Subject:
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Re: Narnia or some kind of Jewish folktale
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 4 Mar 2000 07:26:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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1332 times
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Warning: this message is on-topic.
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Shiri Dori writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jeremy H. Sproat writes:
> > Wasn't Lillith mentioned in some other religious text, perhaps Babylonian or
> > Phoenecian? Evidently, Adam's first wife was Lillith, who left due to
> > interpersonal incompatabilities.
>
> I don't know if it was mentioned in RELIGIOUS texts, but C.S. Lewis mentioned
> it in "The Lion, the witch & the wardrobe", which is definitely christianity-
> influenced...
> (Not to mention it's like a bible to me :) I love Narnia!)
>
> -Shiri
I think it is a safe guess that one of Jack's models for Narnia was the fantasy
novel _Lilith_ by George MacDonald. It too is remotely based on that Jewish
folktale about Adam's other wife. I forget which version of those folktales it
corresponds with, but I think the idea is that Lilith has to be put away for
some unspeakable sin she won't let go of. It's full of the MacDonald brand of
theology which Lewis used in The Great Divorce, which got MacDonald kicked out
of his church. At the time I read it the theology/psychology was irrelevant, but
_Lilith_ has certain magical prose qualities, and features one of those big old
rambling houses with portals to other worlds (like the wardrobe or the attic
crawlspace in The Magician's Nephew.)
J. Salamanca also wrote a modern novel called _Lilith_, about a man who has an
affair with a schizophrenic woman who invites him into her fantasy world. In the
end her condition worsens and she has to be locked up. I think it came out about
the same time as _Lolita_ and, like it, is full of disturbing relationships that
ought not to happen.
By the time I read the Sandman stories with Lilith, I was just plain confused on
this particular myth. I kept trying to figure out what Gaiman was trying to do.
Anyway, none of my reference books have any great information on this folktale.
My dictionary says: 1. Semitic myth: a female demon dwelling in deserted places
and attacking children. 2. Jewish folklore: Adam's wife before Eve was created.
Oh wait. One useless quote. In a discussion of Elizabethan fairy superstitions,
C.S. Lewis quotes the character "Athanasius Kircher says to an apparition 'Aie!
I fear ye be one of those daemons whom the ancients called Nymphs' and receives
the reassurance, 'I am no Lilith or lamia'." (*_Iter Extaticum II qui et Mundi
Subterranei Prodromos dicitur_. Romae, Typis Mascardi, MDCLVII. I kid you not.)
In C.S. Lewis _The Discarded Image, an Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance
Literature_ p.125. Lamia was a Latin word for 'elf' or 'fairy'.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Narnia or some kind of Jewish folktale
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| Warning: this message is on-topic. Bull-beggars? Heh heh. I quote more: "Reginald Scot mentions fairies (and nymphs) among bugbears used to frighten children: 'Our mothers' maids have so terrified us with bull-beggars*, spirits, witches, urchins, (...) (25 years ago, 4-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
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| (...) I don't know if it was mentioned in RELIGIOUS texts, but C.S. Lewis mentioned it in "The Lion, the witch & the wardrobe", which is definitely christianity- influenced... (Not to mention it's like a bible to me :) I love Narnia!) -Shiri (25 years ago, 4-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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