“Yet let me hope that De Bracy’s name has not been always unspoken when minstrels or heralds have praised deeds of chivalry, whether in the lists or in the battlefield.” “To heralds and to minstrels, then, leave they praise, Sir Knight,” replied Rowena, “more suiting for their mouths than for thine own.” (185)
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
I love this quote, and it’s one of a million from that book! 🙂
I’ve heard Christians say that they don’t like Easter, because they don’t like the way we celebrate it. And really, how did we get here?
By the way, could anyone tell me what in the world the Easter Bunny looks like? Didn’t think so. Because nobody knows. It’s different in every picture-book. At least Santa Claus has some hard-and-fast characteristics that everyone agrees on! I mean, what color his gloves are and how long his beard is and other such details are arguable, but everyone agrees on the over-all big picture.
So, I understand where the egg-thing came from–new life and everything–but how did we get to the point in which they’re hidden by a rabbit whose only steadfast virtue is his bunniness?
Easter is about Christ. Which is what we’ve been trying (with a little translation help) to tell Lucy. We’re trying to communicate that it’s about new life, new things. New birth.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Luke 24:5, 6a
In western lands beneath the Sun
the flowers may rise in Spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing.
Or there maybe ’tis cloudless night
and swaying beeches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.Though here at journey’s end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars forever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell. (888)
–The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien
And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. (146)
–The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis
At some birthday a long time ago (I don’t remember which one exactly) I was given a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I had heard Becca and Spencer talk about The Chronicles of Narnia (I probably heard more spoilers for those books than any others I’ve read 🙂 ), but I had not read any of them before that time. I was told I should read The Magician’s Nephew first* but I wanted to read the book I owned first, so I waywardly did.
I proceeded to read the rest of the books, and loved them! I read them so many times that I couldn’t read them any more–which, for me, is 7 times. 🙂 I’m ‘into’ repetition!
So I moved on and read other things. After a while I got in a conversation with someone about the movies, and she said they were good. I told Dad I wanted to watch them. So we watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together. I liked it–but that’s another story, and a long one too. After watching the movie, I went and re-read the book (movies do that to me); and found I could read it again! There were actually some things I had forgotten.
The other day I needed something to read, and grabbed a random book off my shelf. It happened to be The Horse and His Boy. I opened to a random place and started reading. It was delightful! Of course, I knew exactly what had happend, and what was happening, and what was going to happen, and what had happened and was going to happen in all the other books–but it was still fun!
What are some of your favorite books? What are your ‘comfort books’ that you know you love? Some of my others are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott, and Prophet by R.J. Larson. I go read my favorite parts of these just for fun when I need something to do! I could probably quote most of them to you! 🙂
* It is a common misconception that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia. And I guess in some ways it is, as it was written first, but The Magician’s Nephew takes place before it does, so I call it the first.
I am going to try to post a book review every Thursday in March. I’m not ready to get a real schedule going, but I thought I’d try it for a month. It shouldn’t be too hard, as I love to read and I love to write, and book reviews are a combination of the two! Once again, I’ll probably fudge a little if I miss a day… or I might skip, ’cause you guys won’t be on cliff-hangers! 🙂
I read this review of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and thought it sounded interesting. I told my mom about it and stated I would like to read it. She had never read it, but she had heard of it, and said I could check it out from the library.
This book has good morals, but is also humorous and I really liked the beginning. Somewhere in the middle of it I got pretty “weirded-out” and decided it was not my style. By the end, though, I had decided I liked it again #inconsistency
To make a long story short: I liked it, but the fact that there was a pretty-much allegorical God-figure without it really being an allegory–And that that figure was a woman–and that she was biological related to Irene, but not to everyone in the story, was hard to get used to.
ANYWAY–This is a story about a princess who was sent to the country to be raised. She lives in a house in the mountains, and is looked after by her nurse.
“Why, where can you have been, princess?” asked the nurse, taking her in her arms. “It’s very unkind of you to hide away so long. I began to be afraid–” Here she checked herself. “What were you afraid of, nursie?” asked the princess. “Never mind,” she answered. “Perhaps I will tell you another day. Now tell me where you have been?” (24)
The people bringing her up are forbidden to tell the princess about the existence of the goblins that live in the caverns beneath the mountains. These goblins only come out at night, when they love to make mischief. So the people, naturally, stay inside after dark–except a few: some of the miners, who do not fear the goblins because they know what the goblins cannot stand–singing.
At all events, those who were most afraid of them were those who could neither make verses themselves, nor remember the verses that other people made for them; while those who were never afraid were those who could make verses for themselves; for although there were certain old rhymes which were very effectual, yet it was well known that a new rhyme. if of the right sort, was even more distasteful to them, and therefore more effectual in putting them to flight. (48)
Curdie Peterson happens to be one of those who can make up verses on the spot, and truly is never afraid, even when a strange turn of events places him in the kingdom of the goblins themselves (where his songs are less heeded) thanks to another goblin-weakness he discovers.
Princess Irene, in my first quote, happened to be up in the attic where she had gone exploring and gotten lost. She meets someone who happens to be up there, but I am not going into all that right now… but I will tell you it is the beginning of the princess’s many, many trips to the attic.
Irene and Curdie meet quite by mistake, and that chance meeting is the beginning of several adventures they have together–not always on the best of terms: The princess’s nurse does not approve of Curdie; nor does Curdie approve of Irene’s stories of a thread that she follows that will always lead her to safety, which he himself cannot see or feel.
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I enjoyed this book, though all the ‘magic’ was handled very mysteriously, without the reader ever being given a clear explanation, which bothered me. It was more of a quiet, innocent story than what I have been reading lately, and both main characters were younger than me. But there were still some goblin parts that were downright nasty.
They had enough of affection left for each other, to preserve them from being absolutely cruel for cruelty’s sake… (12)
I believe this statement to be contradicted strongly by all goblin-appearances in the rest of the book!
Neither Irene or Curdie had siblings, but I loved their relationships with their parents: Irene did not live with her parents, but her father would come and visit her (I do not think her mother was still alive) and she would go running out and get on his horse with him before he even got off–it was so sweet!!! Curdie did live with his parents, and their love for each other was amazing! They were always working for each other and helping each other; and Curdie was very respectful, which is rather hard to find these days.
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In the review I linked to above, Miss Ruth said:
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien read George MacDonald’s books, and the Chronicles of Narnia and the Hobbit were both influenced by his writings. Thus, however indirectly, many of the fantasy books you read today are influenced by “the Princess and the Goblin”.
So I, of course, began looking for similarities. I did not think they had a lot in common, but I found three things that reminded me of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work:
1) The goblins in Mr. MacDonald’s book have no toes (weird, weird, I know–bear with me) which might have something to do with the toeless troll in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
2) Shelob and the giant spiders in Mirkwood might have been inspired by this reference to extraordinary, if not large, spiders:
It is spider-webs–of a particular kind. My pigeons bring it to me from over the great sea. There is only one forest where the spiders live who make this particular kind–the finest and strongest of any. (78)
3) These quotes do not need much explanation!
“Then you’re leaving the story unfinished, Mr. Author!” “Not more unfinished than it ought to be, I hope. If you ever knew a story finished, all I can say is, I never did. Somehow, stories won’t finish. (203)
–The Princess and the Goblin
‘Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’ ‘No, they never end as tales.’ (697)
–The Two Towers
There is still the whole those-were-good-but-these-were-bad problem, but that has little to do with inspiration.
The only that reminded me of C.S. Lewis’s books was the unexplained-magic (^see above^).
Over-all I liked this book, and it was fun to read–which I did in one day! 🙂
“But I must confess that I have sometimes been afraid about my children–sometimes about you, Irene.” “Oh, I’m so sorry… To-night, I suppose you mean.” “Yes, a little to-night; but a good deal when you had all but made up your mind that I was a dream. (105)
Do you think my book reports are too l-o-n-g???
Happy Thursday!
P.S. If you feel a little out-Middle-Earth-ed by my last two book reviews, so does everybody else whose ever talked to me. Don’t read my blog if that bothers you.
I contemplated posting something else first, for cruelties sake alone, but I couldn’t bring myself! Why in the world am in so much suspense when I WROTE the story?!
Like always, here’s the last post. I’m doing this so if people find only one of my posts somehow, they can link back. Problem is I have NO way to make sure they can find the posts that come after. Ceste la vie [“this is life” for those of you who don’t speak French], I did what I could.
Okay, this (spoiler alert) is the climax. You can’t imagine how fun it was to end on such a cliff-hanger last time! (I know, I know: I’m downright cruel. I have now lost all reputation of being a nice person, haven’t I?)
Oh! And I feel inclined to mention that my reader Savannah absolutely nailed it in the comments on this post with her suggestion of another dragon–even though it goes against a quote from a certain book series a little birdie told me she’s read:
That is why you will seldom find more than one dragon in the same country. (94)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
I couldn’t it earlier because it would have given away too much.
Now, as I’m sure the rest of you are all saying, “Okay, good job, Savannah–now let’s get on with it”; I’ll get on with it. Happy reading!
CHAPTER 4~FIRE AND FURY:
As Fogginess creeps up the tunnel, she becomes more and more puzzled. She hasn’t see her husband since yesterday morning (she doesn’t know he’s dead), and as she climbs up the tunnel she hears the clinking of coins, the creak of old hinges, and voices sounding very loud and excited up there in the dark. Human voices? Impossible! Not in the lair of a dragon like Grizzled.
But there are voices up there in the dark. Finally Fogginess peeks out into the Big Cavern–and there are two of those annoying little human-creatures sitting in the biggest cave of the whole lair, fingering her husbands treasure and talking excitedly. Fogginess can hold her anger in no longer. She gives a howl of rage and leaps into the Big Cavern, giving a terrible roar. There’s fire in her eyes and smoke in her mouth.
In a moment Spenser has his pistol drawn, but it’s no use: the bullet bounces off the dragon’s scales. Sparks pour from Fogginess’ mouth as she leaps forward. Not caring which one of the humans dies first, she leaps for Spenser. He, in a last effort to protect himself and Hannah, draws his knife and stabs the dragon in the throat. The two of them are saved by luck!* The throat is Fogginess’ one weak point and the blade pushes through a crack where the Head Scales and the Neck Scales meet. With a howl of pain and anger Fogginess flops back, lifeless, on the floor of the cave.
“I th-thought Grizzled was dead,” says Hannah, when she gets her breath back. “It can’t be Grizzled, because we saw him. He’s dead,” says Spenser. “Then is this his mate or his child, sir?” wonders Hannah. “I don’t know. And we don’t know if there are any more, so do we take the treasure and get out of here, or do we try to find and kill the rest of them (if there are any)?” asks Spenser. “I think we should go, sir,” replies Hannah. “Yes, I think we should too, Navigator. It’s obvious our guns aren’t any good!”
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P.S. Sorry I forgot to include the chapter name in my last post. I just added it. Next post is the last one!!!
*Totally borrowed that quote from The Hobbit. *sigh* I was such a copy-cat when I was little–still am! 🙂
She saw them at someone else’s house–they do Christmas in China, but not St. Patrick’s Day.
I thought I should do another “Blessings and Stories” post; so, keeping the Valentine’s Day theme (because March is not May), I did one I wrote about love.
When I was little I came to the conclusion that we would be happier if we didn’t lose our hearts to stuff. I realized that if there wasn’t anything I didn’t want broken or lost, and I knew I would go to heaven, I would have no problems. No worries. Zero.
But there was a hitch: people. If there were people in you life that you loved, you would worry about them. Even if you knew they were going to heaven, you would worry about them–and you don’t. Sometimes you just don’t know.
And try as I might I couldn’t get past that. I knew it was important to love people–I wasn’t giving up on that. But loving is problematic. It’s dangerous, and it’s inconvenient.
I remember a time when two of my friends weren’t getting along, and I felt stuck in the middle of it; and when I told my mom about it she explained that if you lived all alone on an island you would be lonely, but life would be easier. ‘Cause relationships are messy. Very messy.
Recently we re-watched The Princess Bride. It’s a good movie; entertaining and funny, but it’s morals are “off”. And there’s this theme in it that if you love someone hard enough then neither of you can die. Which is absurd.
It makes love practical. And love is not.
Oh, and love is not a feeling. Whatever anyone says. It’s not a wishy-woshy sensation that makes you go light-headed whenever someone walks into the room. It’s a choice. And a hard one sometimes.
Love is not practical. It doesn’t make things perfect. It will wreck your life. And resurrect it again. Because God is love, and Jesus will wreck you life, and then bring it back together again–exactly what happened to HIM when HE loved us.
I love the quote from the movie Frozen: “Love is putting someone else’s needs before you own.” Because that’s a choice. And you rarely feel like putting someone else first.
I wrote on my blog recently: “I’m in love. And that’s dangerous, because when you truly love someone you are willing to do anything for them.”
I liked the quote from the Rend Collective song The Cost: “Real love is not afraid to bleed.”
Love is patient. Love is kind.
But love is courageous.
“But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?” “Because every little girl is a princess.” “You will make them vain if you tell them that.” “Not if they understand what I mean.” “Then what do you mean?” “What do you mean by a princess?” “The daughter of a king.” “Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses.” (9)
–The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald
And yes, I’m hoping to do a book review of this, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Sorry.
Happy Wednesday!!! 🙂
Mr. Burd sank into a chair before the fire. “Now, wait a minute,” he said. “After Jon gets me a drink of water and Sally fetches my slippers and Andy puts Molly in the barn and Mother sits and rests herself, I”ll tell you all about it” (26).
-“By Wagon and Flatboat” by Enid La Monte Meadowcroft
(Emphasis mine)
That sounds like something my Dad would say! Mamas sure work hard, don’t they?
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
Emphasis mine, naturally. 🙂