Book Description

An in-depth study on the philosophy of the Inklings. Listed on the official website of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate as recommended reading. Tolkien’s Middle-earth started with a name — the author came across a strangely-sounding name of Earendel when reading a piece of old Anglo-Saxon literature. On reading the first few lines of the poem, he felt "a curious thrill, as if something had stirred in me, half wakened from sleep. There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words.” This encounter with the sound of a name was a call from beyond the veil of the world, which Tolkien later described as the primary reality. The stories of his legendarium were crafted around that name. For Tolkien, the narrative was a secondary reality, a sub-creation. The Name was primary. There is a secret literary theory behind the fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield who believed that when words are spoken aright, they invoke the invisible reality from behind the veil of the world. Words effect what they name. For the Inklings, words are NOT primarily communication tools. They are not the “things” we use to convey a message. Strictly speaking, the message doesn’t come THROUGH words; rather, words are the incarnation of the message—provided they are Spirit-breathed. This seems to be the overarching sentiment and a source of inspiration for all the Inklings—for them, the world is Music, a Sound condensed into matter. It is the Music of Iluvatar clad in stone, water, and grass. It is the Name breathed into a Story. It is Poetry incarnated in the pattering of rain. In modern-day movies and stories based on the works of the Inklings, this "call" from beyond the curtain of the world is often missing. We see a linear narrative that draws us in by its incessant action, but we feel that something is amiss. These movies are made to entertain, but they don’t do even that. Tolkien's stories are entertaining in a different way—it’s not the story that matters, but the Name behind it. Not "what happens," but "who" it happens to. The Name is the primary reality—a summons from behind the veil of the world. Unless the storyteller gets the “mind” of the Inklings, they will create parody. Modern writers use language and storytelling as communication tools. With this approach, the only purpose of using words is to convey the message. As a result, the choice of words becomes message-driven. Words are used to get the reader to move on from one word to the next one horizontally—to bring them to the message as quickly as possible. Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College, pointed out that in modern writing, words have lost their vertical, static quality: "Each word comes more from the preceding word rather than from the silence. It moves on to the next word in front of it rather than to the silence." For the Inklings, language is not a communication tool but rather a portal into being—the invisible reality summoned into our world by the shape and sound of words. Properly speaking, words are incantations. Have you ever heard words that make you stop breathing for a moment or two? If you have, you know why the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and other Inklings are so peculiar. They use words vertically—not to speed the reader on but to allure them to the music of the silence around the words. As Treebeard said: "Don’t be hasty, Master Meriadoc." This book has eleven chapters corresponding to the eleven hidden gems scattered throughout the works of J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield. Like ancient Silmarils, they illumine our present darkness with their magic light and allow us to peep through the curtain of the world.