The Stone Gryphon, Part 1: Oxfordshire 1942
Chapter 4 - Chain Mail

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. Book of Psalms 133:1

21 June 1942

Dear Peter,

I was so happy to get your letter. Ed and I have been having a dreadful time with Eustace. There, I've said it. He's dreadful. He heard us talking about N. and that painting in the Spare Oom and simply will not leave off. Edmund wishes to spank him with the flat end of a sword so I am glad he does not have one. Aslan forgive me, but at this point I would gladly help. Edmund that is. Aunt and Uncle are just so very odd, and not at all in a good way. I am simply starving for a rasher of bacon and am sick of boiled carrots and we still have weeks to go.

It's been very difficult for me and Edmund to find any time to ourselves, what with Eustace always hanging about. Edmund has been coming into my room at night after Eustace is asleep so we can talk. This means of course that neither of us has been getting enough sleep and so you can imagine what Ed has been like in the morning! We have hit on running (and I do mean running) to one of the libraries at the College and hiding in the stacks. We both can easily outrun Eustace, and as he has absolutely no imagination or sense of direction, it can take him some time before he finds us.

Here I am complaining and I know I should not. I pray to Aslan that He give me patience – never one of my better traits as you know.

So, into this trying time, your long (long, long) letter was much appreciated and Edmund and I (using the running and library hiding and late night tricks) have had several nice discussions about it. Edmund is working on a response to you that rivals your own letter to us! He has been doing research as well, but I'll let him write about that. He is very impressed about your meetings with the Russells and their driver (Ed suggested I use that term) and even a bit envious, but I suspect you would have guessed that.

At first, when I read your letter about the cutting ritual, I was so horrified, I cried. I don't mean to distress you, but hearing of such violence to Aslan's own daughters was very disturbing for me. I'm afraid I felt it was just more of the same ugliness that seems to surround us here. So, I talked some with Edmund, had an even longer talk with Aslan, and began to think properly about it again.

You know, Peter, even today, I don't feel sure about how we handled the Black Dwarf clans. We knew there were peculiar things. I do not believe it was truly serious, but in fairness, we cannot say for certain. We never saw a Black Dwarfess. Ever. There must have been, of course. I once questioned Fidrian about it, and she told me to never, ever, ask a Black Dwarf about "their" females. She emphasized the word "their" just as I have. It was, she said, beyond rude. So, we did not know, and we did not seek to know. We believed that they had their own rights to live their lives as they wished, so long as they did no harm to any other Good Beast or Being. To that the Clans did abide.

But, brother, what if we did learn of something that involved brutality to their own people, willingly done and willingly accepted? Or, maybe not as disturbing, what if we learned that instead of commemorating Aslan's Rebirth at the Stone Table, they were acting out his Death, say by the sacrifice of a Dumb Beast? By Aslan, where would our greater duty have been?

While, perhaps, truly awful practices did not exist in our time, what of Caspian? As Trumpkin said, you treat someone as a dumb beast for long enough, and that is what they become. So long apart from Aslan, it will take time and wise leadership for our poor people to find their way back to Him. I fear that as Caspian comes into his own he may learn of some truly appalling practices. He may have to face what we did not, exactly how far the rights of a Beast to be left alone can go.

I was so very happy to see the Dryads reawaken with Aslan's return and to see Bacchus and his very wild girls. It gave me hope that indeed the Narnians would rediscover their own wonderful celebrations and enjoy them as they did when We ruled. But, would you have wanted to explain those rituals to Father Donald? Even to mother and father?

We all came to know very well how the Dryads celebrated Spring. They took human form but they are trees. Trees pollinate, and do so, well, I suppose someone here might say, rather indiscriminately. (Don't laugh, but I try hard not to think about this too much when the trees cover everything with that thick yellow dust in April). I also know that how to handle those rites of Spring was one of the more awkward things you and Susan faced in our first year. I am very glad that you chose to see it as you did even if I did not fully understand it at the time. It would have been very wrong to have tried to force on them the way such things are viewed here.

I see of course the differences. Things like slavery are harmful and degrading and the Dryad rituals are not. I am also certain though that wiser people than I am would be able to make a very good argument that those Spring celebrations really were degrading and harmful, both to our morals and to the Dryads. It could be argued, as Father Donald or Mum might, that the Dryads in doing as they do are not showing proper reverence to the form the Creator gave them, or they are too casual about something sacred to God. I don't agree with that, of course, but good people could be very convincing on that point. I'm sure Father Donald would have no difficulty at all – not that I intend to tell him, of course. (Or our parents).

I find it difficult, in a good way, to know what is really Aslan's will here, sometimes. In N., if I was uncertain, I could just ask him. Here, we have people tell us always what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. For some things, the easy things, seeing the difference isn't too hard to do. I do wonder, how do they know to speak so authoritatively? Does Aslan speak to them as he did, and does, to me? Or, is it their own will that they speak? Or both?

I need to think about this more and speak to Aslan. Do write more, Peter. You sound very happy, and I rejoice in that. I understand completely how you felt it was a breath of N., but here, instead of in N. That makes it even better, doesn't it? For there is only one Aslan, and his creation is very good indeed, both here and there, if we but have eyes to see and hearts to feel. (In writing that, I realized I may have just answered my own question!)

Aslan's blessings upon you, dear brother. Your loving sister,

Lucy

23 June 1942

Dear Peter,

I'm sorry that I haven't written sooner. Plainly though your letter required no small response. I hardly know where to begin. And so, as is my wont, I shall begin at the beginning. Eustace is a pill and a prat and I dearly wish to spank him. I have prayed very hard to Aslan for understanding and, although Lucy disagrees, I do see some part of myself in our cousin, or, more accurately, what I might have become had I continued as I had. Aslan has told me to persevere and I am ever grateful to him for showing me this uncomfortable mirror. Sadly, I believe that some or perhaps all of Eustace's defects (and there are many) must be attributed in no small way to Harold and Alberta. I do wonder why a couple would have a child in which they take no interest or particular care. They are wholly inattentive and cold. They praise him for all the wrong things and criticize him for any kindness or generosity done. How our mother can be related to Harold I do not see or understand at all. I pity our cousin, but feel little love and no affection.

On one issue, H. and A. have been supportive. As I had written before, I've been steadily reading my way through every censored and indecent book I can find. H. and A. have many, although I do not believe they have read any of them. For books they do not own, they are happy to write a note so that I may get anything I wish from the College library. This digression is pertinent. So, I was working my way through Ulysses (impenetrable) and The Canterbury Tales (very amusing and much easier to read once you've spoken something similar for almost 20 years) and Origin of the Species (rather relevant now) when your letter arrived.

Your letter has been the very best thing that has happened all summer.

Beginning very narrowly, it does seem to me that what Harold and Alberta aspire to be, the Russells actually are. H. and A. have been subscribers to Nature, Proceedings of the Royal Society, and several other journals in which I could easily find MAR and RR's articles. Yet, as I mentioned, I think that our aunt and uncle have these things not because they are interested in them or even read them, but because they think people as modern and liberal as they are should have them. It's very peculiar.

"Their driver" sounds to be a fascinating man. He must have ridden in the Arab Revolts at a very young age. I imagine he came to the attention of someone in the Arab Bureau in Cairo at around that time, but to speculate about anything beyond this is really not appropriate. When you see him again, ask if he rode in the overland assault upon Aqaba or Wejh? Can he tell you more about where he is from? His tribe? What denomination of Islam? Also, could you ask if he was with …

I am glad that you spoke candidly with him about how you greeted his arrival. He is undoubtedly accustomed to people reacting to his dress and skin colour. Consider carefully brother if we might be negatively influenced here by our experiences with some of the Calormenes. That would be very wrong. I want to believe that when one's soldiers and subjects have feathers, fur, hooves and leaves, one learns quickly to look beyond the merely physical to see the Good "Person" beneath. I will discuss this with Lucy and suggest you reflect upon it as well. I believe that because of our experience, Aslan has very high expectations for us in this regard and we must not disappoint him.

I agree with you also that The Driver is alert to you that something is not as it seems. Once a King, always a King, and I suspect he is not any more deceived by outward appearances than you are. He has lived with secrets and war and during a time when it was not all mechanized, and he may well recognize you for what you are. There is nothing much to be done about that except to trust the honour that you felt and saw in him.

As for MAR, you have left me with much to speculate upon! Your description of the Professor trying to explain her background had me shaking with laughter and crying for his discomfort. Do you remember that terrible gaffe we made with that diplomat from the Seven Isles when he brought the young lady not his granddaughter?…

I found a paper MAR wrote with a Jesuit priest on their possible discovery of enormous ancient crocodiles in the Sahara. Would you ask her about how she is …

As for RR, he is of a very special and near extinct type. His is one of the last of the great Victorian explorers, very much in the mold of Livingstone, Stanley, and Shackleton. I am sorry to hear of his illness and pray to Aslan for his health.

This is where I come back to my digression about the books. I found, with little difficulty, the whole history of the "cutting" debate that you wrote about. I wondered if something like it might have been practiced in Calormen, but in considering it further, now think it unlikely for several reasons based on my own observations there. Like you and Lu, I immediately thought about some of our N. experiences and really how very often we were faced with morals and ways so very different from what we know here. Knowing what to leave alone was hard enough. Trying to accomplish peaceable change would be, as you argued so well, a far more difficult task.

I recalled that Saint Paul had quite a bit to say on the subject in his Epistles, particularly Galatians. You would not believe the difficulty I had from Harold and Alberta trying to find a Bible! They encouraged me to read D.H. Lawrence, but don't want to me read that "unwholesome book!" I'm kicking myself for not bringing one from home, and I didn't want to take Lucy's, so I borrowed one from the local church. I would like to know if RR has considered this parallel from the early Christian churches. Could you ask him if…

Also, I assume he is very knowledgeable about the practice in China where women used to bind their feet. From what I've read, …

I have much more, but this is quite long enough as it is! My prayers are with you, brother. Aslan walks with you always. Give my love to the Professor as well.

Etc.

Edmund

Ch. 5 - Night (and day) at the Museum
In which Richard instructs Peter on birds, bees, Macrotermes bellicosus and Castor fiber and we learn the reason for Mary's antipathy to King Kong.

Thanks so much for the reviews. You don't start something like this, that is so far outside what people typically enjoy in this fandom, hoping for much in the way of feedback. I mean, who really wants to read about England after the War and at the beginning of what the BBC refers to as "Lost Decade?" I appreciate the kind words very much and the very thoughtful insights.