Sørina Higgins - The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain

A gathering with an acknowledged bias toward and emphasis on Charles Williams, The Inklings and King Arthur offers new insights on the difficult and demanding Arthurian poetry of this least critically studied Inkling. But it has as well an impressive array of essays on all the preeminent InklingsTolkien and Lewis and Williams and Barfieldthat will be a significant contribution to the study of their Arthurian works in particular and of twentieth-century Arthurian literature in general.

Verlyn Flieger, Author of Splintered Light, A Question of Time, and Interrupted Music

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the Arthurian legends and their world were of vital importance to the writing and thought of the major Inklings. Under Srina Higgins enterprising editorship, this adventurous and illuminating volumes offers a wealth of insightsfrom theoretical, contextual, interpretative, and other viewpointswhich will move the study of Barfield, Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and their immediate predecessors into new and exciting territory, showing that the Inklings concern with the Matter of Britain was motivated not by nostalgia but by urgent concern for the present and future.

Grevel Lindop, author of Charles Williams: The Third Inkling

Srina Higgins has performed a wonderful service in opening our eyes to the living presence of King Arthur in the scholarship, imaginative writing, and wartime religious reflection of the major Inklings. With its stellar cast of scholars and interpreters, this volume is an indispensable resource for Inklings and Arthurian studies, and indeed for all who seek to understand the modern mythopoeic imagination.

Carol and Philip Zaleski, co-authors of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings

The Inklings and King Arthur: Owen Barfield, C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams on the Matter of Britain is a powerful collection of essays that fills a gaping hole in Inklings scholarship. While many readers have long noted the presence of Arthurian motifs and allusions in the works of the Inklings, few are aware of how extensive these connections are. Srina Higgins has drawn together an impressive group of scholars who offer scholarly yet thoroughly readable essays covering the scope, depth, and influence of Arthuriana in writings of Barfield, Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams. This book should be on the shelf of all Inklings readers.

Don W. King, Montreat College, author of C.S. Lewis, Poet

The Inklings and King Arthur is a very significant addition to serious study of the Inklings circle of C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and their friends. It distinctively focusses upon the group rather than only on Lewis, Tolkien, or other members individually, as has often been the case. The circle is represented convincingly in featuring four of the shaping members, all important writers, and their common interest in King Arthur and the Matter of Britain as a living and breathing tradition. This theme is demonstrated to be an important key for unlocking the heartbeat of the informal group, and dispels the persistent myth that the Inklings were not part of, nor relevant to, the concerns of modernist writers after World War I. This deeply researched, sharply up-to-date, and well-unified collection of essays provides a wealth of discoveries for the reader and opens many doors for further Inklings study.

Colin Duriez, author of The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle,

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship,

and other books relating to the Inklings

Taken as a whole, the essays in this collection lead to the surprising but inescapable conclusion that it is in their Arthurian works that the Inklings thoughts and writings are most intertwined, not only with each other, but with the wider currents of the twentieth century. This book is essential reading, not only for scholars of fantasy literature, but for all those interested in understanding how traditions and writers shape each other.

Michael D. C. Drout, Wheaton College

Just when serious students of C.S. Lewis writing think there is nothing new to be said about his workat least nothing original and significantSrina Higgins has edited The Inklings and King Arthur. In short, this is an important book. Every contributors essay is fascinating. I intend to recommend it to my students.

Lyle Dorsett, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

The historical, legendary, and literary King Arthur lay at the heart of much of what the Inklings wrotesometimes explicitly, sometimes concealed as deeply as the Isle of Avalon itself, and always filtered through the unique interests and interpretations of the authors as individuals, as Higgins introductory essay demonstrates. This ground-breaking collection presents new scholarship on topics as diverse as violence, historicity, gender, medievalism, ecology, mysticism, and personal biography at the nexus of Arthuriana and Inklings studies. Especially exciting is the inclusion of some of the first published criticism on Tolkiens The Fall of Arthur and its unique re-visioning of the Matter of Britain. Those interested in the Inklings or in modern interpretations of the Arthurian mythos will find much thought-provoking material in these pages.

Janet Brennan Croft, editor of Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Srina Higgins collects twenty essayists discussions of twentieth-century British Arthuriana, primarily but not quite exclusively that written by the Inklings. Some essays compare thematic aspects of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkiens, and Owen Barfields Arthurian writings; other essays give historic backgrounds, consider the Inklings treatments of gender, or discuss the religious significance of the Holy Grail (that is, discuss mainly Charles Williams treatments of the Graal). Some readers will think the lengthy focus on the Inklings Arthuriana too restrictive, but these writers continued-and-growing critical acceptance as exponents of types of Christian Romanticism that survived through Modernism(s), and seem to be doing better than some Modernists through Post-Modernism, means that the Victorian fragmentation of the literary culture is still the basic truth. Here are discussed some fascinating cultural shards.

Joe Christopher, Professor Emeritus, Tarleton State University

This book identifies a very important thread in the intellectual curiosity, creative work, and spiritual convictions of the Inklings. For students of the Arthurian tradition, it will reveal an under-appreciated chapter of the Arthur story from the early twentieth century. For Inklings enthusiasts, it will unfold a fascination they might never have known that the Inklings shared.

Corey Olsen, President of Signum University, author of Exploring J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

This is such a good idea for a book that its surprising no one thought of it before. Its hard to overstate the degree to which the world the Inklings grew up in was permeated by the Arthurian story. Just going by names alone, think of Tolkiens father (Arthur Tolkien), Lewiss best friend (Arthur Greeves), Williamss mentor in occult studies and ritual magic (Arthur Edward Waite), and one of the Inklings himself (Barfield, who went by his middle name, but whose full name was Arthur Owen Barfield).

John Rateliff, author of The History of The Hobbit

This volume follows Arthurian leylines in geographies of myth, history, gender, and culture, uncovering Inklings lodestones and way markers throughout. A must read for students of the Inklings, particularly those interested in Charles Williams.