The White Witch: Week 4
Green Corn, Henley, Jeremy Taylor & Yaffingales
“It was a gray day, one of those autumn days of dreamlike stillness that can draw one within their peace. Yellow leaves fell silently about him in the woods and the carpet of gold upon the bridle path muted the sound of his horse's feet.
Francis climbed up until he reached the heights of Shotover and then he halted and looked back and down, over the golden woods and the slopes covered with tawny bracken and silvery traveler's joy, down to the shorn harvest fields and the green water meadows and the winding river. Oxford looked a city of dreams down there, her towers and spires mysterious in the faint haze that hung over the valley…”
🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch
Welcome to our week 4 discussion for The White Witch!
The White Witch is the book of which Goudge said in her memoir:
“I like the book. It is one I actually enjoyed writing.”1
One theme that threads through the tapestry of the story is the mercy of God. Using actual historical texts from John Donne and John Eliot, along with the situations that create a need for mercy for her characters along the way, Goudge helps us to see mercy in some new ways.
“I put my trust in your mercy; my heart is joyful because of your saving help.” Psalm 13:5
There is so much good going on in this book! I’m sure many of us will be finishing reading/processing it for many days to come.
Today I have more historical info for you as well some thoughts on characters at the end of the book...
“Under the hot sun, surrounded by the ripening cornfields, they pledged themselves to fight for the freedom of England, their cheers rolling to the ramparts of the beech woods beyond the standing corn.”
🍂 Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch
Chalgrove Field & the green corn
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