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As I read through the “Book of Centuries” in the 2024 Literary Life Podcast Reading Challenge, some thoughts to share regarding mythology and the Ancient World. My knowledge of mythology before this year was limited (and far more familiarity with J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology), and so I recently read two works of mythology: Stephen Fry’s Mythos (most of it anyway) and Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology.
It has often been said that both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien borrowed heavily from Norse mythology, and indeed some elements of it are familiar, such as the basic existence of elves and dwarves–though with very little mention especially of elves. The dwarves are somewhat familiar, though, with their focus on their work in the mines and the making of things from the Earth’s natural resources. The role of Loki in Norse mythology, as revealed in later stories, reminded me a lot of Melkor/Morgoth in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.
The stronger, direct influences of mythology that I notice, however, are in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia –and not surprisingly, since it was Lewis’ use of mythological characters, with unexpected characteristics, that Tolkien so disliked in his reading of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It is in Narnia that we find the nymphs and Dryads, Naiads, Centaurs, Fauns, and many more legendary talking creatures, and even appearances from the Greek and Roman mythical characters Bacchus and Father Time. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of all the mythological characters in Chronicles of Narnia, including Lewis’ own creation such as the Marsh-wiggles. In Narnia, these characters are not even restricted to the background. In The Last Battle we actually see a Dryad dying (true to their nature within Greek mythology) as her tree has been cut down (along with many other Dryads and their trees) due to the Ape / False Aslan’s radical environmental destruction.
Norse mythology also tells about an evil wolf character, from which came C.S. Lewis’ Fenris Ulf, Captain of the Secret Police, at least in earlier editions of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, including the paperback edition I have from the late 1980s. Over the years I have also heard this character called by a different name, Maugrim, and this Wikipedia entry explains the history of the names that Lewis used. It was for the earlier American editions that Lewis supplied the name Fenris Ulf; the BBC version, as well as American printings since 1994, use a different name of Maugrim.
One surprise I found near the end of Norse Mythology, in the description of Ragnarok, the eschatology within Norse mythology. The description of the future end times is remarkably similar to that of the Christian view as seen in Revelation and similar passages in the Bible, such as texts that describe signs in the sky, disasters such as earthquakes, fire, flooding and seas rising, and death of many creatures, and even the disappearance of the moon and the stars. Even more interesting, is a description of the last days including a never-ending winter — another vivid reminder of the 100 years of winter, the spell cast on Narnia by the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe:
It will begin with the winter. This will not be a normal winter. The winter will begin, and it will continue, winter following winter. There will be no spring, no warmth. People will be hungry and they will be cold and they will be angry.
. . .
This will be the time of the terrible winter that will not end, the Fimbulwinter. There will be snow driving in from all directions, fierce winds, and cold colder than you have ever imagined cold could be, an icy cold so cold your lungs will ache when you breathe, so cold that the tears in your eyes will freeze. There will be no spring to relieve it, no summer, no autumn. Only winter, followed by winter, followed by winter.
C.S. Lewis’ version of this includes some apocalyptic references, though toned down for a children’s book: the evil white witch has put a curse upon Narnia, so that it is always winter; always winter and never Christmas, and the land has been under this eternal winter for a long time. (Though never explicitly mentioned in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, we learn from other writings and the Narnian chronology that this winter lasted for 100 years.) Yet directly connected with this cursed winter, are prophecies that must be fulfilled, prophecies associated with Aslan and that will put an end to the winter and usher in a new golden age, a utopia.
It is so interesting to learn of all of these associations and connections between Norse mythology and the Chronicles of Narnia, including the unending winter of Ragnarok in Norse mythology.
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