Happy Sixth Season of The Inklings Variety Hour!

Would you like a present to mark the occasion? One of these fine rings, perhaps?

No, not the green ones. No, I don't care if it's St. Patrick's Day. You. Can't. Have. The. Green. Ones.

But have a yellow ring. No, seriously, go for it. Why are you hesitating?

But that's preposterous. They won't make you disappear. What do you think this is, The Hobbit?

Why does it always come back to rings? I say none of this on today's episode, but perhaps it's that the Inklings knew that rings bind you to someone else. Or something else.

In this case, the Wood Between the Worlds? Or Faerie? Or to your evil and intimidating uncle who is a mad magician-scientist with a furnished room that you don't know about and a dead fairy godmother named Mrs. Lefay?

What's up with the strange parallels in this book, anyway? You've got children in England exploring inside because it's rainy. You've got Uncle Andrew and Jadis making essentially the same speeches. You've also got the wood between the worlds and the crawlspace between houses, as well as the troubling ways in which Digory resembles his uncle--both of whom, by the way, end up technically responsible for sending children to another world when they're old men. But what kind of an old man who sends children into peril will Digory grow up to be? The sort who thinks rules don't apply to him, or the sort who makes endless inside jokes with himself about Plato? Character matters.

To talk about some of these riddles, or at least allude to them as we talk about things that are probably more interesting, I have Dr. Luke Mills. Join us on a whirlwind tour through Edwardian England, tunnels behind houses, Guinea Pig paradises that maybe aren't good for humans, and desolate worlds with very strange women among very strange waxworks that definitely aren't good for humans. (Seriously, though, what are the waxworks?)

This may be your last chance to travel to Charn before Netflix ruins it forever with Pink Floyd or the 1950s or whatever-the-[deplorable word] a Barbie auteur wants to put in there.

Among other things, Luke and Chris talk about the figure of Lilith--and why this account of Jadis' origin may not differ so much from that given in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We also discuss ways to tell whether or not that special someone in your life may not, in fact, be evil.

Let's dive in! Or wonder, till it drives you mad, what would have followed...etc., etc.

Enjoy this gently used Christmas gift from Ghost of Inklings Variety Hours Past!

I think this may be from 2020.

It's an Inklings Variety Hour Jovial Christmas Extravaganza! Featuring:

A Discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas!

Chris Pipkin and his children, Davey and Virginia!

Anika Smith! (First half of show)

Meagan Logsdon! (Second half of show)

A cringeworthy impersonation of an old British person by Chris Pipkin!

Bits of music by Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior (The Boar's Head Carol), and Martin Romberg (A Elbereth Gilthoniel), (as well as Virginia Pipkin).

Pipkins' Christmas site promoted: 12tide.com

Thanks for listening to us this year! As always, if you enjoy this podcast, recommend it to a friend and give us a review on iTunes. And please do feel more than free to drop us a line at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you! Merry Christmas.

O.G. Host Anika Smith rejoins the podcast to interview Chris and his beautiful and omnicompetent wife, Glencora, about their new Christmas resource book, Twelve Tide.

Part of what we're trying to do with this book is make Christmas less a single-morning present binge preceded by anxiety and followed by anticlimax--and more a season of twelve days of giving, feasting, and learning to celebrate better.

Want an idea of what's in the book? Check out our website, 12tide.com. It is likely that if you order now, you will not receive the book before Christmas, but you can find all of the content on our website and order the book (if you like) in time for subsequent days of Christmas (the season lasts until January 6, after all).

We are all Niatirbians now (and Lewis was dismayed by godless Christmas cards). We want to reconcile sacred and "secular" aspects of Christmas and equip people with some old ways to celebrate this season.

Music from this episode includes:

• George Winston's "The Holly and the Ivy"
• Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
• Loreena McKennitt's "The Holly and the Ivy"
• Choir of Christchurch's "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
• Loreena McKennitt's "Gloucestershire Wassail"
• The Chieftains' "Boar's Head Carol"
• Maddy Prior's "Coventry Carol"
• Medieval Baebes' "Adam Lay Ybounden"
• Maddy Prior's "Wassail!"

Also, if you're interested in the Twelve Tide Spotify list Anika suggested on the show, here it is.

Stay tuned...I'm done with grading and I'm turning my attention to an Inklings Christmas Carol. Won't be easy to finish in time, but I'll do my level best. If you are interested in reading a part for it, feel free to email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

God bless and keep you this Advent Season. See you at Christmas!