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nunimous?

nunimous?

Postby jan » April 25th, 2008, 5:04 am

What is the word C.S. Lewis used to describe that eery feeling we get from the supernatural, and in what book did he write this? It's something like nunimous, but I can't find this word anywhere online. Thanks.
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Postby Karen » April 25th, 2008, 12:52 pm

It's 'numinous'. But it doesn't really mean eerie, rather (as Merriam-Webster puts it), it means:

1) supernatural; mysterious

2) filled with a sense of the presence of divinity

He uses the word in The Problem of Pain, but I'm not sure exactly where.
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
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Postby Stanley Anderson » April 25th, 2008, 3:03 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Postby Karen » April 25th, 2008, 4:36 pm

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
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Numinous

Postby Jan » April 25th, 2008, 6:25 pm

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Postby Stanley Anderson » April 25th, 2008, 8:51 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Re: nunimous?

Postby Paul F. Ford » April 28th, 2008, 2:59 pm

Paul Ford—self-appointed president of the "245-3617 Club" and proud member of the "245-6317 Club"; author of the Companion to Narnia and the Pocket Companion to Narnia.
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Re: nunimous?

Postby splashen » June 5th, 2008, 4:29 pm

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Postby Roonwit » June 20th, 2008, 2:45 pm

Wasn't the term numinous introduced by Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy?
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Postby Karen » June 20th, 2008, 4:47 pm

According to my OED, the word was first used in a book in 1647.
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
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Postby john » June 20th, 2008, 6:24 pm

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Postby Karen » June 20th, 2008, 6:55 pm

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
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Postby john » June 20th, 2008, 7:03 pm

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Postby Sven » June 20th, 2008, 7:06 pm

But Lewis did use the word following Otto's specific technical definition and usage. When Christian Century asked Lewis for the 10 books most influential to his thought, The Idea of the Holy was one of them.
Rat! he found breath to whisper, shaking. Are you afraid?
Afraid? murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet -- and yet -- O, Mole, I am afraid!
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
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