My first post on this text was in 2017 and the last was in 2021. Whether I added this link to any of these posts is unknown. Having made 50 or so posts I am not keen on poking through these posst to find whether I had or hadn't added this link. If I have not, I should have:
"Please vist this link: www.jonathanstrange.com to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel's reactions to Susanna Clarke's novel among other magical things..."
Christopher Drawlight was an odious character who took advantage of whoever he could and there was now some talk of using the statutes in the Cinque Dragownes to indict Christopher Drawlight. There are at least two edicts within the statutes that could be used to bring charges against Drawlight.
Drawlight was one of the two persons that Johnathan Strange encountered when he stepped out from the mirror if you remember from my previous post, he had been traveling on the King's Roads. Drawlight was there seeking spells from people for a fee, these spells were supposing being commissioned by Mr. Norrell. This of course was not a fact at all, Drawlight had found another way to defraud his acquaintances.
It is a shame that Drawlight was found out because the long list of spells that Mrs. Bullworth wanted would have been very lucrative for Drawlight.
Here is a short list of spells that the vindictive Mrs. Bullworth wanted commissioned:
Take note of the preferred outcomes of the spells. It is especially horrifying how three recommendations were made for her ex-mother in-law. Some-how Mrs. Bullworth would have liked all three of these calamities to befall her ex-mother in-law.
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Post #53
Les Cinque Dragownes was a tribunal created by John Uskglass, during the middles ages to help in the regulation of English magic.
The crimes the Cinque Dragownes tried were the following:
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Post #52
Johnathan Strange had used the King’s Roads to locate Drawlight and popped out of the mirror that hung above the very two-seater that Drawlight and Mrs. Bullworth had been conversing. Having concluded his interview with Drawlight, Strange walked the five miles from Hampstead to Soho-square. It was quite late when Strange arrived home. He found that he had company at the house. Along with his wife Arabella, there was Sir Walter and Colonel Grant. The later two had been contacted by Strange’s wife after Strange had been away for some time.
Strange was asked if he had indeed found the Kings Roads and he explained what he add had found:
“I do not have the words to describe it. All that Norrell and I have done is as nothing in comparison! I wish I could give you an idea of its grandeur! Or its size and complexity! Of the great stone halls that lead off in every direction! I tried at first to judge their length and number, but soon gave up. There seemed no end of them. There were canals of still water on stone embarkments. The water appeared black in the gloomy light. I saw staircases that rose up so high I could not see the top of them, and others that descended into utter darkness. Then suddenly I passed under a bridge that crossed a dark empty landscape. The bridge was so vast that I could not see the end of it. And everywhere in the halls and on the bridge, I saw his likeness.”
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Post #51
Revised on: 9.18.21
Jonathan Strange surveys the King's Roads, BBC Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, TV series
“I do not know what Strange might be capable of by now”, said Mr. Norrel. “But I was not thinking of that. I was thinking of the King’s Roads”. “I thought the King’s Roads led to Faerie?”, said Lascelles. “Yes they do. But not only Faerie. The King’s Roads lead everywhere. Heaven. Hell. The House of Parliament…They were built by magic. Every mirror, every puddle, every shadow in England is a path to those roads.”
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke.
Post #50
“I have never heard of him,” said Childermass. Vinculus looked at him with amusement, “Off course not. You have lived your life in the Mayfair magician’s pocket. You only know what he knows. “So! Said Childermass, stung. “That is not so very trifling is it? Norrel is a clever man and Strange another. They have their faults, as other men do, but their achievements are still remarkable. Make no mistake; I am John Uskglass’s man; or would be, if he were here. But you must admit that the restoration of English magic is their work, not his.”“ Their work, scoffed Vinculus! "Theirs? Do you still not understand? They are the spell of John Uskglass’s doing. That is all they have ever been. And he is doing it now!”
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Suzanna Clarke
Post #51
“The magician of Athodel ruled his own island. Athodel is one of the western Isles of Scotland. The island of Athodel has either sunken or has, according to some, has become invisible. Some Scottish historians like to see Athodel as evidence of the superiority of Scottish magic. The Raven King lost his kingdoms, but if the island is indeed invisible and the magician still reigns over the island it must defiantly prove that Scottish magic is superior to English magic. If you can follow that form of logic.”
PS: I really didn’t believe I was going to reach my goal of fifteen posts this month. Like most months it just happens. I do hope to complete some projects that are currently littering my workbench in this coming month.
As I have reported previously the Raven King wasn’t without his rivals. No one makes it to the place of prominence without making a few enemies. But to a king there is no greater crime than the crime of betrayal. And the Raven King suspected one of his subjects of duplicity. The subject was Robert Barbatus, the Earl of Wharfdale. One known for his cunning and his manipulations; the one known as the Fox.
The Earl had a son who had recently died of the fever. The Raven King had him dug up and brought to him. He invoked a spell over him which brought him back. He wanted find out what he knew of the Earls intrigues.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Formally I made a post that listed the texts of magic that were part of the Dukes collection. What I didn’t mention was the type of books the Duke typically collected. “His grace was fond of poetry, chivalry, history and theology. He collected rare exquisite illuminated manuscripts, editions of the very first printed books produced in the workshops of men of such genius as William Caxton of London and Valdarfer of Venice. Old books delighted him. At the start of 19th century his library was considered one of wonders of the world”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, 2004.
Vinculus, the street magician of London, delivered these remarks to Jonathan Strange while he was traveling through the country.
“Two magicians shall appear in England.Are these the ravings of lunatic or a prophecy of what is to come?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, 2004
“The library of Hurtfew Abby was dearer to its possessor than all of his riches. Norrell constructed a beautiful jewel box to house his hearts treasure. The bookcases which lined the walls on the room were built of English woods and resembled Gothic arches laden with carvings. There were carvings of leaves (dried and twisted leaves, as if the season artist had intended to represent autumn,) carvings of intertwined roots and ivy-all wonderfully done. But the wonder was nothing to the wonder of the books.
The student of magic learns that there are books about magic and books of magic. Both are available, the former for two or three guineas from any reputable book seller. The later are extremely rare and can be had for above the price of rubies. At Hurtfew all the walls were lined with bookcases and all the shelves were filled with books; books of magic.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
This is my second reading of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Although there are a couple subjects I am interested in, these subjects that I somehow over looked or gave them a very lite coverage, I am sure to find other nuggets along the way.
"The brown fields were partly flooded; they were strung with chains of chill, grey pools. The pattern of the pools had meaning. The pools had been written on to the fields by the rain. The pools were magic worked by the rain just as the tumbling’s of the black birds against the grey was a spell that the sky was working and the motion of the grey-brown grasses was a spell that the wind made. Everything had meaning.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
After the invasion of the raven, books from Norrels library were strewn everywhere. Strange picked one up randomly, a book titled Seven Doors and Forty-Two Keys, by Piers Russinol. Strange opened the book and started to read a random selection of text:
“…and there you will find a strange country like a chessboard, where alternates barren rock with fruitful orchards, wastes of thorns with fields of bearded corn, water meadows with deserts. And in this country, the god of magicians, Thrice-Great Hermes, has set a guard upon every gate and every bridge: in one place a ram, in another place a serpent…”
I have finely completed my reading of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I haven’t been reading as much as I normally do and most of my winter’s reading list will be moved to my spring reading.
The book, the first by Susanna Clarke, was over 1000 pages with some very fine print.
The book is divided into three volumes:
Volume 1: Mr. Norrell: I found the first volume interesting and good reading.
Volume 2: Jonathan Strange: it started off interesting, but got bogged down with a lot trifling details, or was it I who got bogged down?
Volume 3: John Uskglass: the last and most interesting and I found myself reading through this section at a good clip. It was hard to put the book down at this point.
Overall the book was interesting and a very good read. You might have noticed I made many posts from this text. (I still a few more posts to make, just need to get them transcribed).
Having seen the BBC TV series and as frequently is the case, the book provided more detail and gave me a more intimate understanding of its characters.
“There are customarily three elements of a traditional summoning spell:
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Chauntlucet: an ancient spell which encourages the moon to sing. The song is said to be very beautiful and can cure leprosy or madness in anyone who hears it.
Daldalus’s Rose: a complicated procedure used to preserve emotions, vices, and virtues in amber, honey, or beeswax. The Daldalus’s Rose also had a huge number of other applications: it could be used to disperse courage to oneself or to inflict cowardice on one’s enemies. It could also provoke love, lust, nobility of purpose, anger, jealously, ambition, and self-sacrifice.
Unrobed Ladies: it is not what you might expect. Unrobed Ladies are a woodland flower used in a spell to bind a fairy’s spell.
Stokesey Vitrification: used to turn objects and people into glass.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
An excerpt from the ballad “The Raven King”
See Chapter 3, footnote number one
Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
“When a young girl slipped on the ice and fell through the roof of a hot-house a young man, named Joseph Abney saved the girl by using magic. He used Martin Pale’s Restoration and Rectification1 spell to mend the broken bones and Teilo’s Hand2 to stem the flow of blood.”
1‘Restoration and Rectification is a spell which reverses the effects of a recent calamity.
2Teilo’s Hand is an ancient fairy spell which can halt the flow of all sorts of things. This spell presumably is named after the fairy who first taught a English magician how to use it.‘
“Several authorities have noted that long-lived fairies have a tendency to call any substantial period of time-‘four thousand years’. Many fairies, when asked about their ages will say they are four thousand years old; what they mean is, they do not know their actual age. Fairies are older than human civilization or possible than humankind.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke
When Strange had successfully conjured up his first Fairy, he thought we would have his questions about magic answered. “How would I go about turning myself into a bear? Or a fox? What are the names of the three magical rivers that flow through the Kingdom of Agrace?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke
