Christian Allegory and Psychology in John White’s The Sword Bearer

A Brief Introduction

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Today we’re going to talk about John White’s The Sword Bearer. John White was a psychologist and a Christian speaker, and both of those things, his faith and his background in psychology, are definitely present in this book.

This book was written primarily for his grandchildren upon their request. They actually said they wanted something that was like C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series. This is a children’s fantasy Christian allegory, although you could read this and still enjoy it without delving into the allegorical aspects. But allegory is one of my favorite things to explore, so why not.

We’re going to explore the allegory in this book. I also want to talk about the psychological aspects today, specifically grief.

Christian Allegory

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One of the allegorical aspects of this book, The Sword Bearer, is that the characters are all in this world where there’s this duality. There’re these two main controlling powers. There’s the Changer and he represents what is good, or God, for the Christian. On the other hand, you have Lord Lunacy, who represents evil, but pretends that what he is really representing is right and good and that the Changer is actually evil, which is interesting. He doesn’t come out and say “Hey, I’m bad.” He tries to trick all of the characters to think that he’s the one who’s in the right and he can really give the characters what they want.

John, our main character, stumbles into this world, Anthropos, which is Greek, meaning man or mankind. When he stumbles into this world, he meets all these different creatures and they’re trying to figure out, “Are you for the Changer or are you with Lord Lunacy and the dark powers that be?” And John is a little torn, to be honest. He’s encountered both the Changer and Lord Lunacy and who Lord Lunacy represents, who I’m drawing a blank on. He represents someone else, he’s like the prettied-up version of the devil, if you will.

So, there’s this tug on John throughout the book. Will he follow what he knows to be right or will he do what seems easier, what he wants to do? Sometimes he’s not sure what’s right. Sometimes he wonders, “Am I deceived? Are all these people who I’m surrounded with, who follow the Changer, are they actually all following the wrong guy? And should I just continue to let myself “descend into darkness,” in a sense?

One litmus test that everyone has to take is drinking this wine of free pardon. Basically, what will happen is, all the creatures have this giant feast every night and the giant eagle, Aguila, brings it to them, and with that comes the wine of free pardon. It’s the special wine that, if they drink it, one of two things will happen. One, they will drink it and spit it out, it will taste like the most horrible thing in the world to them and that will signal that they’re basically not aligned with the Changer, because the wine comes directly from Him. On the other hand, what could happen, is that they would feel this sense of elation, this sense of this burden being lifted, and all their guilt has gone away. This is very much tied to communion, that sacrament that Christians, Catholics, and others uphold.

Allegorical and Psychological Elements

Just to close off that section about the wine of free pardon, on page 163, John has been trying the wine of free pardon along the way, and spitting it out, because it tastes horrible to him. Sometimes he just says, “I’m not going to drink it.” This, of course, makes the other characters suspicious of him and kind of makes him wonder about himself, too. Why is he not able to drink this and why do all the other creatures think it’s so good? Finally, he is going to drink the wine of free pardon. Mab, the seer, has magically transported this cup to where John is being held captive and John is about to drink it before he performs his heroic act, which is to kill Lord Lunacy.

“Fearfully, he looked around. To his joy, he saw a silver flagon beside him. He sat up, reached for it and raised it slowly. It was heavy.

The wine inside was dark, and as he stared at it he remembered the night when he had spat it out, had thrown the wine in Mab’s face and then thrown the cup away.

What had it tasted like? He could not remember. It was not the taste that had bothered him. But what was it?

He raised the flagon to his lips and tasted. Powerful emotions tugged at his chest. He breathed deeply and tilted his head back, gulping the contents of the flagon greedily.

The wine tingled in his mouth and throat. A warm fire flooded his body. He lay back, letting the flagon tumble onto the carpet. His shame and guilt at first seemed to be crushing him. But as the fire inside him burned on he knew he was being set free.

Tears flowed from his eyes and he let them flow. His arms and legs were shaking. Shame and guilt were evaporating, leaving in their place a huge contentment that swept over him in waves of fire and light. He closed his eyes and let his body tremble.”

Basically, this is a turning point, a foundational moment for John, where he has made the choice that he is going to follow the Changer no matter the cost. And he’s figured out at this point that Lord Lunacy isn’t really who he says he is. He had this special stone that revealed to him Lord Lunacy’s true identity, that revealed him as this evil dragon instead of this nice-looking man that he was seeing before. After that whole debacle, he will have to meet the Goblin Prince and have a showdown.

The last thing I want to touch upon is how John White deals with grief in here. Basically, the character John has lost his mother and his father and then he loses his grandmother at the beginning of the book right before he gets into Anthropos. All through this journey in this magical land at different points he’s thinking about his parents or about his grandmother and kind of processing that. It isn’t really until the end that he’s able to face his grandmother’s death and that happens, in fact, in the showdown with the Goblin Prince, because the Goblin Prince has made this vision appear of his grandmother to distract John from the battle so that he can gain an advantage. John has to realize, “That can’t really be my grandmother standing there, because I know she’s dead.” And that can be really hard, especially for a child who’s used to having someone around.

I think John White is very much in touch with what children go through, how they think, what they feel, and I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a good children’s fantasy, if you’re looking for a good Christian allegory. It is technically not a classic, but it’s one I’ve enjoyed over the years since I was a child.

Thanks for listening!

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section:

• Do you enjoy allegory, fantasy, or children’s books?
• Have you re-read any books that impacted you as a child?