Jabberwocky

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son,
the jaws that bite and claws that scratch
Beware the jubjub bird
and shun the frumious bandersnatch."

This poem is from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The poem is famous for being one of the greatest nonsense verses (in itself contradictory I thought) in the English language and was written in 1872. I love the story of Alice and her journey through Wonderland.

When the latest Alice in Wonderland film with Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska came out, I actually thought it was based on a series of books I had just finished reading by Frank Beddor. But, the film was loosely based on the original by Carroll. Don't get me wrong - I love the film. The creatures such as the Jabberwocky and the Bandersnatch were amazing and the colours of Wonderland beautiful. I found the music especially haunting and still listen to the soundtrack often.

The Looking Glass Wars is the first book in Beddor's trilogy about Alyss and Wonderland. In this story, Wonderland is real and Alyss actually only came to our world to hide. She is in fact a princess and her aunt is after her throne. When she came into our world, no-one would listen to her except the local reverend, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll's real name). She told him everything about Wonderland and thought he understood. Alyss was completely betrayed when he turned it into a silly fairy tale book. As the years went by, Alyss grew up into Alice and left her childhood fantasies behind her. Until one day, when a loyal soldier came to take her back.

I truly enjoy it when classic fairy tales are re-interpreted and re-imagined. Wouldn't it be amazing if all our stories and fairy tales were actual historical accounts of other worlds and places :-)?