In memoriam

I wasn't planning to post anything today, but then I realised what day it is. Yes, you're quite right: it is the 22nd November. Winter is getting closer and this university term is coming to an end, and I'm looking forward to studying German in the spring - but for the moment, I would like to look back rather than ahead. This day marks the 50th anniversary of the death of a very interesting man. I am sure many first and foremost think of John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on the 22nd November 1963 - and no wonder. His death made the headlines and was talked about for a long time, and the news of the death of another man the same day received much less attention. Who am I speaking of? 

Image source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BY-0Lh4wE-oT7x8aDIhVAhbjKEiGKAvhQSYj_FhAgWBz9iKdlbLedp-fwis4CgrDRGslyoCakOhevRhonKLXLMAMrOl_bvDHqpn9shcwpeeUUZqwlYQ3sFKerWnBxVVEFojOdnMpTNg/s400/cslewis.jpg

To his friends he was known as Jack, but his real name was Clive Staples Lewis. CS Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898, and attended several different schools in Northern Ireland and England. As a boy he loved the stories of Beatrix Potter (they are truly great; read them if you haven't!), and was later on interested in languages and mythology and Scandinavian and Icelandic stories. He was awarded a scholarship at Oxford in 1916. After his service in the First World War, he returned to Oxford and became a tutor in Philosophy as well as in English Language and Literature. He held the latter position until 1954. He called himself an atheist throughout his teenage years and early adulthood, but seems later to have re-embraced Christianity - perhaps in part thanks to his friend and Oxford colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, who was a devout Catholic. In 1956 he married American writer Joy Davidman Gresham, but Joy died of cancer four years later. Jack began to experience various medical problems in the early 60s. On the 22nd November 1963, he died at his home in Oxford.

To people of my generation, CS Lewis is probably most known for writing The Chronicles of Narnia (which were written during Lewis' final years at Oxford and deal heavily with Christian themes). He was also a member of The Inklings, an Oxford-based writing club that also included his brother Warren, Nevill Coghill, Tolkien, Owen Barfield and several others. I would have loved to attend the Inklings' meetings in the 1930s - even though Tolkien, sometimes called "Tolk" or "Toller" by his friends, was renowned for his sometimes harsh criticism and would probably rewrite most of my story ideas.

I could go on forever, or even write a whole book about Lewis' life - but there are already a number of interesting biographies floating around. When I visited Westminster Abbey last summer, I was disappointed by neither Lewis nor Tolkien having a memorial tablet in Poets' Corner. As I have been informed, this has now been fixed on Lewis' part. (If 50 years is what it takes, I'm really hoping for a Tolkien plaque in 2023.) For now, I am happy for Jack's sake - to me, he definitely belongs up there with Dickens, Keats and the Brontës. 

On Lindisfarne and St Cuthbert

The arrival of the Vikings in the late 8th century had a huge effect on the British Isles, language-wise as well as culturally. The Vikings brought with them their own tongue; many of their words were incorporated into Aenglisc and can still be found in modern English. The Vikings began by raiding monasteries along the coasts, which is dramatically described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 

"In this year dire forewarnings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people: these were extraordinary whirlwinds and lightnings, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these omens; and soon after that, in the same year, on the sixth of the ides of Ianr, the havoc of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, through rapine and slaughter." 

  

On behalf of the Vikings - I am sorry about this. One thing that was not stolen or destroyed (because the Lindisfarne community left their monastery out of fear of being plundered) was a codex known as The Lindisfarne Gospels - a beautiful illuminated gospel book that was written at Lindisfarne in the early 8th century and is now kept at the British Library in London. It is, of course, written in Latin, but seems to have Old English scribblings along the pictures' edges. On the page to the right (the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew), I have so far only been able to make out "cynn" (mostly "sort", "kind") and "haelen(d?)", which means "healer" or "saviour" and could refer to Jesus, but I'm not entirely sure. If anyone is interested in looking inside, the British Library has made it possible to browse the Lindisfarne Gospels online. 

Image source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/LindisfarneFol27rIncipitMatt.jpg

Another important book from Lindisfarne is the St Cuthbert Gospel, which is a Latin version of the Gospel of John. It was probably placed in St Cuthbert's coffin a few years after his death in 687 - and that coffin is probably one of the most well-travelled ones in history. Why? Because the same monks that left Lindisfarne in 875 and saved the Lindisfarne Gospels also brought with them St Cuthbert's coffin! They carried it back and forth across Scotland and Northumbria for several years before it was given a home in the church of St Mary and St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street, county Durham. More than a century later, a Danish raid once again led to the coffin's removal. One story reads that the cart carrying the coffin stopped and would not move, and that the bishop of Durham had a vision about St Cuthbert wanting to go to Durham. The coffin ended up in Durham cathedral, and was not opened until the early 12th century. The Gospel was removed from the coffin and kept with other relics. It came into the hands of collectors when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 16th century, and was eventually given to a Jesuit school. The Jesuit Order lent it to the British Library in 1979, and in 2012 the library had raised enough to buy the book for £9 000 000. However, they have agreed that it is to be shared and displayed both at the British Library, Durham Cathedral and Durham University. And so, St Cuthbert's Gospel continues its travel of 1300 years!