The Three Allegorical Pigs

Here's an unpublished skit I wrote a few years ago, the first posting of some of my older work. Comments and criticisms are welcome. Historical note: I used to head up a drama program at my church, years ago, and, along with my wife, wrote and directed some plays and sketches from time to time (not during the worship service, or anything nutty like that, though). This one was never performed. I actually haven't re-read it yet, so I renounce, in advance, anything silly that I used to believe back then. Looking forward to your thoughts...

The Three Allegorical Pigs
(In which three symbolic swine learn an important lesson)
Theme: Building on the Right Foundation

CHARACTERS:
NARRATOR: male with good speaking voice
CRUISER: a good-timin' pig who is confident that the future is bright
WORKER: an industrious pig who is certain that nothing in life is free
TRUSTER: an honest pig who is convinced that his need exceeds his ability
FENRIS OAF: the Big Bad Wolf

SET: Just a chair for the NARRATOR, plus the three “house props” (See Production Note below).

PRODUCTION NOTE: Each PIG needs a “house” to live in, and one suggestion would be to create a small, hand-held “house prop” out of cardboard or even wood. Each prop would have a wooden handle at the bottom for the PIG to carry (yeah, it sounds cheap, but it fits with the wacky, symbolic mood of the skit, as well as the NARRATOR’S complaint about budget cuts). The main body of the prop would be in the shape of a house, and the straw and stick versions should have some loose straw and sticks that can be tossed in the air for effect when the WOLF blows them down. There should also be straw or stick glued or otherwise attached to the prop so that the audience will realize what it’s supposed to be. The brick prop can just have red bricks painted on, and, as it does not get blown down, does not need loose parts.

(AT RISE: The NARRATOR enters, stands stage right, and speaks to the audience.)

NARRATOR: Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. Their names were Cruiser...

(CRUISER takes the stage and waves to the audience.)

CRUISER: Yo, how y’all doin’?

NARRATOR: Worker...

(WORKER takes the stage and waves to the audience.)

WORKER: Hello.

NARRATOR: And Truster.

(TRUSTER takes the stage and waves to the audience.)

WORKER: Good day.

NARRATOR: And I'm the Narrator. Unlike the traditional story about three pigs, this tale is an allegory.

CRUISER: I thought allegories only lived in the swamps. (He laughs and snorts at his own joke, though no one else does.)

NARRATOR: (Trying to ignore the bad joke.) An allegory, I say, in which grand and glorious lessons are taught in a meaningful fashion. How do we do this, you ask? In an allegory, all the characters represent certain types of people, even certain attitudes and beliefs. That's why, instead of giving our pigs normal names like, say, Abner, Beaurialis, and Rothchild, we give them exceedingly weird names like Cruiser, Worker, and Truster. Those names are symbolic of people who think in certain ways. What, precisely, are they symbolic of? (A knowing smile, a little chuckle.) Well, you'll have to determine that yourselves. (Beat, as he turns serious. The following lines are spoken with increasing passion and volume.) We can't be giving you too much help, now can we? How will you ever learn if we just give you the answers? You've got to think for yourselves! I'm not standing up here for your entertainment. I mean, come on people, throw me a bone every now and then, huh? Day after day, work, work, work: for what? Heartache!

(TRUSTER loudly clears his throat.)

NARRATOR: Oh, uh, sorry.

(The PIGS shake their heads with grave disappointment.)

NARRATOR: Hey, fellas, I'm working on it; really, I am. (He clears his throat and prepares for a new start.) Once upon a time -

WORKER: (Interrupting.) You did that already.

NARRATOR: Oh, right. Uh...oh, yes: When the three little pigs came of age, their parents sent them out into the wide, wild world to seek their callings. On the day they left home, Cruiser, Worker and Truster had a talk.

(The NARRATOR sits down.)

CRUISER: Well, boys, this is it: the first day of the rest of our lives.

WORKER: What do you mean, Cruiser?

CRUISER: Come on, man, think about it! We are about to start living for the first time. Everything up to now has been dress rehearsal. No, worse: it's been like one bad audition after another. But now, baby, we're on the big screen at last!

(He throws his arms wide as if to embrace the world in all its potential fun.)

TRUSTER: I don't know. I was pretty happy at home. In fact, I'm a little sad to be leaving.

CRUISER: You've got to be kidding! I've been waiting for this day all my life!

TRUSTER: I've been dreading this day all my life. Who will lead us in this dark world?

WORKER: Lead us? Shoot, I don't need no leader. Life is tough, but "to the diligent go the spoils", or something like that. Work hard, just like Ma and Pa taught us, and you can have anything you want. "What the mind can conceive, we can achieve," after all. And all is what I'm after. Yes sir, Truster, I want it all: the girl, the gold watch, and the whole -

CRUISER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all impressed with your subscription to Cliche Weekly.

WORKER: Oh, right, this from the guy who just offered the profound insight that (Impersonating CRUISER.) "Today is the first day of the rest of our lives." Whatever. All I’m saying is that I ain't askin' nobody for nothin', if I can't get it on my own. So if you don't like the way I'm livin', you just leave this long-haired country pig alone!

TRUSTER: That's all well and good, Worker. But there's a lot of questions that your "work hard, earn it all" philosophy doesn't answer.

WORKER: Yeah? Like what?

TRUSTER: Well...what about housing?

WORKER: What about housing?

TRUSTER: You know that the most important thing we can do, now that we're on our own, is to start building homes to live in.

WORKER: Yeah, so?

TRUSTER: What will we build with? We need a strong foundation, a solid structure, to protect our families -

CRUISER: (Interrupting.) We don't have families.

TRUSTER: But we will have families, some day. And we need to take thought for them.

WORKER: Sure we do, but why are you worrying? We can find something to build our houses with that'll work just fine.

TRUSTER: Yeah, but have you forgotten...(Looks around nervously.) The Big Bad Wolf?

CRUISER: The Big Bad Wolf? Ha! Truster, please don't tell me you still believe in the Big Bad Wolf? I figured out about him when I was four; the same day I figured out about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

WORKER: Well, Truster's just saying that...wait a minute: what about Santa Claus?

TRUSTER: Of course I believe in the Big Bad Wolf. He has the ability to blow whole buildings down. And...(Looking around nervously again) he has an appetite for pork!

WORKER: I thought it was dragons that blowed buildings down.

TRUSTER: Dragons breathe fire.

CRUISER: Dragons don't breathe anything. They're not real. Look, Truster, you're gonna have to let go of these childhood myths sooner or later. I believe it's good to have a healthy spirituality, and all that - that is to say, I don't mind a little meditation here, a bit of yoga there. But there is no Big Bad Wolf. In fact, such a belief may well be the ultimate heresy! The world is a great place to live in, and life - if you know how to live it - is easy and fun!

TRUSTER: I wish I shared your optimism, brother. But I fear that you're wrong; horribly wrong. I've been worrying about this for years; ever since the first time I thought about building a house of my own. (He puts his head in his hands.) What shall I do?

(The NARRATOR stands up.)

NARRATOR: Now, maybe you're thinking to yourself: "Three little pigs, all with such different opinions. Didn't their parents teach them how to build their houses when they left home?" Well, it turns out that their parents - whose names were Apostate and Postmodern, by the way - were quite the free-thinkers. They didn't believe in imposing their architectural views on their children. They thought that kids should decide those kinds of things for themselves.

(The NARRATOR smiles, and just stands there looking silly for a few seconds. Finally, WORKER speaks up.)

WORKER: You done?

NARRATOR: Oh, um, of course. Carry on. (He sits down.)

CRUISER: Now look, Truster, I'm gonna level with you: maybe there’s not an actual Big Bad Wolf, but I do know that we have to overcome the "Big Bad Wolf" in all of us. See, the (He makes quotation gestures with his hands) "Big Bad Wolf" is just the projection of all of pig-kind's negative energy; an attempt on the part of Organized Architecture to suppress the spark of divinity we all possess, and keep us from having any fun. To deal with this negativity, we need to be real with our feelings; get in touch with our inner-swine and be open and vulnerable with each other, and with our selves.

WORKER: (Sarcastic) Thank you, Oprah.

(CRUISER rolls his eyes.)

TRUSTER: I suppose you don't believe in the Master Builder, either?

CRUISER: Some ancient prince doling out advice to home-builders? Maybe you should lie down, Truster.

TRUSTER: He's real! He made all of the great, old buildings in the land. And He doesn't like people building with just any old materials.

CRUISER: Come on! (Sarcastic) The "Master Builder", son of the Emperor (who, by the way, lives so far off that no one has ever seen him) wants to make sure you build your home strong and sure. Please! Even if this Master Builder exists, why on earth would he care what I use to build my house with?

TRUSTER: Because He cares about you, and He wants to protect you from the Big Bad Wolf.

CRUISER: Back to that again, are we?

WORKER: Hold on, now, Cruiser.

CRUISER: What? Don't tell me you believe in these fairy-tales too?

WORKER: No, I didn't say that.

TRUSTER: You mean you don't believe in them, Worker?

WORKER: I didn't say that, either. I'm just not sure, that's all. I'm an...what do you call it? Hagnospick...Acrostic...

TRUSTER: Agnostic.

CRUISER: (Offers a handkerchief.) Bless you.

WORKER: I just don't think we can know for sure, you know? And I don't think we should waste our lives waiting on Emperors that don't rule, and Builders that don't build. We've got to make our own way in this world. There's a lot to be done, and the rewards are great for those that are willing to keep the snout to the old grindstone. And if the Emperor and the Master Builder do exist...well, I'm sure that they'll look at the buildings we've constructed, and sort of, you know, weigh our good buildings against our bad ones, and hopefully, if we've done our job and all, we'll have more good ones than bad, and hey, we'll be all right, you know?

TRUSTER: I don't know, Worker. Have you ever read the Master Builder's Blueprints?

CRUISER: Blueprints?

TRUSTER: Yeah, it's a written record of how to go about building your home. Written by the Emperor and the Master Builder.

CRUISER: And the madness continues. Truster, come on, man, think about it: those Blueprints were written by Organized Architecture to try to run people's lives. I'll bet that's where you learned about the Big Bad Wolf, too.

TRUSTER: Well, now that you mention it -

CRUISER: (Interrupting.) I knew it! You see? It's all part of the same big scam.

WORKER: Well, even if it's not a scam, it's still not the best way to make your plans, Truster. I've seen the Blueprints, and let me tell you: you'd need an architecture degree just to understand them. All those big, architectural words. Besides, it's a very old document, and it was originally written in an ancient language that no one speaks anymore.

CRUISER: Pig Latin?

WORKER: How should I know? The point is, it's been translated so many times, it can't possibly be accurate anymore.

TRUSTER: Well, I admit some of it is open to interpretation, but no one said that life would be easy.

WORKER: Actually, Cruiser did.

CRUISER: (With a big smile.) Oh, yeah.

WORKER: Anyway, Truster, what did the Blueprints say?

TRUSTER: I don't remember most of it, but I do know that it gave detailed instructions for building houses, including what materials to use.

CRUISER: Well, you fanatics can sit around talking about invisible builders all night if you want, but I'm moving on.

WORKER: Yeah, those houses aren't going to build themselves.

(The NARRATOR stands up.)

NARRATOR: So the three pigs went out to find land and building materials. It won't surprise you to learn that they all took different approaches to their tasks. Cruiser, for example, in keeping with his "the world owes me a living" mentality, decided to purchase building materials that were both cheap and easy to work with; he built his house out of straw.

CRUISER: Straw was perfect. I was in and watching TV in two days. Straw really expresses who I am at this time in my life. It was just something I needed to do, for me.

TRUSTER: It won't be nearly strong enough to withstand a blast from the Big Bad Wolf.

CRUISER: Yeah, right.

NARRATOR: Worker, being a much harder, er, worker, decided to use the best materials he could find, given his budgetary limitations. In the land where the pigs lived, that meant wood. (He sits.)

WORKER: Sticks of wood, mostly. But good, sturdy stuff. I would've used bricks, but that would mean going up to the capital, and buying from the Master Builder. Yeah, it turns out He's for real, after all.

CRUISER: So you say.

WORKER: And so would you, if you'd been there. But the problem is, the only way you can get bricks is if you turn over the whole planning of your house to Him.

TRUSTER: Why is that a problem?

WORKER: Because I ain't turning the reins over to anybody, that's why. I work hard for what I have, and the least reward I expect is to be able to make the decisions myself. I don't ask nobody for help, and I don't blame nobody when the apple cart gets upset. It's all on me. No offense to the Master Builder; He's made some fine buildings in the past, but nobody knows what my house should be better than I do. So I made the best, strongest house I could make, out of the best wood I could find.

TRUSTER: Not strong enough, I fear.

CRUISER: So what did you build with, Mr. Critical?

TRUSTER: Bricks and stone, of course.

WORKER: So you gave up control of your own home -

CRUISER: Just because you’re afraid of some mythological creature?

TRUSTER: Just for the record, I dispute your choice of adjective. But yes: that was part of it, in the beginning. But as I got to know the Master Builder, I began to see the great wisdom that He has. In the end, I realized that it would be foolish to have anyone else build my home.

CRUISER: Well, I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. When the years have rolled by, and no wolf ever comes, and I'm napping comfortably in my low-maintenance home, then maybe you'll get the point and give up on your superstitious ideas.

(The PIGS exit. The NARRATOR stands.)

NARRATOR: And the years did roll by. The pigs got older; they married and had children. And their homes served them well. (Beat.) At least for a while. For a day came when all the land was troubled by rumors of an evil presence. A dark shape was seen in the woods. Yes, that's right: he had come at last. Fenris Oaf, otherwise known as...The Big Bad Wolf!

(The WOLF enters and growls menacingly.)

NARRATOR: The Wolf had been playing the provinces in recent years, and the pickin's were mighty slim; mighty slim. In particular, he had met very few pigs in his travels, and he was mighty hungry; mighty hungry.

WOLF: Man, where do you people get this dialogue?

NARRATOR: Uh, as I was saying, the Wolf had a distinct and overpowering craving for little pig. So, he roamed the countryside, and at length, he came to a small, rather hasty-looking house made of straw.

(CRUISER enters, holding his "house prop" [see production notes at beginning of script]. He is whistling, obviously living out his "life is great" philosophy. The WOLF licks his lips, rubs his hands diabolically, and creeps up to the house.)

NARRATOR: The Wolf, having imagined this moment for years, had written a great opening line.

WOLF: Little pig, little pig, let me in!

(The NARRATOR effects a puzzled, disappointed look.)

NARRATOR: What, that's it? That's your great opening line?

WOLF: Hey, you're a narrator, not a dramatic critic. Pipe down, or you're next!

NAARATOR: All right, all right. (Muttering.) Boy, you give some people fangs and a scary-sounding name and they go Nero on you.

WOLF: Heard that.

NAARATOR: Sorry. Look, you'd better say that line again; I don't think he heard you.

WOLF: (Louder.) Little pig, little pig, let me in!

CRUISER: Hey, quiet down, out there! Touched By An Angel is on!

WOLF: (ALMOST ROARING.) LITTLE PIG, LITTLE PIG, LET ME IN!!!

CRUISER: All, right, you don't have to yell. Who's there? (He sees the WOLF.) What the - (His voice starts quivering.) Hey, you're not the...are you the...you can't be the...the Big Bad Wolf?

WOLF: You were expecting maybe Publisher's Clearing House?

(CRUISER squeals in fright.)

WOLF: Let me in!!!

CRUISER: No way, dude. Not by the hair of my carefully groomed goatee! Go away!

WOLF: (Dramatically. Too much so.) Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!

NARRATOR: (Rolling his eyes.) Oh, brother.

WOLF: (To the NARRATOR.) Quiet, you. (To CRUISER.) Last chance, swine: do you let me in, or do you lose your house?

CRUISER: Go away!

WOLF: You asked for it! (He huffs and puffs, etc.)

NARRATOR: So the Wolf huffed, and he puffed...(Sort of ad-libbing as the wolf struggles to work up a good breath) and then he huffed again, and after that...oh yeah, he puffed.

(The WOLF breaks out in a violent coughing fit.)

NARRATOR: (Grinning broadly, speaking rapidly.) But the Wolf was a four-pack-a-day chain-smoker, and couldn't extinguish a candle, much less blow down a whole house. So, hey, don't smoke, kids!

(He winks and gives them an "ok" hand gesture. WORKER pops his head out.)

WORKER: (Shaking his head in disbelief.) How do you like that? Every skit has to have a message. Sheesh!

WOLF: (To WORKER, who quickly ducks backstage, though not without a defiant shake of the fist.) You're next! (To the NARRATOR.) And I'm coming after you, editorial-boy. Just give me a second here...(he begins huffing and puffing again. Then, with a mighty blow, the straw house comes down.)

WOLF: Ha Ha!

CRUISER: Yipes! (He runs out, with the WOLF in hot pursuit.)

NARRATOR: But Cruiser escaped to his brother Worker's house, racing inside and locking the door only moments ahead of the Wolf.

(WORKER and CRUISER enter, carrying WORKER'S "house prop." The WOLF follows close behind.)

WOLF: Hey, I like this: Two little pigs. And nothing but a bunch of twigs in the way. All right, boys: you know the drill. Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!

WORKER: (Defiant.) Not a chance, furball.

CRUISER: (Trying to be defiant, though it comes out a bit squeaky.) Not by the hairs of our chinney-chin-chins!

WOLF: No? Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll -

(He collapses into coughing again. The NARRATOR shakes his head, but says nothing. With another effort, he hurls a blast of wolf-breath at the house, but though it shakes and wavers, it holds up.)

WORKER: Ha! Good timber, that. See, Cruiser, hard work always pays off.

CRUISER: Yikes! Here he comes again!

(With another mighty blow, the WOLF succeeds in bringing the house down. The PIGS run off - WORKER shaking his fist at his enemy - and the WOLF again pursues.)

NARRATOR: Now two of the brothers were bereft of kith and kin. (Beat.) Or kith, at least. They still had their kin. (Beat.) No, kith is a synonym for kin, and I just said they still had their kin. Ergo, and assuming the veracity of my first premise, they still had both kith and kin. (Beat. He's a bit confused.) So what were they bereft of, I wonder? (Another beat, only longer.) Oh, yeah, now I remember: hearth and home. That's it. The two pigs were bereft of hearth and home. And, with the Wolf in hot pursuit, our bereaved brothers high-tailed it to - yes, you guessed it - good ol' Truster's house. (Beat.) You know, the brick one.

(CRUISER, WORKER, and TRUSTER enter, with TRUSTER'S house prop. The WOLF enters moments later.)

WOLF: This day just gets better and better: Three pigs now. Brick this time, but hey, it's not for nothing that they call me...THE BIG BAD WOLF! (An evil laugh. Then, to the PIGS.) One more for the road, boys: (At the top of his lungs.) LITTLE PIGS, LITTLE PIGS, LET ME IN!

WORKER: Not by the hairs of...ah, forget it. Go away, you disgusting, ugly, dog-faced excuse for a wolf.

WOLF: (In mock terror.) Taunts and Insults! My evil powers are useless against them! (Parody of The Wizard of Oz.) I'm melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! (Then, with renewed anger.) Forget it, bacon-boys: I'm coming over for dinner! Honey! I'm home!

CRUISER: (Frightened. He's just seen the WOLF blow down two houses, and lacks confidence in TRUSTER'S bricks.) W-w-wouldn't you rather have beef? There's a big dairy farm just down the road, you know.

WOLF: (Sarcastic.) Yeah, I'm taking menu advice from a bunch of rejects from the Muppet Show. No thanks.

CRUISER: (Desperate. Almost squealing.) No meat on Fridays!

WOLF: What do I look like, a Jesuit? Besides, it's Thursday.

TRUSTER: Look here, we're not just gonna open the door and let you eat us. It's just not reasonable for you to expect that. Besides, I'm quite confident in the structural integrity of my home. Designed and constructed by the Master Builder, you know.

WOLF: Your point?

TRUSTER: You're no match for Him, and you know it.

WOLF: Well, I guess we'll see about that...WHEN I HUFF, AND I PUFF, AND I BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN!!!

(He huffs, puffs, etc. Then...yep, more coughing.)

NARRATOR: Don't worry, folks: he eventually found his inhaler. And when he did...

(The WOLF huffs, and puffs, and, with a mighty gust of breath, the house...remains standing. It doesn’t even budge.)

NARRATOR: After all that huffing, etc., the Wolf found that -

WOLF: (Interrupting.) They know! They know! Can't expect brick to come down on the first try, you know.

(He tries again. Nothing.)

NARRATOR: Once again, the Wolf failed to bring down the house of brick.

WOLF: (Panting.) I...can't understand it...why can't I...blow this doggoned house down?

NARRATOR: But Fenris Oaf wasn't a quitter. He tried again. (The WOLF does so.) And again. (Another try.) And again. (Yet another try.) But in the end, he was defeated. Try as he might, he could not bring down the house that the Master Builder had built.

(The WOLF faints from exhaustion. CRUISER, WORKER, and TRUSTER emerge from the house and dance a merry jig around their fallen foe.)

NARRATOR: There was rejoicing in the land, and merriment for many nights thereafter. And when the time of joy had ended, the three brothers had another talk.

(The brothers step in front of the WOLF. The NARRATOR sits.)

WORKER: Well, all's well that ends well, they say. And never in my life have I been so happy and yet so ashamed, all at the same time. I've learned my lesson, I think. Truster, you were right. Not only about the Master Builder, but about the foolishness of trying to build our own houses. No, when my house came down, my pride came down with it. All the hard work in the world is not enough to make our homes stand in the day of Judgment.

TRUSTER: What about you, Cruiser?

(CRUISER is still somewhat reluctant, but more than a little humbled.)

CRUISER: Life is not as easy and care-free as I had imagined. I've learned that I can't just cruise through life, expecting the world to make it easy on me. And I've learned that there are things in this world that it's good to be afraid of. (Beat.) I, uh...I've also learned that the Master Builder is real.

TRUSTER: Oh?

CRUISER: Yeah. (Smiling now.) And...you'll be glad to know that I turned over the construction of my new home to Him. Soon, there'll be a new brick house around here.

(TRUSTER smiles broadly.)

WORKER: Two new brick houses. But what about you, Truster? Gained any new insights from our harrowin' experience?

TRUSTER: (After thinking a moment.) Two things. First, that although fear, pain, loss, and even death are a part of our world, a time comes when the last enemy will fall; when restoration and rejoicing will return.

CRUISER: And the second lesson?

TRUSTER: That even trust is only as good as its object. All the faith in the world wouldn't have made straw and sticks as strong as brick and stone. And the strength of the brick and stone was only found in the perfection of the Master Builder and His Blueprints.

NARRATOR: And so, the three little pigs rode off into the sunset -

(The WOLF momentarily raises his head before passing out again.)

WOLF: Wrong story!

NARRATOR: Right. Well, they left, anyway, talking amiably amongst themselves.

(The brothers walk offstage, speaking the next few lines as they go.)

WORKER: (To CRUISER.) You really watch Touched By An Angel? Ha!

CRUISER: Hey! That show's helped a lot of people.

WORKER: I think you're the one that needs help.

TRUSTER: Can we have supper now, or do we have to wait until the argument's over?

(THEY EXIT.)

NARRATOR: (Smiling.) You will starve if you wait for that. (To the audience.) Thus ends our little allegory. Did you learn anything? I hope so, though I have my doubts. We've had a lot of budget cuts lately, and making profound moral and theological lessons spring to life through cute fables just ain't as cheap as it used to be. (Beat. He's about to start pontificating again.) I mean, it's not my fault. I suggested several ways to cut expenses, but did they listen to me? Noooo. I tell you, our producers are really a piece of work -

(The WOLF pops his head up again before passing out a third time.)

WOLF: (Interrupting.) This is neither the time nor the -

NARRATOR: (Interrupting as the WOLF faints.) So thank you for joining us on this little journey through the land of symbolic storytelling. We hope you enjoyed it. I'm the Narrator, and that's news to me.

(He exits. Blackout/curtain.)

Books on the Nightstand I

Here's what I have been reading lately, but caveat emptor: while I do recommend that Christians read the following books, for one reason or another, let none suppose that this is always because I agree with everything in these volumes, or even that they are all necessarily good books. Chesterton once said something to the effect that a bad book is in a sense more profitable reading than a good book, because, while the good book tells you something about the author, a bad book tells you something about your culture, and the people who enjoy such books. That said, most of these books are wonderful, and highly recommended. These are in no particular order, and have only in common the fact that I have recently (within the last several months) finished reading them:

Taliessin Through Logres/The Region of the Summer Stars/Arthurian Torso (Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis)
The Flying Inn (G.K. Chesterton)
The Everlasting Man (G.K. Chesterton)
The Magician's Nephew (C.S. Lewis)
The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
War in Heaven (Charles Williams)
Black and Tan (Douglas Wilson)
The Last Disciple (Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer)
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Yukon Ho! A Calvin and Hobbes Collection (Bill Watterson)
The Courage and Character of Theodore Roosevelt: A Hero Among Leaders (George Grant)
Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War (Newt Gingrich and William R. Fortschen)
'The Displaced Person' and 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' from The Complete Stories (Flannery O'Connor)

Other books I am working through:

A Generous Orthodoxy (Brian McLaren)
In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce (G.A. Henty)
Trinity and Reality: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Ralph A. Smith)
How the Irish Saved Civilization (Thomas Cahill)
Four Faultless Felons (G.K. Chesterton)
[With my daughter, Grace] Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life (Peter Leithart)

Happy Reading.

Families As Storytelling Cultures

Here are a few thoughts on building a storytelling culture in the home, which is the focus of Logres Hall. I will be posting more such ideas in the future, as time permits, as part of an ongoing discussion of this important issue. For a more in-depth discussion of this idea, as well as lots more practical tips, see my book, Talking of Dragons: the Children's Books of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

1. Parents Must Be Readers! Dad and Mom are the pacesetters in the home, and if you, the parents, are not ‘into’ books, chances are good your children won’t see the value of reading either. Don’t wait for the schools to teach them! You are the most important influence on your child. If reading doesn’t come naturally to you, start off slow—one doesn’t prepare for a marathon by running fifty miles the first day. Build up your ability to read great works. Then pass on that ability to your children. Get the book How to Grow a Young Reader by Kathryn Lindskoog and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker and use it as a guide.

2. Find Remote Controls. Locate ‘Off’ Buttons. Push them. Make a determined effort to make your home less centred on electronic amusements. Consider that the word ‘amuse’ literally means ‘no thought’. Don’t just find more wholesome shows—turn it off completely! This should include TVs, radios, CD players, Playstations, etc. Gather the family around a good book. Make the telling of tales central in your home.

3. Act Out Your Favourite Stories. Make simple costumes (everyday clothes, towels, whatever) and gather a few accessories (toy swords, toy horses, etc) and act out some of your favourite stories, or a few scenes from them, anyway. Let the children play various parts in the story, and coach them on what to say and do.

4. Carry on a Great Story. Take one of your family’s favourite books. Gather everyone together and have a time of creativity. Create new adventures for the characters in the book. If it is a book about a dog who has adventures (Tolkien’s Roverandom is excellent), make up a new story in which the dog meets your family pet. Encourage each person to create a work of art related to the story (drawing, Play-doh sculpture, poem, story, song, recipe, etc).

5. Remember and Relate. A storytelling culture isn’t all about the stories of other people, but about your stories. Around the dinner table, or in the car while travelling, tell the children stories of things that happened when you were a child, or stories your parents or grandparents told you. Every family is its own little culture, with its own traditions, rituals, memories, and stories. Cultivate that cultural identity in your children, and they won’t be so quick to seek identity and acceptance elsewhere. Above all, spend time with them. ‘Quality’ time is a poor excuse for the absence of a large ‘Quantity’ of time.

C.S. Lewis and Racism

Back in December, as the release date of the film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe began to get excitingly close, USA Today ran an article: ‘Is that Lion the King of Kings?’, which specifically examined the debate over whether these stories are Christian, whether non-believing audiences can enjoy them, whether even Christians should take the trouble to lead their children to see whatever Christian elements are there (Note: for an article in which I give my views on this subject, check out The Greensboro News and Record right here).

A sidebar article raised the issue of possible productions of the other Narnia books. Andrew Adamson, Wardrobe director, said that, if he were to direct a film version of The Horse and His Boy, he would change one thing, at least: the portrayal of the Calormenes (a kingdom south of Narnia) as a Muslim culture (as Lewis does in the book).

Adamson, and others interviewed, said to follow Lewis at this point would be to ‘exacerbate ethnic tensions and prejudice against Arabs’ in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists. He said he would recast the Calormenes as another race entirely, probably something not even human.

Two points are in order: first, the books themselves have never been changed, and yet, despite sales of nearly 100 million, there is no evidence they have caused ‘ethnic tensions’.

Second, I think this boils down to a failure to understand what Lewis was doing. Anyone who thinks Lewis created the land of Calormen out of some sort of racial vainglory truly does not understand Lewis at all. In the same USA Today article, Alan Jacobs, an English professor at Wheaton College (a Christian institution), and who should know better, makes a rather silly statement. ‘I think Lewis thought he could draw on the ancient tradition in Europe of fearing the Ottoman Empire,’ Jacobs said. ‘So he changed the name, but kept all the imagery of the dangerous Middle East, something everybody in his generation could recognize and respond to. But then things changed, and in the 20th Century all the threats to Europe were internal. And so that whole tradition was swept away.’

What’s wrong with this analysis? Jacobs acts as though Lewis wrote The Horse and His Boy (the first book in which the Calormenes play a significant part) before he realised that the greater threats to Europe were going to be internal (Germany, say). This is ridiculous: Lewis wrote The Horse and His Boy in 1954, nearly a decade after the end of World War II, and nearly forty years after Lewis himself fought the ‘internal threat’ of Germany in World War I.

But more to the point, I think Lewis’s Calormenes are intended to make, not a racial, but a theological point. Lewis wrote an almost-forgotten work called Williams and the Arthuriad, a commentary on his friend Charles Williams’s cycle of Arthurian poetry (Taliessin Through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars). In that work, Lewis comments on one of the poems, The Coming of Palomides, and on Williams’s use of Palomides, a Saracen knight. Williams used the Muslim, according to Lewis, as a symbol of ‘all religions that are afraid of matter and afraid of mystery, [of] all misplaced reverences and misplaced purities that repudiate the body and shrink back from the glowing materialism of the Grail’; in short, because ‘Islam denies the Incarnation.’

A full treatment of Lewis’s, and Williams’s, point would be beside our point. It is enough to say that neither man expressed any racial animosity towards Arabs or Muslims at all. Indeed, during his discussion of The Coming of Palomides, Lewis describes Muslims as ‘strong, noble, venerable; yet radically mistaken.’ That is, he admired the people, but disagreed with their doctrine.

This is consistent with Lewis’s own use of the Calormenes in The Horse and His Boy, and later, The Last Battle.

Indeed, the Calormenes, far from being a despised race, completely foreign to their Northern neighbours (Narnia and Archenland), are actually close cousins. In his book, A Field Guide to Narnia, Colin Duriez notes that, ‘Calormen originated in the Narnian year 204, when outlaws fled south from Archenland.’ This fact means that the Calormenes are originally blood relatives of both Archenlanders and Narnians (Archenlanders, like Narnians, were descended from Frank I, first king of Narnia (see The Magician’s Nephew). Thus, Narnians, Archenlanders, and Calormenes all descend from the same man, which is as much as to say, God ‘made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth’ (Acts 17:26).

In addition, there are two noble Calormenes depicted in the books: Aravis (in The Horse and His Boy) and Emeth (in The Last Battle). Granted, their nobility consists, in part, in their rejection of certain aspects of Calormene culture (Aravis leaves an oppressive life in Calormen for freedom in Archenland and Emeth rejects the worship of Tash, the Calormene god), but the point is that their nobility, and their acceptance by the ‘white’ Narnians, has nothing to do with their ethnicity or the colour of their skin. In fact, in The Last Battle, Jewel the unicorn says of Emeth, ‘By the Lion's Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better God than Tash.’ Here again, race or skin colour are irrelevant, and only a man’s words and deeds are taken into account. Critics may still cringe at even this 'theological supremacy' but they may not with any accuracy describe it as racism.

By the way, for a rather silly discussion of Lewis’s ‘racism’, see this article. I don’t know who these people are, but though they have at least some knowledge of the content of the Narnian books, listening to their speculations on the meanings of the stories are rather like watching a drunk alone at a shooting range: nothing alive to shoot at, but the drunk sure seems to think so.

Days of Old Long Ago

History records the origins of our secular New Year’s Day as harking back to Julius Caesar and the calendar that bears his name, developed by astronomer and mathematician Sosigenes. 1 January is nearly universally recognised as the beginning of yet another year, though other calendars are still observed in various cultures. Calendars, of whatever sort, are essentially ways of marking the passing of time, and the New Year is often regarded as a time of reflection, of remembering and pondering the realities and possibilities of the Already and the Not Yet.
On the vigil, we sing 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne'. Few, perhaps, know this Scots phrase, meaning, ‘old long ago.’ We remember, we sigh for the good old days, even while resolving to live better in days to come. We laugh, and kiss, and party, celebrating Time’s changing of the guard. We drink a cup o' kindness, for days of old long ago.
But while Dick Clark and ABC are still in the planning stages for the next Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, another New Year’s Day recently slipped quietly by, as it does each year, largely unnoticed by the revelers, waiting in the wings. Near the beginning of December, the Church Year began again, with the dawning of the Advent Season. The Christian Church marks the passing of time by remembering the Days of Redemptive History: the life of Christ. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Easter, Pentecost, the Ascension—we pass from waiting to fulfillment, from sorrow to sorrow and joy to joy. The mourning of Tenebrae on Good Friday is shattered by the trumpet blasts of triumphant rejoicing on Resurrection Sunday. We remember the Trinity, Christ the King, the Holy Innocents. We repent during the Lenten Season and feast during the Christmas season.
A friend of mine says the Church Calendar should always be at war with that of the unbelieving world, at least until the former shapes the latter. In other words, the Church should always hold to its own days, while observing civic holidays only after consideration, and then, perhaps, not even on the same days: he even suggested that perhaps we should always observe alternate days—Thanksgiving on Friday, for instance—to make the point that the Church is not subject to the State in such matters. Others say that the Church Year is only tradition, and not required by Scripture. Though this is true, the example of a liturgical calendar can still be found in the pages of Holy Writ, while Jesus Himself attended religious festivals not required by the Law.
But wherever a church finds itself on this spectrum of opinion, it is certainly true that for Christians—wary of mere tradition, but never afraid of it—the more important New Year should be obvious, though I am not saying it is a sin to hang a January-December calendar on the wall (for the sake of convenience, if nothing else; we’re not yet to the point where you can call your doctor to see if he has anything open the second Tuesday after Trinity). Surely even those whose churches don’t observe the Church Calendar can see the contrast between the two ways of marking time: Sosigenes’ mathematical divisions of days—or the events of the life and work of Jesus. ‘Thirty days hath September,’ or the birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah—great deeds in days of Auld Lang Syne.
Happy New Year.

What's New

The latest is an article here on Blogres Hall: Start at the Beginning: Seeing Christ in all of Scripture, which you can find just below. And, on the Logres Hall website, a new addition to our Classic Reviews Page: C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. You can read that by clicking here.

Stay tuned, for there is more to come.

Talking of Dragons on Blog and Mablog

Doug Wilson was kind enough to write a blurb for my forthcoming book, Talking of Dragons (for which, see here). He keeps a Book Log on his website, on which he lists books he has read, along with the author's name, and his one or two word label for it: 'Excellent'; 'Really Good'; 'Whattabook'; 'Atrocious'; 'Appalling'; 'Bleh'; and so on. He listed Talking of Dragons in September's Book Log, with the epithet, 'Really Good', which was very gratifying, of course. I highly recommend his blog (wonderfully titled 'Blog and Mablog'). It will make you think, laugh, and, quite possibly, howl with rage. Check it out here.

Start at the Beginning

Start at the Beginning
Seeing Christ in all of Scripture

Many thanks to Kerry Lewis for helpful suggestions that greatly improved this article.

OK, so this guy walks into a bookstore (stop me if you’ve heard this one) and after absolutely no searching at all, finds a huge display with about four thousand copies of the Harry Potter books. He’s hasn’t read any of the six titles released so far, but has finally succumbed to cultural peer-pressure and decided to see what all the fuss is about. He buys one of each and heads for home.

Back at the house, he has all six books spread out on his coffee table. They all have interesting covers and he ponders where to begin. Finally, he notices that each of them seems to have some sort of chronological designation: year one, year two, and so on. But he likes the cover of book 4 better than book 1, so he decides to begin there. Puzzled by the end, he then skips to the newest entry, book 6, and reads that one. Even more confused, he next reads book 5, but there is obviously a back-story he is missing, so he goes back to book 2, then, 3, and finally, book 1. At last, he chunks them all in the trash, deciding that if the author can’t make herself clearer than that, she should find another job.

Ridiculous, you say? Unreasonable? I agree, but why? Obviously, because, though there are many books in the Harry Potter series, there is only one story. Those who start in the middle are bound to be confused. Not only will they misunderstand what’s going on, they will actually miss a lot of it. No one would recommend that a new reader start in the middle of a story.

No one, that is, except Christians. What’s the first thing we do with a new believer? Why, send them to the Gospel of John, of course, which, in some ways, is just like starting with book 4 of Harry Potter.

“But,” some will say, “that’s because we want new Christians to start with the story of Jesus, the most important part of the Bible, and not get confused with a lot of stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with Him!”

Now, it is perfectly true that we should start our Bible reading with the story of Jesus. The question is: where does this story begin? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The Word, of course, is Jesus Christ. According to St John, He was “in the beginning” and indeed, the one through whom “all things were made.” The story of Christ, then, begins, not in first century Bethlehem, but before the world was made. Not in John 1, but in Genesis 1.

So, yes, by all means, let new readers begin their reading with the story of Jesus; but you must realize that this will include, not only the Gospels or Epistles, but the writings of the Old Testament as well. Put another way, there is only one story in the Bible, and it is all about Jesus Christ.

Surprised? Perhaps you have been taught, like many, that the Old Testament is a lot of confusing stuff that doesn’t relate to “New Testament” Christians. Before answering that objection, I should probably point out that I am not saying “don’t read the New Testament until you’ve read the Old.” For children, especially, a focus on the narratives of Christ’s Incarnation, the days when He walked the earth, is essential. Any good Bible teaching plan should do that. In addition, it would be beneficial to include appropriate passages from the letters of Paul, or John, or Peter (to help understand the significance of the story of Christ), and readings from the Old Testament, including a generous portion of the Psalms (to help understand the context of the story of Christ). Whatever you do, don’t just skip the Old Testament, or treat it as something completely alien to the New Testament accounts.

But again, what does the Old Testament have to do with the story of Jesus in the New Testament? Scripture itself teaches us the connection. After His resurrection, Jesus walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke tells us that, “…beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27) Note carefully what is said here. Jesus goes through the Old Testament (“Moses and all the Prophets”) and shows them “the things concerning himself.”

On another occasion, the Jews asked Jesus (who had just informed them that “if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death”), “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?” Jesus responded:

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:53, 56-58)

Here we see Christ’s claim to be the eternal God, “I Am,” who revealed His name to Moses and said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6).

These passages are important, for they show that the life of Jesus was a fulfillment of all that the Old Testament looked forward to. There are three main ways in which Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament. For simplicity and clarity, we will call them prophecies, appearances, and symbols.

First, prophecies: Jesus was the promised Messiah, the long-awaited Saviour of God’s people. Hundreds of years before his birth, God sent prophets who foretold many things about the Messiah, all of which were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Just a few examples would include his birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), heralded by a star (Numbers 24:17); his conception by a virgin (Isaiah 7:14); his flight to, and return from, Egypt (Hosea 11:1; cf. Matthew 2:15); his death by crucifixion, and his resurrection (Psalm 22:1-18; Isaiah 53).

Second, appearances: “the LORD appeared to [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him” (Genesis 18:1-2). Many Biblical scholars understand this to be an actual appearance of Christ, the Son of God. The Second Person of the Trinity comes to Abraham in the appearance of a man. Puritan John Gill wrote that, “the truth of the matter seems to be this, that one of them was the son of God in an human form, that chiefly conversed with Abraham…and the other two were angels in the like form that accompanied him in that expedition….”* This happens throughout the Old Testament. When Jacob wrestled with a “man” (Genesis 32:24), the patriarch himself concludes, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (v. 30). Often, when “the Angel of the Lord” appears to God’s people in the Old Testament (for example, Gideon, in Judges 6, or Manoah in Judges 13), he is also referred to as “the LORD” or “God.” Biblical scholars suggest that these are appearances of Christ, not the Father, or the Holy Spirit, who are never said to appear as humans.

Third, symbols. Many Old Testament passages refer to Christ in an indirect manner, by way of types or symbols. From St Paul, for instance, we learn that even the Israelites wandering in the wilderness knew Christ, and he compares their experience with what New Testament Christians receive in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper:

I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (I Corinthians 10:1-4)

The prophet Jonah was a symbol of Christ, as Jesus himself tells us: “just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:38-40). Think of the ways Jesus is described in the New Testament: “the lamb of God” (John 1:29); “the good shepherd” (John 10:11); “prophet” (Luke 24:19); “priest” (Hebrew 3:1); and “king” (Matthew 2:2; 27:11). Yet God had given to the people of Israel lesser prophets, priests, and kings, as well as sacrificial lambs. In addition, there are shepherds in the Old Testament, like Jacob, David, and Amos. So, when we read the Scriptures, and read about a lamb, a shepherd, a prophet, a priest, a king (and these are just a few examples), we should think of Jesus, and see what we can learn about Him from these types and symbols.

In doing this, we should let the New Testament be our guide. Even the simple tool of a good reference Bible can help. When the New Testament quotes a passage from the Old Testament, or the margins list an Old Testament reference, look it up. It will enhance your ability to help children understand the significance and context of whatever passage you are teaching.

The Bible is essentially one book, one story, though made up of many individual books and stories, just as the tales of Lancelot, Galahad, and Gawain are all parts of the legend of King Arthur. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the centre of the Bible’s story.

Look around at the landscape painted by Scripture, and on every hill, in every valley, in every wood and plain, there is Christ. Hear the story of God’s people, and in every scene, at every moment, there is Christ. Read the scriptural account of God’s work in history, and on every page, in every song and letter, there is Christ.

With this understanding, all of Scripture takes on a new significance for parents and teachers. We come to see, for example, that the story of David and Goliath is not primarily about “how to conquer the giants in our lives.” Rather, this story is told because it is a significant moment in the life of David, the ancestor of Christ, who was the Son of David (Matthew 1:1; 9:27). Adam’s story foreshadows the Second Adam, Christ (I Corinthians 15:45). Moses points ahead to One greater than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6). All of this ought to infuse our teaching with life and energy, with drama and wonder. All is about Christ. Every book, every chapter, every passage, every verse, no matter how difficult or obscure, ultimately finds meaning in union with the story of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul put it, “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). Children, with this understanding of the Bible, will not be bewildered at the vast array of stories and characters, but will begin to see this diversity as part of the unity of the One Story, the story of Christ. Add to that the fact that it is, above all, a true story, and you have (of course!) the greatest tool for the transformation of young lives that could ever be imagined.

*From the commentary on Genesis 18 in John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, which can be found here.

Tolkien and Lewis Resources

My forthcoming book, Talking of Dragons: The Children's Books of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, went to the printers a couple of weeks ago. I had written up a brief resource/reading list for further study, but the constraints of space required that it be left out. So, I thought I would put it here, for those who may be interested. Enjoy.

For Further Study

What follows is a short list of resources—books, films, CDs, websites—that are recommended for those who would like to delve deeper into the lives of Tolkien and Lewis, the worlds of Narnia and Middle-earth, and some of the thoughts and ideas that shaped those worlds.

Books:

Bradley J. Birzer
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth

Devin Brown
Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware
Finding God in The Lord of the Rings
Finding God in the Land of Narnia

Humphrey Carpenter
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography

The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends

David Day:
A Guide to Tolkien

Colin Duriez
A Field Guide to Narnia
The Inklings Handbook: The Lives, Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and their Friends
Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship
The J.R.R. Tolkien Handbook: A Concise Guide to His Life, Writings, and World of Middle-earth

Paul F. Ford
Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Enchanting World of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia

Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson
Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

C. S. Lewis
The Letters of C. S. Lewis
Letters to Children
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
The Four Loves
An Experiment in Criticism
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C. S. Lewis
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia
Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories
The Ransom Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength)
The Pilgrim’s Regress
Mere Christianity
Miracles
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

Kathryn Lindskoog
Journey Into Narnia
C. S. Lewis: Mere Christian
Light in the Shadowlands: Protecting the Real C. S. Lewis
How to Grow a Young Reader: Books from Every Age for Readers of Every Age (with Ranelda Mack Hunsicker)

George MacDonald (the author that C. S. Lewis called his ‘master’)
Phantastes
The Princess and the Goblin
The Princess and Curdie
At the Back of the North Wind
The Gifts of the Child Christ & Other Stories and Fairy Tales

Michael D. O’Brien
A Landscape With Dragons: The Battle for You Child’s Mind

Joseph Pearce:
Tolkien: A Celebration

Frederick Rebsamen
Beowulf: A Verse Translation

Tom Shippey
The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology
J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century

Mark Eddy Smith
Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion:
The Hobbit (The Annotated Hobbit is highly recommended)
The Lord of the Rings
Roverandom
The Father Christmas Letters
Mr Bliss
Tree and Leaf: Including the Poem Mythopoeia, the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
Morgoth’s Ring (The History of Middle-earth, Volume X. See especially ’Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth’, which sheds much light on the Christian foundations of Tolkien’s mythology)

Turgon (from theonering.net)
The Tolkien Fan’s Medieval Reader (Texts of many of the Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, and Celtic tales that shaped Tolkien’s stories)

Recordings:

BBC
The Hobbit (Radio adaptation)
The Lord of the Rings (Radio adaptation)

Focus on the Family Radio Theater
The Chronicles of Narnia (Paul McCusker’s excellent radio adaptation of all seven books)

R. C. Sproul, Jr.
Further Up and Further In: Studies in Narnia (CD set)
Basement Tapes #24: You Don’t Know Jack (CD set on C. S. Lewis)

Douglas Wilson
What I Learned in Narnia (CD set)

Periodicals:

Christian History Magazine, Spring 2003: Tolkien: Man Behind the Myth
Credenda/Agenda: Volume 13, Issue 5: Jack: A Reformed Appreciation of C. S. Lewis
St Austin Review, January, February 2003: Tolkien Revisited (see especially Bradley J. Birzer’s fine article, ‘Grace and Will in Tolkien’s Legendarium’)

Websites/web articles:

theonering.net (fan site)
lordoftherings.net (official movie site)
narniaweb.com (official movie site)
cslewis.drzeus.net (Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis site)
tolkienlibrary.com (the books of Tolkien)
christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2003/aug29.html (This is an interview with Colin Duriez on the friendship of Tolkien and Lewis. At the bottom of the page are links to a number of other articles, including a fascinating email conversation between Bradley J. Birzer and Mark Eddy Smith)

Video:

The Chronicles of Narnia (TV adaptations by the BBC of four of the seven books)
The Lord of the Rings (Big screen adaptations directed by Peter Jackson)

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Just wanted to mention something that is actually rather old news, though I just found out about it. One of my favourite movies was finally released on DVD earlier this year. The Agony and the Ecstasy, starring Charlton Heston as Michaelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II, tells the story of the painting of the Sistine chapel. I hope to write a review later for the Logres Hall Classic Reviews page, but for now just wanted to mention it here. My previous copy was a cheap pan and scan ('This movie has been formatted to fit your screen'; it's not widescreen, in other words) VHS with terrible audio and picture quality. The DVD is a restored version of the film and it is truly glorious. There is so much I had really never seen before. A great film about issues of art, life, and faith, and some of the best acting you are likely to see anytime soon. Superb script, too. Highly recommended.