The Box of Delights and other "precursors"...?

[Capn]

I recently read a review on The Box of Delights, claiming Susan Cooper drew heavily from Masefield in regard to Christmastime evil, accursed snowstorms, Herne the Hunter, and so forth (the reviewer also claimed that C S Lewis, who was admittedly a great admirer of the work, ripped off a lot of material for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as for The Magician's Nephew.

Now he may have a point, although being INSPIRED by a work is a much different thing than actively plagiarizing something. It's like claiming that Tolkien ripped off George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, simply because that book was the first of its genre.

I'm not convinced.

In my progress notes, I definitely wrote, "sinister snowstorm! Like in The Dark is Rising! ♡♡♡" or words to that effect.

But even if you were to argue that Susan Cooper stole the idea wholesale, which I don't agree with (surely mankind has seen blizzards as fey and evil since our hunter-gatherer days?!), who then wrote from that particular plot device BETTER? Cooper, OBVIOUSLY. Masefield might have penned it first, but did nothing much with it. Cooper developed atmosphere and significance with it, and the evil snow remained present and oppressive throughout (in Masefield, there's a large dump of it, then an overnight melt and flooding, then an even bigger dump sent on Christmas Eve by the evil wizard to waylay the Police. This second snowfall wasn't preplanned, and didn't portend anything at all).

Another incidence of evil snowfall is seen in The Fellowship of the Ring on the mountain pass on Caradhas, the Weather horn. And this fell blizzard is also enchanted or at least born of evil. Will you also argue that Tolkien ripped off Masefield?

I think we can all agree that blizzards represent an elemental threat to the survival of human beings. And to be at the mercy of a heavy snowfall, cutting off access to resources and being bitingly cold at that, is intrinsically fear-inducing to non-hibernating mammals. Think about it: a sinister rainstorm, or gales or hurricanes - none of these pose the same immediate and, importantly, long-lasting threat that a crippling snowfall does, preventing movement and access to food and fuel against a deadly freeze for days or even weeks.

And applying agency to weather events (pagan gods and spirits controlling weather is a human cultural constant; a monotheic God is called upon to deliver us from such "Acts of God" in later days, or the catastrophe is attributed to God's enemy).

Now let's briefly discuss the appearance of Herne the Hunter, and the Arthurian legend: Masefield did NOT invent either of these. These are both legit aspects of English/British mythology (I'm rather interested in learning more about Herne in particular - already, there seems to be differing regional tales. It's THAT old and that embedded in the collective psyche).

I would argue that, seeing in how Masefield provides no background as to who Herne is (it is taken for granted that the reader should know who he is and recognise him physically), that telling stories about him was already in practice - even if they were formerly only verbally related.

So I don't see any grounds for insinuating that Cooper ripped off Masefield at all. This is not at all the problem of J K Rowling absolutely ripping off Jill Murphy's Worst Witch series (Rowling didn't even have the good grace to mention the similarities, or even to dispell the rumors! It's disgusting and shows a huge lack of respect for a titan of British children's literature, and one she undoubtedly read herself as a child or young adult).

I think the OP who claimed Cooper owes a great debt to Masefield is simply a case of staunch loyalty to a beloved (and in his view, criminally underrated) childhood story. And there's naught wrong with loving a book that much. It's why we read, isn't it?

[Capn]

N.B. Goodreads user Keith Miller wrote the review of The Box of Delights which is referenced here