Some of them also like to sneer at Lewis for making references to Numinor in That Hideous Strength in homage to Tolkien's Númenor, apparently interpreting this either as a sign of an unoriginal mind, or even as outright "plagiarism" (a claim I find implausible, since Lewis acknowledges the source in his preface and seems to be merely attempting to situate his own original story in the same world with other legends - both the Arthurian and the Tolkienian).
Still, in this context, it is interesting to consider the following passage from Tolkien's essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics":
For it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another. Noble animals, whose burbling is on occasion good to hear; but though their eyes of flame may sometimes prove searchlights, their range is short.
(Source: The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2006, at 9.)
This is, after all, heavy and unattributed copying from the 3rd and 4th stanzas of Lewis Carroll's 7-stanza poem, "Jabberwocky," including several distinctive words that Carroll himself invented. Moreover, some are slightly misspelled (tulgy/tulgey, tum-tum/Tumtum), just as with Numinor/Númenor:
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
(Source: Through the Looking Glass, in The Annotated Alice. Ed. Martin Gardner. New York: Bramhall House, 1960, at 191-97.)
To be clear, I do not criticize Tolkien for invoking "Jabberwocky" in this way; it strikes me as a fair use, just like Lewis's reference to "Numinor." Indeed, although Tolkien (unlike Lewis) does not mention the original author/source, he clearly expects his audience to recognize the reference and infer that the critics he is criticizing are spouting nonsense.
I do think there is more room for nuance in the discussion. I happen to like both Lewis and Tolkien, but surely one can love Tolkien and detest Lewis, as a matter of personal taste, without being monstrous in one's own criticism.
2 comments:
It's pretty clear to me that Tolkien expected his audience to get his Jabberwocky references.
Yes, of course. It's absolutely essential to Tolkien's point that the reader recognize the allusion to one of the most famous nonsense poems in English. After all, his criticism of the critics here is basically that they are spouting nonsense! Any poor, benighted reader who did not catch the reference would be left entirely bewildered.
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