Everything is changing in Glome! Both the Priest and the King are dying, while their successors prepare to take over their respective mantels…
S3E13: “Long Live The Queen!” (Download)
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Time Stamps
01:57 – Drink-of-the-week
02:21 – Quote-of-the-week
07:27 – Chapter 16 Summary
37:50 – Chapter 17 Summary
48:27 – 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
• Boring drinks for Drink-of-the-week were a bit boring this week. Matt was drinking herbal tea and I was drinking Grapefruit Sparkling Water.
• The quote-of-the-week came from Chapter 16:
“Well. You have a secret from me,” he said in the end. “No, don’t turn away from me. Did you think I would try to press or conjure it out of you? Never that. Friends must be free. My tormenting you to find it would build a worse barrier between us than your hiding it… There, do not weep. I shall not cease to love you if you have a hundred secrets.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
• Toasted Rowdy and his son, Hayes Lewis, who was born last week.
• I read my 150-word summary for Chapter 16:
The Fox finds Orual. Hiding her wound, she says that she went to the mountain and, while not explaining how she blackmailed Psyche, tells him of her plan with the lamp and the subsequent destruction of the mountain. The Fox is horrified at her course of action, but doesn’t press her to reveal the secret he knows she is hiding. Orual decides to veil permanently from now on. She stands up to the King when he mocks her. She devotes herself to learning, riding and fighting. Later in the year, the King sustains an injury which will lead to his death. The old priest is also near death. Bardia, the Fox, Orual and the new priest, Arnom, hold counsel and settle on terms of mutual support between Palace and Temple. Orual hears crying at the back of the Palace. Thinking it Psyche, she investigates, but instead discovers a strange man…
Summary of Chapter 16 of Till We Have Faces
• Orual Returns. She realizes that she’s avoiding the Fox, and this makes her sad. Her servant, Poobi, cries when she sees her wound, providing more evidence that Orual is loved.
When Orual talks about the pain of taking off the dressing, I talked about my summer in France where I had an accident and had to wash the wound in iodine every night.
• The Fox asks Orual where she’s been. Hiding her wound, she tells him that she’s been to the mountain and in that moment realizes that the Fox wouldn’t approved of what she had done:
…he would rebuke me for putting that kind of force upon Psyche. One of his maxims was that if we cannot persuade our friends by reasons we must be content “and not bring a mercenary army to our aid.” (He meant passions.)
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
He says that he thought they were going to continue formulating a plan that morning, but Orual curtly tells him that they stopped talking last night because he was tired. She is ashamed to realize that she sounded like her father. The Fox responds:
“So that’s my sin,” said the Fox, smiling sadly. “Well, Lady, you have punished it. But what’s your news? Would Psyche hear you?”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
• Orual gives him scant information. She tells him of the destructive storm and about how she heard Psyche going off weeping on the south side of the Mountain. She says that she didn’t tell him about the god because he’d either think her mad or dreaming! This drove Matt and me crazy!
The Fox presses her for details about her conversation with Psyche, and she eventually tells him about the plan with the lamp. He criticizes the plan greatly, pointing out that this would have inevitably led to a bad end: either the mountain man would have taken her away to another lair, or hurt Psyche. He’s worried that her weeping might have been from a wound given to her by her husband:
“…Oh, if you’d only taken counsel!” I could say nothing. For now I wondered why indeed I had not thought of any of these things and whether I had never at all believed her lover was a mountainy man.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
The Fox asks how Orual persuaded her to follow this plan. She realizes that he would be very annoyed if she said she’d told Psyche that he and Bardia had been in agreement about her husband:
He would make it seem that I had lied.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
She just says that she persuaded Psyche. The Fox can see that Orual is hiding something:
“Well. You have a secret from me,” he said in the end. “No, don’t turn away from me. Did you think I would try to press or conjure it out of you? Never that. Friends must be free. My tormenting you to find it would build a worse barrier between us than your hiding it… There, do not weep. I shall not cease to love you if you have a hundred secrets.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
We commented how different this was from Orual’s attitude towards Psyche!
• Orual’s attitude as he left was shocking!
I had hardly ever before been glad of his going. But I thought, too, how much kinder he was than Psyche.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
Orual records that she never tells Bardia anything of what happened on the Mountain. Given his own personal philosophy of gods and of men, I think it’s unlikely he ever asked.
• Before going to bed, Orual makes a decision to permanently veil:
Hitherto, like all my countrywomen, I had gone bareface; on those two journeys up the Mountain I had worn a veil because I wished to be secret. I now determined that I would go always veiled. I have kept this rule, within doors and without, ever since. It is a sort of treaty made with my ugliness. There had been a time in childhood when I didn’t yet know I was ugly. Then there was a time (for in this book I must hide none of my shames or follies) when I believed, as girls do — and as Batta was always telling me — that I could make it more tolerable by this or that done to my clothes or my hair. Now, I chose to be veiled.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
I commented that Orual is no longer “Bareface”, the original titles for this book. I also compared her decision to veil to that of Kylo Ren from the latest Star Wars movies, hiding behind a mask, trying to kill the past and take on a new persona.
• The King comes back from the hunting party a few days later. They had only killed a couple of lions. Apparently he was very drunk, due to all the feasting. He and Orual have a confrontation about her veiling:
As soon as he saw me veiled, he shouted, “Now, girl, what’s this? Hung your curtains up, eh? Were you afraid we’d be dazzled by your beauty? Take off that frippery!” It was then I first found what that night on the Mountain had done for me. No one who had seen and heard the god could much fear this roaring old King.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
She openly defies him and shows that she’s unafraid and she ultimately wins the stand-off:
He never struck me, and I never feared him again. And from that day I never gave back an inch before him.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
She also gets the King to entrust the monitoring of Redival to Batta.
• We find out that some form of relationship develops between the King and Batta:
Batta had grown very familiar with him of late and spent many hours in the Bedchamber. Not, I suppose, that he had her to his bed — even in the best of her days she had scarcely been what he called “savoury” — but she tattled and whispered and flattered him and stirred his possets, for he began to show his years.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
Both Matt and I were at a loss as to what was going on here…
• Orual tells us that she lives a very detached life, since she’s expecting to soon feel the wrath of the gods, but as time goes on, nothing seems to happen. She goes to Psyche’s room and packs away everything which reminds her of their sorrowful times. She burns a Greek hymn which Psyche wrote to the god of the mountain, as well as her more recent clothes. Only the childhood Psyche was allowed to remain. She locks the door and puts a seal on it. She says she also locked a door in her mind and never again mentions Psyche.
She also comments that there was less comfort in being with the Fox. This reminded me of The Four Loves where Lewis speaks about how each person in a circle of friends can bring out what’s lovely in others:
Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
• Orual devotes herself to study, to fencing and riding. Matt and I thought she was staying busy to distract herself:
My aim was to build up more and more that strength, hard and joyless, which had come to me when I heard the god’s sentence; by learning, fighting, and labouring, to drive all the woman out of me. Sometimes at night, if the wind howled or the rain fell, there would leap upon me, like water from a bursting dam, a great and anguished wonder — whether Psyche was alive, and where she was on such a night, and whether hard wives of peasants were turning her, cold and famished, from their door. But then, after an hour or so of weeping and writhing and calling out upon the gods, I would set to and rebuild the dam.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
• She comments that her relationship with Bardia changes:
He used me, and talked to me, more and more like a man. And this both grieved and pleased me.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
She clearly has developed feelings for him. It reminds me of Joy Davidman’s annoyance at Lewis’ praise of her “manly virtues”.
• Around Midwinter, the King slips on the steps and breaks his thigh bone. He slips because (a) he had probably been drinking and (b) one of the houseboys had been cleaning the steps and the water had frozen. The King doesn’t want help and presents us a portrait of a hurting person.
Orual takes charge of the situation and they send for the second priest from the House of Ungit (a man named “Arnom”)who knows of a good surgeon. The King reacts badly to the veiled Orual:
…Between his screams [the King] kept on pointing at me with his eyes…and crying out, “Take her away! Take away that one with the veil. Don’t let her torture me. I know who she is. I know.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
…
“Master,” said the Fox, “it is only the Princess Orual, your daughter.”
“Aye, so she tells you,” the King would say. “But I know better. Wasn’t she using red hot iron on my leg all night? I know who she is. . . . Aiai! Aiai! Guards! Bardia! Orual! Batta! Take her away!”
Who does the King think she is?
• On the third night, there is a meeting in the corridor outside the King’s room between Bardia, the Fox, Orual and Arnom the priest. Anom says he thinks the King will die. Orual is concerned that she’ll be driven out of Glome. We wondered whether this is how she will become like Psyche. Arnom explains that the House of Ungit is in a very similar situation, as their priest will not last the week. Incidentally, he calls the Fox by his real name (“Lysias” which means “Destroyer”).
The priest laments that Orual isn’t married:
“A woman cannot lead the armies of Glome in war.”…
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
“This Queen can,” …and the way he thrust out his lower jaw made him seem a whole army himself.
After having agreed that the Royal House and the Temple must be united, Arnom says that there’s one issue of contention which has yet to be resolved, a land dispute over an area of land known as The Crumbles. Orual gives it to the Temple, under the condition that Ungit’s guards be henceforward under Bardia, and chosen by and obedient to the ruling monarch. I suggested that this would prevent the power play which happened when the old priest came to pressure the King to sacrifice Psyche.
When they’ve left, Orual reflects:
To be a queen — that would not sweeten the bitter water against which I had been building the dam in my soul. It might strengthen the dam, though. Then, as a quite different thing, came the thought that my father would be dead. That struck me dizzy. The largeness of a world in which he was not . . . the clear light of a sky in which that cloud would no longer hang . . . freedom. I drew in a long breath, one way, the sweetest I had ever drawn. I came near to forgetting my great central sorrow.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
• Orual hears the sound of a girl weeping behind the Palace. She rushes out, crying for Psyche. She then realizes that its chains of a well:
I remembered that when the chains of the well swung a little (and there had been breeze enough to sway them just now) they could make a noise something like that. Oh, the cheat of it, the bitterness!
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
I wondered whether the god of the West Wind could be the cause of the breeze causing the chains to swing. Did he want to draw Orual to the courtyard and, if so, was it for good or for ill?
• Orual sees a figure move in the darkness and when she catches the person, she hears a man’s voice which says
“Softly, sweetheart, … Take me to the King’s threshold.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 16)
• I read my 150-word summary of Chapter 17:
The stranger discovered by Orual is Trunia of Phars, the Prince she wrote about earlier who is in a civil war with his brother, Argan. Trunia has been separated from his army and asks for Glome’s protection. She says that she can only shelter him as a prisoner. Upon hearing this he tries to run, but injures himself and is taken captive. Orual speaks to Bardia and the Fox, suggesting that she fight Argan in single combat for Trunia. This way they avoid a war with Phars and make a friend in Trunia. Both are resistant to the idea, especially the Fox, but Heralds are eventually sent to Argan. Orual realises that her brief queenship has given her a respite from her mental tortures. Worried that the King will survive, she goes to his bedchamber, but returns comforted that she will indeed be the Queen of Glome.
Summary of Chapter 17 of Till We Have Faces
• The stranger Orual discovered at the back of the Palace is a real smooth talker:
Who are you?” said I… A slender, tall man stepped out. “A suppliant,” he said, but with a merriment in his voice that did not sound like supplication. “And one who never let a pretty girl go without a kiss.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
Fortunately, Orual has a dagger with her and this keeps him at a distance. He flirts outrageously and this slightly disorients Orual, not used to being spoken to in this way. He reminds me of Flynn from the movie “Tangled”. He repeats that he’s someone in need of an audience with the King. Orual points out that, unless the King makes a miraculous recovery, she is now Queen.
• The man identifies himself as Trunia of Phars. Earlier in this book, Orual had told us that he was the prince in the middle of a civil war with his father and his brother Argan. While he was not defeated, he was beaten in a skirmish and as he was fleeing, he blundered into Glome territiory and is now cut off from his own army. Orual says that if they receive him as a suppliant, they must defend him, but they don’t want war with Phars. She can only shelter him as a prisoner. At this, Trunia turns and runs, but he trips on an old millstone and injures his ankle. Orual assures him that they’ll save him if they can as long as it doesn’t mean war with Phars. She calls the guards and tells him to cover his face to keep his identity a secret. He’s then given food and drink and his wound tended. He’s eventually taken to the tower room, where Psyche was previously held.
• Orual joins Bardia and the Fox in the King’s bedchamber. The Fox tells her that Arnom of Phars has crossed their borders and are nearby with a large number of horses seeking Trunia. Orual tells them that Trunia is in the Palace. Feeling awkward around her father, they go to the Pillar Room…
• In the Pillar Room, the three of them are of one mind… Firstly, if Trunia can get back to his army, he’ll likely win the war. Secondly, that they would prefer Trunia on the throne of Phars, particularly if they can help him now when he’s in trouble. Lastly, they agree that their country is in no shape for a war with Phars
We’re told about the brother Argan:
was false, cruel, and hated by many, and had, moreover, from his first battle (long before these troubles) an old slur of cowardice upon him which made him contemptible
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
• Orual suggests that they have someone fight Argan in single combat for Trunia. Argan can’t afford to have rumours of his cowardice revived. She suggests herself. Bardia responds:
Oh, Lady, Lady, it’s a thousand pities they didn’t make you a man.” (He spoke it as kindly and heartily as could be; as if a man dashed a gallon of cold water in your broth and never doubted you’d like it all the better.)
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
…as does The Fox:
“Monstrous — against all custom — and nature — and modesty,” said the Fox. On such matters he was a true Greek; he still thought it barbarous and scandalous that the women in our land go bareface. I had sometimes said to him when we were merry that I ought to call him not Grandfather but Grandam. That was another reason why I had never told him of the fencing.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
Orual points out that she’s not yet safe on her throne and that this would bolster her standing among the people:
“Child, child,” said the Fox, his eyes full of tears, “it’s your life. Your life. First my home and freedom gone; then Psyche; now you. Will you not leave one leaf on this old tree?”
I could see right into his heart, for I knew he now implored me with the same anguish I had felt when I implored Psyche. The tears that stood in my eyes behind my veil were tears of pity for myself more than for him. I did not let them fall..
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
Orual orders a herald to be sent to Argan with terms of the duel.
• Orual has some time to reflect, and we get to see what’s going on inside her head…
I looked back on the things the Queen had done and wondered at them. Did that Queen truly think she would kill Argan? I, Orual, as I now saw, did not believe it. I was not even sure that I could fight him… How would it be if, when the day came, and the trumpets had blown, and the swords were out, my courage failed me? I’d be the mockery of the whole world; I could see the shamed look on the Fox’s face, on Bardia’s. I could hear them saying, “And yet how bravely her sister went to the offering! How strange that she, who was so meek and gentle, should have been the brave one after all!” And so she would be far above me in everything… “She shall not,” I said with my whole soul. “Psyche? She’s never had a sword in her hand in her life, never done man’s work in the Pillar Room, never understood (hardly heard of) affairs of state . . . a girl’s life, a child’s life. . . .”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
• At this train of thought, Orual wonders if her sickness was returning, since these are starting to sound like the ravings of her delirium. She then begins to think that this duel would be the gods’ means of execution, but she also realizes that being queen had given her a brief respite from her mental torments (remember what she wrote earlier about hiding from the gods in labour), she resolves the following:
…that for the two days left to me I’d queen it with the best of them; and if by any chance Argan didn’t kill me, I’d queen it as long as the gods let me. It was not pride — the glitter of the name — that moved me; or not much. I was taking to queenship as a stricken man takes to the wine-pot or as a stricken woman, if she had beauty, might take to lovers. It was an art that left you no time to mope. If Orual could vanish altogether into the Queen, the gods would almost be cheated.
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
• The chapter ends on a dark turn. Orual worries about whether her father will actually die. She goes to his bedside and she perceives that he looks at her with terror:
Did he know me and think I came to murder him? Did he think I was Psyche come back from the deadlands to bring him down there? …I looked again at his face — terrified, idiotic, almost an animal’s face. A thought of comfort came to me: “Even if he lives, he will never have his mind again.” I went back and slept soundly
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Chapter 17)
• Read Chapters 18 & 19 for next week!
