The Circle

On pages 76-77: "Bard spent a good part of his afternoon inspecting the Circle.  He saw it was obviously a place of meeting and gathering," much like the early Appalachian settlers had gathered for preaching and revivals.  

Someone is generally in charge at these meetings; Calley conducted this one. It's actually more like a Quaker gathering than a preaching service, moderated by a clerk with others playing an active part. Who are these others?

Raven is the first beside Bard/Drum to appear at the Circle.
Hawk (remember that Bard had saved Hawk's life).
Bear
The three-headed Dog all face outward (to protect against intruders?)
At that point Calley emurged from the tree, and brought Bard to a place near one of the Dogs. Then she called on Hawk to fill in Bard on conditions at Laurel.

Pages 84-85  begin what was in effect an enactment of the story of Genesis: "In the Beforetime" there was a common language of "One Speech" used not only by humans but by all creatures.

Then Bear took up the narrative: "Two-legged came late and last",
(in strick conformity to Genesis). They forgot God and soon became warriors against one another.

Raven: they were set apart into 'Shadow' until the 'Mending', separated from the Laurel.  (To relate this to the Bible story one might best call it The Chosen People, although not as messed up as the Chosen People have proven to be. (The 'Laurel' deserves a post of it own.)

Raven goes on to explain the porous nature of the boundary between the Shadow and Laurel.  Some of the Shadowfolk get into Laurel and start doing better, and residents of Laurel may begin to 'turn gray'.

Callie (Mother) tells Bard that the Council was called to find out whether he should be expelled or accepted; they were especially intersted  in knowing how he got across the 'Great Divide'

The 'dogs' called themselves Warders to protect the boundary.

Bear, who proves to be also Owl told them where Bard came from
and agreed to "guard the passage".

The Circle unanimously agreed to let things stand, and Bard awoke from his Dream. (The reader perceives the boundary between fantasy and materiality, often celebrated in the Bible and in Blake.)

I would hope for some critical judgment on this post.

Elizabeth

We saw Elizabeth as one of the Spirit People.  She was the adopted daughter of Charon and Calley, the mother of mankind.

Elizabeth appears first bringing a basket to a hungry son with an exemplary Gift from 'mama' (Mother) , who is a synonym for God.  These gifts occur throughout the story.  The author was certainly familiar with "every good and perfect thing come from God" (James 1:17).

Elizabeth, like other 'spirit people' is not bound by time or space the way most of us mortals are.  She has the habit of suddenly appearing at any particular time and at the most unlikely place.

Her character is revealed further at pages 51ff as a fiddler and singer, and when she brings towel and soap for Bard's birth she says "We're all dead, don't you know? We are only real when we are in the Music."

Elizabeth is pointing out to us what we all should know, that we're capable of living eternally, a very Blakean idea, although I don't know where the author got it.

Drop down now  to page 91ff; here we meet Lizbet, not a 'spirit person' but a 'gray person'; she mentions 'Mama', but it's not Elizabeth's mama: "Mama wants to know what's your name, Boy".  This Mamas food is not like Calley's food.  And her gift is a rock in the back of his head.

You may find Elizabeth again before you get to the end of the story.

Bible Soaked

Henry was once a Baptist preacher, but like the present writer, he outgrew that vocation.
Never the less his knowledge of the Bible is vast to the point of second nature.
Northrup Frye, the best known critique of English Literature traveled the same road as
the above;  his world reputation began with his thesis for a Phd at Oxford with Fearful
Symmetry.  He also described William Blake as a 'bible soaked Christian".

Frye also said that virtually every serious writing in English literature is to a large
degree involved with biblical thought and that often from completely secular writers.

On even a cursory reading of 'Summer Boy' a multitude of allusions to Scripture appear:

p.38 "..with nothing but Mary's staff to..comfort him on his way" echo of Psalm 23.
p.198 Lizzie gave Bard a lesson on 'shepherding'

"melted down into "plow shares and such"
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, (Isaiah 2:4

p.41 "The One Mother breathed in them all, and they were all her."  (John 17:22f)

p.84f Callie tells the story of Creation and the Fall....and the loss of a 
common language, a version of the biblical story called The Tower of Babel.

207 The Mother "God, Spirit, Maker, Mother, whatever word you use, it names
the One who is all"

p.235 "sustaining Grace"

Graduation from Childhood

The Seed

In my attempt to grasp the fullness of The Summer Boy I've found this most usefull:

The story begins with Boy's problem with his father.

 Like most boys this one had a 'Father' problem: 

This problem is ubiquitous, as well as the 'Mother' problem of many girls; these two types tend to be called 'mother boy' and 'daddy girl'.

The problem of 'Summer Boy' is central to the myth. In the beginning of the book we get a taste of the 'father-son' relationship.  Dad wants to maintain control of Son, and Son is frantic to get away. (At 16 I rode 900 miles to get to a new school.)

This motif runs through the entire story.

Most cultures have some form of  transit between adolescence and maturity (William Blake expressed it with this image in Gates of Paradise.)

The Council

Pages 84-8 are of the essence for understanding the way things work in The Summer Boy.  He found himself listening to Callie (a spirit person) who leading the meeting called successively on Hawk, the three head dog, Callie again, Bear and Raven.  All of this serves to give Bart an idea of where he is, who he is, and where he's going. It might be considered a mythopoeic  version of the Creation:

'In the Before time, before the world had been broken' is perhaps comparable to the Bible account of the 'first couple' before the Fall. It continues with an account of the days of one speech until the Days of Babel and the Flood. The people were so wicked that 'they were set apart into Shadow until such time as there may be a mending.  In substance the 'good people' live in Laurel, the 'shadowpeople' are separated.

There is a border-patrol made up of the Riders who try to prevent leaking of shadowfolk, with their corruption into Laurel;  however some of the shadowfolk come with a desire to do well

Characters

In a myth of the magnitude of The Summer Boy it seems imperative to become acquainted with the characters; their identity may become significant and vital for a full understanding of the myth.
Here are some of the important characters:

The summer boy was named 'Boy' by his father and a number of other things by other characters.  His given name was Ben, but that name plays a very small part in the narrative. He was named successively Little Bear, Bard, Drum and a few other things in the course of the story.
Ben's father was Harry, who sounds like a drill sergeant to an unhappy son.

Ben's Aunt Mary was as permissive to Ben as Harry, her brother was demanding. Mary named Ben "Little Bear" and encouraged him to explore, but perhaps she didn't realize what kind of exploration Little Bear would make. Mary also had a staff that Bard made us of in his wanderings.

Way up the mountain an old man lived, named Ethan Owl; Ben got acquainted with him, but didn't immediately understand Owl's mythopoeic significance.   He's the first of the many characters who seemed to exist materially and also in a spirit world.  Owl became Ben's mentor.

In his wanderings Ben came upon a road; he followed it and encountered an old truck and at a substantial river.  The man in the truck, named Roberlee took up with Ben and named him Bard..  They were both waiting for a ferry, operated by Charley Charon.  The Charons had operated the ferry for several generations, and Charlie married Calley, one of the most important figures in the myth, and very much of a 'spirit' person.

The Charons were dark skins, but they had adopted a light skinned girl named Elizabeth who led the music of the afternoon.  That evening she brought towell and soap and gave the first of a statement that became famous, "Mama said you would be needing these" and another equally poignant statement, "We're all dead, don't you know, we're only real when we're in the music.

An import
ant character is the 'three headed dog', non-material but very significant .

At the ferry, coming across the river was a family of four gray people; gray is an appelation
for people (shadow-folk) outside the bounds of what might be called 'good people' who live in 'the Laurel'.

At the circle Bart encountered the Raven,. The Raven spoke to Bart (in a sort of extra-sensory perception) to say  there would be a Council. Several of the characters take part, but on pp 84-6
they offfer Bart a picture of Creation.

Lizbet (and family) are the gray people; she rocks Bart and virtually knocks him out. Lizbets'
father was named Jude.

Mad Davey introduced another pleasant and healing chapter for Bard, the pilgrim.\

In a change of scene Rider is introduced. (There are many Riders, generally speaking law
inforcers. Millicent is Riders horse virtually a 'spirit person'.

In his travels Bard meetings an old itinerant trader named Aengus with his mule, Molly Dear.

Lizzie, the herb woman, took Bard in and taught him a number of things including shepherding sheep.

Mathilda was another of the 'spirit people'

Wandalena

Thomasene had been a Sister in the Abbey, but left to become a hermit in the highest peak.

To learn all of these characters is a good first step to understanding The Summer Boy






Wandalena (220)