The Inklings Variety Hour

Lewis' poem in memory of Charles Williams. Quotations come from The Making of C.S. Lewis, by Harry Lee Poe, and Collected Letters, vol. 2, edited by Walter Hooper. Thanks again to Sørina Higgins for her excellent reading!

We have a lot more new episodes waiting for you, including a trip to the borders of Faerie with George MacDonald, a Night Operation with Owen Barfield, and a House by the Stable with Charles Williams! And a lot more. But here's the thing...all of those episodes need to be edited by yours truly. And it's the last week of the semester, and I have a lot of grading (and parenting) to do, so, it's time to treat yourself to a rerun. Luckily, it's a good one! Enjoy this old episode about adapting Tolkien! We'll be back next week! Old description: Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes join Chris to talk about their favorite adaptations of Tolkien's Legendarium in this fairly self-indulgent and digressive conversation. Join us! Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) Tolkien adaptation? Email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com and tell us about it.

This poetry Thursday, we're taking on "Surprised by Joy," the sonnet by William Wordsworth that gave Lewis' 1955 memoir its title. But beyond a title, does the poem have any connection to Lewis' ideas about joy, grief, and love? Probably, yes. Thanks again to Sørina Higgins for selecting and reading this week's (and last week's) poem! Here's the poem, by the way: Surprised by Joy by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation And here's Ben Jonson's "On My First Son," which is a real tear-jerker: On my First Son by Ben Jonson | Poetry Foundation If you enjoy Poetry Thursdays, be sure to let us know at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

As always, if you enjoy this program, please leave us a five-star review on iTunes. Dr. Katherine Wyma joins Chris to talk about how Lewis' writing reflects his experiences in World War I. In particular, she suggests that his writing about World War II may be a form of narrative therapy that helped him cope with psychological wounds from the previous war. Katherine mentions a few books listeners might want to check out: The Maisie Dobbs mystery series A Morning After War, by K.J. Gilchrist C.S. Lewis and the BBC, by Justin Phillips If you want to drop us a line, or join us for an episode (we're recording on Perelandra just now), email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy this short, early poem by Charles Williams! Many thanks to Sørina Higgins for reading (as well as her counsel and help with this podcast generally). Find Williams' poem and her commentary (from ten years ago, nearly exactly) here: On Meeting Shakespeare | The Oddest Inkling (wordpress.com) Next week: Tolkien and Lewis and the World Wars!

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, then... please... leave us a review with five stars on iTunes or Apple Music, or whatever. Yes, we're talking to you through these shownotes, and it's all very eerie and annoying. *ahem* Middle-grade author J.D. Peabody rejoins Chris to talk about The Inkwell Chronicles: Race to Krakatoa, the second book in his Inkwell Chronicles series. You may want to read the book before listening--or feel free to listen to get an idea of how another author draws on the work of the Inklings to create his own excellent middle-grade fiction. It's pretty inspiring. Stick around post "credits" to hear Mr. Peabody talk with Chris' 10-year-old son. Here, by the way, is Jeff's secret Inkwell Chronicles invisible ink page. Worth looking through. Apologies for the late posting! Life has been a perfect storm of grading, kids getting sick, meetings, etc. Also--we're on Instagram now. Follow us @inklingsvarietyhour and feel free to respond there. As always, email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you.

This week, we've got another by Tolkien. You can find it in Tales from the Perilous Realm, which collects The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in which it was originally published. Again, the idea for this format comes from "The Daily Poem," so check it out if you haven't already done so. See you Tuesday!

The finale of our series on The Silver Chair! We have a lot of great stuff to say, but I have a ten-month-old with an ear infection and it is the last month of the semester, so I will have to write a summary later! This is also not as scrupulously edited as other episodes are--so savor the authenticity! My guests are Eric Geddes, Jonathan Geltner (whose blogs you should find and whose books you should buy), and Joseph Weigel (whose podcast you should listen to). My wife Glencora also makes a brief appearance. You can now find us on Instagram @inklingsvarietyhour. We'd love to hear from you. Next week, we'll be talking to J.D. Peabody about his middle-grade fantasy, The Inkwell Chronicles: Race to Krakatoa. Feel free to look it up and give it a read before then or wait until you hear the episode. As always, email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com, and please leave a five-star review on iTunes if you're enjoying the podcast.

Was Auden an Inkling? No. No, he wasn't. But have we played him reading a stanza of this poem (in which he mentions Williams and Tolkien) every week we've published an episode? Yes. Yes, we have. So here's the whole thing in full, for the sake of sweet context. Again, I am absolutely stealing the pattern of Poetry Thursdays from the wonderful Daily Poem podcast by Goldberry Studios. Listen to it and be enlightened, if you like this sort of thing. Next time: We wrap up our Silver Chair discussion!

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour and want to support the show without paying us a dime, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes. Feel free to follow us on Instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour And shoot us an email to tell us that our work this week has not been in vain: inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. This week, Chris is joined by a panoply of first-time and returning guests, such as Eric Geddes, Jonathan Geltner, Joseph Weigel, and Glencora Pipkin, to talk about The Silver Chair, Chapters 7-9. Hopefully you'll find our many digressions refreshing and stimulating--not irritating and uncomfortable, like so many irregular trenches carved into a hill. Among other things, we discuss: Here's a link to Jonathan Weigel's podcast, "Men with Chests": Men with Chests on Apple Podcasts Here's a link to Jonathan Geltner's substack, blog, and books. This Thursday: A poem! By one of the Inklings, probably! You'll know when I do! Next week: Finale of The Silver Chair!

If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving us a review on itunes. If you're not, you probably have better things to do with your time than to bother with reviews! As always, feel free to email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com! Welcome back to Poetry Thursday. Here's something from the planet Mercury for you all! Also, the show now has an Instagram--follow us @inklingsvarietyhour Feel free to let me know if there are poems by Inklings you'd really like to hear. We'll be back Tuesday with more of The Silver Chair! In the meantime, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Happy Easter to you! Cristos Anviat!

If you enjoy this podcast, please rate us on iTunes and leave a positive review. If you'd like to reach out to us or suggest ideas for an episode, email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. Also, we have an Instagram account now. Follow us at inklingsvarietyhour. Chris resumes his conversation with Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes about the first half of Lewis' fourth Narnia book, The Silver Chair. Among other things, we discuss: GeographicalSir Gawain and the Green Knight and Other RomancesLanval, by Marie de FranceTolkien'stranslation Thanks to Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes for a great conversation. Follow Jonathan's work at his blog and his substack, and buy his book. This Week's Poetry Thursday: C.S. Lewis' "The Birth of Language." Next Tuesday: Joined by Joseph Weigel from the Men with Chests podcast, we'll discuss civilized giants! And maybe we'll even get to the Underworld. Stay tuned! Coming this Season: Perelandra, more podcast crossovers (Thinklings, Men with Chests), Arthurian Torso, "The Golden Key," Inkwell Chronicles: Race to Krakatoa, Lewis and Tolkien and a whole lot more.

Welcome again to the new "Poetry Thursday" feature of The Inklings Variety Hour. This week, we're reading a poem by Ruth Pitter, someone who was not an Inkling but knew C.S. Lewis and a few of the other Inklings. I had Don W. King on the show to talk about her, and you can find that interview here. You can find the poem I read here, by the way. And here's a book of Pitter's poetry. I hope you enjoy--if you do, please leave a five-star review on iTunes so that others will be more likely to find the show. Also, please feel free to write me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com if you have ideas for poems you would like to hear read on the show. The idea for the format of Poetry Thursday is ripped pretty shamelessly from The Daily Poem, which is a great podcast.

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, please leave us a five-star review on . We'd also love to hear from you--email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. Chris' wife, Glencora, joins him to talk about chapters 3 and 4 of The Silver Chair. Among other things, we discuss: Hopefully you'll enjoy this episode, which is slightly more lighthearted and relaxed than usual. Also, happy birthday to Glencora! If not, I'll be back with Eric and Jonathan next week to talk about Puddleglum! Next: This Season: Shows on their way include: Apologies for any sound problems on this one! We were in the same room, and I am not a professional sound guy.

We're trying a new thing this season--each Thursday, I plan to release a brief recording of a poem by one of the Inklings. This is more or less directly inspired by the excellent podcast, The Daily Poem by Goldberry Studios, so check it out and subscribe if you want more of this sort of thing. The poem this week is "Imram," by J.R.R. Tolkien. You can find a text of the poem here. You can find it reprinted in Sauron Defeated in the History of Middle Earth Series. Do you have a favorite poem by one of the Inklings (or someone associated with them in some way) that you'd like to hear read on the podcast? Feel free to shoot me an email if so, at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com As always, give us a five-star rating if you want to encourage us to keep doing what we do. See you Tuesday for The Silver Chair, Part 2!

Please leave a five-star review of this podcast if you enjoy it. We'd also love to hear from you--feel free to send us an email at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. Welcome to Season Four! Chris is joined by Eric Geddes and author Jonathan Geltner to discuss Chapters 1 and 2 of the fourth book in the Narniad (is that what we're calling that now?), The Silver Chair. Among other things, we discuss: Things we didn't discuss but I'd planned to: The Door in the Wall Next: Next Week: This Season: Shows on their way include:

The last (weirdest) part of Chris' "An Inklings Christmas Carol." Oh, didn't realize it was still Christmas, did you? Well, it is, but it's getting close to Epiphany, time of magi and revelations. Happy Twelfth Night! Thanks again to Sørina Higgins and her talented authors' circle, of which I am a part. Feel free to join us. Write me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com if there are specific things you'd like to see in Season 4 of The Inklings Variety Hour! I plan to kick things off with a discussion about The Silver Chair. I'd like this discussion to be with a group of enthusiasts rather than scholars, per se. So please email me if you'd like to join in.

Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas! Part 3 will post in a week or so (which is, by the way, still Christmastide). Thanks to Joe Hoffman, Ed Powell, and Sørina Higgins for their talents and help. Apologies for the occasionally poor audio quality. We did the best we could! Email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. If you like the show, I'd love to hear from you.

At last! Here is the first part of a (Zoom) table reading of my "play" (loosely defined), "An Inklings Christmas Carol." Two more (longer) parts are to come! Gee, it's a good thing Christmas begins on December 25, or I'd be out of time. Twelve Tide, etc., etc.! Special thanks to Anika Smith, Sørina Higgins, and Joe Hoffman for reading this episode. Thanks in general to Sørina's Author's Circle, which you can find out more about (and even join) here. Hope you enjoy it--keep in mind this is a first draft, none of us are professional actors, and I'm not making a cent off this episode! As with any holiday movie or play, if you keep your expectations low, you'll have a pretty good time! Feel free to send me feedback at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. And please rate the show if you like it!

O.G. Host Anika Smith rejoins the podcast to interview Chris and his beautiful and omnicompetent wife, Glencora, about their new Christmas resource book, Twelve Tide. Part of what we're trying to do with this book is make Christmas less a single-morning present binge preceded by anxiety and followed by anticlimax--and more a season of twelve days of giving, feasting, and learning to celebrate better. Want an idea of what's in the book? Check out our website, 12tide.com. We are all Niatirbians now (and Lewis was dismayed by godless Christmas cards). We want to reconcile sacred and "secular" aspects of Christmas and equip people with some old ways to celebrate this season. Music from this episode includes: The Holly and the IvyIt's Beginning to Look a Lot Like ChristmasThe Holly and the IvyHark! The Herald Angels SingGloucestershire WassailBoar's Head CarolCoventry CarolAdam Lay YboundenWassail! Also, if you're interested in the Twelve Tide Spotify list Anika suggested on the show, here it is. Stay tuned...I'm done with grading and I'm turning my attention to an Inklings Christmas Carol. Won't be easy to finish in time, but I'll do my level best. If you are interested in reading a part for it, feel free to email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com God bless and keep you this Advent Season. See you at Christmas!