Many Waters
 Many Waters cover | |
| Author | Madeleine L'Engle |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Charles Mikolaycak |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Time Quartet |
| Genre | young adult, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
Publication date | September 1, 1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 351 pp |
| ISBN | 0-374-34796-4 |
| OCLC | 13823586 |
| [Fic] 19 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.L5385 Man 1986 |
| Preceded by | A Swiftly Tilting Planet |
| Followed by | An Acceptable Time |
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet (also known as the Time Quintet). The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned."
The principal characters of the story are Sandy and Dennys Murry, twin brothers who are, ironically, somewhat out of place (they are "normal") in the context of the multifarious and eccentric Murry family from A Wrinkle in Time. The action of the story follows that of A Wind in the Door but precedes the climactic, apocalyptic event in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
Plot summary
In the middle of a New England winter, protagonists Sandy and Dennys accidentally disturb an experiment in their parents' laboratory, and are teleported to a sandy desert. There, they are acquired by water-prospector 'Japheth', and guided by him to an oasis; but Dennys is separated from the others. Sandy remains with Japheth and his elderly grandfather Lamech and is cured of his heat stroke by a variety of improbable beings, including a brethren of seraphim who disguise themselves, periodically, as animals. Dennys reappears in another tent, only to be thrown into a refuse heap, and comes under the care of a friendly family in the center of the oasis, headed by a gruff but kindly patriarch, called Noah. It soon becomes apparent that the boys have been interpolated into the story of Noah's Ark, shortly before the Deluge. The nephilim meanwhile distrust the twins, and their human wives investigate; but discover nothing. Separated for much of the book, the twins become more independent of each other, and gain maturity over the course of a year in the desert. Both in love with Noah's daughter Yalith (and she with them), but do not consummate their affection. Dennys convinces Noah to reconcile with Lamech, and both twins eventually care for the old man's gardens while he lies ill. After Lamech's death, Sandy is kidnapped, and eventually found by Japheth. Both twins assist the construction of the Ark; whereupon they are sent home on unicorns summoned by the seraphim.
Major themes
The story largely concerns the teenaged twins' emotional coming of age, but, like the other three novels about the Murry family, includes elements of fantasy and Christian theology such as the seraphim, a heavenly race of angels and the nephilim, a race of giants that were the result of the mating of mortal women and angels are the main antagonists of the story (see Genesis 6:1-4 [1]). Author Donald R. Hettinga notes that the world of Noah's oasis is especially difficult for "the empirically minded twins" to accept because in L'Engle's theology of "a gradual Fall", it is still populated by manticores and unicorns, "everyone can still see angels," and some people "can still converse intimately with God." [2] Similarities to the fantasy-science fiction works of C. S. Lewis, always present in L'Engle's oeuvre, are particularly notable here. The twins' difficulty in believing in things that exist outside their empiricist world is a trait they must overcome in the story, because it is only by believing in a "virtual unicorn" that they can obtain transportation back to their everyday world.[2]
Biblical and other sources of immortal character names
Although previous books in the series touched on themes of Christian theology, Many Waters makes direct references to Biblical and Qabalistic mysticism, particularly in its supernatural characters. While A Wind in the Door featured a "singular cherubim" with the fabricated name of Proginoskes, many of the seraphim and nephilim are named after obscure mystical entities:
Seraphim
The Seraphim have wings colored in gold, silver or blue. Each has a preferred animal form, usually mammals or birds.[3]
- Adnarel, originally one of the leaders who follow the four leaders who divide the four parts of the year in the Book of Enoch 82:14.[4]
- Aariel, variant of Ariel, "lion of God". The name occurs with some frequency in the Old Testament and in rabbinical literature.[5] (Note that Aariel frequently appears in the novel in the form of a lion.)
- Abasdarhon, originally the angel who rules over the fifth hour of the night. The name also appears in the Steganographia of Johannes Trithemius.[6]
- Abdiel, a seraph in the Sepher Raziel and a character in Milton's Paradise Lost.
- Akatriel, one of the Angels of Presence.
- Achsah, wife of Othniel in the Old Testament. Curiously, this seraph is named after a mortal character.
- Admael, one of the seven angels set over the earth.[7]
- Adabiel is mentioned in the alt.magick Kaballah FAQ [8] as a member of the seven archangels according to The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, but it does not give an author for this volume and it has not been confirmed whether this is the same as the nine-volume poetic work by Thomas Heywood.
- Adnachiel is associated by many astrology websites with the zodiac sign Sagittarius.
Nephilim
The Nephilim are implied to be fallen angels who can't return to heaven after choosing to leave for Earth. They have wings and eyes colored in Violets and Reds. They can transform into worms, snakes and dragons.[3]
- Ugiel, second of the unholy sefirot according to Moses de Burgos.
- Rofocale, after Lucifuge Rofocale, governor of Hell in The Sworn Book of Honorius.
- Eisheth, an angel of prostitution and the consort of the demon Samael.
- Eblis, variant of Iblis, the primary devil in Islam.
- Estael is named as an intelligence of Jupiter in The Secret Grimoire of Turiel,[9] purportedly a sixteenth-century grimoire.
- Negarsanel, variant of Nasargiel, an angel of Hell according to The Legends of the Jews by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg.
- Rugziel, a fallen angel.
- Rumael, twentieth of the twenty-one named fallen angels in 1 Enoch 69.
- Rumjal, sixth named of the fallen angels in 1 Enoch 69.
- Ertrael, another fallen angel named in 1 Enoch.
- Naamah, another consort of Samael.
Series notes
Many Waters is an anomaly among the books of the Time Quintet.[2] Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, the protagonists of the other three books, only appear on the last two pages of this one, while Sandy and Dennys, usually minor characters, are fully developed. Written after A Swiftly Tilting Planet, it nevertheless takes place about five years before that book, and about five years after A Wrinkle in Time. If one reads the books in the order of internal chronology, Many Waters thus interrupts the saga of Meg and Charles Wallace for a side trip with the "ordinary" members of the Murry family. Since the story was not written before Planet was published, the latter book does not fully take into account the twins' expanded understanding of the world beyond the everyday, instead showing some continued skepticism on their part. However, this aspect of their character is less extreme than in earlier books. For the twins, being immersed in Noah's world "stretches their sense of reality".[2] Sandy and Dennys appear to retain this change in attitude as adults, particularly in A House Like a Lotus, in which Sandy acts as a mentor to his eldest niece, Polly O'Keefe. In the previous book in the series, A Wind in the Door, Meg is informed that Sandy and Dennys will become "Teachers", a metaphoric role that they appear to play as adults because of their experiences in Many Waters. However, An Acceptable Time, the fifth book in the so-called Time Quintet (the Time Quartet plus the final novel about Polly), does not include the twins as either skeptics or teachers.
References
- ↑ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206:1-4;&version=31;
- 1 2 3 4 Hettinga, Donald R. (1993). Presenting Madeleine L'Engle. New York: Twayne Publishers. pp. 111–119. ISBN 0-8057-8222-2.
- 1 2 "Many Waters Television Tropes & Idioms". Retrieved 2011-07-06.
- ↑ "The Book of Enoch". Archived from the original on 2005-11-01. Retrieved 2006-10-17.
- ↑ "ARIEL". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2006-10-17.
- ↑ "Steganographia, by Johannes Trithemius -- Book 2". Retrieved 2006-10-17.
- ↑ "Angelology — BibleWiki". Retrieved 2006-10-17.
- ↑ http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1896/qblhfaq.html&date=2009-10-25+05:40:34
- ↑ http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/grimoire/GrimoireofTuriel.pdf
External links
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