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MYTHPRINT

Reviews Quarterly of the Mythopoeic SocietyVOL. 50 NO. 2 SUMMER2013 WHOLENO. 367


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MYTHPRINTReviews Quarterly of the Mythopoeic Society

VOL. 50 NO. 2 SUMMER2013 WHOLENO. 367

FEATURESA Scream About Landscape: Topographic Romance and

Cartographic RomanceAlan Garner vs. J.R.R. Tolkien.By Dale Nelson .......................................................... 4

The Ancient Gondorian Tongue.By Damien Bador ...................................................... 7

Cover Art: The House of Tom Bombadilby Jef Murray. Jef Murray. http://www.jefmurray.com

REVIEWSNancy Marie Brown. The Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the

Making of Norse Myths. Reviewed byErnie Davis .................................................................... 3

Delia Sherman. The Freedom Maze. Reviewed byPauline J. Alama ............................................................ 6

Theatre Review: Freuds Last Session. San Jose RepertoryTheatre. Reviewed by David Bratman ...................... 9

Lev Grossman. The Magicians. Reviewed byAlana Joli Abbott........................................................ 11

Reviews, discussion group reports, news items, letters,art work, and other submissions for Mythprintare alwayswelcome. In return for printed pieces, contributors whoare not already subscribers will receive an electroniccopy of the issue in which the item appears.Contributors who are already subscribers will notreceive an additional copy. Please contact the editor fordetails on format, or send materials to:

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Mythprint is the quarterly review of the MythopoeicSociety, a nonprofit educational organization devoted tothe study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasyliterature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests,the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a WorldWide Web site, and sponsors the annual MythopoeicConference and awards for fiction and scholarship, aswell as local discussion groups.

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ISSN 0146-9347, 2012 The Mythopoeic Society

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Nancy Marie Brown. The Song of the Vikings: Snorriand the Making of Norse Myths. Palgrave Macmillan,2012. xi + 244 pp., $27.00 (hardcover). Reviewedby Ernie Davis.

Most of what we know about the pantheon

of Norse gods and their mythologycomes from a single poem: the Edda, by the Ice-landic poet Snorri Sturluson (11791241). Snorri isthus one of the greatest and most influential trans-mitters of myth in the Western tradition. NancyMarie Browns new biography The Song of the Vi-kings is a intriguing account of his life and thetimes he lived in, and of his work, its cultural set-ting, and its long, profound impact on Westernculture from Thomas Gray to Grimm, Wagner,

Tolkien, and many others.One thinks of a Viking as an intrepid adven-

turer, like the explorers who sailed to Iceland,Greenland, and Vinland, and the pirates who ter-rorized the coasts of Europe and the Mediterrane-an; a strong, fierce, proud, laconic warrior, whoaccepts death fearlessly when it comes, in the be-lief of going off to eternal feasting and battle in

Valhalla; either an indomitable hero or the scourgeof Hell, depending on which side of his battle-axeyou were standing on.

Snorri was not that kind of Viking. For onething, he was born too late; the great age of the

Viking explorers and the worship of the Norse

gods had both ended more than a century beforehis birth. For another thing, it was not at all hisstyle. According to Nancy Marie Brown, Heavoided fights, unless he and his men vastly out-numbered his enemies. He was a very successful,powerful, rich man with many estates. He wastwice elected lawspeaker in the Icelandic parlia-ment, the highest political position in Iceland,(Iceland at the time was independent and had noking, and the Icelanders were resolutely deter-mined to keep it so.) He met his death unheroical-ly: he was hiding in his cellar from a gang of thugssent by his enemies; they found him; his last

words were Dont strike!.In 1218 he sailed to Norway, where he stayed

for two years. This was both the high point of hiscareer and the seed of his undoing. He travelledaround Norway, learning geography and historythat he would use in his history of Norway, theHeimskringla. He was a guest at the court of KingHkon Hkonarson and the regent Jarl Skli.

And, fatally, he achieved a great ambition; theking made him a landed man, a baron, a rarehonor. There are two mysteries about this. First,

where was his fiefdom; a new estate in Norway, orjust his old estates in Iceland? Second, and moreimportantly, what was the quid pro quo; what did he

promise the king in exchange? No one knows; butwhen he returned to Iceland in 1220, he was wide-ly suspected of having sold out his country to theKing of Norway.

From then until his death twenty years later,his story is a dreary tale of gradual decline; ofgreed, quarrels, betrayals, agreements made andbroken, daughters unhappily married off for hisown advantage, and endless, endless violence ofthe most sordid kind, with no trace of heroism ornobility. Snorri seems to have been shrewd butnot wise; he was greedy and vindictive when he

should have been generous and magnanimous; hetrusted the wrong people; he made enemies withevery move. In 1237 he fled from his own nephewSturla to Norway, now an unwanted fugitive ra-ther than an honored poet. In 1239 he returned toIceland, against the express command of the kingof Norway, thinking that he saw an opportunity toregain his position. He was murdered in 1241.

He was also the greatest writer of the medie-val Norse world. There are three major works at-tributed to Snorri: the Edda(often called the ProseEddato distinguish it from the Poetic Edda, an ear-

lier work); the Heimskringla, a long (800 page) his-tory of the Norse kings in 16 sections; and EgilsSaga, one of the earliest and best of the Icelandicsagas, with a narrative spanning generations of

wild, heroic, Viking warriors and derring-do.TheEddaitself consists of three sections fol-

lowing a Prologue. The first section, Tricking ofGylfi (Gylfaginnining) is the important part (forus); it is the whole history of the Norse gods, fromthe Creation to Ragnarok. Here is the source often the only source of the familiar tales ofOdin, Thor, Loki, Freya, Baldur and the rest thathave enchanted centuries of readers, told with

drama and often with ironic humor. The last sec-tion, the Tally of Verse Forms (Httatal) is amanual for the understanding and writing ofskaldic poetry, the most prestigious literary formof the time. The middle section, the Language ofPoetry (Skldskaparml) is an explanation of thekennings used in the Tally of Verse Forms, andcontains some further myths. According to


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Brown, these three sections were composed in theopposite order. The Prologue is a boring frame,added to make these tales of pagan gods accepta-ble to a Christian audience.

Poets had great honor and respect in Norseculture; and it was universally acknowledged that

the best poets were Icelandic. Skaldic poetry wasdifficult, highly cryptic and allusive. Heres a literaltranslation of one of Snorris own verses: Thenoble hater of the fire of the sea defends the

woman-friend of the enemy of the wolf; prows areset before the steep brow of the confidante of thefriend of Mimir. The noble, all-powerful oneknows how to protect the mother of the attackerof the worm; enjoy, enemy of neck-rings, themother of the troll-wifes enemy until old age.

The audience needs to know five myths and thefamily trees of two gods or its nonsense. What

does it mean? A good king defends and keeps hisland (p. 113).

Skaldic poetry was also very rigid in form. In apraise poem, a stanza had eight lines, a line had sixsyllables with three stresses, and there were furtherrules governing rhythm, assonance, and allitera-tion. It has little appeal for modern readers, and

was starting to go out of fashion even in Snorristime; the king of Norway, who was educated inFrench culture, had no taste for it.

The Song of the Vikings weaves together thetales of the Norse gods, the life and works of

Snorri Sturluson, and the history, society, and liter-ary culture of 13th-century Iceland and Norwayinto a rich, colorful fabric. Nancy Marie Brownsearlier books A Good Horse Has No Color, TheFar Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, and TheAbacus and the Cross(a biography of Pope SylvesterII)demonstrated her love for the land and cul-ture of Iceland, her knowledge of the medieval

world, and her gift for making that world comealive for the modern reader. The Song of the Vikingsis both highly readable and impeccably scholarly,

with extensive end notes, bibliography, map, andfamily tree. It is a fascinating introduction to this

remarkable man and his world, a remote corner ofthe medieval world more alien to most modernreaders than medieval England or western Europe,and much less well known. Anyone with an inter-est in the great myths and the great mythmakers

will want to read it.

A Scream About Landscape: Topographic Romanceand Cartographic RomanceAlan Garner vs. J.R.R.Tolkien. By Dale Nelson.

To help focus some discussions of modernliterary romance, I offer a couple of terms.A topographic romance is a fictional roman-

tic adventure story set in a specific real-world lo-cale. The reader feels that the author was passion-ate about the setting. Alan Garners The Weirdstone

of Brisingamen (1960) and its sequel The Moon ofGomrath (1963) are particularly good examples.You can trace the journey ofWeirdstones two pro-tagonists using a British Ordnance Survey map(Macclesfield and Alderley Edge, 1:25 000). Ad-mirers of these books visit Alderley Edge and postonline photos of their walks. Other examples areRichard Adamss Watership Down (1972) and ThePlague Dogs (1977). As an authors references toidentifiable landmarks, such as particular moun-tains, lakes, and villages, decrease in frequency andemphasis, the applicability of the termtopographic romance becomes less sure. Is

Robert Louis Stevensons Scottish Highlands ad-venture Kidnapped(1886) a topographic romance?

A second issue is: how fantastic must the ad-ventures be, for the story to qualify as a topo-graphic romance? The Garner books are filled

with creatures drawn from folklore, the Arthurianmyth, etc. Adamss books are not, but they remainfantasies in that the animal protagonists think and


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speak like humans. The Stevenson book is a thrill-er with no outright fantastic elements. Lets dis-qualify it.

To the definition in the second sentenceabove, I would, then, add that the topographicromance at least tends strongly towards fantasy.

The freedom afforded by fantasy allows an authorto visualize and embody elements that he or shemay feel to inhere in the real landscape as visi-ble, conscious presences. A thriller with well-described real locales, such as a spy novel set in ameticulously-rendered Warsaw, may owe some-thing to topography and atmosphere, but wouldnot be a topographic romance, if my suggestion isaccepted. I imagine that the writing of topographicromances reflects a common type of reverie in

which an observer imagines where he or shewould hide if pursued in a particular place, etc.

This seems to be a natural mental activity.A cartographic romance may be defined as

a fictional romantic adventure story set in an imag-inary world that is developed with great care, cer-tainly including meticulous maps. The reader feelshere, too, as with the topographic romance, thatthe author is passionate about the setting. Tol-kiens The Lord of the Ringsis the outstanding exam-ple. I will assume that the map(s) for a cartograph-ic romance must be relatively detailed and (N.B.)must not suggest improvisation, after-the-factelaboration undertaken in a bid to muster up an

unearned convincingness. Im aware that Tolkientinkered with the Middle-earth map after LotRwaspublished; there are additions in the PaulineBaynes map as a result. But I dont think thesestrike us as bogus, whimsical gestures. They seemrather like valuable further disclosures of that dis-tant world though we know always that it isindeed imaginary.

The mere presence of a map doesnt make abook a cartographic romance. Collections of Clark

Ashton Smiths weird stories about Zothique, Po-seidonis, Xiccarph, etc. in the 1970s includedmaps (drawn, I think, by Ballantine editor Lin

Carter). These stories are not cartographic ro-mances. Smiths geography is vague; in this as inother respects, his fiction is remote indeed from

Tolkiens. What about Robert E. Howards mapof the Hyborean world? My feeling is that Howardhad some interest in conjuring the sense of a van-ished geography, but that, just as his plotting inthe Conan stories is often slapdash, his Hyborean

world is largely concocted from scraps of popularfiction, bits of history, and so on, his pseudo-historical Hyborean Age essay notwithstanding.

The Conan stories shouldnt be considered carto-graphic romances. However, cartographic ro-mance needs to be a story of adventure, not

political intrigue or a story of manners. I haventread Austin Tappan Wrights Islandia. Is it a carto-graphic romance? I imagine that cartographic ro-mancing may proceed from a common activity,the making of home-made maps of real or imag-ined locales. It is probably psychologically akin tothe making of new languages. Tolkien, of course,did both.

Discussion of works of fantasy as topographicromances or cartographic romances may open upconsideration of matters such as these:

Tolkien is the worlds best-known creator of a

secondary world, but he is on record as relatingdifferent places in it to real-world places, e.g. as in

John Ezards profile for the Guardiannewspaper,or the well-known remark about Bombadil as thespirit of the vanishing Oxford and Berkshirecountryside, etc. Consider, then, how imaginary

worlds could be precipitations of an authorsexperience of real locations. Consider, however,how readers of LotR from early on have relatedMiddle-earth scenes to real places known to thembut not to Tolkien, or have related scenes they arebeholding to their reading of the book That

looks like the Shire! This experience is relevant tothe very large and important topic of Tolkiensrole in the emerging concern for nature and forheritage sites. And one may consider also the fail-ure of Tolkienian artwork that depends on artistsphoto files! These are all matters that could be

worthy of discussion.The authors palette of styles does the au-

thor use varying styles to evoke distinctive sensesof different places? How well does the author of acartographic romance succeed in telling a storyrather than in suggesting indulgence in a day-dreamy evocation of a never-never land? In a giv-

en topographic romance, do authentic historical,geographic, geologic, etc. elements of a real loca-tion receive use, or transmutation, or are they con-

veniently ignored?Was the development of the topographic ro-

mance and the cartographic romance stimulated,in part, by major mapping endeavors (see RachelHewittsMap of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance


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Survey) and also the popularity of travel writing inthe past 200 years? Is it important to record (withphotographs, oral histories, etc.) details about areal location for the sake of the enjoyment of atopographic romance, as Richard Blackham is do-ing for Tolkien? If fewer and fewer children are

growing up with experience of the outdoors (LastChild), does this have implications for the fu-ture of literary romance?

I well remember the experience, having readTolkien, of wanting to read more fantasy that wassomehow akin to his work. Does thinking aboutthese two terms open up the possibility that read-ers wanting more might find satisfaction not ingenre fantasy that lacks a strong sense of place,but in literary works possessing a strong sense ofplace even if lacking the element of outright fanta-sy? My own experience is that I cant stand to read

a great deal of the stuff published as fantasy, butthat I do enjoy many of the books published inthe Penguin Travel Library (in the 1980s) and byother publishers. See Note below. Should discus-sion groups that have focused on fantasy set asidea meeting to discuss, instead, something like fanta-sist William Morriss Icelandic Journalsor Eric New-bys delicious Slowly Down the Ganges?

What are the implications, with regard to thetwo categories, for illustrations?

Is there evidence to suggest that a given ro-mance, or the development of either or both of

these categories, was affected by the authors ownexperiences, including but not limited to his or hertravels? Sometimes an author is on record in theaffirmative. Alan Garner said that Weirdstone andMoonwere a kind of scream about landscape.This suggests that Garner had come to feel thatthere was personalemotional or imaginativematerial, relating to the landscape he described,that he had not fully assimilated to the purposes ofthe story. Whether a failing like this appears to agiven reader to have occurred in a given topo-graphic romance could be a topic for discussion.

This paper attempts to contribute to conver-

sations about modern fantastic romance. Perhapsrefinements of these concepts, and new ones, canbe proposed.

Notes:

John Ezard: www.guardian.co.uk/books/1991/dec/28/jrrtolkien.classics

Garner on scream about landscape: Interviewwith Justin Wintle in The Pied Pipers: Interviews withthe Influential Creators of Childrens Literature (1974),p. 226.

For Mythprintreaders who are curious about travel

books, here are some further suggestions: EricNewbys A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush; PatrickLeigh Fermors A Time of Gifts; Graham GreenesJourney Without Maps; Heinrich Harrers Seven Yearsin Tibet; Francis Parkmans The Oregon Trail; LordDufferins Letters from High Latitudes; AlexanderKinglakes Eothen. I have written about MorrissIcelandic Journals in William Morris at Home and

Abroad for Beyond Bree Jan. 2008: 13. AsExtollager, I have posted many entries at theScience Fiction and Fantasy Chronicles site, in theForums section, under the Penguin Travel Li-

brary and Other Literary Travel Books thread,where a list now approaching completion? of titles in the PTL series may be found. My papercontending that The Hobbitmay be usefully consid-ered in the context of contemporary nonfiction isThere and Back Again: The Hobbitand Other TravelBooks of the 1930s inMallorn#51, Spring 2011.

Delia Sherman. The Freedom Maze. Big MouthHouse, 2011. 258 pp. (softcover). Reviewed by

Pauline J. Alama.

Thirteen-year-old Sophie is still reeling fromher parents divorce a shocking event in1960 Louisiana when her mother deposits herat her grandmothers house for the summer.Grandmama Fairchild lives in an antebellum cot-tage on what was once the Fairchild family sugarplantation, where she tyrannizes her living rela-tives and cherishes stories of the familys gloriouspast before its downfall in the War Between theStates.

Worn out by her grandmothers and mothers

criticism, Sophie wishes that, like the heroes of herfavorite books, she could escape from present-dayreality, travel in time, and have magical adventures.She gets more than she bargained for: through the

whim of a trickster who may be Brer Rabbit, shetravels 100 years back in time and sees her ances-tors plantation in its supposed glory days.

Nothing, however, is as she expected. Arriv-ing in 1860 muddy and disheveled, Sophie appears


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to her Fairchild forebears not as anequal, but as a light-skinned slave. Theclosest anyone in 1860 comes to iden-tifying Sophie as white is when a fellowslave observes that she could pass for

white. Even Sophies characteristic

Fairchild features dont win her a placeas an honored guest. Pronouncing herthe daughter of the masters brother,

who has just run off to France with hisblack lover, they make her a maid toOld Missy, her putative grandmother.In a world where a slaveholder canliterally own his child or half-sister,slavery is good old-fashioned family

values.Much of Sophies journey is impressively re-

searched, realistic historical fiction. However, The

Freedom Mazealso incorporates mythic elements inSophies visionary encounters with the West Afri-can Orishas. In addition, Sophies effort to under-stand her adventure in terms of the books she hasread links The Freedom Maze to a long tradition ofchildrens fantasy.

Sherman deftly weaves the layers of the storytogether so that Sophies problems in her 1960 lifeare paralleled in 1860. In both eras, the girls fatherhas abandoned her to the tyranny of her grand-mother. The defensive secrecy she learned in deal-ing with her bossy grandmother and mother in

1960 help her adapt to life as a literal slave of herancestor. Indeed, she finds Old Missy warmer to-ward her than her own grandmother in 1960, untilthe false accusations of a spoiled belle exile So-phie from house servitude to the dangers of thecane fields and the sugar house.

Sherman does not flinch from depicting thecruelties of slavery, even under a relatively goodmaster, or the unthinking cruelty of twentieth-century racism. Sophie begins the story certain ofher superior place in a world where black and

white are clear and separate; by the end of the sto-ry, nothing is clear, least of all Sophies place in

the world. And yet in that upheaval, Sophie findsfreedom. She returns to 1960 stronger and betterequipped to deal with the injustices of her owntime, including those within her family. Ultimately,this rich story of bondage and freedom travelstoward a hopeful message for young readers seek-ing the course of their own lives. I recommend ithighly for readers aged 11 to adult.

The Ancient Gondorian Tongue.By Damien Bador.

Arnach, if the above explanation is accept-ed, is not then related toArnen. Its originand source are in that case now lost. It was

generally called in Gondor Lossarnach.Loss is Sindarin for snow, especiallyfallen and long-lying snow. For what reasonthis was prefixed to Arnach is unclear. Itsupper valleys were renowned for their flowers,and below them there were great orchards,from which at the time of the War of theRing much of the fruit needed in MinasTirith still came.

Vinyar Tengwarno 42 Rivers and beacon-hills of Gondor

The tongues spoken in Gondor and its surround-ing regions before the return of Nmenreans toMiddle-earth are poorly documented. Beside thetongue spoken by Tal-Elmars tribe, which hasbeen studied by Roman Rausch,1 there must haveexisted at least another one. It is only attestedthrough a few proper names, mostly toponyms.

The Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings (LR)quotes most of them:

A few were of forgotten origin, and descended doubtlessfrom days before the ships of the Nmenreans sailedthe Sea; among these were

Umbar,

Arnachand

Erech; and the mountain-names Eilenach andRimmon. Forlong was also a name of the samesort.

To this list we can add Eilenaer, the ancient nameof Halifirien (UT, III/3, Cirion and Eorl, n. 51;

VT 42, p. 19.),Erelas, another beacon-hill of Gon-dor (VT 42, p. 19), Lamedon, a Gondorian regionnear Erech (ibid., p. 17) and Adorn, a tributary ofIsen (ibid., p. 8, 15).2 It is worth mentioning thatexcept for Umbar, all these names are close to theEred Nimrais.3 Maybe could we call this tongue

Ancient Nimraic? No published explanation byTolkien explains the history of this language. Ofcourse, we know that Isildur is said to havebrought the Stone of Erech from Nmenor. Itmight thus seem strange that it bears a name nei-ther Elvish nor Adnaic. It is however possiblethat Erech was the name of this location beforeIsildur brought the Stone, or that the name was


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given when the local king swore allegiance toGondor against Sauron (LR, V/2).

In both cases, this name would be closely as-sociated to the Men of the Mountains, whoseShadow Host still dwelt under Dwimorberg at theend of the Third Age. It is likely that other An-

cient Gondorian names had the same origin, Um-bar excepted. This is only a hypothesis, though,since onlyEilenachandEilenaerare explicitly relat-ed (UT, III/3, Cirion and Eorl, n. 51; VT 42, p.19). We do not know when Ancient Gondorianceased to be in use, but it might have happened atthe same time as the dwindling of the Men of theMountains, at the beginning of the Third Age. Itdoes not seem likely that Nmenreans were everinterested in that tongue, since no information isavailable regarding the meaning of the few attested

Ancient Gondorian names. Despite this ignorance,

it seems that the cohabitation went relatively well,based on the number of original toponyms keptby the Nmenreans. The name Forlongeven sug-gests that intermarriage was not unheard of.

Appendix F of LR suggests a link betweenDunlendings and the Men of the Mountains. Thismight suggest that Ancient Gondorian was relatedto Halethian, the tongue of the People of Halethin the First Age (PM, p. 314). Indeed, it seems thatmost Nmenrean immigrants did not understand

Ancient Gondorian,4 which means that it was notrelated to Hadorian (UT, II/2, n. 3; PM, p. 314).

Even if the phonology of the Ancient Gondoriancorpus does not seen to fit very well with Hale-thian, both corpus are too small for a salient com-parison. Besides, Tolkien mentions that most An-cient Gondorian toponyms had been altered to fitSindarin phonology, like Eilenach, better speltEilienach, as In true Sindarin eilencould only bederived from *elyen, *alyen, and would normally be

written eilien. (VT 42, p. 19) Several other names,such as Erech(L, no 297), Adorn(VT 42, p. 8, 15)or Erelas (VT 42, p. 19) are adapted to Sindarinphonology, though they have no meaning in thattongue. The same goes probably for Rimmon, since

onlyEilenachandEilenaerare confirmed to be Pre-Nmenrean names (VT 42, p. 19). Unfortunate-ly, we do not know the original forms for thesemodified names.

Nmenreans also appended Sindarin ele-ments to local names, as in Lossarnach (from S. losssnow, especially fallen and long-lying snow;VT42, p. 18),Min-rimmon (S. minpeak; UT, Index)

and Belfalas (S. falas shore). This last case wasquite peculiar, since belis also Sindarin, and proba-bly related to S. beleglarge, great, big. Accordingto Tolkiens latest (and unfinished) explanation,this element came from Sindar who fled the de-struction of Beleriand and settled not far from

Dol Amroth (VT 42, p. 16; PE 17, p. 115). Notranslation of Ancient Gondorian names is pro-

vided, so we cannot say much about their mean-ing. Since Tolkien mentions that both Eilenachand Eilenaer were noticeable mountains of theEred Nimrais (ibid., p. 19), it is quite likely that theeilen(a)-element meant mountain. On the otherhand, Tolkien warns, Suggestions of the histori-ans of Gondor that arn- is an element in some pre-Numenorean language meaning rock is merely aguess. (ibid., p. 17) Indeed, Arnach designated thehilly region between Celos and Erui, which was no

rockier than other valleys of the Ered Nimrais(ibid.). No final explanation is provided for thename of the Stone of Erech, though Tolkien pro-

vides some insight into what inspired him for thisname.5

Chronological notesWe can find older versions of Ancient Gondoriannames in the drafts ofThe Lord of the Rings. How-ever, it is not possible to determine whether Tol-kien already considered them Pre-Nmenrean.Before being the name of a lord of Gondor, For-

longwas Gandalfs name in the South, laterchanged to Fornold, and subsequently to Incnus(WR, p. 153). In the published book, it becameIncnus, later explained as a Quenya name (LR,IV/5; UT, IV/2 The Istari). Before the order ofthe Beacon-hills was changed, Dradan Forest wasnamed Taur-rimmon, derived from its main emi-nence (WR, p. 350). The Havens of Umbar wereinitially named Umbor(WR, p. 243244).

Belfalaswas considered as a mixed compoundfor some time. Tolkien envisioned that bel- (also

written Bl) was a Pre-Nmenrean element,meaning coast and designating the region of

Dor-en-Ernil. Belfalaswould then have been tauto-logical. This explanation was revised when Tolkiendecided that the Bel-element was in fact Sindarin(VT 42, p. 1516).

1Roman Rausch, Tal-Elmar and the Drughutongue, Sindanri, November 2005, retrieved at:http://www.sindanoorie.net/art/Drughu.html
http://www.tolkiendil.com/tolkien/biblio/vthttp://www.tolkiendil.com/tolkien/biblio/vthttp://www.sindanoorie.net/art/Drughu.htmlhttp://www.sindanoorie.net/art/Drughu.htmlhttp://www.sindanoorie.net/art/Drughu.htmlhttp://www.tolkiendil.com/tolkien/biblio/vt


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2 Tolkien also wondered whether the hills ofArnen, on the Eastern side of Anduin, could havea name related to Arnach, but finally decided thatthis had to be debased Sindarin;VT 42, p. 1718.

3 Forlong the Fat was lord of Lossarnach, aGondorian region bearing a name whose roots

were Pre-Nmenreans.4 See the rejected text on VT 42, p. 15.

5 In L, no 297, Tolkien explains that the Elvishroot ER one, single, alone was probably his im-mediate source of inspiration, even if he ultimatelydecided that the name had no Elvish origin. Headmits that he knew the name of the Biblical cityErech, but denies that it might have influenced hischoosing the name for The Lord of the Rings.

Theatre Review: Freuds Last Session, by Mark St.Germain, directed by Stephen Wrentmore, pre-sented by the San Jose Repertory Theatre. Perfor-mance at the Hammer Theatre, October 14, 2012.Reviewed by David Bratman.

This is a what if? historical play about C.S.Lewis. It was inspired by Armand M. Nicho-lis bookThe Question of God(reviewed inMythprintin May 2002), which contrasts the theological andphilosophical views of Lewis and Sigmund Freud.

Well, after Austria was annexed by the Nazis in1938, Freud moved to London, where he lived for

16 months until his death from cancer. What if heand Lewis had met then, and expressed their op-posing views in person?

The conceit of this play is that Freud had readsomething of Lewiss it turns out not to mattermuch what and asked to meet him. So Lewis

comes to visit Freud in his consulting room inLondon on, as it happens, the very day war againstGermany is declared in September 1939. The playcovers the extent of Lewiss visit and takes ninetyminutes without intermission. There are no othercharacters except interjections by announcers andspeechmakers when Freud several times turns theradio on briefly to check the news, and a little off-stage barking by Freuds dog.

Its up to the playwright and the actors tomake the often rarified discussion interesting. St.Germain is a professional dramatist, not a scholar,

and he has a good dramatists skill with dialogueand dramatic flow as the discussion turns fromtopic to topic. It feels real without being as boringas reality usually is. And he has read widely inLewiss work, and I presume also in Freuds. Ideasthat Lewis expressed in Mere Christianity, Surprisedby Joy, and even an obscure essay on church musicshow up without any sense that he is just mouth-ing his books, a flaw that Shadowlands does notentirely avoid. The concomitant flaw is that it maynot always feel as if its Lewis whos talking.

Lewis and Freud exchange ideas in much the

same way as did the Inklings, for whom, as OwenBarfield wrote, opposition is true friendship.Within a framework of personal sympathy andunderstandingparticularly Lewiss towards theexiled and mortally ill Freud, while Freud is inter-ested in exploring and understanding Lewiss ideas

they range from quiet conversation (hardly anysmall talk, which Lewis hated, but a few jokes)to stringent accusations. St. Germains Lewis isstraightforward, and uses none of the real Lewisssly debating tricks, like beginning, When I was anatheist About the existence of God, at whichthey are at fundamental odds, each angrily accuses

the other of living in a personally-motivated deni-al, until Freud cuts the knot by saying that if Lewisis right, they will someday find out, and if Freud isright, they never will.

Thats only one of several accelerating clashesof ideas that occur throughout the play. None ofthem is ever resolvedhow can they be? Philos-ophers have disputed them for centuries and


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St. Germain avoids impasse by interrupting almostall of them with a phone call, a radio an-nouncement, a false alarm of an air raid (whichactually happened in real life), or an attack of painfrom Freuds cancer. After which the conversationmoves on to something else. Only in the direct

clash on God, which occurs near the end, do theysimply shake hands and agree to disagree.

Lewiss ideas are so securely expressed that itdidnt bother me that theyre paraphrases and notgiven in Lewiss distinctive style. The suggestionthat hes a bit humble before the famous Dr.Freud is nicely expressed at the beginning, whenhe rather embarrassedly babbles an apology forthe caricature of Freud in The Pilgrims Regress. Butthat is context-setting, and Freud is in no othersense caricatured here. Its the only moment in theplay, apart from his panic at helping Freud after a

vicious attack of pain, when Lewis is at any lossfor words. Freud brushes the apology off; hesbeen caricatured many times, and as for Lewissbook, he hasnt read it.

I only felt departed from a believable Lewis ata couple places where Freud gets him to discussthings that even a real psychoanalyst couldnt havegotten Lewis to speak of: his emotional feelings inbattle in World War I (in Surprised by Joy, Lewissays only that he had felt detached, as if he werereading about it), and his relationship with Mrs.Moore, which even his brother couldnt get him to

talk about. St. Germains Lewis says nothing aboutthis that we dont know for sure, and he does cutoff Freuds questioning with a flat refusal to sayany more, which the real Lewis would surely havedone had he ever gotten that far. Freud speaks lessof his exile than of his illness, and of his daughter

Anna (who is the person who keeps telephoninghim).

There are a few, fortunately only a very few,Americanisms in the text, and only a couple tinyfactual errors about Lewis that I caught. (I knowless about Freud, but what I do know is presentedaccurately.) One of these errors may perhaps be

classed as an Americanism, for this Lewis intro-duces himself as Professor Lewis. By 1939 he

was a tenured (in practice) Oxford don, and byAmerican academic custom he would have been aprofessor, but the British are charier with that titleand Lewis did not then have it. Nor was it yet en-tirely the custom in Britain to use Professor as atitle of address, still less to use it of yourself. St.

Germains Lewis says that during World War I,Mrs. Moore visited him in hospital in France, thelast two words of which I believe are not accurate;and he speaks of the Inklings as more of a mutualsupport group than a forum for clashes of ideas(though, since they were all believers, compared to

Freud I suppose they were). Lewis mentions Tol-kien in this context, a name which would havebeen meaningless to the real Freud; this is the onlyspot in the play where St. Germain indulges in a

winking reference to what was to come. (The realLewis would have been more likely to enthuse toFreud about the unmentioned Barfield.)

Both actors were excellent in their perfor-mances. Michael Flynns German accent as Freud

was more secure than Ben Evetts English accentas Lewis, but they both spoke well. Flynn is toophysically robust to suggest a mortally-ill 83-year-

old man, though he acted the illness convincingly,while Evett is perhaps a bit too slight in figure forthe beefy Lewis. But their facial appearances weregenerally close enough to suggest the charactersthey played, and the illusion of reality was en-hanced by an awesomely detailed set by KentDorsey. Freuds study is richly carpeted, full ofartifacts (Freud collected statuettes of gods) andpacked bookcases, and with a bay door in the backleading to a sunny garden. And yes, there is acouch, which (as I believe was Freuds practice) isin a receded corner of the room. But Lewis is not

Freuds patient, and he tells Lewis not to lie on it.The nave viewer of this play will learn a bitabout Freuds and Lewiss work Lewis had stillpublished very little at this point, and St. Germainis careful to avoid mugging at the audience whenhe draws from future writings and a bit moreabout their philosophies. What this play will domore thoroughly is introduce viewers to the clashof ideas that these two thinkers represent.


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Lev Grossman. The Magicians. Plume, 2010. 416pp., $16.00 (softcover). Reviewed by

Alana Joli Abbott.

B

y all rights, I should have loved The Magicians.The story of a boy who grew up loving a clear

stand-in for the Chronicles of Narnia and whocomes of age at a school for magic, and who thenmanages to travel to the faux-Narnia as an adult,should have captured me. I should have gottengoosebumps, or, at the very least, nostalgia. Inmany ways, Grossman has penned an homage toNarnia, with hints of his admiration for Tolkienand other fantasy writers throughout. I shouldhave been exactly the target audience for this nov-el.

But it is also the story of a group of talentedyoung people who, when they cannot make a way

for themselves in the world, succumb to their ownvices. They are apathetic, in relationships andfriendships that are largely unhealthy, and formuch of the novel do very little that can be con-ceived as admirable. They are not heroes. I did notexpect the innocence of the Pevensie children inteen and adult protagonists. I did, however, expectto find characters with good intentions, trying todo the right thing, or, at least, to accomplishsomething worth accomplishing. Instead, the nov-el is populated with discontented youths whogrow into discontented adults. It is as though to

write an adult novel about traveling from the realworld to a more fantastic one, Grossman felt hehad to make everyone unhappy in the process.

When discussing the novel with friends because there is a lot of meat in the tale, and thereare plenty of things to discussI have called it across between the Chronicles of Narnia and JackKerouacs On the Road. Despite the best efforts ofmy college professor, I cordially hated the Kerou-ac, for many of the same reasons I could not bringmyself to like The Magicians. In my interpretation,the characters in the latter book, all of whomhave found magic, and who know it is real

spend the entirety of the book looking for some-thing beyond themselves, something that willbring meaning to their lives. Only one of the char-acters in The Magiciansever manages to realize thatmeaning is something that you bring to the plateyourself, rather than going out to look for it some-

where else.The book opens with Quentin Coldwater, a

fan of the Fillory novels(which are only very thinlydisguised stand-ins for Nar-nia), who discovers thatthere is an unpublished Fil-lory book nearly at the

same moment he discoversthat he has the opportunityto apply for admission to anelite private school forlearning magic. That un-published manuscript thathe sees briefly becomes aseed for the rest of the novel and a clue to theeventual storyQuentin and his peers are calledupon to save Fillory, and the title of the un-published novel is the same as Grossmans book.Quentin is nearly rejected from the academy; he

and another applicant who is almost denied admis-sion, the talented Alice, are both accepted andbegin their course of study. Their schooling is dif-ficult, but they develop close friendships with up-perclassmen, with whom they continue theirfriendships after leaving school. The group even-tually discover a way to access the space between

worldsvery much built on the concepts fromLewiss The Magicians Nephew and find their

way to Fillory. Grossman plays with the notion ofvillains in childrens books by disguising the truevillains of the Fillory novels, and the reveal at the

end, about who has been guiding the fate of Fillo-ry, is one of the most satisfying parts of the novel.But in between, the depressed and aimless

characters struggle with reality and have no ideawhat to do with themselves, rarely considering theidea that they could use their powers to help any-one besides themselves. The single admirablecharacter sacrifices herself in a blaze of glory tosave Fillory, but even that victory rings hollow

when the magicians return to their real world.That disconnect meant that the characters neverreally reached me, and subsequently meant I didntcare much about their storybut the continual

references to the works of Lewis and Tolkien keptme connected to the book enough to finish. Es-sentially, the story is not the draw, but seeing howGrossman draws on the works and worlds of hispredecessors is engaging enough to have kept methrough the last page. It is not enough, however,to give me any desire to pick up this novels sequel(The Magician King).


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