PWJ: S3E3 – TWHF (Pt 1, Ch 3-5) – “The Goddess, The Healer, and The Accursed”

We last left Oroual during a happy time in her life. Over the course of the upcoming chapters, life in Glome takes a turn for the worst…

S3E3: “The Goddess, the Healer, and the Accursed” (Download)

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Timestamps

00:52 – Drink-of-the-week
01:22 – Quote-of-the-week
04:38 – Chapter 3 Summary
22:09 – Chapter 4 Summary
29:51 – Chapter 5 Summary
00:00 – Closing remarks

YouTube Version

After Show Skype Session

This Season, after each episode, Matt and I will be recording a ten-minute Skype conversation:

Show Notes

• We both had slight colds, so Matt was drinking Turmeric Ginger tea together with a La Croix, while I was drinking Ginger tea.

• The quote-of-the-week, focussed on Psyche’s change after being sick with fever:

…it was then that I fully perceived how much older she had grown since her sickness. For she neither accepted the rebuke like a child nor defended herself like a child, but looked at me with a grave quietness, almost as if she were older than I. It gave me a pange at the heart.

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 4)

• This week I read Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien, a book which he described as his purgatorial story, somewhat similar to The Great Divorce.

• Matt commented about a video he saw of Bishop Barron talking about C.S. Lewis:

• I shared my summary of Chapter 3:

Redival is discovered with a soldier named Tarin. The King has him castrated and sold into slavery. He orders Redival to remain within sight of her sisters and their tutor. This makes everyone miserable! The people begin to treat Psyche like a goddess and Redival uses this information to blackmail Orual and The Fox. The fortunes of Glome decline. There are poor harvests and the King fails to remarry. Tarin’s father leads a rebellion which is ruthlessly crushed. A plague strikes the city and many fall sick, including Ungit’s priest and The Fox. Psyche nurses for The Fox in his sickness and, upon his recovery, rumours spread about her miraculous ability to heal. A mob arrives at the palace demanding Psyche, so she comes out to touch them as they kneel in adoration. She contracts the sickness, but recovers. Redival begins to regularly visit Ungit’s temple…

Summary of Chapter 3 of Till We Have Faces

• The King continues his insults against Orual:

“And you, goblin daughter, do what you’re good for, you’d best. Name of Ungit! if you with that face can’t frighten the men away, it’s a wonder”

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 3)

• The Fox speaks about jealousy and the Divine:

“The divine nature is without jealousy. Those gods — the sort of gods you are always thinking about — are all folly and lies of poets. We have discussed this a hundred times.”

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 3)

• Matt mentioned the firey love of St. Louis De Montfort.

• Orual blames the god of the mountain for the rumous which spread about Psyche’s ability to heal, despite also identifying the human agents who were no doubt involved:

Now mark the subtlety of the god who is against us. The story of his recovery and Psyche’s nursing got abroad; Batta alone was conduit-pipe enough, and there were a score of other talkers. It became a story of how the beautiful princess could cure the fever by her touch; soon, that her touch was the only thing that could cure it.

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 3)

• I pointed out that when Psyche goes out into the crowd to touch them, it reminded me of Jesus in the Gospels:

He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases

Matthew 8:17

• Redival shows signs of jealousy at Psyche:

“It’s not me they worship, you know: I’m not the goddess. The men are as likely to look at you as at me, now they’ve seen Istra.”

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 3)

• I then offered my summary of the next chapter:

The people come to the palace demanding food, which is eventually given to them. While they are complaining, one man comments that “Barren king makes barren land”. King Trom has him killed. Upon hearing that her former wet-nurse was sick, Psyche goes into the city to visit her. She is distraught when the people spit at her, throw stones and called her “the Accursed”. The plague begins to lessen and the palace is visited by the recently recovered Priest of Ungit.

Summary of Chapter 4 of Till We Have Faces

• I compared Psyche’s illness with the prophecy of Isaiah about Christ:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

• I then offered a summary of the final chapter this week: 

The priest explains to the King that, the previous night, there was a meeting of the people in the temple. He explains that the land is impure and that the goddess Ungit requires “the Accursed” to be sacrificed in a “Great Offering” to “The Brute”. The Fox attempts to use logic to disprove the existence of The Brute, but this is dismissed. The priest explains that lots were drawn to determine the identity of “The Accursed”. When the King suspects that he was identified as “The Accursed”, he is furious and threatens the life of the priest. He is relieved when he hears that the lot fell to his daughter Psyche. Orual begs him to spare her sister’s life, but to no avail.

Summary of Chapter 5 of Till We Have Faces

• Matt referred to the book “Thinking, fast and slow” by  Daniel Kahneman.

• I pointed out parallels between Psyche’s proposed sacrifice and Calvary.

• The priest criticises Greek wisdom:

“We are hearing much Greek wisdom this morning, King,” said the Priest. “And I have heard most of it before. I did not need a slave to teach it to me. It is very subtle. But it brings no rain and grows no corn; sacrifice does both… Much less does it give them understanding of holy things. They demand to see such things clearly, as if the gods were no more than letters written in a book. I, King, have dealt with the gods for three generations of men, and I know that they dazzle our eyes and flow in and out of one another like eddies on a river, and nothing that is said clearly can be said truly about them. Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood. Why should the Accursed not be both the best and the worst?”

Summary of Chapter 5 of Till We Have Faces