Status Updates From Paths in the Snow: A Litera...

Lucy and Susan = Apostles in Garden + Doubting Thomas Scene, Women Crying at Crucifixion and Mary Magdalen at Jesus’ Tomb
Edmund = Adam, Judas and Lucifer
Breaking of Stone Table similar to removal of Jesus tomb rock and earthquake after Jesus resurrection

Aslan being willing to die but still having mortal body
Removal of Aslans mane similar to Jesus being jeered and mocked as the King of the Jews and given crown of thorns, red vestments and wood reed that is used to beat him
Also Aslan is betrayed by member of his party that leaves before end of feast
Lucy and Susan stay up to see Jesus crucified vs Apostles falling asleep in Garden of Gethsemane

Witch almost killing Edmunds Abraham and Isaac trying to kill on a sacred spot
Aslan tells Peter about him being the high king similar to Angel telling Abraham he will be forbearsr of line of new people

The Ten Commandments were written in stone tables referring to the material, but is pulled into translations and visuals until reformation, where they more shift to being made of wood or specifically just stone blocks with writing
Aslan and the White Witch can read the Stone Table but the kids can
Stone Table covers many interpretations and holds space for an altar, a cross, veil of the temple, Jesus tomb

In late 1940’s UK readers would have been able to connect Stonehenge and other monolith sites with Modern Druid Practices around the Summer Solisticd, camping about monoliths like Aslans Caravan
Lewis used Monoliths in this and his sci fi work that discuss original sin and ritual sacrifice
Table = Furniture made out of Wood or stone
Board = A surface used for specific works made of stone or wood

Witch approaching the Squirrels and Foxes having a party is similar to Song of Solomon where characters representing God and community of Israel are depicted as feasting lovers
Lewis removes all of the sexual aspects and instead has it be a Friendsgiving and celebration about Aslan/Christ approaching through the entrance of spring

Mrs Beaver bringing the tea would have seemed more commonplace with differing social etiquette in bringing rationed products like tea and butter for shared meals to restock the host
The Allegory of Love by Lewis goes into depth about his distaste for drinking into allegories
The valley where the shepard boys sings represents humility vs humility is like that green valley

Edmund represents the Sin of Pride, opposite of Humility
Edmund is mad Lucy found Narnia and can’t congratulate her, Wants his siblings to be Courtiers while he is the Prince of Narnia & Looks forward to the White Witch turning Aslan to stone whether or not the sculpture in her garden is already Aslan
Lewis wrote in Mere Christians about the dangers of Pride
Lucifer’s Sin in Milton’s Paradise Lost is Pride

Beaver recites Aslan poem which is very similar to Medieval carols about Adam waiting for the return of Jesus for 4K Winters
Advent is also a time when it is winter but Christmas if delayed in coming…you could even say X max never comes

Fish and Butter were both rationed in WWII, the abundance of them on the table w/o having to worry about rationing them for a week would have been Novel
There’s a short excerpt from HP but it’s just about abundance of food vs having to trifle between family members about who gets the best of the food presented in the meal

Shaking hands was a big theme with Paul and Letters section of New Testament to greet other Christian people of faith
Lewis wrote intro for 1947 Letters for Young Churches by j B Phillips which was contemporary translation of Romans from KJV
Assume Lewis is going to write sections that evocative the emotion and experience of biblical stories if not the literal text

J W Dunne’s An Experiment with Time used as a touchstone for characters experiencing history or future events out of time. Also experiencing events as immortals instead of linear aging characters
Cites Agatha Christie’s A Sleeping Murder
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipha Pearce
An Inspector Calls play by J B Priestley

Turkish Delight and sweets would have been removed from rationing in Feb 1949 for the first time since 1939 and then rerationed in Aug 1949 due to surge of demand and social stereotypes of women and children over buying and not holding off to provide others fair share
Turkish Delight as a metaphor for Apple in Garden of Eden w/o sexual dimension
Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayer that Lewis read and corresponded with

There’s definitely more medieval texts getting referenced than I assumed for a guy who was the chair of the Renaissance and Medieval Lit dept at Cambridge

I did find the Pan and Jesus parallels interesting because I hadn’t really been taught about Pans significance as helping human or being of the people

This Father Christmas and White Witch section about them being opposites in description is interesting

Robins common element in LWW and The Secret Garden, showing Mary the main characters way

Gardening as a metaphor for personal healing
Christian ideas of Jesus restoring Blessings from the garden
Mary Magdalen first thinking resurrected Jesus was a gardener