The Evangelical Universalist Forum

A Strange Parable: GMac's "The Gray Wolf"

Good points, Cindy. I would agree with all of this. A couple other points that occur to me is the fact that there are only bones of small animals outside the cave. It may be that the wolf girl is in fact “quarantined” (to limit the harm she can cause) on an island with no “higher” animals to kill and eat, but I like to think that she’s changed somewhat and limiting herself to the smaller prey. I’m not sure if it was true when this story was written, but apparently red deer are common on at least some of the Shetland islands and of course you’d think there might be Shetland ponies around…. :laughing:

I think also it’s significant that the wolf girl at least tasted the whiskey and she didn’t spit it out. She’s making “baby steps”… (to quote Bill Murray in What About Bob?)

I’ll get to the student and the hiddenness of the meaning in a bit as I think they’re tied together, but good points there as well. :smiley:

Okay, on to my concluding thoughts about this little gem of a story. (Interesting how brief, yet dense this story is compared to most of GMac’s work)

So I hope I’ve shown *a meaning *beneath the Gothic werewolf story from what I’ve posted before–the work of redemption in the wolf girl through the ministration of the old woman. This is something the “student” doesn’t see at all, of course. Having recognized this additional layer of meaning and recognized how this meaning was there in plain sight, I of course felt very silly… (Especially as I’d read this story multiple times over the years) The hiddenness of this layer of meaning is what struck me and thinking about it a bit, I realized that …

The HIDDENNESS of meaning IS THE MEANING! At least it’s the primary meaning GMac wants us to grasp. I think Cindy’s observation applies here:

This is not something new in his work. We see it everywhere in his writing and he addresses it both indirectly and directly.

At the beginning of his novel What’s Mine’s Mine, he describes his ideal reader as such:

In the Princess and the Goblin when Irene takes Curdie to meet her “Grandmother” he cannot see her being less spiritually mature:

There is much more in The Princess and Curdie as well regarding seeing beneath appearances and the effect of what we would call “faith” in seeing these things, but I won’t get into that. Much of Phantastes has to do with seeing beneath appearances as well…

The meaning beneath the surface “story” does not mean this is not a gothic werewolf tale, just that there is more to it than that. Here’s a quote from Lillith:

What of the erstwhile protagonist? The “student”? I may be wrong here, but I think GMac’s protagonist is a bit of a send-up of the stock Victorian gothic protagonist with his “inborn chivalry” and his walking tour of the “barbaric” and remote wilds of Scotland. He is not especially perceptive–not recognizing the nature of the wolf girl until the handkerchief covering the throat bruises is dislodged and certainly sees no meaning beneath the surface appearances of things. He is nearly seduced by (or tries to seduce himself) the wolf girl and I wonder if when he is “attacked” and “darts from the house” he actually knocks over the old woman who he sees “lying motionless on the floor”? Of course after the emotional embrace by the wolf girl, he high-tails it over the cliff to the other side of the island. If nothing else, he is ,in MacDonald’s mind, spiritually undeveloped. He is one of those Christ spoke of saying, “Having eyes do you not see…?”

So… seeing beneath surface appearances and especially seeing the spiritual significance of things around us is the “meaning” I think GMac is trying to put across to us. So (though this is admittedly a bit trite), if we see an old woman in a store, a homeless man on a street-corner, a well-dressed couple out for dinner or even a thunderstorm on a mountain range, we need to look closer, look deeper, and look using “faith”. We may start to perceive spiritual truths we would not have “seen” before; see the sacred in the ordinary, and begin seeing the ongoing work of God.

Well thanks to all of your contributions, I’ve seen things in the story I would not have seen on my own. It’s been very enriching. Thank you.

Thanks, Dave! :smiley:
I’ve learned a lot myself as I really didn’t understand the story at all until shortly after starting this thread. The themes I’ve mentioned in this thread are all throughout GMac’s writing, they were just especially well “hidden” in this story (at least for me)

That was amazing, Steve! What a feast. :smiley: I hope we can do this again – maybe the Lost Princess (aka: the Wise Woman)? That’s such a great story and I’m not at all sure I understand it anything like so well as I ought to. mrrena.com/books/wise_woman/wise_woman1.php

And after that maybe “The Princess and the Goblin?” I just got a copy of that, complete with beautiful illustrations at the library.

I so regret I never got to take-part in this discussion, as I do love GMac judging from the bit I’ve read from him. But please, do count me in for the next one! :smiley:

The Princess and the Goblin would be fine with me also. :slight_smile:

Thanks Cindy! :smiley:
And If we do another one, Kate, I’d love to hear your thoughts… :wink:

I do love The Wise Woman, Cindy. I think it’s my favorite of his fairy tales. :smiley: I’m headed to Oz (Sydney) tomorrow for a week and a half with my family to pick up my daughter who’s been studying abroad, sightsee and visit some of my wife’s relatives–so maybe sometime after we get back. I don’t think the Wise Woman is as puzzling as this one was for me, but there’s a lot more in there to discuss (it’s quite a bit longer)and I’m sure some things those of us who’ve read it haven’t picked up on. Good choice!

Kate, I think The Princess and the Goblin would be a great one after that!

I’m in.

I must confess I don’t like the writing style of Georce McDonald, even though he was undoubtedly a great man of God.

I find it bothering to always have to guess what he meant.

That said, his book Lilith introduced me to Christian universalism. I was first stunned to read that Adam and Eve had been forgiven and reconciled with God.

Steve,

Thanks again for all your insights on “The Gray Wolf.” Great stuff!

Caleb

I vote for first “The Wise Woman” and then “The Princess and the Goblin.”:slight_smile: That way, in case finals week prevents me from reading both, I’ll at least be all caught up when we reach the second one.:slight_smile:

Have a wonderful time in Australia, Steve!

Kate

Thanks, Caleb, and I hope you and your son continue to enjoy George MacDonald together. :smiley:

Hi Lothar, George MacDonald is not for everyone, but if you started with Lilith…Yikes!!!, Noone understands that story completely. :wink: You might like to read his unspoken sermons which are pretty straightforward and easy to follow–not much guessing involved. His Unspoken Sermon “Justice” is a classic and “required reading” for anyone investigating universalism. :wink:

I just read a wonderful scholarly book regarding George MacDonald and the “parabolic” nature of much of his writing: Storied Revelations: Parables, Imagination, and George MacDonalds Christian Fiction by Gisela H. Krenglinger. Here’s the Amazon link:amazon.com/Storied-Revelations-Imagination-Distinguished-Dissertations/dp/1620325330/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402254078&sr=1-1 I can’t recommend this book highly enough for those interested in George MacDonald and I believe she is truly a scholar who “gets” GMac. Having read the book I can see now that the story on this thread, “The Gray Wolf,” is indeed a*** parable***—and a wonderful little gem of a parable at that. :smiley: Here’s a quote from the introduction to her book which I think is apropos and helps understand the “hiddenness” of the meaning in the story—the “parabolic” nature of this tale.

I could say much more about her book, the excellent discussion of metaphor, allegory and parables–the wonderful insight she has into the influence of Novalis on MacDonald (being a German speaker, she even uses some of her own translation of Novalis), as well as the excellent discussion of Coleridge and imagination, but I’ll leave it at that and, in recognition of this story being a parable, I’ll change the thread title. :wink:

Also, I’ll link to this thread where I discussed some of Tom Talbott’s philosophy in light of this story:evangelicaluniversalist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5395

Now that sounds very interesting, thank you for the tip. :smiley:

No problem, Dave! :smiley:

It really is an excellent book and as a GMac fan ( philosopher etc… :wink: ), I think you’ll enjoy it.

It’s kind of expensive – but I’d love to read an excerpt or two if you’re so inclined, Steve (hint, hint . . .) :wink:

Hi Cindy, :smiley:

I got it on my Nook and it’s $10.49 right now.($9.99 on Kindle) That being said, I can certainly find some good excerpts to quote. I’ll start a new thread to do that, perhaps.

Did you really? I didn’t see an electronic option. I’ll look again. :confused:

Okay, got it! It might be a little while before I can read it though, so if you do feel like posting excerpts, I’m all, erm, eyes! :wink:

Here’s the link to the Kindle version: Storied Revelations. Usually they’re listed on the same page, but I guess they didn’t do it that way this time.