Chapter 4 deals with the war years; both Tolkien and Lewis served in the war. Jacobs tells us that Lewis arrived at the front lines in France on his 19th birthday (69); within just a couple of months he was suffering from "trench fever," which Tolkien also contracted.
I looked this up. It's a bacterial infection spread by body lice, and here's a description:
"trench fever was characterized by the abrupt onset of fever, malaise, myalgias, headache, transient macular rash of the torso, pain in the long bones of the leg (shins), and splenomegaly. Typical periodic cycles of fever, chills, and sweats occurred at 5-day intervals, resulting in prolonged disability that lasted 3 months or longer in young soldiers." (from eMedicine by WebMD)
Lewis was in hospital only about a month and then returned to the front lines, where he was soon wounded and out of the fighting for good.
Jacobs discusses Lewis's inclusion of battles in the Narnia stories, where, though he spares his young readers the intensity of the battles he saw in World War I, Lewis doesn't shield them from encounters with frightening dangers in fighting against evil armies nor from experiencing the pain of fallen comrades. Jacobs says, "I suspect he risked the forthrightness [in The Last Battle] because in just a few pages he would have Aslan call all the humans and other creatures into the New Narnia, his everlasting kingdom" (74).
However, when Lewis was in the war, and then returned home with his injuries, he wasn't yet a believer; he didn't yet have a hope of an everlasting kingdom, and he must have suffered greatly. Jacobs notes that letters to several people briefly note this though Lewis doesn't dwell on the after-effects. He did apparently suffer from recurring nightmares (75), which was common. I remember as a young girl being startled from sleep by my father's tortured screams in the darkness; then my thumping heart would slowly regain its rhythm while I listened to my mother's soothing whispers comforting him till his sobbing stopped. It occurs to me that perhaps this element of comfort may have had something to do with Lewis's rather strange relationship with Mrs. Moore. I'll have to think about that.
After returning home, Lewis learned that his friend Paddy Moore had been killed in the war. He had made a commitment to care for Paddy's mother and sister should this happen, and we know that he kept his commitment; Jacobs will probably talk more about this later. One thing that I really admire about Lewis is that he seems to have been a man of his word--both before and following his conversion. I wonder if his love of Norse mythology and Spencer, etc. had helped to instill this code of honor in him. We see it in the "Lewis" character in That Hideous Strength who plods on to Ransom's house through a barrage of evil influence because he doesn't want to let down his friend.
Jacobs brings us up to the publication of Lewis's first book, the poems in Spirits in Bondage. He notes that these poems contain contradictory elements: "the metaphysical pessimism" of Housman and Kirk, as well as the fantastic elements of Morris and Yeats (77). He sees these poems as evidence that the 2 halves of Lewis's brain ("the analytical and the imaginative")have divided completely and that the "imaginative half is dying," overcome by "philosophical pessimism" (80).
This chapter closes with the end of the war; Warnie and Jack have both survived, as has Tolkein, but many, many young men they had known were gone, and the war had a profound effect on all the survivors. Jacobs ends with a quote from a letter by Wilfred Owen, whose haunting poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" is perhaps his most well-known; it saddens me to think of so many talented young people, who may have become poets, artists, writers, inventors, teachers, etc., that have been lost to both the necessity and the folly of war. And so very thankful for those who arrive home safely.
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