Flight of the Heron read-along: Part V chapters 3-4

[regshoe]

But till my last moments my words are the same: there'll never be peace until Jamie comes hame...

The penultimate week of the read-along, and in these chapters we are still very Jacobite.

Next week we will, sadly, read Part V Chapter 5 and the Epilogue.

Comments

[luzula]

A very fitting song. : )

And yet again I post my comment without reading any of the ones posted; let's see if there is overlap...

Aunt Margaret is far more sensible than Ewen! Obviously he should go to France--but I do find his behavior in character. I like the conversation with Archie, both because I like Archie as a character, and because I like his interaction with Ewen as a sort of older brother. Ewen is adorable through his eyes here: Ewen uttered a sound like a groan, and, twisting over, buried his face in the pillow; and presently there emerged some muffled words to the effect that he longed to go to Alison, but that...and then something wholly unintelligible in which the word ‘honour’ was alone distinguishable. Dr. Cameron looked down at the back of the uneasy auburn head with the affectionate tolerance which one might display to the caprices of a younger brother.

Awww! He mumbles something unintelligible about honour...of course he does. Their back-and-forth is lovely, too, with Ewen insisting Archie tell Lochiel about everything! Including the parts which show Ewen in a bad light! And Archie replies that yes, of course he'll tell him everything, including the parts about Ewen resisting torture for Lochiel's sake...

This bit about Keith is quite slashy: Again he counted them: here, at Edinburgh, on Beinn Laoigh, at Fort Augustus. And suddenly his pulse quickened with pleasure—that made four, only four!... No, of course, there had been two at Fort Augustus... Yet what (save his own recapture) stood now in the way of their meeting again some day?

And then we get the chilling plot set-up for the next chapter, in various ways...

Reading the bit about Ewen and Old Angus, it strikes me that there's something sort of Sam-and-Frodo about the way Neil and Lachlan and Angus collectively are so loyal to Ewen. Not that any of the characters are at all similar in their personalities, but the romanticized feudal loyalty is similar in Tolkien and Broster. And come to think of it, the anchor in a specific place/home is there in both (Ardroy and the Shire). But of course there are lots of differences, for example that Aragorn has pretty much no flaws as a royal leader, while both BPC and King George do. Uh, I did not set out to begin a compare-and-contrast with Tolkien, it just happened...I wonder if Tolkien ever read Broster, and if they ever met. (While writing this I got side-tracked and saw that apparently some people are trying to get Tolkien canonized?!?)

Is it just me, or does this sound kinda Catholic? But I bless you, my son, with all the blessings of Bridget and Michael; the charm Mary put round her Son, and Bridget put in her banners, and Michael put in his shield I thought Old Angus was an Episcopalian like almost all the Camerons...

The last scene with Ewen by the loch is beautiful! And again with the ties and comparisons between religion and love of place/home: He went to it, and, stooping with difficulty, dipped a cupped hand into the water and raised it to his lips. Perhaps that sacramental draught would give him to see this scene as bright and sharp in dreams, over there in the land of exile whither, like his father, like all who had not counted the cost, he was going. And also the ties/comparisons between religion and Jacobitism, which of course are quite accurate historically. Also, that's just beautiful writing...

[hyarrowen]

I'm pretty sure Broster and Tolkien would have crossed paths at Oxford, at least. She was a very successful author while he was still a young lecturer there. And she had as responsible a position as women were allowed in academia at the time (let's not go there) - secretary to the Regius Professor of History iirc - basically the Archhistorian at Oxford.

I remember taking a sip of water at the spring at Delphi with much the same 'this is Significant' feeling as Ewen did here. I probably got the idea from FotH, tbh. Ah me, the silliness of Youth.

[luzula]

Well, I will just have to imagine them meeting and having a conversation! : )

Oh, and another author: I wonder if Broster and Naomi Mitchison ever read each other's works? They're quite different as authors, mostly because Mitchison was a socialist, but they were both women writing historical fiction in the early 20th century. I do know that Mitchison corresponded with Tolkien.

[regshoe]

Oh, that's a good thought—and Broster and Mitchison both wrote on Jacobites, of course. I hope they did!

[hyarrowen]

Re: your point about Ewen and the MacMartins, and Frodo and Sam - both DKB and Broster served on the Western Front - and Sam's liyalty and dependability was specifically based on the officer\batman relationship. (For my part I find that more admirable than a feudal relationship which has such a big power imbalance.)

As for getting Tolkien canonised, whut??? But at least he's less problematic than many a prominent Catholic figure.

[luzula]

Maybe feudal is not the right word for Frodo and Sam--but Sam has an almost hereditary employment at Bag End, given that his father was gardener for Bilbo, and they aren't social equals.

But hey, Sam gets to be mayor later on, so there's a bit of upward mobility, at least. : )

[hyarrowen]

There was a lot of social mobility in the UK the first years of the 20th century. Most officers in the latter part of WW1 came up through the ranks, for instance. My favourite example is Sir William Robertson, who started out as a gardener's boy, joined up as an underage trooper, and ended up as Chief of the Imperial General Staff - head of the entire British Army - from 1916 - 1918, and then got made a Viscount. So Sam is very much in keeping with this.

[tgarnsl]

Is it just me, or does this sound kinda Catholic? Speaking as someone raised as a Scottish Episcopalian, the best way I can describe the church is Catholic Lite. There are some significant differences between Catholicism and Scottish Episcopalianism, such as (obviously) no pope and no confession, but there is also a lot of overlap, such as a belief in saints. Unlike Catholicism, you won't really pray for a saint's intercession, but as I understand it you pray alongside saints, who are held to be a part of the church.

ETA: I'm no theologian, though, and should also state that there is a lot of variation within the church, so take my word with a grain of salt!

[luzula]

Ah, interesting! I didn't know that saints were still important in the Episcopalian church, and I guess that explains what Old Angus is saying. But yeah, I had gotten that it still stayed much closer to Catholicism than Presbyterianism did, which of course is a whole different thing.

[tgarnsl]

Saints are important, albeit in a kind of distant way. The church I grew up in would celebrate things like the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, for instance, and hold a special mass in honour of the saint (where everyone would bring in their pet animals to get blessed by the priest*), but you wouldn't necessarily do something like pray directly to a saint as you would with Catholicism. Scottish Episcopalianism set off on the path of Anglicanism but took one look at what John Knox was doing, went 'nope, that's too dour', and carried on with most of the bells and smells inherited from Catholicism. The alignment of many non-jurist Episcopalians in the 18th century with Jacobitism, and therefore the Catholic Stuarts, likely further influenced that continuation of semi-Catholic tradition, including saints. (Again, though, I'm no theologian, and while I know some of the history, I'm no expert.)

* Other denominations also hold services like this, but in my experience it tends to be less strongly linked to St Francis and more a general 'blessing of the animals'.

[luzula]

Interesting, thanks!

Scottish Episcopalianism set off on the path of Anglicanism but took one look at what John Knox was doing, went 'nope, that's too dour', and carried on with most of the bells and smells inherited from Catholicism.

I would have thought they went 'nope, that's too revolutionary'. *g*

[tgarnsl]

Haha, that's also very likely! I should say that I say this mostly tongue-in-cheek — the real history of religion in Scotland is very messy and even from the Reformation on it's complex.

[regshoe]

A Tolkien-Broster comparison could be interesting... yes, as hyarrowen has pointed out there's the Oxford connection, and I think it's likely he was at least aware of her as a writer. (Apparently Tolkien also knew and admired the work of Mary Renault, who was also at Oxford around this time—which surprised me a little!—but I really wonder if Renault and Broster knew each other's work. Although Renault's historicals at least are a bit too late for Broster to have read them.)

(While writing this I got side-tracked and saw that apparently some people are trying to get Tolkien canonized?!?)

o_O

Is it just me, or does this sound kinda Catholic?

I thought so too! I suppose, as well as the Catholic-ness of Episcopalianism, there's also a connection between Catholicism and folk-Christian beliefs, which this sounds like.

And good points about the scene by the loch—it is indeed beautiful, and yes, that 'sacramental' is significant (like Ewen's grief that he won't see the places he loves in heaven, it's not a typical/orthodox religious belief, but one that follows very naturally from Ewen's character and the place of faith in his thought, and works very well as part of the story).