Willing
Steps into
the Unknown:
Adventures in
Creative Writing
By Catherine Milligan
T
he branches of the Jabberwocky Tree twist thickly
upward and outward in all directions, at once
foreboding and inviting, as they take the shapes of
elephants, dragons, and other creatures. Along the soft path
that leads from that Japanese Plane tree—the inspiration for
Lewis Carroll’s nonsensical adventure poem—just around
the cathedral, another mystery beckons from behind an
arched wooden door with peeling green paint. You cannot
enter, but if you lean close and peer through the inset iron
keyhole, you can see a colorful tranquil garden on the other
side, the real-world wonderland of a little girl named Alice
who played there years ago.
These sights on campus at Oxford University’s Christ
Church College certainly sparked my imagination during
the July week I spent studying there. So did the majestic
dining hall where I shared meals with travelers from all
around the world—the very place where Harry Potter
and his Hogwarts classmates ate their shepherd’s pie. The
walking tours of Oxford’s many colleges, libraries, and
pubs were wonderful, too, especially the one that led to the
famous Eagle and Child, where C. S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien,
and other so-called “Inklings” gathered to discuss drafts
18 • Saint David’s Magazine
of their writing.
But what truly transported me this summ