This is my son, Daniel’s second post at Building Catholic Culture focusing on literature. He’s reviewing the newest volume of The Glaston Chronicles, which he has followed since the publication of the first book. -Jared
Writing a book for teenagers is not an easy task. The challenge of creating a story that is both entertaining and meaningful often causes writers to shy away, choosing instead the pure simplicity of children’s books or the wider scope of more mature literature. The teen novels that have been written tend to fall into the category of pure entertainment without providing any deeper substance.
But if books play a central role in human formation, shouldn’t the people who are being formed the most have good literature to read? Some authors have recognized this need and attempted to produce a new genre of books, one the contains both direct engagement with teens as well as deeper moral meaning. Among these is Donal Foley, a Catholic, UK-based author who resolved to contribute a morally-oriented work for adolescents. This manifested itself in The Glaston Chronicles, a now three-book series set in the English town of Glastonbury. From time travel to sword fights to teenage heroism, it contains numerous aspects intended to entertain—and morally educate—younger audiences.
The first installment in the series, titled The Glaston Secret, introduces us to an American teenager, Matt, who’s visiting his British family. But his vacation doesn’t turn out the way he expected: he starts seeing strange people, some who try to kill him, some who save him from being killed. And he barely gets to see the town of Glaston and the historical ruins at the summit of an imposing hill—called the Tor—before a mysterious portal opens. Faced with entering it or moving on, he and his cousins, Luke and Annie, step through and find themselves whisked back to Nazi-occupued France.
And they aren’t allowed to sit back and watch history happen. They are assigned with the task of helping a diverse group of refugees evade the wartime dangers and make it to the safety of England. Among the people they meet are German-Catholics who seem unshakable in their faith, American Pilots, French Resistance fighters, and Emil, a strange teenager who rejects all things Christian. The wide variety of people hold a wide variety of beliefs, and as the group flees through France, questions about God, morality, and the Catholic Church come up time and time again. Topics like the existence of evil, the power of prayer, and the importance of trusting in God are especially highlighted, allowing the book to teach basic Catholic doctrine through the growing devotion of the protagonists in their trials. And when their task is completed and they finally reach England, they return home convinced of the importance of following God and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
The sequel to this fast-paced novel, Journey to Castle Raven, brings the conflict up a notch. After coming back to their own time, Matt, Annie, and Luke find that Emil, who not only scoffed at their Catholic beliefs, but also attacked them when he discovered they were from the future, has become a rich and powerful industrialist. At first, they don’t think much of this. Matt’s vacation with his cousins continues, with them traveling around Europe and meeting another character from the past, who’s now an Oxford Professor. Through him, they come into contact with an ancient artifact that contains the Biblical Urim and Thummim, jewels worn on the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest that now seem to have a power not unlike that of the portal on the Tor. But before they know it, the artifact has been stolen—and by none other than Emil. Matt and his cousins, along with a priest character, journey to Emil’s castle in Switzerland, where they resolve to take back the artifacts before their old adversary causes any harm.
But they’ve gotten into more than they accounted for. Since the World War II era, Emil has involved himself in the occult, and the characters get caught up in his weird and evil plans. They barely escape from the castle, but the action moves back to the Tor, where Emil is conducting a sinister ritual. But Matt and company, trusting themselves to God’s grace and protection, manage to overcome Emil and defeat the demonic horrors he summons. In this, the book very clearly presents the occult as a dangerous, evil thing that must be avoided at all costs. This message is a valuable one that should be made more often, but the story suffers from making the occult slightly too cinematic, sensationalizing its dangers and the ways to fight against them.
With these two meaningful stories to back it up, The Excalibur Mystery comes into the picture. Unlike Journey to Castle Raven—which starts immediately after its prequel—this third novel picks up a little later. Matt is back in England, again with his cousins, ready for another vacation, but there’s undoubtedly another action-packed narrative in store for him. Unlike its predecessors, The Excalibur Mystery has a more historical focus, highlighting late Medieval England, Richard III, and the Battle of Bosworth. In the first part of the story, Matt and his extended family travel across the English countryside, visiting various historically significant landmarks, which, of course, will be revisited once the characters have made their journey through time. In addition to this, another cousin is introduced: Theo, an intelligent but “cultured” teenager who cares nothing for his relations and even less for their Catholic faith. But he becomes stuck with them and comes back with them to Glaston.
Danger enters the scene when a character from the previous book, Julian—the son of Emil who was drawn into a demonic power during the occult ritual—shows up and convinces Theo to come with him to fifteenth century England. Fearing for their cousin, Matt, Annie, and Luke follow him through the portal, but they’re too late; Julian and Theo are already gone, heading towards where the Battle of Bosworth will take place.
The three cousins, as they navigate through Medieval life, find themselves bound up in the political situation around them. The current English monarch—Richard III—is being challenged by Henry Tudor. Tudor ends up defeating Richard at Bosworth, becoming Henry VII, father of Henry VIII. Multiple times, the book makes the argument that the religious fate of England—and America—hinged on this conflict, because with Richard’s line and without Henry VIII, England would not have rejected Catholicism and adopted their own church. But in the characters’ perspective, all of this is still yet to happen. While making their way towards the battle with a company of soldiers loyal to Richard, they experience the enriched Catholic culture of the Middle Ages, from awe-inspiring churches and monasteries to widespread prayer and devotion to the Church.
The book—of course—heavily emphasizes Catholic values through this Medieval exposure. Continuing a theme from the entire series, prayer is highlighted and shown as something absolutely essential to spiritual life and growth. Characters are shown to pray multiple times, from the Rosary to meditation to merely calling on God for help during difficulty. The narrative does a wonderful job of conveying the absolute importance of prayer and relying on God in all things. No matter the circumstance—even traveling back in time within a fictional narrative—every Catholic must continually stay united to God and the Church through constant and sincere prayer.
The sacraments, too, are brought forward as an irreplaceable means of achieving holiness. Characters attend Mass at frequent intervals throughout the story, and while sometimes it’s merely mentioned offhandedly, a few scenes center around the unbounded grace obtained through it. The power of the Mass is also conveyed through a priest character, who gives an example of strength and virtue to the characters—particularly Matt, who feels a calling to the priesthood himself. Confession also plays a part, with the characters going to it right before the Battle and describing the grace and purification given to them. The sacraments, however, drift to the sidelines, but the narrative still makes a strong point about their very real power and ability to bring us to God.
Prayer and the sacraments, while often mentioned, are not the major themes of The Excalibur Mystery. Apart from historical emphasis, this distinction would go to spiritual combat and the importance of fighting against evil—particularly the occult. Even though these points are much more prominent in Journey to Castle Raven, the book still brings to light the reality of spiritual warfare and the occult as something destructive and absolutely opposed to Christianity. The entire plot centers around Matt and his cousins trying to find Theo and bring him back to their own time because they fear the occult influences Julian might have on him. Theo himself, at first, is also mildly interested in the occult, but he undergoes a conversion, recognizing its unholy power. The people who are completely immersed in it—Julian and his two accomplices—are presented as evil, amoral people who should be at best avoided and at worst combated.
But more important than this is the very real way in which the characters fight against evil. They recognize its existence and its power, but they resolve themselves to combat and defeat it through the grace of God. And the reality of this spiritual combat is affirmed when a character dies and sees heaven/hell, as well as souls struggling through purgatory in the hope of achieving heaven. But hell is shown as something real, something that must be fought against at all costs. The spiritual life requires that evil is battled without compromise or complacency—and the narrative affirms this and displays it in the actions and resolutions of its characters.
Unfortunately, though, the moral message isn’t perfect. All the concepts are simplified so as to be accessible to younger audiences. While not necessarily a bad thing, this often results in missing the depth of Catholic moral teaching and spiritual reality. All the characters are simply either good or bad: the good ones never do anything bad, and the bad ones never do anything good. Theo might be the only exception, but he’s presented as an ignorant victim who immediately converts once he recognizes what he’s gotten into. This moral black-and-white is an inaccurate representation of the spiritual life, which is not only a fight against the forces of evil but also a fight against ourselves, a struggle to conquer vice and achieve virtue. It’s a very far cry from the pure intentions and actions of the characters in The Excalibur Mystery—and so we’re left with circumstances that are difficult to relate to.
But this is not a major problem, and it doesn’t ruin the narrative. However, the book also suffers from the dramatization of its prequel—both when applied to the occult and to the Catholic elements. Prayers are shown to have immediate, tangible effects, and the influence of other sacred items is limited to physical healing and protection. For example, a man survives being stabbed because he’s wearing a scapular, and the character who dies ends up coming back to life because the sheath of a sword has supernatural powers. While prayer and holy artifacts often do have physical effects, that isn’t their primary intention. Prayer is meant to submit our wills to and unite us with God, and scapulars, medals, and rosaries primarily protect us from spiritual harm. The purpose of these things isn’t to solve our earthly problems; rather, it’s to bring us closer to heaven through trusting that God will give us what we need to remain faithful to him. Our prayers aren’t always answered, our enemies aren’t always defeated, and we aren’t always victorious in our struggles. Again, because The Excalibur Mystery simplifies its moral scope, it fails to convey the depth of the Catholic spiritual landscape.
With the occult, this problem becomes more pronounced. Julian uses ravens connected with a mirror to spy on the characters and a magic-potion to make Theo listen to him, and demons are manifested in animal forms. It’s almost like a magic system in a fantasy book. While it may be true that the occult is somewhat like that, the way it’s presented focuses more on the artifact aspect of it rather than its fundamental supernatural evil. Books and movies—particularly in Hollywood—have constantly suffered from this problem, taking demonic powers and trying to turn them into something that will make people buy the book or come to the theater. Fortunately, that isn’t the intention of The Excalibur Mystery, but it still takes the occult and embellishes it for the purposes of the plot. Even if the actions made by Julian and his accomplices are, in fact, possible, the approach taken is not the proper one to depict the destructive and anti-Catholic nature of the occult.
But despite these issues, the narrative still conveys strong moral messages that are very much worth internalizing. Even if it does err on the side of simplification, the messages themselves are important ones about both Catholicism and morality. The series as a whole succeeds in giving an introduction of Christian elements to younger audiences, particularly those who haven’t already become familiar with the specifics of the Catholic faith. But more than that, it is a simple, morally-oriented story that provides respite from the confusion of other contemporary literature. And, in addition to this, The Excalibur Mystery brings forward an interesting segment of Medieval English history, rounding out the novel and making it a worthy read. And it certainly won’t be the last of the series, so we can expect more thoughtful yet fast-paced novels from The Glaston Chronicles.
0 Comments