Vril

Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, originally published as The Coming Race, is a novel by English politician and writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published anonymously in 1871.
Some readers have believed the account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril", at least in part; some theosophists, notably Helena Blavatsky, William Scott-Elliot, and Rudolf Steiner, accepted the book as based on occult truth, in part. One 1960 book, The Morning of the Magicians by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels, suggested that a secret Vril Society existed in Weimar Berlin.
The name "Vril" may be based on the word virile.

History

The original, British, edition titled as The Coming Race was published anonymously in May 1871 by Blackwood and Sons of Edinburgh and London. Blackwood published four more impressions in 1871. Anonymous American and Canadian editions were published in August 1871 as The Coming Race or The New Utopia, by Francis B. Felt & Co. in New York and by Copp, Clark & Co. in Toronto, respectively. Erewhon, which was published anonymously in March 1872, was initially assumed to be a sequel to The Coming Race, which by then Bulwer-Lytton was known to have written. When it was revealed that Samuel Butler was the author of Erewhon in the 25 May 1872 issue of the Athenaeum, sales dropped by 90 percent.

Plot summary

A young, independent, wealthy traveller visits a friend, a mining engineer. They explore a natural chasm in a mine which has been exposed by an exploratory shaft. Using a grappling hook and rope, the Narrator reaches the bottom of the chasm safely, but as the engineer follows, the hook dislodges and the engineer falls to his death. The Narrator is unable to ascend back up the chasm, so makes his way into a subterranean world occupied by beings who in some ways seem to resemble angels and their face that of a sphinx. They have a skin tone similar to that of Amerindians, however "richer and softer", large black eyes, and "brows arched as a semicircle". He befriends the first being he meets, who guides him around a city that is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian architecture. The Narrator meets his host's wife, two sons and daughter who learn to speak English by way of a makeshift dictionary during which the narrator unconsciously teaches them the language.
The Narrator discovers that these beings, who call themselves Vril-ya, have great telepathic and other parapsychological abilities, such as being able to transmit information, get rid of pain, and put others to sleep. The Narrator is offended by the idea that the Vril-ya are better adapted to learn about him than he is to learn about them. Nevertheless, the guide and his son Taë behave kindly towards him.
The Narrator soon discovers that the Vril-ya are descendants of an antediluvian civilization called the Ana, who live in networks of caverns linked by tunnels. Originally surface dwellers, they fled underground thousands of years ago to escape a massive flood and gained greater power by facing and dominating the harsh conditions of the Earth. The place where the Narrator descended houses 12,000 families, one of the largest groups and at the upper limit of population size before a chunk of the population will be splintered off and sent to build a new city on un-inhabited land. Their society is a technologically supported Utopia, chief among their tools being an "all-permeating fluid" called "Vril", a latent source of energy that the spiritually elevated hosts are able to master through training of their will, to a degree that depends on their hereditary constitution. This mastery gives them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will. It is this fluid that the Vril-ya employ to communicate with the Narrator. The powers of the Vril include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things; the destructive powers in particular are immense, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to destroy entire cities if necessary.
Men and women have equal rights. The women are stronger, larger, and more sensitive to Vril than the men. The women are also the pursuing party in romantic relationships. They marry for three years, after which the men choose whether to remain married, or be single. The female may then pursue a new husband. However, they seldom make the choice to remarry.
Their religion posits the existence of a superior being but does not dwell on his nature. The Vril-ya believe in the permanence of life, which according to them is not destroyed but merely changes form.
The Narrator adopts the attire of his hosts and begins also to adopt their customs. The guide's daughter, Zee is a researcher and enjoys spending time with the Narrator in order to learn about the inferior "barbarian". Over time, Zee begins to feel affection for the Narrator and this affection develops into love. Zee becomes possessive and begins to openly court the Narrator. Instinctively understanding that he may be in danger, the Narrator asks Zee's father to intervene. Due to societal customs, Zee's father refuses the request; however, the guide informs the narrator unequivocally that if he succumbs to Zee's seduction, he will be killed in order to prevent the contamination of the genetics of the Vril-ya. To further complicate matters, a young Vril-ya princess also falls in love with the Narrator, and she too aggressively pursues the Narrator, creating a rivalry between the two Gy and deepening the Narrator's predicament. The princess eventually confesses her infatuation and intentions to her father creating an untenable threat to the common good of the Vril-ya society. Taë is instructed to take the Narrator back to the location where he had originally entered the realm and to kill him with his staff. The Narrator is able to plead for reprieve and eventually both Taë and Zee conspire against the murderous plan. Zee uses her powers of flight to carry the Narrator up through the same chasm which he first descended. As they part, Zee tells the Narrator to think of her once in a while and that she will search for him in the next life, then departs, leaving the Narrator to make his way out of the mine shaft alone. After safely returning to the surface, the Narrator resumes a normal life without disclosing the existence of the Vril-ya. After he has retired, he finds himself diagnosed with an undisclosed fatal disease. At that point he then decides to record his experiences and warns that in time the Vril-ya will run out of habitable space underground and will claim the surface of the Earth, destroying mankind in the process, if necessary.

Vril in the novel

The uses of Vril in the novel amongst the Vril-ya vary from destruction to healing. According to Zee, the daughter of the narrator's host, Vril can be changed into the mightiest agency over all types of matter, both animate and inanimate. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure. It is used to rend ways through solid matter. Its light is said to be steadier, softer and healthier than that from any flammable material. It can also be used as a power source for animating mechanisms. Vril can be harnessed by use of the Vril staff or mental concentration.
A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril. The narrator describes it as hollow with "stops", "keys", or "springs" in which Vril can be altered, modified, or directed to either destroy or heal. The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences. The appearance and function of the Vril staff differs according to gender, age, etc. Some staves are more potent for destruction; others, for healing. The staves of children are said to be much simpler than those of sages; in those of wives and mothers, the destructive part is removed while the healing aspects are emphasised.

Literary significance and reception

The book was popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word "Vril" came to be associated with "life-giving elixirs". An example is in the name of Bovril, coined as a blend word of Bovine and Vril. There was a Vril-ya Bazaar held at the Royal Albert Hall in London in March 1891. The same year, a sequel named The Vril Staff: A Romance was published, written by an unknown author using the pseudonym XYZ.
It also had a strong influence on other contemporary authors. When H. G. Wells' novella The Time Machine was published in 1895, The Guardian wrote in its review: "The influence of the author of The Coming Race is still powerful, and no year passes without the appearance of stories which describe the manners and customs of peoples in imaginary worlds, sometimes in the stars above, sometimes in the heart of unknown continents in Australia or at the Pole, and sometimes below the waters under the earth. The latest effort in this class of fiction is The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells."
It has been suggested that Bulwer-Lytton developed his ideas about "Vril" against the background of his long preoccupation with occult natural forces, which were widely discussed at that time, especially in relation to animal magnetism, or later, spiritualism. In his earlier novels Zanoni and A Strange Story, Bulwer-Lytton had discussed electricity and other "material agents" as the possible natural causes for occult phenomena. In The Coming Race, those ideas are continued in the context of a satirical critique of contemporary philosophical, scientific, and political currents. In a letter to his friend John Forster, Bulwer-Lytton explained his motives:
Bulwer-Lytton has been regarded as an "initiate" or "adept" by esotericists, especially because of his Rosicrucian novel Zanoni. However, there is no historical evidence that suggests that Bulwer-Lytton can be seen as an occultist, or that he was a member of any kind of esoteric association. Instead, it has been shown that Bulwer-Lytton has been "esotericized" since the 1870s. In 1870, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia appointed Bulwer-Lytton as its "Grand Patron". Although Bulwer-Lytton complained about this by letter in 1872, the claim was never revoked. Other claims, such as his supposed membership in the German Masonic lodge Zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe, have been proven wrong.
Those claims, as well as the recurrent esoteric topics in Bulwer-Lytton's works, convinced some commentators that the fictionalised Vril was based on a real magical force. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, endorsed this view in her book Isis Unveiled and again in The Secret Doctrine. In Blavatsky's writing, the Vril power and its attainment by a superhuman elite are worked into a mystical doctrine of race. However, the character of the subterranean people was transformed. Instead of potential conquerors, they were benevolent spiritual guides. Blavatsky's recurrent homage to Bulwer-Lytton and the Vril force has exerted a lasting influence on other esoteric authors.
When the theosophist William Scott-Elliot described life in Atlantis in, he mentioned Atlantean aircraft propelled by Vril-force. His books are still published by the Theosophical Society. Scott-Elliot's description of Atlantean aircraft has been identified as an early inspiration for authors who have related the Vril force to UFOs after World War II.
George Bernard Shaw read the book and was attracted to the idea of Vril, according to Michael Holroyd's biography of him.
French writer Jules Lermina included a Vril-powered flying machine in his 1910 novel L'Effrayante Aventure .
David Bowie's 1971 song "Oh! You Pretty Things" makes reference to the novel.