Dr. Luke Mills joins me to talk about his article "His Dark Materials," as well as C.S. Lewis' nightmare imagery across his fiction. Among other things, we discuss:

• [2:08] – Welcome & guest introduction: Dr. Luke Mills, Associate Professor of English at Wingate University
• [2:57] – Dr. Mills's article: "His Dark Materials: C.S. Lewis's Nightmares as Inspiration"
• [4:10] – What drew Mills to the topic: Lewis's dreams of lions and the writing of Narnia
• [5:09] – Lewis's diary (All My Road Before Me) and the wolf-and-sheep nightmare (April 27, 1923)
• [6:13] – Reading of the wolf-and-sheep nightmare
• [7:07] – Lewis as an author of both heavenly beauty and horror
• [7:41] – The Unman in Perelandra and Lewis's vivid portrayal of evil
• [8:39] – How common were nightmares for Lewis? Insects, specters, and a lifelong pattern
• [10:29] – Lewis near death: vivid dreams and beautiful visions
• [11:38] – Etymology of "dream" and "nightmare" (Old English roots)
• [12:07] – Did Lewis think his dreams were spiritually significant?
• [12:46] – The Dark Tower and J.W. Dunne's Experiment with Time: precognitive dreams
• [15:21] – Lewis, Tolkien, and their shared interest in time and dreams
• [16:29] – Lewis's belief in precognitive dreams and his complicated relationship with Dunne's theories
• [17:22] – The Dark Tower: the chronoscope and alternate timelines
• [20:01] – Dreams as portals to other realities; Lewis's strong belief in the supernatural
• [22:07] – Lewis's imaginative receptivity; running toward and away from something
• [24:09] – Preface to Paradise Lost, letting the "leash slip," and Lewis's portrayal of evil
• [26:13] – Other nightmare imagery in Lewis: The Last Battle, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength
• [27:31] – Ransom's strange dream in Perelandra; the Unman as absurdist horror
• [30:17] – Lewis and the word "un-man": dreams about his dead father and Perelandra's antagonist
• [32:24] – Lewis's horror of corpses; childhood trauma of seeing his mother's body
• [34:10] – Zombie squirrels and a digression to Grove City College
• [37:11] – Are Lewis's nightmares demonic? Dreams of lions before Narnia
• [38:24] – Lewis, modernism, surrealism, and the via negativa
• [40:21] – Till We Have Faces: modernist technique and divinely sent nightmares
• [43:03] – Aslan as terrifying: the scratch in The Horse and His Boy
• [46:09] – Mark in the Objective Room at N.I.C.E.: nightmarish images turning him toward the good
• [47:12] – Closing thoughts; terror and the uncanny as paths toward the good
• [50:07] – Where to follow Dr. Mills; current research on Lewis's library at UNC (including Lewis's marginalia)

As always, if you want to get in touch, email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

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Chris talks a bit about his first scholarly book, Monster Relics in Medieval English Literature, and what it has to do with Jimmy Stewart sneaking a Yeti finger past customs.

You can find it here. Be sure to enter the promo code "RELICS20" to get it for $40 rather than $50 before August 20.

A new full episode will appear Tuesday!

Dr. Leslie Baynes returns to the podcast to talk about biblical and literary allusions in (and origins of) The Magician's Nephew! If you haven't already, check out her book, Between Interpretation and Imagination: C.S. Lewis and the Bible.

Among other things, we discuss:

1:37 — Introductions Chris introduces Dr. Leslie Baynes — NT scholar, author on CS Lewis and the Bible.

3:30 — Stars, Singing & Job 38 Discussion of how Aslan's creation song echoes Job 38 ("the morning stars sang together"). Lewis loved this verse even as a teenage atheist.

6:07 — Hebrew Poetic Parallelism Leslie explains Hebrew poetic parallelism and the connection between "stars" and "sons of God" in Job. How this idea — that stars are divine beings — was widespread in the ancient world.

9:09 — Stars as Minor Gods in Narnia & Tolkien Voyage of the Dawn Treader's Ramandu as a retired star; comparison to Tolkien's Ainur singing creation into existence in the Silmarillion.

11:58 — E. Nesbit as a Source for Lewis Lewis openly based the Chronicles on E. Nesbit's children's books. The frame story of The Magician's Nephew (sick mother, absent father, magical adventure, happy resolution) follows Nesbit's formula exactly.

18:04 — The Wood Between the Worlds & Charn These sections feel less biblical; Charn likely drawn from Nesbit's The Amulet (children traveling through time to an ancient Near Eastern setting). The Wood Between the Worlds echoes Lewis's Mere Christianity hallway metaphor.

23:03 — Jadis/White Witch & Lilith Luke Mills found a passage in the medieval kabbalistic Alphabet of Ben Sira linking Lilith to a golden bell — possible indirect influence on Lewis's Witch origin story.

26:08 — Narnia's Creation vs. Genesis Aslan creates stars first — Lewis "correcting" the light-before-sun problem in Genesis 1. Frank and Helen as Adam & Eve; their children marrying nymphs and dryads resolves the "who did Cain marry?" puzzle.

31:22 — The Garden of the Hesperides The western garden in The Magician's Nephew blends the Garden of Eden with the Greek Garden of the Hesperides (Atlas's daughters, golden apples, a guardian dragon/serpent). Lewis changed the apples to silver — possibly echoing Yeats's "silver apples of the moon."

34:45 — Milton's Comus & Watchful Dragons Lewis adored Comus as a teenager. His famous "past watchful dragons" metaphor connects to the guardian dragon of the Hesperides (who keeps people away from the apples), inverting the Eden serpent (who tempts people toward the fruit).

39:48 — Joy, West, and the Last Battle The western garden = "Joy" (sehnsucht) for Lewis. In The Last Battle, the characters run west, then turn east to their final home — fulfilling joy rather than endlessly pursuing it. Same arc as The Pilgrim's Regress.

42:25 — Lewis as a "Magpie" Creator Lewis freely borrowed from everything — Nesbit, Milton, Job, the Hesperides — without apology. Discussion of his view (in Mere Christianity) that true originality comes from surrender to God, not self-invention.

45:43 — Pagan vs. Christian — A False Split Lewis (like Justin Martyr) believed all truth is God's truth. Anything good in "pagan" sources can be integrated into a Christian worldview — rejecting the idea that they must be kept entirely separate.