Posted on 09/05/2014 2:05:34 AM PDT by BlackVeil
There are multiple films in the works that will explore the relationship between literary fantasy giants J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, one called Tolkien & Lewis from Attractive Films and another called Jack & Tollers from Third Dart Studios. Still another from Fox Searchlight will focus only on Tolkien and is titled, appropriately enough, Tolkien. While the films are in the early stages, one of them — Tolkien & Lewis — is set to announce an interesting castmember: Jill Freud, aka the real Lucy Pevensie from Lewis’ books about Narnia. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
So is there also a Tolkien list???
I do not know of any Tolkien list - but it would be a very good idea. Some articles about Tolkien have mentions of Narnia and so come up on this list.
With these bio films about Lewis and Tolkien, I wonder how they will handle the sombre topic of the end of their friendship - there was a rift between them, which meant that at the time of Lewis’ death they had not spoken for years. The exact reasons for this are difficult for biographers to untangle.
The rift is exaggerated . They drifted apart; most think Lewis developed other friendships which Tolkien didn’t share. Shortly before he died, Lewis nominated Tolkien for a Nobel prize in literature for LOTR.
Her memory of CSL:
“Lovely. He had a reputation amongst his students — he was so sharp on them — he didn’t let them get away with any kind of woolliness. They were quite scared of their tutorials. To me, at home, he was generosity itself. He would let me buy any book I wanted. He would talk to me about things — never make me feel small. If I said anything really silly he just wouldn’t answer. He was kind, generous, good humored, helpful. I was 16, and it was what you would call a schoolgirl crush. Jack put me in his educational covenant and paid all my fees. All the royalties from his religious books were put into a covenant and were used to help people in education because there were very few grants in those days.”
I got the chance to meet Doug Gresham, the referenced stepson of Jack in the article, earlier this summer and he was an absolutely delightful gentlemen of profound faith in our Lord. In the small world category, it turns out that years ago when I worked with Fellowship Foundation in DC and coordinated the CS Lewis summer study institute, it was Doug who gave us permission to use Jack’s name and likeness.
I got to sit in on a recording session of a wonderful young singer/song writer who was Doug’s protege. With any luck, we may hear some of her music in an upcoming Narnia movie.
People tend to forget he was an Ulsterman (of Anglo-Scots blood), not English.
“Bryant and Max remake the acclaimed SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday.”
?
Check your link.
In fact, the dedication in LWW reads:
To Lucy BarfieldI wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.
We may have some pre-movie hype going on here.
One thing I think that loomed between Tolkien & Lewis was the question of Catholicism. Tolkien was not only a Catholic but a serious one - his mother cut herself off from her family when she converted, and Catholics were still frowned on by many in England at that time. And Lewis was by birth a Belfast Church-of-Ireland man, with all that implies - he remarked, "At my first coming into the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both."
While they overcame those obstacles and became friends, that's not the sort of thing you can just forget about. It colors everything.
You are very right - thank you for that informative detail from literary history.
Although this interview is full of informative memories, I think that the link to “Lucy” in the Narnia stories is a an elaboration, and not based on fact. It is the work of the editor, not the lady being interviewed about her time with Lewis.
Very true. Lewis was most emphatically not English, and I think many details of his life - right down to having many worries in living with his brother, who declined into alcoholism - were all too typical of his ethnic background.
There is a book published on the Ulster background to Narnia. It has not been picked up by the critics, but they only support the big publishers. I recommend it:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3040627/posts
Cheers, will try and get a copy.
As a Protestant Scotsman, with Ulster Scots blood (some of my Hamilton (dad) and Campbell (mum) forebears both went to Ulster in the 17/18th C’s, the former returned as white collar workers to Saltcoats in Scotland in 1850, the latter didn’t return and I have NI relatives in Belfast) and as I am a pro-British, pro-Union man, I have an unending interest and soft spot for the Ulster people and NI.
Went on holiday a few years ago to the Glens of Antrim, gorgeous.
If you’re a Hamilton w/ NI connections, you may well be related to Lewis. His mother was a Hamilton.
Wouldn’t that be great. I am aware of the possible connection, John Steinbeck was related to Ulster Hamiltons as well.
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