C.S. Lewis' "Booming Voice"

We've been having a little discussion over on r.a.b.t. on C.S.L.'s
voice, whether or not it was "booming", and whether it influenced
Tolkien's characterization of Treebeard. Discussion quoted below.
Does anyone here have any input on this? It would be *greatly*
appreciated! Thanks. Any replies can be crossposted to
alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkien.

Shanahan <pogues RemoveThis @bluefrog.com> wrote:
> Stephan Hoffmeister <sho RemoveThis @shonet.de> declared:
>> Dirk Thierbach <dthierbach RemoveThis @gmx.de> wrote:
>>> Shanahan <pogues RemoveThis @bluefrog.com> wrote:
>
>>>> I recall something about Lewis and his voice being influences
>>>> on Treebeard, too. Apparently Lewis got quite loud sometimes
>>>> when "well oiled" at the Inklings meetings.
>>>
>>> So I didn't mix things up. Does anybody remember the exact
>>> source?
>>
>> They talk about this in the appendices of the TTT-SEE; at least
>> that's where I have first heard of it. Here's a rough transcript
>> of that part:
>> John Rhys-Davies (Gimli):
>> "I think there is a suggestion somewhere in Tolkien, [...]
>> that when he was writing Treebeard the Ent, he was hearing
>> C.S.Lewis' voice."
>> Brian Sibley (Author of 'The Lord of the Rings -
>> The Making of the Movie Trilogy'):
>> "I remember talking to someone who attended Lewis' lectures;
>> and [the] students would be sitting there and down the
>> corridor he would hear booming out this deep kind of
>> 'Roomm-Roomm-Roommm...'. -- In he would stride, down to the
>> front of the Lecture-Theatre, and then just steam- roller on
>> in this great, loud, booming voice. And I think it's
>> wonderful to think that, you know, there, in Treebeard is the
>> embodiment of his friend Lewis; this great, booming voice."
>>
>> I don't know if that's exactly the source; but it's the only
>> source I can come up with. -- Nothing canonical, it would seem.
>>
>
> 'Twould be hard to come up with a canonical source for this Real
> Life question. What do we consider canonical for such things?
> Carpenter's Biography, maybe, Letters, I guess...
>
> Actually, Letters does have some corroborating evidence as to
> CSL's loudness:
>
> Letter 113 to C.S. Lewis:
> Carpenter's Note 2 to Letter 113: It appears that Hugo Dyson had
> been putting it about that Tolkien objected to Lewis's 'loud'
> manner in the Inklings.
> "But as for yourself: rest in peace, as far as I am any 'critic'
> of behavior. At least you are the fautlest freke [ref to Chaucer,
> 'faultless knight'] that I know. 'Loudness' did you say? Nay!
> [...] I don't find myself in any need of practising forbearance
> towards any of you - save on the rarest occasions, when I myself
> am tired and exhausted: then I find mere noise [...] trying.
> [...] I want noise often enough. I know no more pleasant sound
> than arriving at the B. and B. and hearing a roar, and knowing
> that one can plunge in."
>
> On drinking in general (as prone to lead to loudness, and 'cause
> it's funny):
> Letter 83 to Christopher Tolkien:
> "C.S.L. had taken a fair deal of port and was a little
> belligerent..."
> Letter 56 to Christopher Tolkien:
> "...a peculiarly misrepresentative and asinine paragraph in the
> Daily Telegraph of Tuesday last. It began 'Ascetic Mr.
> Lewis'--!!! I ask you! He put away three pints in a very short
> session we had this morning, and said he was 'going short for
> Lent'."
> Letter 90 to C.T.:
> "C.S.L. was highly flown, but [...] O.B. is the only man who can
> tackle C.S.L. making him define everything and interrupting his
> most dogmatic pronouncements [...] The result was a most amusing
> and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider
> eavesdropped) he would have thought it a meeting of fell enemies
> hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns."

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 21:35:59 -0700, Shanahan wrote:
My imprssion is it was kind of booming on many occasions. The only
canonical thing I can think of is Lewis (in a letter?) talking about his
friends' behavior on a hike or something "and my own bow-wow dogmatism."


Mary
-------





> We've been having a little discussion over on r.a.b.t. on C.S.L.'s
> voice, whether or not it was "booming", and whether it influenced
> Tolkien's characterization of Treebeard. Discussion quoted below.
> Does anyone here have any input on this? It would be *greatly*
> appreciated! Thanks. Any replies can be crossposted to
> alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkien.
>
> Shanahan <pogues DeleteThis @bluefrog.com> wrote:
>> Stephan Hoffmeister <sho DeleteThis @shonet.de> declared:
>>> Dirk Thierbach <dthierbach DeleteThis @gmx.de> wrote:
>>>> Shanahan <pogues DeleteThis @bluefrog.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>> I recall something about Lewis and his voice being influences
>>>>> on Treebeard, too. Apparently Lewis got quite loud sometimes
>>>>> when "well oiled" at the Inklings meetings.
>>>>
>>>> So I didn't mix things up. Does anybody remember the exact
>>>> source?
>>>
>>> They talk about this in the appendices of the TTT-SEE; at least
>>> that's where I have first heard of it. Here's a rough transcript
>>> of that part:
>>> John Rhys-Davies (Gimli):
>>> "I think there is a suggestion somewhere in Tolkien, [...]
>>> that when he was writing Treebeard the Ent, he was hearing
>>> C.S.Lewis' voice."
>>> Brian Sibley (Author of 'The Lord of the Rings -
>>> The Making of the Movie Trilogy'):
>>> "I remember talking to someone who attended Lewis' lectures;
>>> and [the] students would be sitting there and down the
>>> corridor he would hear booming out this deep kind of
>>> 'Roomm-Roomm-Roommm...'. -- In he would stride, down to the
>>> front of the Lecture-Theatre, and then just steam- roller on
>>> in this great, loud, booming voice. And I think it's
>>> wonderful to think that, you know, there, in Treebeard is the
>>> embodiment of his friend Lewis; this great, booming voice."
>>>
>>> I don't know if that's exactly the source; but it's the only
>>> source I can come up with. -- Nothing canonical, it would seem.
>>>
>>
>> 'Twould be hard to come up with a canonical source for this Real
>> Life question. What do we consider canonical for such things?
>> Carpenter's Biography, maybe, Letters, I guess...
>>
>> Actually, Letters does have some corroborating evidence as to
>> CSL's loudness:
>>
>> Letter 113 to C.S. Lewis:
>> Carpenter's Note 2 to Letter 113: It appears that Hugo Dyson had
>> been putting it about that Tolkien objected to Lewis's 'loud'
>> manner in the Inklings.
>> "But as for yourself: rest in peace, as far as I am any 'critic'
>> of behavior. At least you are the fautlest freke [ref to Chaucer,
>> 'faultless knight'] that I know. 'Loudness' did you say? Nay!
>> [...] I don't find myself in any need of practising forbearance
>> towards any of you - save on the rarest occasions, when I myself
>> am tired and exhausted: then I find mere noise [...] trying.
>> [...] I want noise often enough. I know no more pleasant sound
>> than arriving at the B. and B. and hearing a roar, and knowing
>> that one can plunge in."
>>
>> On drinking in general (as prone to lead to loudness, and 'cause
>> it's funny):
>> Letter 83 to Christopher Tolkien:
>> "C.S.L. had taken a fair deal of port and was a little
>> belligerent..."
>> Letter 56 to Christopher Tolkien:
>> "...a peculiarly misrepresentative and asinine paragraph in the
>> Daily Telegraph of Tuesday last. It began 'Ascetic Mr.
>> Lewis'--!!! I ask you! He put away three pints in a very short
>> session we had this morning, and said he was 'going short for
>> Lent'."
>> Letter 90 to C.T.:
>> "C.S.L. was highly flown, but [...] O.B. is the only man who can
>> tackle C.S.L. making him define everything and interrupting his
>> most dogmatic pronouncements [...] The result was a most amusing
>> and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider
>> eavesdropped) he would have thought it a meeting of fell enemies
>> hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns."