tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post4797929919510376923..comments2024-03-11T16:29:13.619-05:00Comments on Lingwë - Musings of a Fish: An apocryphal anecdote?Jason Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809154870762268253noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post-61236903965399515202011-05-28T18:26:39.000-05:002011-05-28T18:26:39.000-05:00Those are both interesting, Dale. The second quote...Those are both interesting, Dale. The second quote is something I feel like I’ve heard before, and <i>not</i> attributed to Lewis. Hmm.Jason Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05809154870762268253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post-91306767718545466772011-05-28T11:23:19.474-05:002011-05-28T11:23:19.474-05:00Thanks, Jase, for noting this anecdote and also fa...Thanks, Jase, for noting this anecdote and also factors that make it questionable. <br /><br />I have an interest in "Inklings apocrypha." Here are two about C. S. Lewis:(1) The Sept. 2004 issue of Touchstone magazine contains an article by Charles Bressler that says a Jan. 1939 letter by Lewis calls George MacDonald’s What’s Mine’s Mine “the fourth greatest book he had ever read.” But this interesting assertion is nowhere to be found in the books of Lewis’s letters, and the editor of the magazine has apparently been unable, so far, to elicit details from the article author. (2) The British magazine The Spectator has a column, in one of Dec. 2004’s issues and available online, by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “Poor Jack Is Dead” (referring not to Jack Lewis but to a dog). The final paragraph attributes to Lewis the remark that “dogs have three legs in the animal kingdom and one in the human.” Neither I nor some other longtime Lewis readers recognize that mot.<br /><br />I don't know much about Charles Williams and don't track any discussion lists on him. Given his interest in secret societies etc., I wouldn't be surprised if there are some dubious anecdotes about CW circulating in some places.Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post-18758693148794076062011-05-24T11:52:22.101-05:002011-05-24T11:52:22.101-05:00Do we know anything about Tolkien's drinking h...Do we know anything about Tolkien's drinking habits that make Danish lager particularly unlikely for him? C&G says something about his tastes in wine (burgundy, port, and champagne, all preserving foreign places in their names) but not beer.<br /><br />But what was the biographer's source for knowing that the don was Tolkien - was it a contemporary letter or a recollection - and did he identify Tolkien as that author guy himself, or did Vestal tell him? Those are the questions whose answers could either allay or raise suspicions.David Bratmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08090662884600828582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post-27614468873479025172011-05-24T07:35:59.765-05:002011-05-24T07:35:59.765-05:00What about “Danish lager in the don’s rooms”, Davi...What about “Danish lager in the don’s rooms”, David? Does that seem likely in your view?<br /><br />As for the biographer’s having mentioned Tolkien’s two books, I don’t see any reason for suspicion. I figured this was an interjection by Tassin. By 1973, when the biography was published, Tolkien’s name was very well-known, so it’s no surprise to me that a biographer, if he found mention of Tolkien’s name in a letter, would sit up and take notice! The question, though, is whether he found Tolkien’s name in a letter, whether it came up in an interview with somebody many years after the fact, whether it was subsequent boasting by Vestal (as you wondered), or what?Jason Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05809154870762268253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9050528436539921312.post-71176932211151163992011-05-23T21:34:28.625-05:002011-05-23T21:34:28.625-05:00I'd like to see a lot more examples in Vestal&...I'd like to see a lot more examples in Vestal's letters of implausible name-dropping before I'd consider a claim that Tolkien showed a visitor around Merton to be inherently unlikely. He may have been busy, but he was also capable of being kindly to a visitor facing frustration, and furthermore did not always stick to his own priorities in time management.<br /><br />I'm more suspicious of the biography's identification of Tolkien as the author of two books one of which hadn't been published at the time of the event and the other of which he might not have been likely to mention. Did Vestal name Tolkien in a contemporary letter and the biographer identified him? Or is there no letter and Vestal went round in later years boasting that Tolkien showed him around Merton? Or something in between?David Bratmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08090662884600828582noreply@blogger.com