The White Witch: Week 2

Battles of Pride, Religion & Edgehill

The UK book club edition of The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge

"Froniga, disapproval is one of those things which I've thrown overboard. One does, you know, lighten the ship in old age...”

🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch

Welcome to our week two discussion of the second quarter of The White Witch!

Today we will look at passages and themes from meeting the black witch (book 1, ch 9), to the end of Edgehill (book 2, chapter 4.)

I mentioned previously, this book is about a historical power struggle—between King Charles I and Parliament, Church of England and Puritans—but we see a few more struggles emerge in the characters individual lives as well. They are all dealing with the upheaval of war in their “green and pleasant land.” We see the quiet country villages of the Chilterns turn into battlegrounds with blood in the street. This is the ravage of civil war, and it was a dear price paid by many caught in the swirl of loyalties in mid-17th century England.

Today we will look at the struggles of religion, the Battle at Edgehill, and Froniga’s struggle with black magic & with her pride:

Church in the Chilterns. Photo by Chilternhills_Treasures

"There is no valid reason for fighting this war except the religious reason," said Yoben curtly. "What does it matter whether king or Parliament is supreme? Change from one supremacy to the other and you merely exchange one tyranny for another. Basically this war is part of the great European struggle; is Europe to be Catholic or Calvinist? In such a struggle the duty of all Catholics is clear.”

"Like so many of us, you overestimate the Catholic sympathies of the king? said Francis. "He protects us for the queen's sake but he himself will never be a Catholic and if he wins this war England will be no nearer to the true faith than she is now.”

"And how near will she be if the Puritans win the war?" asked Yoben bitterly. "The Church of England, the Church of such men as the king and Archbishop Laud, is not hopelessly far from the true faith, but the so-called religion of those appalling Puritans is little better than devil worship. And the king is pro-Spanish. A man must take his stand upon one side or the other and there is no doubt upon which side he stands."

🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch

Religious battles