The White Witch: Week 3

Unicorns, Symbols & Love Wins

US edition of The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge

“It was one of those hours in which pure joy, strong as an encircling wall, shuts out past and future as completely as intense pain can do, giving to time the quality of eternity. Neither Parson Hawthyn nor Froniga ever forgot it.

The old man felt the weight of his griefs and worries fall from him. Even his body felt less heavy with age and pain. He was conscious of unseen presences within the church and warmed himself in their gaiety. He had a foretaste of Paradise and realized for the first time how full of laughter the place must be.

Froniga lost herself in a dream, for to have children all about her within a wall of safety had always been the best of her dreams.

Outside the bleak and drifting clouds parted for a moment and the church was filled with sunshine…”

🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch

Infused into all of Elizabeth Goudge’s writing are many magical, thematic and symbolic elements. Unicorns are frequently seen, as are birds, doorways and ancient trees. Feasts, pets of all sorts, music, paintings and tea parties make their share of appearances as well. But there is also always something deeper waiting to be found in her books: the complex and mystical hearts and souls of her characters.

When published in 1958, The Times called The White Witch, “a compassionate enquiry into the minds of men and women.”¹

It was people who really fascinated Goudge, and the endless ways in which our wills, minds, weaknesses and desires add up to create the story of our lives. Here in her historical fiction full of conflicts between political parties, religious rites and class systems, Goudge seeks to highlight the redemption of heart and soul that is possible in people who are also enemies during the English Civil War.

Today we will take a look at one of Goudge’s favorite symbols, the unicorn, and also step back to look at symbols themselves. We will also look at the love that wins the hearts of both white and black witches…

"The Unicorn Rests in a Garden" from The Met Cloisters

“Jenny was coming downstairs in her cloak when she heard the bells. She stopped instantly, put up her hand and laid it on the curved neck of the unicorn, for the bells had begun when she reached the stair beside him. His neck was warm, for the sun was pouring through the east window behind him and spilling down the stairs in pools of light. A moment before she had been shivering but now she was suddenly warm…”

🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch

Unicorns