with both of these, but it is the sagas that I will introduce you to today. 136 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:54,150 As we can see, the impact of his translation work on The Glittering Plain. 137 00:12:54,870 --> 00:13:01,980 And for example, as an example, I'm going to compare the first lines of the glittering plain with those from a selection of Old Norse sagas. 138 00:13:02,460 --> 00:13:05,520 So to begin, here's the opening of the glittering Plain. 139 00:13:06,810 --> 00:13:12,120 It has been told that there was once a young man of three kindred, and whose name was Hogarth. 140 00:13:12,540 --> 00:13:15,600 He was fair, strong, and not untried in battle. 141 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:24,380 He was as a house of the raven of old time. So note here, as I've underlined, the clear statements immediately are told the hero's name. 142 00:13:24,450 --> 00:13:29,610 We're told that he's fair and strong and battle experience. And we have the family ties to the House of the Raven. 143 00:13:30,210 --> 00:13:33,990 We've also been set in a context of old stories. It has been told. 144 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:38,990 So in comparison, here are now some examples from some old Norse sagas. 145 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,210 So this is now saga written around the 13th century. 146 00:13:43,140 --> 00:13:47,430 There was a man who. There was a man named Maud whose nickname was Gaea. 147 00:13:47,820 --> 00:13:51,810 He was a son of sig, about the Red, and he lived in the rank of the district. 148 00:13:52,170 --> 00:13:55,290 He was a powerful chieftain and strong in pressing lawsuits. 149 00:13:56,010 --> 00:13:59,100 So again, we have immediately entered the pass through. There was here. 150 00:13:59,670 --> 00:14:02,880 We're told, the names of a man and his family, and we know that he was powerful. 151 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,500 And side note now, saga is fascinating in terms of its engagement with lawsuits. 152 00:14:08,190 --> 00:14:11,430 But here's another example, this one from Ale Saga. 153 00:14:13,050 --> 00:14:16,170 There was a man named Ulf, the son of P.l.c., and a half there. 154 00:14:16,740 --> 00:14:19,890 Oh, he was so big and strong that no man was a match for him. 155 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,430 And he was still only a youth when he became a Viking and went raiding. 156 00:14:24,150 --> 00:14:26,850 So again, we have a there was construction. 157 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:32,970 We are introduced to often his family line and we know that he was big, a big, strong Viking with fighting prowess. 158 00:14:34,220 --> 00:14:41,600 Here's one more example, quite brief from the saga to the Boltons, which Morris himself was also quite fascinated with and translated and retold. 159 00:14:43,070 --> 00:14:48,380 Here we begin by telling of a man who was named Siggy, and he said that he was the son of Odin. 160 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:52,460 So once again, we're entering the past kind of here we begin. 161 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:57,050 We have a name, and we have a sense of greatness here through connection with Odin. 162 00:14:58,580 --> 00:15:02,090 Now, I'm hoping that these brief examples will help you see the patterns here. 163 00:15:02,180 --> 00:15:05,540 But to remind you, let's have the glittering plain opening line again. 164 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:12,830 Um, let's say that should be here. It has been told that was a young man and so on. 165 00:15:13,340 --> 00:15:18,319 So Odin sagas have a distinct narrative structure, one which makes them very compelling. 166 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:20,120 And I have quite an interest for them. 167 00:15:20,570 --> 00:15:26,540 And Maurice is clearly drawing on these older texts, using the older styles as inspiration for his newer fantasy genre, 168 00:15:26,540 --> 00:15:30,200 which, however new, yearns towards a concept of the past. 169 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:36,920 However, despite these similarities, Morris is also making it new with his fantasy literature because there is a 170 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,980 difference between his first line and those of the sagas I've just shown you. 171 00:15:41,060 --> 00:15:46,640 Now, all the sagas I've given you begin by naming characters who are not what maybe we might call the main characters. 172 00:15:47,030 --> 00:15:51,740 Instead, they are the fathers or grandfathers or great great grandfathers of the titular characters. 173 00:15:52,340 --> 00:15:57,860 So in an Old Norse saga, we often do not meet the main character until many pages into the book. 174 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:02,900 Morris, however, cuts to the chase and introduces Hall as the hero of his tale immediately. 175 00:16:03,710 --> 00:16:07,670 So this is where we have a sense that Morris is drawing from this older tradition, 176 00:16:07,970 --> 00:16:12,650 but he's also experimenting with it, making something new from drawing from these older traditions. 177 00:16:15,230 --> 00:16:19,960 Now. There is Mortimer Morris's medieval borrowing. 178 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,590 He also drew from these tales and ethics of brotherhood and the heroic. 179 00:16:24,190 --> 00:16:27,579 For example, what I'm actually going to show you two scenes, um, side by side, 180 00:16:27,580 --> 00:16:33,550 that demonstrate how Morris has actually lifted an Old Norse brotherhood ritual and inserted it into the narrative of the glittering plane. 181 00:16:33,970 --> 00:16:36,790 So first his from the glittering plane. 182 00:16:37,540 --> 00:16:43,540 He had loosened the strip of turf all save the two ends, and it propped it up with two ancient dwarf wart spears. 183 00:16:43,870 --> 00:16:48,730 So amid most there was a lintel to go under. They went under the earth yoke, one after the other. 184 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:54,969 Thereafter they stood together, and each let blood in his arm, so that the blood of all three mingled together, 185 00:16:54,970 --> 00:16:58,930 fell down on the grass of the ancient earth, and they swore friendship and brotherhood. 186 00:16:59,980 --> 00:17:04,180 Now I know I have some old Norse scholars here. Does anyone guess what saga this is left from? 187 00:17:05,500 --> 00:17:10,780 And you can tell, um. So grizzly surfs and saga has this. 188 00:17:11,410 --> 00:17:14,860 So I've kind of underlined and put in colour here to show you the similarities. 189 00:17:15,220 --> 00:17:17,920 I will still be differences across translations, but this gives us a sense. 190 00:17:18,370 --> 00:17:23,020 So they scored out a long strip of turf, making sure that both ends were still attached to the ground. 191 00:17:23,530 --> 00:17:26,840 Then they propped up the arch of Ray's turf with a Damascene spear. 192 00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:30,670 So long shafted, the man could stretch out his arm and touch the rivets. 193 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:33,760 All four of them had to go under it. They then. 194 00:17:33,970 --> 00:17:39,040 Then they drew blood and let it drip down on the soil beneath this turf strip, and stirred it together. 195 00:17:39,070 --> 00:17:44,770 The soil and the blood. Then they all swore an oath that each would avenge the other, as if they were brothers. 196 00:17:45,860 --> 00:17:48,860 So you can see this with the colour match phrases. 197 00:17:48,860 --> 00:17:53,839 But for example, we've got the strip of turf, the spears that went under letting blood swore an oath and so on. 198 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,079 And, um, it's kind of a ritual that we don't know too much about. 199 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:03,740 But Morris is lifting this from here, and it's example from using the Old Norse texts and really putting them into his texts. 200 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:08,660 Um, structurally, however, there are differences between these examples, 201 00:18:08,660 --> 00:18:13,340 even though he's lifting a lot of it, and that comes with the wider narrative context. 202 00:18:13,490 --> 00:18:17,060 So the example in Gazi saga is actually near the beginning of the narrative, 203 00:18:17,390 --> 00:18:22,160 and it's a brotherhood ritual that is interrupted and used to establish a saga drama to come. 204 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,900 As brotherhood ties have broken and a lot of vengeance is taken. There's a lot of one killing another killing another. 205 00:18:27,620 --> 00:18:32,390 Um. In contrast, Morris inserts his Brotherhood vision near the end of his tale. 206 00:18:32,870 --> 00:18:36,769 He's cementing relationships which have been formed over the course of the narrative. 207 00:18:36,770 --> 00:18:39,380 By then they form this brotherhood ritual. 208 00:18:39,710 --> 00:18:46,130 So again, Morris is drawing on an older tradition, but he's also using them to communicate his own concept of a heroic narrative here. 209 00:18:48,260 --> 00:18:54,260 Now, on this topic of the heroic, Morris also establishes a clear heroic impulse in his tale, 210 00:18:54,650 --> 00:19:00,440 a familiar theme of modern fantasy literature, yet also another one which we can trace back to these medieval texts. 211 00:19:01,010 --> 00:19:06,470 So the first lines I read out earlier were from the sagas and from the glittering plain already established. 212 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,740 To be heroic is to be strong, to be fierce in battle. 213 00:19:10,460 --> 00:19:16,010 This warrior impulse and its interaction with mortality and immortality comes through once again. 214 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,710 In some lines I'm about to read from the glittering plain. 215 00:19:19,220 --> 00:19:24,379 So for context, Hall Blythe here has entered into the glittering plain, the land of the undying. 216 00:19:24,380 --> 00:19:28,010 And he's speaking to a man, um, a chieftain known as the Sea Eagle, 217 00:19:28,220 --> 00:19:34,160 who was old and dying and has now been returned to usefulness after entering the glittering plain, which is an immortal land. 218 00:19:34,820 --> 00:19:40,100 He says to him, O eagle of the sea, thou hast thy youth again. 219 00:19:40,550 --> 00:19:49,220 What then wilt thou do with it? What art thou, O warrior, in the land of the alien and the king, who shall heat thee, or tell the tale of thy glory? 220 00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:57,170 Here stand I, who light of the raven, and I am coming into an alien land, beset with marvels to seek mine own. 221 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:04,940 So see how whole earth is speaking, and how he's concerned with deeds of glory here to be achieved in useful heroics, 222 00:20:04,940 --> 00:20:10,790 and then retold in tales passed down to generations. He seeks to have his the tale of his glory told. 223 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,920 So this example here, which you can trace to medieval texts. 224 00:20:16,130 --> 00:20:19,850 Um, but I'm actually going to use it now to go to another look forwards moment, 225 00:20:20,210 --> 00:20:25,640 because we can find a similar heroic impulse and desire for tales of glory in the works of Tolkien and Le Gwyn. 226 00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:33,440 So, for example, in Lord of the rings, Sam says to Frodo, I wonder if we will ever be put into songs or tales. 227 00:20:33,830 --> 00:20:40,790 We're in one, of course, but I mean put into words, you know, told by the fireside or read out of a great big book. 228 00:20:41,750 --> 00:20:51,889 Wonderful meta moment and Lord of the rings. Um, uh, likewise in Ursula Green's The Earthsea cycle, which I love, everyone should read, um, 229 00:20:51,890 --> 00:20:58,490 it tells of how songs made 100 years ago, when news to those villages and they craved to hear of heroes. 230 00:20:59,300 --> 00:21:02,900 And within Le Guin's kind of worldbuilding, 231 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:09,980 she also does an interesting thing where she takes a heroic impulse and develops it into an understanding of one's deeper self. 232 00:21:10,430 --> 00:21:17,600 So, for example, the heroes, the ones who seek to be themselves, to be oneself is a rare thing and a great one. 233 00:21:18,620 --> 00:21:23,630 So as well as we've got Le Guin's development of a heroic ethic in relation to personal identity here, 234 00:21:24,230 --> 00:21:28,340 there is actually another difference between this example and Maurice's text. 235 00:21:28,370 --> 00:21:33,140 I'm wondering if you've spotted this difference. I'm going to put Maurice's quotation up again. 236 00:21:33,230 --> 00:21:38,280 Say. Here we go. It is Morris's use of R.K. isms. 237 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,540 Note here that thou hast and thy the wilt thou do. 238 00:21:42,570 --> 00:21:44,820 What are what are thou a warrior? 239 00:21:45,510 --> 00:21:53,070 These are examples of Morris's own use of his own archaic style, what some might consider affected and false, and others will enjoy. 240 00:21:53,670 --> 00:22:02,910 Um, but there is a recurring tendency in fantasy to use archaic or pseudo archaic phrases and structures to try and create a sense of a land long ago. 241 00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:06,150 Like the old medieval tales that Morris is drawing from. 242 00:22:06,390 --> 00:22:11,540 So it's this idea of using the archaic to say, look, we're really obviously in the old times here. 243 00:22:11,550 --> 00:22:18,510 We've got a different language going on. So the quotations from Tolkien and Le Gwyn don't have those constructions there. 244 00:22:19,050 --> 00:22:25,510 In fact, the Gwyn even critics critiqued this archaic tendency of fantasy writers in one of her essays. 245 00:22:25,530 --> 00:22:29,670 So again, we're looking forward to, um, the green white, right? 246 00:22:30,810 --> 00:22:36,180 The archaic manner is a trap into it. Almost all very young fantasy writers walk. 247 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,400 They know instinctively the what is wanted in fantasy is a distancing from the ordinary. 248 00:22:42,030 --> 00:22:46,410 The archaic manor is indeed a perfect distance. But you have to do it perfectly. 249 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:49,770 So the Gwyn is using his A term. Distance. 250 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:56,159 And distance is precisely what Morris was aiming for in his writing drawing, as he was for medieval Old Norse tales. 251 00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:04,950 Amongst other traditions. Te Morris is harking back to an old age, and he wanted that to be understood in terms of his story content and his language, 252 00:23:05,250 --> 00:23:08,520 and even in the way he illustrated his book, which I will get onto briefly. 253 00:23:09,090 --> 00:23:17,160 But Le Quinto suggests that okay isms don't have to be required of fantasy literature, and she writes, after all, okay, isms are not essential. 254 00:23:17,580 --> 00:23:20,730 You don't have to know how to use a subjunctive in order to be a wizard. 255 00:23:21,270 --> 00:23:28,380 You don't have to talk like Henry the Fifth to be a hero. So I'm showing this to you to kind of see how. 256 00:23:29,490 --> 00:23:36,690 So you can that we can see how Morris, in his role as an early presenter of modern fantasy, valued okay isms in his writing, 257 00:23:37,050 --> 00:23:41,550 but also how this isn't necessarily remained a requirement for modern fantasy, even as it does recur. 258 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:48,030 It's also used, for example, the process of making modern fantasy, how the genre is drawing on earlier traditions. 259 00:23:48,030 --> 00:23:55,380 But it's also gradually building confidence and experimentation in establishing its own contemporary outlook on what fantasy means to it. 260 00:23:56,790 --> 00:24:04,590 So. I have one more aspect of Morris to discuss before moving to McDonald, 261 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:10,440 and that is the object of a book as a work of art, which I mentioned briefly at the start of my introduction to Morris. 262 00:24:11,910 --> 00:24:17,250 So one of many Morris's many talents and interests included his work as part of the Arts and Crafts movement. 263 00:24:17,700 --> 00:24:20,070 He also trained as a painter and then as an architect, 264 00:24:20,430 --> 00:24:27,360 and all of his work and more led to his belief in the importance of useful tools also being beautiful aesthetically. 265 00:24:28,110 --> 00:24:31,170 Thus, he proposed, the book should be beautiful to us. 266 00:24:31,230 --> 00:24:37,590 And in lecture he suggested that in fact, a book printed or written has a tendency to be a beautiful object, 267 00:24:38,010 --> 00:24:41,339 and that we of this age should generally produce ugly books shows. 268 00:24:41,340 --> 00:24:50,250 I fear something like malice, pretence. Now, importantly for Morris, amidst this idea of the beautiful book, there's the picture book. 269 00:24:51,450 --> 00:24:55,380 So the picture book is not perhaps absolutely necessary to man's life, 270 00:24:55,770 --> 00:25:03,150 but it gives us such endless pleasure and is so intimately connected with the other absolutely necessary art of imaginative literature, 271 00:25:03,630 --> 00:25:09,000 that it must remain one of the very worthiest things towards the production of which reasonable men should strive. 272 00:25:09,780 --> 00:25:16,260 So Morris's picture book here brings us back to the importance of fantasy for adults as well as for children. 273 00:25:16,860 --> 00:25:24,360 Morris is in acting and then in access belief in beautiful books for adults with the Kelmscott Press, where he published The Glaring Plain. 274 00:25:25,070 --> 00:25:31,980 Um, so as a further example of this, I've now got the opening pages of The Glittering Plain up here so you can see this intricacy, 275 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:37,680 and you can access this book online on the Internet Archive. Wonderful website if you want to look through all the pages. 276 00:25:38,950 --> 00:25:44,230 So not just here. We've got intricate patterns of vines. We've got detailed drawings here. 277 00:25:44,260 --> 00:25:51,040 This one detailed showing is the chapter heading heading. This is the beginning of the book, but each chapter has a detailed drawing that comes up, 278 00:25:51,370 --> 00:25:55,269 and even in between the sentences, you can see one of them here. 279 00:25:55,270 --> 00:26:02,440 There's a little leaf sometimes appears between the text. So it's very much the whole page is becoming beautiful and illustrated. 280 00:26:03,820 --> 00:26:11,590 I think it's interesting to consider Morris's ideas about the ideal book, bearing in mind today's publishing trend for beautiful books, 281 00:26:12,010 --> 00:26:16,330 including special editions featuring sprayed edges and gold foil details. 282 00:26:16,900 --> 00:26:23,890 And it's also interesting with the fantasy genre, specifically because we consider the importance of illustrations to help conjure a secondary world, 283 00:26:24,190 --> 00:26:27,520 or through maps and as well, and images and fantastical creatures. 284 00:26:28,150 --> 00:26:33,130 So I think that's just an interesting element. We might be able to link back or parallel with Morris then, 285 00:26:33,940 --> 00:26:39,380 but we can also look forward from Morris and his artistic interest to the fantasy work of Lord Anthony, 286 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:44,980 an early 20th century fantasy author who wrote The King of Elephants Daughter, which was mentioned briefly today. 287 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:51,190 Has anyone read The King of Elephants daughter? A couple okay, it's very beautifully poetic book. 288 00:26:51,730 --> 00:26:56,920 Um, so in their visual art is actually central to the imagery of Duncan is worldbuilding, 289 00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:02,050 with some actually reading the magic of elephant as a manifestation of art. 290 00:27:02,140 --> 00:27:10,600 So this is Augusta Hardy, but there's another visual link between Dunson and Morris that I found, and that's the concept of the blue of distance. 291 00:27:10,870 --> 00:27:17,830 Um, so if people haven't heard of that, the blue, um, With a distance was written about by Rebecca Solnit, 292 00:27:18,100 --> 00:27:22,360 who writes the colour blue is the colour that represents the spirit, 293 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:31,570 the sky and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile and close off it is, it is always about distance and this embodiment. 294 00:27:32,740 --> 00:27:40,240 So here I'm not going to include two examples, one from the glittering plain, one from land that demonstrate this use of blue of distance, um, 295 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:47,559 as a visual representation of the remote, but described in the literary text to show that just out of reach world of fairy tale or fantasy worlds. 296 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:56,080 So first from the glittering plane in the offing, looking landward were great mountains, some very great and snowcapped, some bare to the tops. 297 00:27:56,530 --> 00:28:00,280 And all that was far away. Save the snow was deep blue. 298 00:28:01,290 --> 00:28:02,550 And then we have an Owl fund. 299 00:28:03,450 --> 00:28:13,050 At the evening he looked to see the Elfin Mountains, severe and changeless, until unlit by any light we know the pale of the colour of pale. 300 00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:19,850 Forget me nots. So here is just a little hint at this kind of how the visual in the world of art 301 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,350 can also be important to the fantastical world building that we've got here. 302 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:28,670 This I'm showing this is another example of this blurring together traditions and interests and 303 00:28:28,670 --> 00:28:33,740 artistic styles that Morris was kind of bringing together in his very polymaths approach to his work. 304 00:28:34,670 --> 00:28:42,440 So in summary, Morris's work is influenced by a number of ideas, including the ancient world of medieval Old Norse sources, 305 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:50,300 from which he drew ideas from including the love of heroic deeds which rely on one's physical mortality to achieve immortality through stories. 306 00:28:51,050 --> 00:28:57,410 He also influenced later writers in terms of the book being a work of art, which itself likely stemmed from medieval manuscript traditions. 307 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,910 And then we have his visual interest in visual. His interest in visual art, 308 00:29:02,300 --> 00:29:07,430 and the way that visuals come to play in the glittering plain that can be paralleled with the slightly later work of Dunsinane. 309 00:29:08,780 --> 00:29:12,409 So the series of influences demonstrates the polymath tendencies of Morris, 310 00:29:12,410 --> 00:29:16,230 but also the polymath tendencies of fantasy literature in the 19th century. 311 00:29:16,250 --> 00:29:21,500 More generally, it was a genre that draws together multiple narrative traditions alongside history, 312 00:29:21,500 --> 00:29:26,360 art, and as we're now going to see in MacDonald's work, philosophy and religion as well. 313 00:29:27,260 --> 00:29:33,010 So here is the wonderful colour cover of Lilith that I have. 314 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:38,810 Not the original one, but it's quite a wild one. Um, so has anyone here read Lilith? 315 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:44,140 Okay. Couple. Is anyone heard of this? Okay if you okay. 316 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:52,870 So, first published in 1895. Louis. Um, for a bit of background, the novels title refers to the mythical and folkloric character of Lilith, 317 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:58,810 who is generally understood as a demon from Jewish folklore, in which she actually precedes Eve in the Garden of Eden. 318 00:29:59,710 --> 00:30:03,120 So using Lilith to explore the concept of evil, 319 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:08,740 MacDonald narrates a fantasy tale that is centred on his belief in the possibility of redemption for all, 320 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:17,500 stemming from his experience as a Christian minister. So, but before we get into the complexities of that, 321 00:30:17,650 --> 00:30:25,790 Lilith begins sorry with a in a rather familiar world with our protagonist, Mr. Vane, who has returned home. 322 00:30:25,810 --> 00:30:28,720 So I'm just going to read the opening lines to give you a sense of what we begin with. 323 00:30:29,830 --> 00:30:36,550 I had just finished my studies at Oxford and was taking a brief holiday from work before assuming definitely the management of the estate. 324 00:30:37,180 --> 00:30:45,160 My father died when I was yet a child. My mother followed him within a year, and I was nearly as much alone in the world as a man might find himself. 325 00:30:46,350 --> 00:30:51,150 Now, from this rather familiar beginning, we might say we might think of a realist novel here of the Victorian period, 326 00:30:51,750 --> 00:31:01,020 um, things become stranger and stranger. So, um, this starts with Mr. Vines wandering through a mirror and finding himself in an open plain. 327 00:31:01,090 --> 00:31:03,630 This is our portal fantasy. Talking to a raven. 328 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,400 Um, so here I'm going to read a little of the passage, which takes place just in chapter three of the book. 329 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:14,250 How did I get here? I said. You came to the door, replied an odd, rather harsh voice. 330 00:31:15,030 --> 00:31:18,180 I looked behind then all about me, but saw no human shape. 331 00:31:18,780 --> 00:31:23,670 The terror that madness might be at hand laid hold upon me the same instant I knew. 332 00:31:23,700 --> 00:31:27,960 It was the raven that had spoken, but he stood looking up at me with an air of waiting. 333 00:31:28,710 --> 00:31:35,640 I beg my reader, to aid me in the endeavour to make myself intelligible, if here understanding be indeed possible between us. 334 00:31:36,390 --> 00:31:40,470 I was in a world, or call it a state of things, an economy of conditions, 335 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:45,630 an idea of existence, so little correspondence with the ways and modes of this world. 336 00:31:47,090 --> 00:31:52,430 So the phrasing that my uses here, Mr. Veins concerned with trying to describe the indescribable, 337 00:31:52,760 --> 00:32:00,050 is the beginning of many similar moments as he uses the fantasy genre to explore a world that may be beyond full human comprehension. 338 00:32:00,950 --> 00:32:02,689 And as the narrative progresses, 339 00:32:02,690 --> 00:32:08,900 Mr. Vain walks through mirrors and doorways which turn out to be portals into another world that gradually gets more and more blurred. 340 00:32:09,530 --> 00:32:14,390 And then the fantasy world also gets stranger and stranger, and Mr. Vain even meets Adam and Eve, 341 00:32:14,780 --> 00:32:18,230 becoming entangled in a world aiming towards Christian redemption. 342 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:22,220 And that includes the redemption of the novel's key evil figure, Lilith. 343 00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:28,400 And just before I move on, just note we've also got kind of the gothic sense here, the sense of all the horror of what have I seen. 344 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:35,030 And then we've shifted. We've shifted into the fantasy here. So the central tension of Lilith is a classic. 345 00:32:35,090 --> 00:32:40,760 It's good versus evil. Um, MacDonald attempts to understand this tension through a Christian perspective. 346 00:32:41,570 --> 00:32:45,080 Now, strikingly, the novel does advance a message that evil cannot be killed. 347 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:52,070 Instead, evil must be redeemed. And Mr. Raven explains this to Mr. Vane, explaining how Lilith, 348 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:57,050 who's evil by this point in the book, has manifested in a physical wound, might be saved. 349 00:32:57,320 --> 00:33:01,850 He says nothing will ever close that wound, he answered with a sigh. 350 00:33:02,180 --> 00:33:08,170 It must eat into her heart. Annihilation itself is no death to evil, only good. 351 00:33:08,180 --> 00:33:14,090 What evil was is evil, dead and evil saying must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. 352 00:33:14,390 --> 00:33:22,250 That alone is the slaying of evil. Now, many of you here today might hear echoes of more modern fantasy texts and films here, 353 00:33:22,250 --> 00:33:26,870 which speak of the importance of good triumphing over evil, of how light can transform the dark. 354 00:33:27,620 --> 00:33:34,490 But there's also echoes of biblical text here, particularly in the way that the quotation from Lilith evil is not slain by the traditional sword, 355 00:33:34,730 --> 00:33:42,650 but a metaphorical kind of weapon of goodness. And that is reminiscent of language in the New Testament, where swords are beaten into ploughshares. 356 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:49,760 And here I have a quote from Ephesians, where the disciple of Christ is commanded that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, 357 00:33:50,090 --> 00:33:55,220 but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 358 00:33:56,090 --> 00:34:02,090 Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day we will come, you may be able to stand your ground. 359 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:09,410 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, and the breastplate of righteousness in place, 360 00:34:09,890 --> 00:34:13,430 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 361 00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:20,270 In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 362 00:34:20,660 --> 00:34:25,550 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. 363 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:34,480 I note my bowl, the texture. So I've just used this to highlight the metaphorical armour of God here with which evil might be slain, 364 00:34:34,490 --> 00:34:39,260 but it's very much a reworking of the battle of language into something different. 365 00:34:40,990 --> 00:34:47,080 So to better understand McDonnell's integration of religious concepts with his fantasy literature, 366 00:34:47,230 --> 00:34:53,110 we need to consider two informative essays which he wrote about imagination and its relationship with religion. 367 00:34:53,770 --> 00:34:58,600 So these were titled The Fantastic Imagination and then the imagination, Its Function and Culture. 368 00:34:59,110 --> 00:35:05,140 So the title on the slide refers to which one I'm referring to, and they can both be read free online as well. 369 00:35:05,740 --> 00:35:12,430 So in one of them, you propose is that to inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination. 370 00:35:13,300 --> 00:35:19,300 It is aroused by facts, is nourished by facts, seeks for higher and yet higher lows in those facts, 371 00:35:19,810 --> 00:35:26,980 but refuses to regard science as the sole interpreter of nature or the laws of science as the only region of discovery. 372 00:35:28,500 --> 00:35:32,820 So McDonald's is proposing here at the imagination, central to the fantasy genre, 373 00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:37,200 can help us come closer to understanding the incomprehensibility of God. 374 00:35:37,980 --> 00:35:44,219 And note to hear he's having a reaction against the more realist or scientific focuses and tendencies of the time here, 375 00:35:44,220 --> 00:35:51,480 saying that it's not just the facts that can help us. So in this again, McDonald's echoing a famous visual from the Bible, 376 00:35:51,750 --> 00:35:56,820 from one Corinthians, for now, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. 377 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,020 Now I know in part. But then shall I know even as I am known. 378 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:10,420 So this is this theme of trying to understand something beyond our comprehension and the theme of incomprehensibility on this. 379 00:36:10,450 --> 00:36:15,070 Think back to the lines I read earlier when Mr. Vane met the raven and enters a new world. 380 00:36:15,580 --> 00:36:21,280 His entry into a world where he knows nothing. Is MacDonald's attempt to see into that glass of God's incomprehensibility. 381 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:26,200 And a glass is another word for a mirror which made all the characters just watery. 382 00:36:27,310 --> 00:36:33,290 Now, importantly, tied with his imaginative concept attempts to understand God through fantasy literature. 383 00:36:33,310 --> 00:36:36,670 There's another important element of belief in imagination. 384 00:36:37,090 --> 00:36:42,430 So in Lilith, Mr. Raven advises us that the fact is, no man understands anything. 385 00:36:43,060 --> 00:36:48,850 Neither I nor any man can help you to understand. But I may perhaps help you a little to believe. 386 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,410 So these examples I've just given from Lilith demonstrate how McDonnell, 387 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:03,170 by writing his fantasy fiction, becomes one of those who may help us a little to believe as he writes. 388 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:12,380 Um, now, because we don't believe that imagination can help lead us toward divine revelation and an understanding and kind of relationship with God. 389 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,510 In turn, that means the McDonald was like Morris. Despite differences in religious approaches, 390 00:37:17,900 --> 00:37:23,960 a proponent for the importance of fairy tales for people writing a warning in his essays on the imagination, 391 00:37:24,350 --> 00:37:29,810 he says, kill that went spring the crude fantasies and wild daydreams of the young. 392 00:37:30,050 --> 00:37:33,350 And you will never lead them beyond dull facts, though, 393 00:37:33,350 --> 00:37:38,570 because their relations to each other and the one life that works in them all must remain undiscovered. 394 00:37:41,310 --> 00:37:46,049 So in summary here with um, for McDonald, 395 00:37:46,050 --> 00:37:55,200 the inspiration of the Almighty shapes imaginative literature for MacDonald's view and in fact brings humanity close to a godlike quality of creation. 396 00:37:55,590 --> 00:38:02,970 So, as MacDonald writes, the fantasy author may, if he pleases, invents a little world of his own with his own laws. 397 00:38:03,300 --> 00:38:10,440 For there is in that in him which delights in calling up new forms, which is the nearest, perhaps he can come to creation. 398 00:38:11,340 --> 00:38:19,140 So such an idea, linking the fantasy author to the role of creator brings a certain seriousness to fantasy literature and a sense of responsibility. 399 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:27,480 And we can now look forwards from this, from MacDonald's intertwining of religion and fantasy literature to 20th century fantasy. 400 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,350 So, for example, we have C.S. Lewis was heavily influenced by MacDonald's work. 401 00:38:32,500 --> 00:38:36,450 And we can see that in The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. There's also a space trilogy. 402 00:38:36,460 --> 00:38:41,140 Has anyone read Space Trilogy, which includes Fairyland, a fascinating set of books. 403 00:38:41,830 --> 00:38:48,399 Now, Tolkien to also connected his religious convictions with his fantasy writing and in his essay on Fairy stories, 404 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:54,550 which we heard a bit from earlier today, um, and in which, like Morrison MacDonald, he argues for the value of fan stories. 405 00:38:54,580 --> 00:39:02,649 Fairy stories for both children and adults. Tolkien ends by coining a new term, u catastrophe, to explain the importance of a happy ending, 406 00:39:02,650 --> 00:39:06,220 and this was hinted at on another earlier handout today. So I'm going to quote. 407 00:39:07,180 --> 00:39:11,140 Most important is the consolation of a happy ending in fairy tales. 408 00:39:11,530 --> 00:39:14,680 I would venture to assert that all complete fairy stories must have it. 409 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:19,060 I would say that tragedy is the true form of drama, its highest function. 410 00:39:19,570 --> 00:39:27,550 But the opposite is true of fairy story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite, I will call it you catastrophe. 411 00:39:28,060 --> 00:39:35,200 The you could say trophic tail, which is always a tongue to a tire, is the true form of fairy tale and its highest function. 412 00:39:36,550 --> 00:39:40,920 So Tolkiens term here is deriving from the Greek for EU meaning good. 413 00:39:40,930 --> 00:39:46,390 And then there's an older understanding of catastrophe is just a sudden turn, or a denouement and denouement ending. 414 00:39:48,350 --> 00:39:51,979 Importantly for talking in this happy ending. 415 00:39:51,980 --> 00:39:58,040 This you catastrophe, um, that according to Tolkien, the message of Christ can be read. 416 00:39:58,550 --> 00:40:01,640 So he wrote a constellation of fairy stories. 417 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:06,710 The joy of the happy ending, or more correctly, the good catastrophe, the sudden, joyous turn. 418 00:40:07,310 --> 00:40:14,629 It's one of the things which fairy stories can produce supremely well and is not essentially escapist in its fairy tale otherworld setting. 419 00:40:14,630 --> 00:40:23,900 It is a sudden and miraculous grace. It is evangelism, giving a fleeting glimpse of joy, joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. 420 00:40:24,530 --> 00:40:28,400 And for context here, evangelism means life and teaching of Christ. 421 00:40:30,050 --> 00:40:36,590 Now talking even go so far as to claim that the Gospels contain a fairy story or a story of a larger kind, 422 00:40:36,590 --> 00:40:43,280 which embraces all the essence of fairy stories. The birth of Christ is the catastrophe of man's history. 423 00:40:44,390 --> 00:40:53,000 Therefore, Tolkien suggests that the Christian may dare to guess that in fantasy he might actually assist in the enrichment of creation. 424 00:40:54,170 --> 00:41:00,440 I'm taking you through these kind of possibly more surprising sides to these authors just to show how, like MacDonald, 425 00:41:00,770 --> 00:41:07,429 Tolkien makes use of the imaginary world of the fairy tale a fantasy to share a Christian message as it is through fantasies, 426 00:41:07,430 --> 00:41:08,899 imaginative possibilities. 427 00:41:08,900 --> 00:41:17,030 We might catch a glimpse, if briefly, of the awe and wonder of God who is incomprehensible and beyond full human comprehension. 428 00:41:17,630 --> 00:41:26,930 As Tolkien writes, the peculiar quality of the joy in successful fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth, 429 00:41:26,930 --> 00:41:28,340 which is the message of God. 430 00:41:29,570 --> 00:41:36,620 And this returns us to that vision of the glass, the mirror in MacDonald, and the attempt to glimpse the divine through fantasy literature. 431 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:40,300 Looking forwards. 432 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:46,230 Um, I just want to note that while we have the Christian concepts of fantasy, literature can be seen in the work of Madeleine L'Engle, 433 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:51,120 there's, um, for example, the series A Wrinkle in Time, if anyone has read that. 434 00:41:51,510 --> 00:41:54,870 Um, but it's not just Christianity that we can find in fantasy. 435 00:41:55,050 --> 00:42:00,680 For example, we can consider Le Guin's Earthsea cycle, um, where we introduce not to a Christian perspective, 436 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,080 but actually what some people have identified as a philosophical Daoism. 437 00:42:04,980 --> 00:42:12,260 And then you kind of note this, that Daoism is central to the concept of creation in Earthsea, as shown in this quotation. 438 00:42:12,270 --> 00:42:21,840 So in the creation of AA, which is the oldest song, it is said only in silence the word only in dark, the light, only in dying life. 439 00:42:23,390 --> 00:42:28,820 So I just want to give that little hint there that while I focus on kind of this Christian view from these authors, 440 00:42:28,820 --> 00:42:30,530 particularly something from the 19th century, 441 00:42:30,860 --> 00:42:36,170 there's some interesting things to be done in terms of exploring lots of different religions here with fantasy, 442 00:42:36,590 --> 00:42:43,640 um, something kind of an area I'm still exploring. So this religious turn brings me now to my concluding remarks for this talk today, 443 00:42:43,910 --> 00:42:49,190 as I end with a meditation on the concept of a moral imagination in fantasy literature. 444 00:42:49,490 --> 00:42:54,889 So, um, at the beginning of today, Mendelsohn's pioneering rhetoric of fantasy was mentioned, 445 00:42:54,890 --> 00:43:00,560 and in that she writes that fantasy, unlike science fiction, relies on a moral universe. 446 00:43:01,130 --> 00:43:08,870 It is less an argument with the universe than a sermon on the way things should be, a belief that the universe should yield to moral precepts. 447 00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:16,340 And moreover, she suggests that fantasy seeks to make the universe understandable in moral terms. 448 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,580 Now we can find this moral universe in MacDonald's work quite clearly, 449 00:43:24,580 --> 00:43:30,670 through his explicit use of a fantasy story to explore the concept complex Christian concept of redemption, 450 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,660 including by featuring the characters of Adam and Eve as he imagines them. 451 00:43:35,890 --> 00:43:43,840 And so in doing so, McDonald forwards his belief in the value of a wise imagination, which he describes in an imagination essay. 452 00:43:45,130 --> 00:43:49,450 In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the Spirit of God, 453 00:43:49,660 --> 00:43:56,290 is the best guide that man or woman can have, for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us. 454 00:43:56,290 --> 00:44:04,510 The most powerfully undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond have far more influence than any logical sequences, 455 00:44:04,660 --> 00:44:08,020 whereby the same things can be demonstrated to the intellect. 456 00:44:09,550 --> 00:44:15,940 Now, if we then return to the glittering plain religion, there is quite absent its form, fitting Morris's more atheist outlook. 457 00:44:16,690 --> 00:44:25,870 Instead, in Morris's work, we could read a moral universe that combines a medieval heroic ethic with his 19th century socialist concerns as well, 458 00:44:25,870 --> 00:44:30,820 alongside his belief in the importance of both meaningful and beautiful objects and work. 459 00:44:31,300 --> 00:44:38,350 So we can see this in the glittering plain when he lies, when he stuck in the glittering plain which is the ark of the undying, 460 00:44:38,830 --> 00:44:41,620 decides, figures out that the way you can escape is to build a boat. 461 00:44:41,710 --> 00:44:47,770 And so to do that, he has to spend many days building a boat by hand, which Morris narrates, 462 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:54,010 and when he is questioned by the immortal people living around him, the moral outlook of Morris. 463 00:44:54,010 --> 00:45:00,480 His book becomes clearer as he emphasises importance of finding meaning in one's work and also one's mortality. 464 00:45:00,490 --> 00:45:04,150 And this they ask what shall all thy toil win thee? 465 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:08,680 They ask, and he spake whole blithe. Maybe a merry heart, or maybe death. 466 00:45:09,670 --> 00:45:13,110 So this is kind of a more, um, earthly focus there. 467 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:17,470 And, Morris, just to show you how you can get these different moral imaginations appearing in these texts, 468 00:45:19,060 --> 00:45:24,280 that although their moral outlooks may differ between the atheist and the theist, 469 00:45:24,580 --> 00:45:27,670 both MacDonald and Morris believed in the power of a fairy tale, 470 00:45:27,790 --> 00:45:34,630 a fantasy literature as we know it today to create other worlds which might in turn impact the earthly world in which we exist. 471 00:45:35,260 --> 00:45:41,920 For these authors, fantasy was not simply an escape, but an imaginative opportunity for revisioning the world. 472 00:45:42,430 --> 00:45:49,630 It was the same for C.S. Lewis, who wrote the whole fantasy story, paradoxically enough, strengthens our relish for real life. 473 00:45:50,290 --> 00:45:55,330 This excursion into the preposterous sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual. 474 00:45:56,260 --> 00:46:03,700 And then again with the Gwyn fantasy is a game played for the game sake and a game played for very high stakes. 475 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:09,580 It is a different approach to reality, an alternative technique for apprehending and coping with existence. 476 00:46:10,090 --> 00:46:13,480 It is not realistic, but so realistic. Super realistic. 477 00:46:13,540 --> 00:46:20,880 A heightening of reality. I went with a further comment from the Gwynn um, 478 00:46:21,150 --> 00:46:26,910 which ties together some of the themes of my talk today focussed on the role of the fantasy author, an act of creation. 479 00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:33,060 So La Grande writes in fantasy there is nothing but the writer's vision of the world. 480 00:46:33,510 --> 00:46:35,820 There is only a construct built in a void, 481 00:46:36,210 --> 00:46:44,640 with every joint and seam and nail exposed to create what Tolkien calls a secondary universe is to make a new world, 482 00:46:45,300 --> 00:46:50,760 a world where no voice is ever spoken before, where the act of speech is the act of creation. 483 00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:56,310 The only voice that speaks there is the creator's voice, and every word counts. 484 00:46:58,140 --> 00:47:05,700 So the Gwynn's words may remind us of a Christian story of creation, both in Genesis when God said, let there be light, and there was light. 485 00:47:06,270 --> 00:47:12,120 And John one which begins in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 486 00:47:13,290 --> 00:47:20,670 The fantasy author's voice then is contained in the written word or world, and therefore becomes an act of creation. 487 00:47:21,420 --> 00:47:26,940 As such, a sense of seriousness and responsibility is attributed to the role of the fantasy author. 488 00:47:27,390 --> 00:47:32,040 A seriousness that we can trace back to that early writing of William Morris and George MacDonald. 489 00:47:33,180 --> 00:47:37,889 These two authors, who argued in the essays and demonstrated in their fiction for the importance 490 00:47:37,890 --> 00:47:42,390 of fairy tale or fantasy stories in the lives of both adults and children. 491 00:47:43,350 --> 00:47:46,950 So that brings me to the end of my talk. Thank you for listening to me. 492 00:47:46,980 --> 00:47:50,640 I hope this has brought a little light to the development of fantasy literature in 19th century, 493 00:47:50,910 --> 00:47:55,709 which really did just cross disciplines and concepts and so on. 494 00:47:55,710 --> 00:48:06,580 So I hope that was a little taster for you. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. 495 00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:10,220 That was a wonderful talk. We'll dive straight into questions. 496 00:48:10,230 --> 00:48:13,680 Do we have any from the floor? First hand up was over here. 497 00:48:13,770 --> 00:48:16,470 Thank you so much. That was a wonderful presentation. 498 00:48:16,890 --> 00:48:24,960 Um, given that there's been a sort of effort to take fantasy more seriously, um, for adults since the 19th century. 499 00:48:25,230 --> 00:48:26,940 Do you have any thoughts on why? 500 00:48:27,060 --> 00:48:33,570 Maybe even in the present day, fantasy seems sort of like a marginal thing, or still get towards younger people, or unserious in a way? 501 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:40,080 Yeah, I mean, that's why I kind of wanted to flag those, those comments up because it is it's an issue today that we still have. 502 00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:46,350 We're fun to get sidelined. And I would say it's interesting now with the development of romanticism in a way, 503 00:48:46,350 --> 00:48:51,270 is answering the fact that the people who grew up with Y.A. don't have the kind of literature for adults now, 504 00:48:51,270 --> 00:49:00,740 so we're getting romances almost an answer. Generally, it comes down to this question of kind of, um, highbrow, middlebrow, lowbrow. 505 00:49:00,750 --> 00:49:03,719 You get issues of what's high culture, low culture. 506 00:49:03,720 --> 00:49:07,770 And even when we say that we're mixing everything, there's still that sense of, oh, it's for children. 507 00:49:07,770 --> 00:49:13,320 It's about fairy tales. It's not the real world. So I think it's kind of an ongoing debate we're having, 508 00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:20,640 and I think we can also link that to that history of kind of the scientific realist logical side and then the fantastical. 509 00:49:21,060 --> 00:49:27,740 And how do you fit those two, which I think are two elements of the human character that we we try and box it in one or the other. 510 00:49:27,750 --> 00:49:31,230 And I really think it's something we're constantly grappling with to work that out. 511 00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:37,980 So who answered your question? Hey. Thank you. Um, that might be like an obvious 19th century answer to this, but why? 512 00:49:38,490 --> 00:49:41,760 Lilith by John MacDonald. Why is it subtitled A romance? 513 00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:45,530 Is that like a 19th century thing? Um, that is a good question. 514 00:49:45,540 --> 00:49:49,700 I am not a 19th century specialist, so I don't actually have a clear answer for that. 515 00:49:49,710 --> 00:49:55,850 I would suggest that at the time, there's often subtitles that are kind of added on to give these little extras. 516 00:49:55,890 --> 00:50:03,510 Um, the Glittering Plain also has a subtitle as well. So it's a sense of kind of advertising a bit more about what the text is. 517 00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:11,820 Um, but we could also link it to that tradition I mentioned about this idea of historic has these histories that are fictional. 518 00:50:11,820 --> 00:50:20,129 So Daniel Defoe was writing, um, Robinson Crusoe or More Flanders and saying a true story of this, but it's not a true story. 519 00:50:20,130 --> 00:50:23,580 So there's that kind of playing with trying to advertise what the text is. 520 00:50:23,580 --> 00:50:27,540 At the same time, I hope that helps. Potentially someone else might have a better answer than me in the room. 521 00:50:28,020 --> 00:50:28,229 Yeah. 522 00:50:28,230 --> 00:50:36,500 Just wondering if you could, um, if you had any kind of examples in mind of a modern fantasy novel that sort of has that kind of moral seriousness, 523 00:50:36,510 --> 00:50:40,310 um, sort of creative talent worked into it? Yes. 524 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:48,420 Um, so, I mean, Le Guin's Earthsea cycle, maybe not modern in the contemporary like it's not 21st century is really fascinating, 525 00:50:48,420 --> 00:50:58,140 and I highly recommend those books because she really deals with this question of mortality, immortality, um, kind of forgiveness as well. 526 00:50:58,380 --> 00:51:05,670 They're all kind of coming, tying together in the Earthsea series in terms of 21st century, I mean. 527 00:51:08,490 --> 00:51:15,600 So I don't think in terms of a religious outlook, I have yet to find one that's a truly religious one. 528 00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,390 But if someone would like to suggest some to me, that would be interesting. 529 00:51:18,540 --> 00:51:23,910 There are some interesting things being done with engaging with the moral outlook of religion from a more secular point of view, 530 00:51:24,330 --> 00:51:27,540 so we can think about the part of the orange tree which we'll hear about tomorrow. 531 00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:31,200 She really does some interesting things in terms of how myths and religions are developed. 532 00:51:31,590 --> 00:51:36,510 And there's a similar idea that comes across in Rachel Hartman's books. 533 00:51:36,510 --> 00:51:40,200 Does anyone read Rachel Hartman Hartman's it's like Serafina, Tess of the road. 534 00:51:40,470 --> 00:51:42,690 There's really recommend those there. 535 00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:49,320 Um, if you like part of the Orange Tree, read Rachel Hartman and she again is playing with the concept of saints and also dragons. 536 00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:56,250 And there's some interesting moral outlooks about logic and, um, kind of creativity and music as well in those books, too. 537 00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:04,980 So that gives a little hint. But I think basically most fantasy text you will find that sense of a moral, um, but the question of what the moral is. 538 00:52:05,460 --> 00:52:09,780 That's something that kind of working out. I'm sorry. Thank you. 539 00:52:09,780 --> 00:52:12,860 Katie. Um, a very practical question. 540 00:52:12,870 --> 00:52:18,840 Um, I love Maurice the man, but I can't stand Morris the writer, the poem, the poet. 541 00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:23,940 Um, maybe I was just unlucky. I tried several novels and didn't work. 542 00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:28,940 Is there a novel you would recommend for an absolute beginner? 543 00:52:28,950 --> 00:52:33,570 Which does not sound as if ChatGPT is trying to imitate Thomas Malory. 544 00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:38,820 So this is essentially the struggle with the archaic structures of Morris, isn't it? 545 00:52:38,850 --> 00:52:45,530 Yeah. So. And the syntax, the meandering piece, um, and and. 546 00:52:45,540 --> 00:52:49,319 Yeah. So I'm not sure if I'd have a specific one. 547 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:55,050 What I would say is I think of reading Morris a bit like reading Shakespeare in that you the first Shakespeare you read, 548 00:52:55,200 --> 00:53:01,139 you're having to look up half the words and figure out what's going on. But if you spend your time immersing with it yourself in it, 549 00:53:01,140 --> 00:53:05,730 you will gradually find that one day you're suddenly laughing at a joke that you didn't think you'd ever get. 550 00:53:06,210 --> 00:53:06,990 So with Morris, 551 00:53:06,990 --> 00:53:13,950 I think I'd say it's more you need to give yourself like an hour to sit down and start going with it and see if it starts to make sense. 552 00:53:13,950 --> 00:53:18,390 If you pick up his rhythms and then it kind of comes comes to you a bit. 553 00:53:18,870 --> 00:53:26,360 Um, I would say. Um, I'm not sure I would suggest the glitching plane is maybe the first one. 554 00:53:26,570 --> 00:53:30,000 Um, I'm trying to remember the name of the other one. 555 00:53:30,350 --> 00:53:34,309 Well, the World's End is also suggested. And then there's the word forgotten. 556 00:53:34,310 --> 00:53:40,420 The full title and some. The saying, but essentially I would say that what it is that you need to give yourself time. 557 00:53:40,430 --> 00:53:46,459 You can't expect yourself to be gripped in the first page. But if you give some set some time aside just to read it, give it a chance. 558 00:53:46,460 --> 00:53:50,300 And if you really don't like it, that's fine. It's perfectly fine. You've given it a go. 559 00:53:50,330 --> 00:53:53,440 You understand a bit of that and then you can move on. Thank you. 560 00:53:53,450 --> 00:54:01,519 This is a really fascinating talk. I just I'm wondering, picking up on the on the sort of question about contemporary fiction or fantasy fiction, 561 00:54:01,520 --> 00:54:04,840 which is dealing with these sort of proto Christian or Christian themes. 562 00:54:04,850 --> 00:54:11,570 What do you make of Susanna Clarke's sort of turn towards some of these things, especially with like Piranesi and that sort of thing? 563 00:54:11,690 --> 00:54:12,650 Do you have a thought on that? 564 00:54:13,100 --> 00:54:21,760 So that's interesting because I've, I've read Piranesi, but I'm trying to cite if I hadn't linked it with the, the Christian viewpoint. 565 00:54:21,770 --> 00:54:27,830 So do you have in mind a moment? Well, she starts the book opens with a quotation from The Magician's Nephew. 566 00:54:27,890 --> 00:54:31,810 Right. And I think in a sense, it's a broader engagement with this, 567 00:54:31,850 --> 00:54:37,190 this whole conversation about enchantment, disenchantment re enchantment, Faber and Taylor. 568 00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:45,110 Um, and then in interviews, she's sort of said fairly explicitly that she's thinking of this through that more, I think, Christian metaphysic. 569 00:54:45,290 --> 00:54:48,160 Okay. And that she's thinking especially toward future works. Yeah. 570 00:54:48,170 --> 00:54:52,700 But it's all it's she's not talked a lot about it yet, but it's I wonder if there's some of that there. 571 00:54:53,150 --> 00:54:56,780 Yeah. I think I'm only going to go back and reread Piranesi now. 572 00:54:56,810 --> 00:55:02,120 Um, I'm in the middle of Jonathan Strange. Um, the long one that I have in three volumes. 573 00:55:02,510 --> 00:55:06,649 Um, but yeah, I think that would be really interesting to go back and look. 574 00:55:06,650 --> 00:55:14,090 And I think generally in the 21st century, what with what I find, what I'm always looking for with any fiction I'm reading, if it's fantasy, 575 00:55:14,420 --> 00:55:21,560 any kind of genre, as I'm always interested in something that's dealing with religious concepts, it doesn't have to be Christian in a complex way. 576 00:55:21,590 --> 00:55:28,340 So yes, it's important to bring that secular age of critique, questioning things and the idea of where does the history, the story come from? 577 00:55:28,700 --> 00:55:33,950 But I'm also looking for something that's dealing with the complexity of a God that is incomprehensible. 578 00:55:34,220 --> 00:55:37,580 And how do we deal with that with one's personal faith and spirituality? 579 00:55:37,590 --> 00:55:41,060 So I will go and reread Piranesi now. Thank you. 580 00:55:41,570 --> 00:55:47,389 If there are no further questions, then I think I'll take pity and not ask a question myself. 581 00:55:47,390 --> 00:55:53,210 Save that for later. Thank you very much again, and thank you for coming to join us here for fantastic talk. 582 00:55:53,450 --> 00:55:53,840 Thank you.