The Inklings Variety Hour

Tolkien Reading Day: The Hoard

Continuing the Tolkien Reading Day Marathon: Enjoy "The Hoard."

(From the Old Winyards. Yes, these are reruns.)

But a new episode on The Horse and His Boy comes your way in one week!

Tolkien Reading Day: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 2

Continuing the Tolkien Reading Day Marathon: Enjoy Smith of Wootton Major, Part 2!

 

(From the Old Winyards. Yes, these are reruns.)

But a new episode on The Horse and His Boy comes your way in one week!

Tolkien Reading Day: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 1

Continuing the Tolkien Reading Day Marathon of old episodes. Enjoy this first of two on Smith of Wootton Major!

(From the Old Winyards. Yes, these are reruns.)

But a new episode on The Horse and His Boy comes your way in one week!

Tolkien Reading Day: Adaptations

Dipping into the Old Winyards this Tolkien reading day! Enjoy this conversation from a few years ago about Tolkien adaptations!

Stay tuned...there are about nine more to come today.

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces Wrap-up! (Saturday Rerun)

The finale of the Till We Have Faces series!

Original episode description:

Welcome to the finale of Till We Have Faces on The Inklings Variety Hour!

Author and speaker Andrew Lazo from Pints with Jack joins Chris and Anika for our final discussion of Till We Have Faces.  It was, as always, a delight and an epiphany, Andrew!

Among other things, we discuss:

• The Four Loves
• Williams-esque redemption of Orual and Psyche
• Lewis' poem Reason
• Names in Till We Have Faces
• What in the world is Ungit?
• Orual's last word (hint: it's probably not "arrrgghhh")
• Joy's role in helping to write (and inspire) TWHF

Many, many thanks to Logan Huggins for producing this episode!

If you'd like to join one of our conversations, odds are, we'd love to have you!  We'd also love to hear from you, so feel free to email us at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  

Next time: Hold on to your electric torches! Season Two of The Inklings Variety Hour begins with Prince Caspian!

The Horse and His Boy, Part 2: Aravis

Musician Matt Wheeler joins me to talk about Chapters 7-8 of The Horse and His Boy, specifically Shasta among the tombs (ghouls ahoy), and Aravis' adventures. At the end of the hour, he's kind enough to share an original waltzy song about Aravis, inspired by a COVID toilet paper run. (Seriously, it's a great song--if you listen to nothing else, listen to it.)

Before that, we talk about the following:

• The right way (or lack thereof) to pronounce Shasta and Aravis (and Aslan)
• Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls
• Cats and tombs
• Lewis' characterization of Lasarleen and Aravis
• The Tisroc (may he live forever)
• Freedom
• Calormene view of Narnian history
• Lapsed Bear!
• And after the song, Chris throws a little bit of shade at English pronunciation of foreign words to make himself feel better about the fact that he's been mispronouncing Aslan all his life.

For more of Matt's music, click here.

See you in two weeks, when Matt Wheeler will rejoin us to talk about the journey across the desert!

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 10 (Saturday Rerun)

More of our series on Till We Have Faces!

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 9

Continuing to cover Till We Have Faces! 

The Horse and His Boy, Part 1: Calor-mania!

It's Season Five of The Inklings Variety Hour, episode one, and you know what that means! Time to return to the enchanting land of--

--record scratch--

--Calormen?

That's right, Ed Said. We're kicking off this season the right way, with a little trip to an unprepossessing fisherman's hut and the down-on-his-luck literary ancestor of both a refreshing soft drink and Taran the Assistant Pig-keeper. 

I'm only talking 'bout Shasta. Can you dig?

You know who else is talking about Shasta? I mean, besides Bree the talking horse (no not that one) who abducts him? 

Why, it's Jonathan Geltner, renowned author of Absolute Music, and Joseph Weigel, host of Men with Chests and also an author! Together, we discuss the following subjects:

• Calormene culture and Narnian culture
• Literary analogues (or lack thereof) of The Horse and His Boy
• Formal language and formulaic language
• The wider world in which Narnia exists
• Proverbs (Calormene and Narnian)
• How Tashbaan is awesome
• Freedom

Books we bring up:

• The Thousand and One Nights
• Travels in Arabia Deserta
• David Eddings' Belgariad Series
• Huck Finn
• The Prince and the Pauper
• The Worm Ouroboros
• The Faerie Queene

Copyrighted Music:

• Original BBC Narnia Theme
• Mr. Ed theme (not Ed Said)

As always, please leave a generous review if you want higher quality or quantity podcasts! This is a labor of love, and I'm currently only able to get something out once every two weeks. See you in two weeks' time, as musician Matt Wheeler joins me to talk (and sing) about his favorite Narnia book. 

 

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces Part 8 (Saturday Rerun)

Sorry for the late upload, once again! I've been preparing for the new season!

The first episode of Season 5, covering The Horse and His Boy, will be coming out in a few days! See you then, and in the meantime, enjoy some more travels in Glome!