The C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society is now accepting registrations for its twelfth annual meeting on March 26-28, 2009, addressing the theme “Inklings: Dinosaurs or Contemporaries?” and featuring plenary speaker Peter Schakel. See below for more details. Please click here to see the seminar schedule (as a PDF). A detailed schedule will be available mid-February.

In papers and plenary sessions, the conference will explore ways in which C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams may (or may not) be particularly relevant to the literary, theological, philosophical and socio-political issues of our own early 21st century times. As in previous conferences, we would like to extend the conversation to include Dorothy Sayers as well, and we would like to open the conversation even a bit further this year by including G.K. Chesterton, a strong-minded proto-Inkling of sorts, in the mix. What might this diverse and pleasantly provocative circle of thinkers have to offer to the world of ideas that we find ourselves in?

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Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to The Chronicles of Narnia and CS Lewis! For today’s book we will be reviewing Tales Before Narnia, edited by Douglas Anderson.

Title: Tales Before Narnia

Author: Various

Edited by: Douglas A. Anderson

Publisher: Del Ray

ISBN -10: 0345498909

ISBN -13: 978-0345498908

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NarniaFans Staff Member, Jonathon D. Svendsen, is going to be featured in the second issue of  Silver Leaves, which is put out by the White Tree Fund, a Tolkien-related publication. The theme for this issue is dedicated to the Inklings. Fans of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien know that the Inklings was the name of the informal literary group that consisted of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and many others.

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James A. Owen is the author of a series called “The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica.” The first book in the series, “Here, There Be Dragons” introduced us to the characters that would become the heroes of the stories: Jack, John and Charles.

Jack is actually C.S. Lewis, John is J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles is Charles Williams. They were each members of a group called the Inklings. This series is based on fictional adventures that these characters embarked on, into the Archipelago of Dreams, where they became Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica.

The second book in the series is titled “The Search for the Red Dragon,” and introduces new characters and a few more writers from that era to the story.

Now, author James A. Owen has revealed the cover art for the third book in the series: The Indigo King.

Having listened to the books on CD (I have the unabridged audio books!), I am very curious to learn what happens next in the adventures through the Archipelago of Dreams.

Check out the cover art on James A. Owen’s LiveJournal, and come and see him at LionCon, later this month!

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There is magic in the last line of The Lord of the Rings. To recap: the stolidly courageous Sam Gamgee, having watched his best friend, Frodo Baggins, sail towards the Grey Havens and into a kind of death, is left to walk back to the Shire where he finds his wife and children waiting with the promise of a quiet life far from the slaughter of the War of the Ring. J. R. R. Tolkien finishes with the sentence: “‘Well, I’m back,’ he said”. It is a touchingly understated conclusion which returns the prose to the homely simplicity of the inaugural chapters after the archaic epic mode of The Return of the King.

However, as Diana Pavlac Glyer tells us in her scholarly and perceptive study The Company They Keep, this is not how Tolkien originally intended to finish his trilogy. He had in mind a further epilogue, set sixteen years after the events of the rest of the book, which would have provided another, superfluous glimpse into Gamgee’s domesticity. In this ultimately excised version, a grey-haired Sam reads stories of his adventures to his children, spinning them tales of wizards and orcs and walking trees. There is even the faint suggestion that Sam has been narrating the story of The Lord of the Rings itself, before, at last, we depart the Shire for good, leaving Sam and Rose in a state of connubial bliss, tale-telling by the fireside.

What stopped Tolkien from publishing this ending was his membership of the Inklings – that renowned circle of Oxford writers and academics who met for seventeen years from 1932 and which counted C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and E. R. Edison, the author of The Worm Ouroboros, among their number. It was they who pointed out the glutinous sentimentality of the scene, marshalling their forces to argue that it added nothing of substance to a narrative which had already swollen far beyond the “second Hobbit” requested by his publishers. Glyer suggests that this incident typifies the way in which the Inklings affected one another’s work, despite the fact that in later years its members were frequently to insist that their meetings acted more as a social club than a writers’ circle, brushing aside any suggestion of real influence.

Down the pub with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

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David J. Theroux, the Founder and President of the C. S. Lewis Society of California has e-mailed us with the latest updates on many upcoming events that you’re all invited to attend! Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (8/29/07):

1. More on Harry Potter and Christianity
2. Film News
3. New Publications
4. Next meeting of C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club: Studies in Words
5. Other Events

1. More on Harry Potter and Christianity:

In agreement with a recent Wall Street Journal review by Mechan Cox Gurdon of the new book, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, Newsday columnist Raymond Keating discusses the Christian imagery in J.K. Rowling’s new and final book in her Potter series.

“Harry Potter and the Christian allegory,” by Raymond Keating

2. Film News:

A. A number of the fantasy novels by novelist, playwright, poet, biographer, and theologian Charles Williams, starting with his ALL HALLOW’S EVE, will be made into major films by renowned producer Ralph Winter. Mr. Winter is also producing the film version of C.S. Lewis’s best-selling book, THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which is scheduled for release in late 2008. Among his many other film credits are the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Star Trek III-VI films as well as “Planet of the Apes,” “Mighty Joe Young,” and “Flight of the Intruder,” as well as the ABC TV series, “Lost.”

Charles Williams was a member of The Inklings literary circle at Oxford, which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and Lewis’s acclaimed dystopian novel of a scientistic totalitarianism, THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH, was heavily influenced by the work of Williams.

Web site for The Charles Williams Society

B. At the recent German Games Convention, Disney Interactive featured portions of a new video game based on Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia book, PRINCE CASPIAN, which will be released in conjunction with the forthcoming film in May 2008. Here incidentally is the official web site for the Narnia films:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/

3. New Publications:

A. BOOK: For those interested in using Lewis’s books in schools and colleges, study groups, book clubs, churches, and seminars, the following new book is recommended. The book provides summaries, questions, references, and insights into how to teach Lewis’s books.

TEACHING C.S. LEWIS: A Handbook for Professors, Church Leaders, and Lewis Enthusiasts, by Richard A. Hill and Lyle Smith (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007)

B. JOURNAL: The Arizona C.S. Lewis Society has recently launched SEHNSUCHT: The C. S. Lewis Journal, with the first issue featuring articles by Walter Hooper, Victor Reppert, and others. (”Sehnsucht” means longing.)

4. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club:

Book for Discussion:

STUDIES IN WORDS, by C.S. Lewis:

Wednesday, September 5th, 7:30 p.m.;
Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew Dosa

Wednesday, September 12th, 7:30 p.m.;
Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew Dosa

Man is unique among all creatures in his use of words, and words affect us directly in most every aspect of our lives. In this absorbing, breathtaking and entertaining book, Lewis examines eleven selected words and teases out their connotations from a vast range of English literature in which their meaning has changed through the centuries. The selected words are Nature, Sad, Wit, Free, Sense, Simple, Conscience and Conscious, World, and Life, plus the phrase, “I dare say!” Lewis reveals the “dangerous sense” of assuming a word’s current meaning in reading earlier literature, which can produce a complete misunderstanding of an author’s intent.

In STUDIES IN WORDS, Lewis invokes the mysteries of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, quotes the deepest yearnings expressed by such writers as Homer, Dante, Chaucer, Lucretius, Seneca, and Coleridge, and traces shadows upon the Hellenic cave while juggling Anglo-Saxon monosyllables. He does this without a trace of the pointless and contradictory “deconstructionism” which, in the hands of contemporary writers more interested in condemnation than description, has cast an affliction upon modern literature. Far from leaving readers gasping for air, Lewis opens the layers of linguistics, “driving words from different languages abreast” in order to bring out the wonderful meanings of words.

“Rarely is so much learning displayed with so much grace and charm. My only regret is that the book was not twice as long.” –New York Times Book Review

“…a brilliant book addresses to students and lay people alike, unbaffling, deeply informative, and timelessly persuasive.” –Robert Burchfield, Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

The meetings will be held at:

11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Here also are a couple short articles that discuss STUDIES IN WORDS and related issues:

“Studies in Words,” review by Michael Jose

“Studies in Words,” by Wikipedia

STUDIES IN WORDS in available in paperback

Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings.

Here also is information on C.S. Lewis

We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)

5. Other Events:

“The Crisis of the University: Freedom, Tolerance and the Pursuit of Truth”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
October 5-6, 2007
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/ff/2007/index.html

“C.S. Lewis: Man and His Work: A 21st Century Legacy”
Sponsored by L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC
October 26-27, 2007
http://www.sebts.edu/CSLewis/

“C.S. Lewis Conference”
Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church
Atascadero, CA
January 25-27, 2008
(More details to follow)

“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008
http://www.taylor.edu/academics/supportservices/cslewis/colloquium/

“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2007
http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/events.html

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Writer-producer-director David Goyer (Batman Begins) told SCI FI Wire that he and Harry Potter producer David Heyman are co-producing a big-screen version of the James A. Owen fantasy novel Here, There Be Dragons, based on the real and fantasy lives of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. The book is the first volume in Owen’s The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica franchise, and Goyer revealed that Owen is currently writing his own adaptation of the tale, hinting that he might direct the ensuing film if the timing works out.

“That will probably be a long, lengthy process,” Goyer said in an interview while promoting his upcoming film, The Invisible, which he directed. “I’ll be producing it for sure, and we’ll see [what else]. You just never know. These things take so long to get going, and you never know what your schedule’s going to be like at the time they come to fruition.”

Here, There Be Dragons brings together three strangers—John, Jack and Charles—in London during World War I, where they become entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth, legend, fable and fairy tale. They end up traveling to the Archipelago of Dreams, fighting the dark forces that threaten two worlds. It is later revealed that the three are future fantasy authors Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Williams, who met in real life at Oxford and enjoyed a competitive friendship.

“I’m a fan of what I guess I would term ‘meta-fiction,’ and James just came up with this really wonderful device that [brings together] all these characters, real-life people [like] Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams,” Goyer said. “At one point in time they all did really know each other, so he backdated that relationship between them and posited that they shared some real-life adventures in another land that became the source material for all their subsequent fantasy writings. The land that this takes place in is the land that gave birth to Narnia and Middle-earth, etc., etc. So it’s just a wonderful concept.” —Ian Spelling

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Bruce Edwards is pleased and excited to report that the four volume reference set on the life, works, and legacy of C. S. Lewis for which he served as General Editor, is in press, and will be published in hardback in late April by Praeger Perspectives. Amazon and Barnes and Noble already have it listed!

Most popularly known as the author of the children’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis was also a prolific poet, essayist, novelist, and Christian writer. His most famous work, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, while known as a children’s book is often read as a Christian allegory and remains to this day one of his best-loved works. But Lewis was prolific in a number of areas, including poetry, Christian writing, literary criticism, letters, memoir, autobiography, sermons and more.

This set, written by experts, guides readers to a better understanding and appreciation of this important and influential writer. Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His mother died when he was young, leaving his father to raise him and his older brother Warren.

He fought and was wounded in WWI and later became immersed in the spiritual life of Christianity. While he delved into the world of Christian writing, he did not limit himself to one genre and produced a remarkable oeuvre that continues to be widely read, taught, and adored at all levels.

As part of the circle known as the Inklings, which consisted of writers and intellectuals, and included J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and others, he developed and honed his skills and continued to put out extensive writings.

Many different groups now claim him as their own: spanning genres from science fiction to Christian literature, from nonfiction to children’s stories, his output remains among the most popular and complex. Here, experts in the field of Lewis studies examine all his works along with the details of his life and the culture in which he lived to give readers the fullest complete picture of the man, the writer, and the husband, alongside his works, his legacy, and his place in English letters.

[List of Topics and Essayists]
[Order from Amazon.com]

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Last Friday, IGN had the opportunity to interview producer/screenwriter David Goyer, where he spoke at length about the novel “Here, There Be Dragons.” The rights for the novel have been snapped up by Warner Brothers, pushing the book up the sales charts very quickly. For example, Amazon pre-sales ranked the book around 5,000. On September 29th, with word spreading of the movie news, “Dragons” was ranking at 644. As of this writing, it is sitting at 1,493.

The book takes place in two worlds, our world (In London, during World War I) and a fantasy world, and features three characters that go on adventures. The three adventurers turn out to be real life authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams.

Here are three questions extracted from the interview:

IGN: Does this story focus on these characters when they’re in their twenties at Oxford? I’m just wondering what the age range is for these characters.

Goyer: They were all slightly different in age. C.S. Lewis would be the youngest, probably his early twenties. Tolkien a little older, the mid-twenties or later twenties. Charles Williams was at least a good ten years older than the two of them and sort of functioned as a mentor. We liked that as well because for casting possibilities. We can pull from these different age groups.

IGN: It’d be funny to see if Here, There Be Dragons and Peter Jackson’s Temeraire end up going head-to-head in cinemas. The end of this decade will be all dragons onscreen.

Goyer: They both have dragons. Dragons is in the title of the first and the seventh books. Ours is not… yes, there happens to be a dragon in this first book but there are many, many other creatures and characters and things. So it’s not exactly a head-to-head dragon fest.

IGN: So how does one actually refer to the property since we can’t really call it the Dragons franchise?

Goyer: The franchise is actually called The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. For instance, the second book is called The Children’s Crusade. The Imaginarium Geographica is actually the fictional almanac of that other world. It’s kind of the almanac that maps all of these mythical lands and I guess it is what you would call the MacGuffin for the series. James’ studio is actually producing for Simon & Schuster an actual Imaginarium Geographica. It’s just this big book of maps of all these fantasy worlds.

[Read the rest at IGN]

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Since The Lord of the Rings’ success, there have been many fantasy films released to try to cash in on the success. I think it’s a breath of fresh air, as far as movies are concerned. After all, movies are mostly fantasy anyway, depending on how you look at them. Recently, Peter Jackson has optioned a series called Temeraire.

Adding to that list, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers has picked up the rights to a soon to be released children’s novel by James A. Owen called “Here, There Be Dragons.”

Says The Hollywood Reporter: The book brings together three strangers — John, Jack and Charles — in London during World War I, where they become entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. They end up traveling to the Archipelago of Dreams, fighting the dark forces that threaten two worlds. It is later revealed that the three are future fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, who met in real life at Oxford and enjoyed a competitive friendship.

“It’s the ultimate story behind the story,” screenwriter David Goyer said of the project’s fictional treatment of the famed authors. “Very few people really know what they were like. They had really colorful lives, enough so you could tell straight biographies on them. By doing it this way, you get to have your cake and eat it too.”

“What sets it apart is that there’s a real quid pro quo between our world and their world and how events in the other world shape events our world,” he said. “Also, we get to cherry-pick the best public domain legends that exist, from the Homeric myths to tales like ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.’ In this world, each island is a different fantasy world — it’s the mother lode of all that fantasy. And we get to have fun to see how Tolkien and Lewis got their inspiration. It just seemed like a no-brainer.”

Said Harry Potter producer: David Heyman: “The odd thing is, I’m not a fantasy fan. What drew me was that these characters are appealing and relatable and that the adventure takes place in a wholly conceived world. This is the place where all our stories come from, and the death of imagination equates to bad things happening to our world, which is such a beautiful idea.”

Heyman said he wants to fast-track “Dragons” even as he sees himself working on wrapping up the “Potter” movies for the next three or four years.

As far as the movie is concerned: WB is holding on to it as a project for Harry Potter producer David Heyman and Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer to produce.

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