Re: Thorstein of the Mere


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Posted by Claire on May 01, 2004 at 05:34:12 from 216.145.183.149 user Claire_Morgan.

In Reply to: Thorstein on the Mere posted by Ed Kiser on April 27, 2004 at 21:12:20:

I have always wanted to ask if anyone else noticed the possible source of the name for Wild Cat Island. I spotted this years ago and wondered why no one else ever speculated about it.

In chapter XLIV when Thorstein and his wife arrive at the island, there is a tremendous storm that night. She reminds him of a quarrel they had when they were younger...

"Dost thou mind the wild cat, Thorstein, and how angry we were? Now we are never to be angry again, are we?"

I always thought that significant, especially with the Ransome like description of the waves and wind, similar to the end of S&A. I can imagine him going back to read Thorstein for the storm and island description, and coming across that phrase.


The next chapter which begins after that is interesting too...

"CHAPTER XLV. -- ON THE ISLAND.

HERE as the days went on they made their home. It was no great job to build a cot in the gap between the two ridges, the twin backbone of the island: for the rock on either hand is steep like a solid house wall for more than a man's height, and runs thus maybe two hundred feet, now choked with ruins of the old building that once stood there: but formerly a deep and sheltered trough.

They had only to roof it over with poles, which they cut from the trees growing on the spot, and to thatch it with boughs and turfs like one of those huts the woodcutters and bark peelers make themselves even nowadays in the woods. Then they built up the ends, leaving doors and windows, and there was as snug a home as might be in all Lakeland."

Snug indeed! I remember when I visited the island and could easily visualize that building. Collingwood himself had carried out an excavation and found the remains of the building, lending a nice reality to his story. And of course, I think the part of the Autobiography that deals with Ransome and the Collingwoods and their encouragement of him is a wonderful story in itself. So much of what we love about Ransome is related to that contact and encouragement.

Claire




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