03/06/2025
Charles Williams - the forgotten Inkling
The celebrated literary group from mid-century Oxford - the Inklings - are best known for their two most famous authors - J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S Lewis.
However, they had several other members who were equally talented. Most notably perhaps the poet and literary scholar Charles Williams.
Charles Williams was a wonderful mercurial expounder of the esoteric Christian imagination. He made major contributions in three areas:
Novels with deep metaphysical and supernatural themes such as 'The Place of the Lion', in which the platonic archetypes of things come to life in the real world. Or 'War in Heaven' in which the Holy Grail surfaces in an obscure English rural parish church.
Highly imaginative prose writing on literature and theology, most notably perhaps 'The Figure of Beatrice' in which he explores the spiritual significance of Dante's divine muse & guide.
But his most significant achievements surely were his long modernist poems based on Arthurian symbolism, 'Taliessin through Logres' and 'The Region of the Summer Stars.'
Perhaps not so immediately accessible, these poems nevertheless are every bit as rich with imaginative & mythic significance as the works of Tolkien or Lewis. Here is a short extract from 'Taliessin through Logres' in which his hero poet the Welsh bard Taliessin arrives in the mythical Britain of Logres:
In a harbor of Logres
lightly I came to land
under a roaring wind.
Strained were the golden sails
the masts of the galley creaked
as it rode for the Golden Horn
and I for the hills of Wales.
In a train of golden cars
the emperor went above,
for over me in my riding,
shot seven golden stars,
as if while the great oaks stood,
straining, creaking, around,
a golden sickle
flashed in the Druid wood.
Covered on my back
untouched, my harp had hung;
its notes sprang to sound
as I took the blindfold track.
You can read more about the Inklings in the latest issue
