Thor and Tyr: Sacrifice, Necessary Suffering and the Battle Against Disorder in Rewards and Fairies

THOR AND TYR: SACRIFICE, NECESSARY SUFFERING AND THE BATTLE AGAINST DISORDER IN REWARDS AND FAIRIES By John Coates (University of Hull) Rewards and Fairies has not received its fair share of close examination. Nor has it been valued as the complex and subtle work of art it is. It is twenty years since Roger Lancelyn Green commented on the book and its companion, Puck of Pook's Hill, saying "they are stUl often dismissed as merely for children."1 Yet this remark remains substantially true. There is a curious paradox about the critical reputation of both works. They are praised and neglected. Eminent historians, such as G. M. Trevelyn, have celebrated their capacity to make the past physically present.2 Literary critics readily and frequently admit this impression of authenticity,"3 in J. I. M. Stewart's phrase, or the power the tales have to convey "the continuous flow of physical existence," as J. M. S. Tompkins puts it.4 The fairly limited body of critical writing on the stories, of which Tompkins's comments on Kipling s choice of "period" language remain among the most interesting,5 has concentrated on this quality, almost to the exclusion of others. Critics show, besides, an unwilhngness to take Rewards and Fairies quite seriously as art, to explore the pattern of theme and imagery within it. Philip Mason, for example, offers a sensitive account of "Cold Iron," stressing the importance of the theme of sacrifice in this story. He accepts that it has "different levels"6 and that it is near the centre of Kipling's thought.7 Nevertheless, he asserts, it is wrong to interpret it "on too intellectual a filane," since Kipling felt rather than thought what he wanted to say.8 Shamsul slam's recent study of Kipling's Law enters a similar caveat. Islam touches on the themes of law and sacrifice in "the Puck books" but remarks that the author's treatment of them is not "very consistent"9 since he is mainly concerned to nourish the imagination of his childish audience. Perhaps Phüip Mason has pointed to the key problem about the meaning of Rewards and Fairies, the apparent inconsistency of its symbolism. How and in what way, he asks, can "cold iron," the binding image of the collection, be at once the symbol of redemptive suffering, of the power of the sword, and of custom and drudgery? As he says, these are "odd bedfellows."10 His solution, that the link between them is the compulsion exercised by a man's own sense of duty and that in any case "cold iron" is an elastic symbol, does not seem a satisfactory one.11 It is likely that an answer to the problem of "inconsistency" which has perplexed scholars like Mason may be found in a closer look at the way in which Kipling uses Norse myth in the collection. This paper will examine the first five stories in Rewards and Fairies, exploring how Kipling handles three main topics within them: the theme of sacrifice, (the Thor/Tyr motif); the theme of maturation, or necessary suffering; and the order/disorder axis. Concentrating on the first five stories in the book seems sensible given the way Rewards ana Fairies is planned. I would suggest that the first five stories form a discrete unit. A second unit is formed by the two stories dealing with Pharaoh 64 Lee, "Brother Square Toes" and "A Priest in Spite of Himself." These two tales handle the specific problem of how a worthy object of loyalty is to be discovered and propose an answer in the evolving consciousness of the originally rootless gypsy and smuggler. Lee's response to the qualities of the Moravians and the Seneca Indians in his new American home influences him towards the choice of the moral Ufe. The two Pharaoh Lee stories form a coherent narrative which, although clearly linked to the wider themes of the book, may be best considered in its own terms. The last story in Rewards and Fairies, The Tree of Justice," stands somewhat outside the moral scheme proposed in the coUection. It offers a plea for mercy in its insistence that no man...