Many Waters
Encyclopedia
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle
, part of the author's Time Quartet
(also known as the Time Quintet). The title is taken from the Song of Solomon
8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned."
The principal characters of the story are Sandy and Dennys Murry
, twin brothers who are, ironically, somewhat out of place (they are "normal") in the context of the multifarious and eccentric Murry family from A Wrinkle in Time
. The action of the story follows that of A Wind in the Door
but precedes the climactic, apocalyptic events of A Swiftly Tilting Planet
.
winter, the boys accidentally disturb an experiment in their parents' lab. A sonic boom
- a blast of heat - and the boys find they have been transported to a vast, trackless desert which is shaken by periodic earthquakes. Providentially, they encounter a water prospector named Japheth
who offers to help them find refuge at the nearest oasis. Sandy and Dennys are intrigued by the creatures which accompany them on their trip through this (as they initially assume) alien world, which include a two-foot-tall mammoth
; a pair of unicorn
s which appear simultaneously to be, and not to be; and humans much shorter than the brothers are.
After a long ride through the desert during which they develop a severe case of heat stroke, the boys are separated when the unicorn Dennys is riding disappears. Sandy remains with Japheth and his elderly grandfather Lamech
and is tended to by a variety of improbable beings, including a pelican
. Dennys reappears in another tent, only to be bodily thrown into a refuse heap. Now seriously ill, he comes under the care of a friendly family with a large tent in the center of the oasis, headed by a gruff but kindly patriarch. As he recovers from his "sun-sickness", Dennys learns that his benefactor is in fact Japheth's father and Lamech's son - and his name is Noah
. It soon becomes apparent that the boys have been transported back to Biblical
times, just before the Great Flood. The pelican, scarab beetle and lion turn out to be the animal hosts of seraph
im, who are surprisingly knowledgeable about quantum physics and twentieth century Earth. The nephilim
, who also transform into animals, distrust the twins. They use their human wives to try to discover why Sandy and Dennys have come to the oasis, and whether they represent a threat.
Separated for much of the book, the twins become more independent of each other, and learn that neither they nor reality itself is as ordinary as they previously supposed. Both gain maturity over the course of about a year in the desert with Noah and his family. They each fall in love with Noah's daughter Yalith, but do not act on their desires. Dennys convinces Noah to reconcile with Lamech, and both twins eventually care for the old man's gardens as they wait to discover a way home. After Lamech's death, Sandy is kidnapped. He refuses to use violence to escape, and is eventually found by Japheth. Both twins worry that Yalith is not to be on the Ark, and neither are they. Nevertheless, they help build the Ark before returning home via unicorn.
and Christian theology
such as the seraph
im a heavenly race of angels and the nephilim
, a race of giants that were the result of the mating of mortal women and angels are the main antagonists of the story (see Genesis 6:1-4 ). Author Donald R. Hettinga notes that the world of Noah's oasis is especially difficult for "the empirically minded twins" to accept because in L'Engle's theology of "a gradual Fall", it is still populated by manticores and unicorns, "everyone can still see angels," and some people "can still converse intimately with God." Similarities to the fantasy-science fiction works of C. S. Lewis
, always present in L'Engle's oeuvre, are particularly notable here. The twins' difficulty in believing in things that exist outside their empiricist world is a trait they must overcome in the story, because it is only by believing in a "virtual unicorn" that they can obtain transportation back to their everyday world.
and Qabalistic mysticism, particularly in its supernatural characters. While A Wind in the Door
featured a "singular cherub
im" with the fabricated name of Proginoskes, many of the seraphim and nephilim are named after obscure mystical entities:
. Meg
and Charles Wallace Murry
, the protagonists of the other three books, only appear on the last two pages of this one, while Sandy and Dennys, usually minor characters, are fully developed. Written after A Swiftly Tilting Planet, it nevertheless takes place about five years before that book, and about five years after A Wrinkle in Time. If one reads the books in the order of internal chronology, Many Waters thus interrupts the saga of Meg and Charles Wallace for a side trip with the "ordinary" members of the Murry family. Since the story was not written before Planet was published, the latter book does not fully take into account the twins' expanded understanding of the world beyond the everyday, instead showing some continued skepticism on their part. However, this aspect of their character is less extreme than in earlier books. For the twins, being immersed in Noah's world "stretches their sense of reality". Sandy and Dennys appear to retain this change in attitude as adults, particularly in A House Like a Lotus
, in which Sandy acts as a mentor to his eldest niece, Polly O'Keefe
. In the previous book in the series, A Wind in the Door, Meg is informed that Sandy and Dennys will become "Teachers", a metaphoric role that they appear to play as adults because of their experiences in Many Waters. However, An Acceptable Time
, the fifth book in the so-called Time Quintet (the Time Quartet plus the final novel about Polly), does not include the twins as either skeptics or teachers.
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
, part of the author's Time Quartet
Time Quartet
The Time Quartet/Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.Those novels are:*A Wrinkle in Time , , ISBN 0-374-38613-7*A Wind in the Door , ISBN 0-374-38443-6...
(also known as the Time Quintet). The title is taken from the Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon
The Song of Songs of Solomon, commonly referred to as Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible—one of the megillot —found in the last section of the Tanakh, known as the Ketuvim...
8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned."
The principal characters of the story are Sandy and Dennys Murry
Sandy and Dennys Murry
Alexander "Sandy" Murry and Dennys Murry are fictional identical twins in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet. They play only minor roles in three of the books but are the protagonists of Many Waters...
, twin brothers who are, ironically, somewhat out of place (they are "normal") in the context of the multifarious and eccentric Murry family from A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
. The action of the story follows that of A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
but precedes the climactic, apocalyptic events of A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...
.
Plot summary
In the middle of a New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
winter, the boys accidentally disturb an experiment in their parents' lab. A sonic boom
Sonic boom
A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
- a blast of heat - and the boys find they have been transported to a vast, trackless desert which is shaken by periodic earthquakes. Providentially, they encounter a water prospector named Japheth
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
who offers to help them find refuge at the nearest oasis. Sandy and Dennys are intrigued by the creatures which accompany them on their trip through this (as they initially assume) alien world, which include a two-foot-tall mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
; a pair of unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
s which appear simultaneously to be, and not to be; and humans much shorter than the brothers are.
After a long ride through the desert during which they develop a severe case of heat stroke, the boys are separated when the unicorn Dennys is riding disappears. Sandy remains with Japheth and his elderly grandfather Lamech
Lamech (father of Noah)
Lamech is a character in the genealogies of Adam in the Book of Genesis.- Family :Lamech is the eighth generation descendant of Seth , the son of Methuselah and the father of Noah , in the genealogy of Seth in Genesis 5. In Genesis 5:12-25, Lamech was a son of Methuselah who was a grandson of...
and is tended to by a variety of improbable beings, including a pelican
Pelican
A pelican, derived from the Greek word πελεκυς pelekys is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae....
. Dennys reappears in another tent, only to be bodily thrown into a refuse heap. Now seriously ill, he comes under the care of a friendly family with a large tent in the center of the oasis, headed by a gruff but kindly patriarch. As he recovers from his "sun-sickness", Dennys learns that his benefactor is in fact Japheth's father and Lamech's son - and his name is Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
. It soon becomes apparent that the boys have been transported back to Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
times, just before the Great Flood. The pelican, scarab beetle and lion turn out to be the animal hosts of seraph
Seraph
A seraph is a type of celestial being in Judaism and Christianity...
im, who are surprisingly knowledgeable about quantum physics and twentieth century Earth. The nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....
, who also transform into animals, distrust the twins. They use their human wives to try to discover why Sandy and Dennys have come to the oasis, and whether they represent a threat.
Separated for much of the book, the twins become more independent of each other, and learn that neither they nor reality itself is as ordinary as they previously supposed. Both gain maturity over the course of about a year in the desert with Noah and his family. They each fall in love with Noah's daughter Yalith, but do not act on their desires. Dennys convinces Noah to reconcile with Lamech, and both twins eventually care for the old man's gardens as they wait to discover a way home. After Lamech's death, Sandy is kidnapped. He refuses to use violence to escape, and is eventually found by Japheth. Both twins worry that Yalith is not to be on the Ark, and neither are they. Nevertheless, they help build the Ark before returning home via unicorn.
Major themes
The story largely concerns the teenaged twins' emotional coming of age, but, like the other three novels about the Murry family, includes elements of fantasyFantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and Christian theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
such as the seraph
Seraph
A seraph is a type of celestial being in Judaism and Christianity...
im a heavenly race of angels and the nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....
, a race of giants that were the result of the mating of mortal women and angels are the main antagonists of the story (see Genesis 6:1-4 ). Author Donald R. Hettinga notes that the world of Noah's oasis is especially difficult for "the empirically minded twins" to accept because in L'Engle's theology of "a gradual Fall", it is still populated by manticores and unicorns, "everyone can still see angels," and some people "can still converse intimately with God." Similarities to the fantasy-science fiction works of C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, always present in L'Engle's oeuvre, are particularly notable here. The twins' difficulty in believing in things that exist outside their empiricist world is a trait they must overcome in the story, because it is only by believing in a "virtual unicorn" that they can obtain transportation back to their everyday world.
Biblical and other sources of immortal character names
Although previous books in the series touched on themes of Christian theology, Many Waters makes direct references to BiblicalBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and Qabalistic mysticism, particularly in its supernatural characters. While A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
featured a "singular cherub
Cherub
A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...
im" with the fabricated name of Proginoskes, many of the seraphim and nephilim are named after obscure mystical entities:
Seraphim
The Seraphim have wings colored in gold, silver or blue. Each has a preferred animal form, usually mammals or birds.- Adnarel, originally one of the leaders who follow the four leaders who divide the four parts of the year in the Book of EnochBook of EnochThe Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel...
82:14. - Aariel, variant of ArielAriel (given name)Ariel is a given name from Biblical Hebrew אריאל Ariel that literally means "lion of God".Ariel is also a reference to one of the Biblical angels....
, "lion of God". The name occurs with some frequency in the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and in rabbiRabbiIn Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
nical literature. (Note that Aariel frequently appears in the novel in the form of a lionLionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
.) - Abasdarhon, originally the angel who rules over the fifth hour of the night. The name also appears in the Steganographia of Johannes TrithemiusJohannes TrithemiusJohannes Trithemius , born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.-Life:He...
. - AbdielAbdielAbdiel is a biblical name which has been used as the name for a number of fictional characters and as a given name for several notable people...
, a seraph in the Sepher Raziel and a character in Milton's Paradise LostParadise LostParadise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
. - Akatriel, one of the Angels of Presence.
- AchsahAchsahAchsah - "anklet", was Caleb ben Yefune's only daughter . She was offered in marriage to the man who would lead an attack on the city of Debir, also called Kirjath-sepher/Kirjath-sannah...
, wife of OthnielOthnielOthniel is the first of the Biblical Judges.-Family:Othniel was related to Caleb, as his father Kenaz was either Caleb's brother or Caleb's father; both are plausible interpretations of Joshua 15:17. The Talmud argues that Othniel was Caleb's brother...
in the Old Testament. Curiously, this seraph is named after a mortal character. - Admael, one of the seven angels set over the earth.
- Adabiel is mentioned in the alt.magick Kaballah FAQ as a member of the seven archangelArchangelAn archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...
s according to The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, but it does not give an author for this volume and it has not been confirmed whether this is the same work as the nine-volume play by Thomas HeywoodThomas HeywoodThomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...
. - Adnachiel is associated by many astrology websites with the zodiacZodiacIn astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
sign SagittariusSagittarius (astrology)Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 240th and 269th degree of celestial longitude...
.
Nephilim
The Nephilim are implied to be fallen angels who can't return to heaven after choosing to leave for Earth. They have wings and eyes colored in Violets and Reds. They can transform into worms, snakes and dragons.- Ugiel, second of the unholy sefirot according to Moses de Burgos.
- Rofocale, after Lucifuge RofocaleLucifuge RofocaleLucifuge Rofocale , according to the Grand Grimoire, is the demon in charge of Hell's government by order of Lucifer.-Etymology:The name Lucifuge comes from two Latin words; lux , and fugio ,which means "[he who] flees the light"...
, governor of HellHellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
in The Sworn Book of HonoriusThe Sworn Book of HonoriusThe Sworn Book of Honorius, or Liber Juratus is a medieval grimoire purportedly written by Honorius of Thebes. Its date of composition is uncertain, but it is mentioned as Liber Sacer in the 13th century, apparently asserting a high medieval date...
. - EishethEishethIn Zoharistic Kabbalah, Eisheth Zenunim is one of the four angels of sacred prostitution, the mates of the archangel Samael. Her fellow succubi are Lilith, Naamah, and Agrat Bat Mahlat. She is found in the Zohar 1:5a-b as isheth zennanim or qodeshah....
, an angel of prostitutionProstitutionProstitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and the consort of the demon SamaelSamaelSamael is an important archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore, a figure who is accuser, seducer and destroyer, and has been regarded as both good and evil...
. - Eblis, variant of Iblis, the primary devil in IslamIslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. - Estael is named as an intelligence of JupiterJupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
in The Secret Grimoire of Turiel, purportedly a sixteenth-century grimoireGrimoireA grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...
. - Negarsanel, variant of Nasargiel, an angel of Hell according to The Legends of the Jews by Rabbi Louis GinzbergLouis GinzbergRabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background:...
. - Rugziel, a fallen angelFallen angelFallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
. - Rumael, twentieth of the twenty-one named fallen angels in 1 Enoch 69.
- Rumjal, sixth named of the fallen angels in 1 Enoch 69.
- Ertrael, another fallen angel named in 1 Enoch.
- NaamahNaamah (demon)Naamah or Na'amah is a demonic legendary creature, the mother of divination. How she became a demon is unclear.- Etymology :Naamah comes from naem and means pleasant....
, another consort of Samael.
Series notes
Many Waters is an anomaly among the books of the Time QuartetTime Quartet
The Time Quartet/Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.Those novels are:*A Wrinkle in Time , , ISBN 0-374-38613-7*A Wind in the Door , ISBN 0-374-38443-6...
. Meg
Meg Murry
Margaret "Meg" Murry O'Keefe is the main character and main protagonist in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet of Science fantasy novels, the daughter of two scientists, the sister of twins Sandy and Dennys Murry and telepath Charles Wallace Murry, and the mother of Polly O'Keefe and others in the...
and Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry
Charles Wallace Murry is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's young adult science fiction novels A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, sometimes referred to as the Time Trilogy...
, the protagonists of the other three books, only appear on the last two pages of this one, while Sandy and Dennys, usually minor characters, are fully developed. Written after A Swiftly Tilting Planet, it nevertheless takes place about five years before that book, and about five years after A Wrinkle in Time. If one reads the books in the order of internal chronology, Many Waters thus interrupts the saga of Meg and Charles Wallace for a side trip with the "ordinary" members of the Murry family. Since the story was not written before Planet was published, the latter book does not fully take into account the twins' expanded understanding of the world beyond the everyday, instead showing some continued skepticism on their part. However, this aspect of their character is less extreme than in earlier books. For the twins, being immersed in Noah's world "stretches their sense of reality". Sandy and Dennys appear to retain this change in attitude as adults, particularly in A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus is a 1984 young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Its protagonist is sixteen-year-old Polly O'Keefe, whose friend and mentor, Maximiliana Horne, has sent her on a trip to Greece and Cyprus. As she travels, Polly must come to terms with a recent traumatic event involving Max...
, in which Sandy acts as a mentor to his eldest niece, Polly O'Keefe
Polly O'Keefe
Polyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...
. In the previous book in the series, A Wind in the Door, Meg is informed that Sandy and Dennys will become "Teachers", a metaphoric role that they appear to play as adults because of their experiences in Many Waters. However, An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time is a 1989 young adult science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the last of her books to feature Polyhymnia O'Keefe, better known as Poly or Polly ,...
, the fifth book in the so-called Time Quintet (the Time Quartet plus the final novel about Polly), does not include the twins as either skeptics or teachers.