Who is Puddleglum?
That was a question that a friend asked after reading the blogs about Dublin & Edinburgh. Why do I keep referring to this Puddleglum? Let me quickly explain.
Back in the days of World War II, the famous Christian author and apologist C. S. Lewis wrote 6 children’s books collected under the name, “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Narnia is a mythical land somewhat akin to Middle Earth of J. R. Tolkien. It is ruled over by a huge (and not tame) lion named Aslan–who turns out to be the Christ figure throughout the 6 tales. Four children find they can come and go–usually when they least expect it–between Narnia and their home in England. Without going deeper into the theology of the books (after all they were written for children, but turn out to be highly entertaining to adults also) let me get to Puddleglum. He was a central character in the book The Silver Chair. This is a story about a captured prince, a witch and two children brought to Narnia by Aslan to find the prince under the leadership of a marshwiggle named Puddleglum.
“What is a marshwiggle?” you ask. I have no idea. There were both large talking animals and other fancifal creatures that Lewis sprinkled throughout his tales. Lewis describes the marshwiggle as an intelligent creature whose body is the size of a dwarf, but whose legs are so long that he is taller than a man when he stands. Both his hands and feet are webbed like a duck, and he lives in the marshes of Narnia where he fishes for eels. Puddleglum gets his name apparently from the fact that he is Mr. Worst Case Scenario. Here is his greeting when he meets the two children for the first time in The Silver Chair:
“Good morning, Guests,” he said, “Though when I say good I don’t mean it won’t probably turn to rain or it might be snow, or fog, or thunder. You didn’t get any sleep, I dare say.”
Puddleglum is a person after my own heart. He is always expecting the worst, and very surprised when things don’t turn out as bad as he expected. Certain members of my family, recognizing this trait of mine and being enamoured with the Narnia tales decided to pin this name on me whenever I lapse into my state of concluding “you can’t get there from here.”
As a postscript, The Silver Chair, was shown on PBS a number of years ago with Tom Baker playing Puddleglum in an excellent rendition of the book. For those of you who are really into PBS presentations, you will recall that Baker was probably the best of the many actors who starred as “Dr. Who.” The Silver Chair along with 2 other of the Narnia stories are available on DVD’s or videotape from places like amazon.com. I’ve just ordered it myself and I am looking forward to reliving Baker’s stellar performance as my namesake.