The Rabbit Room

What a lovely poem, Robin! You captured the essence of a women’s heart and her cry to be known and loved fully, as God loves. One question…. you mentioned that you loved the song about the woman sung by Cosmo. I went back to look for it and couldn’t find a song sung by Cosmo. Did you mean the song that Anodos sang to reawken the white lady?

Devorah, I hadn’t thought of it that way. That makes sense!

Oh, wow! I really like that interpretation as well, David.

Beautifully written, Tyler! It captures the essence of Anodos’ inward and outward journeys. Thank you for sharing!

I’m curious about the last sentence in Chapter 14, where Anodos refers to his Shadow as “the demon whose darkness had overshadowed all my life.” This seems an extreme statement, since presumably the Shadow only “found” him recently while he was in the Church of Darkness. Is Anodos exaggerating here, as we often do when something awful feels like…[Read more]

Tiese, what a beautiful metaphor! The way you liken Anodos’ singing over the Lady entombed in marble to God singing over us in our tombs and breathing life into us by His love. What a powerful image! Thank you for sharing.

I enjoyed your story immensely, David. Thank you for sharing! So much rich imagery there. I feel like you really captured the mood/tone of MacDonald’s representation of fairy.

Then why did the fairies proceed to “pick the sparks out of her with thorns and pins?” I considered that the sparks might be flashes of light associated with static electricity, but the fairies removing the sparks with thorns and pins made me think that the sparks must be some type of physical object stuck in the cat’s fur. I could be wrong…[Read more]

I think if we’re honest, most if not all women have struggled with this temptation. It’s wonderful that we can be authentic enough to encourage each other in the struggle against it. Thank you for sharing as well!

Thank you for pointing this out! I also loved that description of the forest, but I didn’t pick up on the water imagery there. Beautiful!

Yes, and I see it as not just a warning to men to avoid such temptation, but also a warning to women not to become such a person. I can remember times before I was married when it was a real temptation (that, sadly, I sometimes succumbed to, at least to a degree) to encourage the admiration of men for the hollow purpose of boosting my own feelings…[Read more]

I’m curious what you all think about the significance of the crystal globe and what it might represent. I’m leaning toward seeing it as representing the girl’s heart as it relates to romantic love. There is an innocence about her when she meets Anodos; she seems “almost a woman,” though she produces on Anodos “more the impression of a child.” The…[Read more]

The significance of water as life-giving, and as a guide to lead Anodos toward goodness. A stream of water running from his bedroom washbasin leads him into Fairyland, and he feels a slight uneasiness when he leaves its course. He drinks from the little well of water in the marble cave and feels as if he “knew what the elixir of life must be,”…[Read more]

Superb interplay of light and shadow in this piece, Danielle. It really captures the haunting nature of the image. I also loved your sketch of the beech tree. I had trouble picturing her in my mind until I saw your drawing; it captures her perfectly!

Yes! That quote regarding joy and sorrow is probably my favorite in the book so far. It reminds me of Hinds’ Feet On High Places by Hannah Hurnard, in which Sorrow and Suffering must be the protagonist’s companions to lead her to the high places. It also makes me think of CS Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain, and how God uses our suffering and…[Read more]

Becky, I love the questions you raise in the last few sentences of your post. Very convicting, it rings with truth.

Beautifully said!

I also wondered what he meant by “sparks” in the cat’s fur. Was there a different meaning for this word in 19th century Scotland? Did he mean something similar to those prickly balls that fall off sweetgum trees?

Thanks for sharing that “Not all who wander are lost” is a Tolkien quote. It’s a very popular phrase these days, but I’ve never seen it attributed to him.

“There may be two views about humans (meaning no offense to the present company), but there’s no two views about things that look like humans and aren’t….In general, take my advice, when you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it…[Read more]