The Hobbit,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages.

As well as JRR Tolkien,C S Lewis and Charles Williams other Inklings who were authors were Warnie Lewis the brother of C S Lewis,Roger Llancelyn Greene,Neville Coghill  and the philosopher Owen Barfield. Barfield is the one I am least familiar with at the moment though I dare say I shall get round to his work eventually.I have recently been reading Warnies book on the social history of the France of Louis XIV which was first read to the Inklings and thought it quite good.Roger Llancelyn Greene is famous for his children's books retelling myths and legends Norse and Classical.He did a particularly good book retelling the Arthurian legends marvelously illustrated with wood cuts.This is still in print in a Puffin classics edition I believe.Neville Coghill produced Penguin classics renditions of Chaucer both The Canterbury Tales and Troilus And Cressida in modern English verse translations, He aslo collaborated on a film version of Marllowes'  Dr Faustus with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor the only time this work has ever been filmed and is worth catching to see Burton in full classical mode.

The Hobbit,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages

C S Lewis claimed that reading  one of Chesterton's works The Everlasting Man 1925 was pivotal on his own journey from atheism to Christianity.The Everlasting Man was written by Chesterton as a rebuttal to his friend H G Well's Outline Of History which was an influential best seller in the 1920s.Well's history was essentially a scientific one which offended those of a religious bent such as GKC and his friend Hilaire Belloc both apologists  for Catholic Christianity.In the film of The Maltese Falcon Sidney Greenstreet tells Humphrey Bogart the story of the falcon and remarks "This is history sir,not Mr Wells History but history nonetheless" The Everlasting Man which told the story of Christianity in the late Roman world has the same message that there is more to history than Wells scientific rationality.George Orwell in his essay Wells,Hitler and The World State.made  a similar claim that to Wells history was essentially a series of victories of the scientific over the romantic man with his highest scorn reserved for conquerors such as Alexander and Napoleon.

The Hobbit ,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages

A key text of Chesterton's with regard to the Inklings was the chapter entitled The Ethics of Elfland from his 1908 book Orthodoxy.In this chapter Chesterton defended the role of fairy stories as part of traditional culture in the upbringing of children.He is able to point out the moral content of the traditional fairy story and also the role of the fantastic element in stimulating the youthful imagination.Chesterton's defense of the fairy tale was later taken up and expanded by Tolkien in his long essay on Fairy Stories.The use of fairy tales in the work of C S Lewis is too obvious to need pointing out as is his debt to G K Chesterton of which I will expand on later.

The Hobbit,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages.

Charles Williams novels with their 20th century English settings could not be more different than the invented worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia.However they do have something in common with the works of an author who died in 1936 and who can be described as the father and inspiration of the Inklings G K Chesterton.
G K Chesterton was one of the giant figures of early 20th century English a friend of H G Wells and Bernard Shaw despite his not sharing their socialist politics.Chesterton's Christianity,his medievalism his small is beautiful hostility to the Big State and Big Business ,his anti-imperialism .his distrust of what is now called scientism and  his love of fantasy and fairy tale all mark him out as the ancestor and inspiration for the Inklings.

The Hobbit ,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages.

It is of course JRR Tolkien and C S Lewis who made the Inklings during the 1930s and 1940s into the group that has been synonymous with literary fantasy.The third major Inkling Charles Williams was equally interesting but you will look in vain for editions of his novels on the same shelves in a book shop as Tolkien and Lewis.It is possible to find second hand editions of his works but takes some perseverance to do so.Charles Williams was a closer friend of C S Lewis than of Tolkien.,his novels are on occult themes such as the Grail,Tarot cards,Solomon's treasure and life after death which take place in a modern(20th century setting)The edition I have of his novel War In Heaven on the grail theme was actually published in the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult in the 1970s.He  wrote poetry on the theme of the Arthurian legend and  was also a former member of The Order of The Golden Dawn the magical society which also numbered WB Yeats.Arthur Machen And Aleister Crowley among its members.The main influence on C S Lewis was on the concluding novel to his space trilogy That Hideous Strength which has been described as a Charles Williams novel written by C S Lewis.The Inklings were inspired mainly by English Literature from the Anglo-Saxon  period down to Milton in the 17th century as well as fantasy and also the science fiction of H G Wells and Olaf Stapledon.

The Hobbit,The Inklings And The New Middle Ages.

In December 2012 the first part of a two part adaption of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit will hit our cinema screens with Sir Ian Mckellan reprising his role of Gandalf.The second part will be released the following December.It is nearly nine years now since the last part of Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, The Return Of The King was released. This is quite a long time to go in what has been a successful movie franchise.During this period the attempt to repeat this  with fellow  Inkling C S  Lewis Chronicles Of  Narnia has not been as successful.After an initial imaginative adaption of The Lion,The Witch And The Wardrobe with Tilda Swinton as a memorable witch the series seems to have collapsed.The successor Prince Caspian was not terribly good and the rewriting of the plot of The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader to make it a conventional good versus evil story was a mistake which only alienated fans of the books without gaining a wider audience.There seem to now be no further films in the Narnia pipeline due to copyright problems.Those who wish for further adaptions will have to content themselves for the time being with the excellent BBC TV and Radio versions of the four remaining books.So what is it about the fantasy novels that Tolkien and Lewis produced and read initially in their literary group the Inklings that has lasted into the 21st century and continues to make them as popular as ever?.