BY: A N N I KA S A M S

S P E C I A LT O P I C S

I N A RT H U R I A N L I T E R AT U R E

S PR I N G2 0 1 3

Comparative Analysis of That Hideous Strength to The

Original Tales of the King Arthur

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Overview of That Hideous Strength

• The story line follows the scientist Mr. Elwin Ransom and his wife Jane. He is hired by a corporation called N.I.C.E. an acronym for (National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments). Bill Hingest a fellow co-worker warns Ransom to get out of N.I.C.E.

• Elwin and Jane’s marriage is deteriorating. Ransom has become the legitimate heir of Logres as the heir to King Arthur and his co-worker Hingest is mysteriously murdered.

• Jane is haunted by nightmares and so she talks to Miss. Ironwood about them. Ironwood tells her that she is having prophetic visions.

• Jane is arrested because N.I.C.E. is interested in her physic abilities.

Continued…

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• Jane dreams about men digging up the long dead Merlin

• Mark Studdock is a journalist for N.I.C.E. he is accused of murdering Hingest and he soon finds out that N.I.C.E. behind it.

• Jane guides members of N.I.C.E. to the grave of Merlin but Merlin arrives at St. Ann’s before they do.

• Ransom discovers that Merlin is possessed and has disguised himself as a Priest

• Merlin sneaks into N.I.C.E. as a language translator and curses them with the curse of Babel causing them to speak in gibberish.

• This leads to mass chaos in which the larger lab animals kill most of the members of N.I.C.E. and earthquakes destroy the buildings.

~Nice Facts~

N.I.C.E. is created by fallen eldila superior beings who manipulate humans in order destroy them and obtain the land that the humans now inhabit.

The True Leader of N.I.C.E is a man named John Wither a man who’s intellect is so deteriorated that no longer thinks for himself. He is the master puppet for the eldila.

Overview of The Tales of the Knights

Malory’s Le Mort’e d’Arthur

• The story takes place in Britain during the Reign

of King Arthur.

• Arthur proves himself to be the rightful heir to

the throne by pulling the sword out of the stone.

• He is given council by Merlin. Morgan Le Fay nearly betrays her brother Arthur after learning magic from Merlin.

• Lancelot is declared the greatest knight in the

world and Gareth proves himself on one of his quests.

• Tristan falls in love with Isolde and so he is exiled

by Mark, Isolde’s Husband.

Continued…

He wear’s a black shield as a disguise in order to see his love. He becomes best friends with Lancelot

Lancelot kills a dragon and sees the Grail but He is hoodwinked into laying with Elayne.

And that’s how Galahad came into existence…In short, Lancelot is banished.

When he returns to Camelot he brings his son who takes his place in the Sege Perilous.

Galahad is now dubbed the best knight in the world when he pulls a (cursed) sword out of a stone floating in a river.

On their quest for the Holy Grail , Launcelot, Percival, and Bors convert their ways.

At the Castle Corbenic Lancelot is seen as unworthy of the Grail.

Galahad is made a King but soon dies and Percival becomes a hermit.

…Continued…

Lancelot comes back to his love. Arthur knows about Lancelot and Guinevere but he pay no attention to it.

Aggravain and Mordred convince him to take action. Guinevere is to be burned at the stake but Lancelot rescues her and they go to the Joyous Gard.

Lancelot kills Gareth [who is unarmed] on mission to rescue Guinevere .

Lancelot is banished and Gawain seeks vengeance for his brother’s death.

Mordred gets power hungry and clams the throne and Guinevere as his wife.

Gawain prompts Arthur to fight Lancelot.

Mordred attacks the royal army.

Gawain is dealt a mortal blow and warns Arthur about the dangers of the battle if they continue to fight.

They fight on. Arthur Kills Mordred but in turn is fatally wounded just as was Merlin foresaw.

~Le Morte~

Lancelot and Guinevere die of sickness.

Constantine is now in reign.

The Knights of the Round Table are no more.

Gawain prompts Arthur to fight Lancelot .

Mordred attacks the royal army.

Gawain is dealt a mortal blow and warns Arthur about the dangers of the battle if they continue to fight.

They fight on. Arthur Kills Mordred but in turn is fatally wounded just as was Merlin foresaw.

Lancelot and Guinevere die of sickness. Constantine is now in reign.

The Knights of the Round Table are no more.

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Similarities

First of all the Arthurian society is run by those trying to do the best for the greater good and the leaders of N.I.C.E in ‘That Hideous Strength’ may have had good intentions but they seemed to have missed the mark and, in turn, created a greater evil. Often times the Knights of the Round Table have noble ideals but their pride gets the best of them when they think more about how they look rather than what is right or wrong.

Elements of magic are in both narratives with Merlin’s Prophecies in the original and with Jane’s foreshadowing night mares.

Like Arthur and Guinevere Mark and Jane suffer from a deteriorating marriage.

Hardcastle, a villainous woman, is called the ‘Fairy’. In both the Arthurian narrative and C.S. Lewis’ novel fairies are seen as evil, mischievous characters. Morgan La Fay for example is an evil which is associated with the Fay in the Arthurian narrative.

Both narratives contain religious ideas. In the end of Mort Darthur when Guinevere and Lancelot become followers of God they sacrifice their love for one another in order to serve God and gain their redemption. That Hideous Strength smuggles theology with…

…more similarities

Ransom tames a bear much like one of the Knights tames a lion in Tennyson's The Knight and the Lion.

Both are thought to be Kings of the animal Kingdoms this parallel appears to deal with man’s relation to

The bear ends up destroying the undead ‘head’ they use to communicate with the

Differences

There are many differences between The Arthurian Legend and ‘That Hideous Strength’. For example the Arthurian narrative does not take place in a dystopian society like ‘That Hideous Strength’ does. Lewis’ story takes place from the perspective of Mark the scientist and Jane his wife the scholar while the Arthurian text is from the perspective of the Kings and the Court of the Round Table. This narrative varies from the plot of the Knights of the Round Table because though the Knights were educated they were not as scholarly. They believed that reading was too tedious of a task for the upper class.

Conclusion

Since these two stories are in different eras and different places there are many basic differences. There are, however, surprisingly many similarities between the two stories despite the futuristic space landscape of ‘That Hideous Strength’ and the historical context of the original Arthurian text.

Original Arthurian text and C.S. Lewis’ novel ‘That Hideous Strength’ have similarities in overarching themes that are more powerful than the context of the stories. The themes and plot similarities are clear but the differences of ‘That Hideous Strength’ compared to the original Arthurian narrative are a refreshing twist on a classic story that has stayed alive down through the centuries.

"It was [for the Narnians] as if King Arthur came back to Britain, as some people say he will. And I say the sooner the better." -C.S. Lewis,

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

Annotated Bibliography

Lewis, C.S. That Hideous Strength. The Bodley Head, 1945. Print.A young Scientist Mark Studdock and his scholarly wife Jane find themselves dealing with the N.I.C.E. incorporation. This

story deals with his work and her prophetic nightmares and the deterioration of their marriage. Jane is arrested by N.I.C.E. so that they can observe her psychic abilities. Mark leaves N.I.C.E. but is arrested. Merlin is possessed by the Oyéresu and he releases the curse of babel causing all to speak gibberish. Mass chaos brakes out most of N.I.C.E. is killed.

Lewis, C.S. Out of the Silent Planet. John Lane, 1938. Print.Dr. Elwin Ransom a philologist is drugged by Lord Feverstone and finds himself in a spacecraft in the way to Malacandra.

He is going to be a sacrifice but he plans to escape with a knife. He stays at Hyoi's village and learns the language and culture. One of Lord Feverstones subordinates is shot dead by him for not following orders. Ransom and Augray escape to Oyarsa. Earth being the Silent planet has succumbed to evil and is under war and is in danger of emanate peril. Weston and Ransom make it home to earth and they are ‘unbodied.’ Ransom obeys Oyarsa orders and

Lewis, C.S. Perelandra. The Bodley Head, 1943. Print.This is in the trilogy of “Out of the Silent Planet” and “That Hideous Strength.” It takes place years after Out of the Silent

planet. Ransom travels to Venus and encourters evil then returns to earth.Monmouth, Geoffrey Arthurian Passages from the History of the King of Britain

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/geofhkb.htmThese passages cover Geoffrey Monmouth’s works dealing with the Arthurian legend. It covers the evil plots of Vortigern

and how Merlin came to be established in the Kingdom along with many other details.Christopher, Joe R. “C.S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay.” Inklings Forever 8 (2012)

www.taylor.edu/cslewisThis work compares C.S. Lewis’ works to that of other Arthurian works. It analyses these works as well.  Downing, David C. Plants in Peril: A Crtical Study of C.S. Lewis's Ranson Trilogy. Amherst: The University of

Massachusetts Press, 1992. N. pag. Print.  Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur. (A Norton Critical Edition). Ed. Shepherd, Stephen H. A. (2004). New York: W. W. Norton.

ISBN 0-393-97464-2.