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About The Chronicles of Narnia
Click on the book you wish to learn about. Books are listed in publication order.
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The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S.
Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known
work, having sold over 120 million copies in 41 languages. Written by Lewis between 1949 and
1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, The Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted several
times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage, and cinema. In addition to
numerous traditional Christian themes, the series borrows characters and ideas from Greek
and Roman mythology, as well as from traditional British and Irish fairy tales.
The Chronicles of Narnia present the adventures of children who play central roles in the
unfolding history of the fictional realm of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is
common, and good battles evil. Each of the books (with the exception of The Horse and His
Boy) features Aslan, the mighty lion and higest king over all of Narnia calling children
from our world to Narnia, where they aid Narnia in one way or another. As suggested in The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the reason for Aslan calling the children is not that he needs
their help, but rather that through know him in Narnia, they might better know him in our
world:
"This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a
little, you may know me better there." -Aslan, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
But how, you may be asking yourself, could Aslan be in our world too? The answer to this
question is in some ways the foundation of Narnia. To find out more about the idea of Aslan
being in our world, click HERE.
Read about more topics on
"The Chronicles of Narnia"...
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Navigations:
Reading Order of Narnia
Christian Parallels in Narnia
Influences on Narnia
The Narnian Universe
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Reading Order:
Fans of the series often have strong opinions over the correct ordering of the books. When
the books were originally published, they were not numbered. Macmillan, the first American
publisher, put numbers on the books in the order in which they were published. In 1994, When
HarperCollins took over the series the books were renumbered using the internal
chronological order, as suggested by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham.
To make the case for his suggested order, Gresham quoted Lewis' reply to a letter from an
American fan in 1957 who was having an argument with his mother about the order:
I think I agree with your order [i.e. chronological] for reading the books more than
with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The
Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and
still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure
it would be the last, but I found I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in
which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same
order in which they were published.
In the Harper Collins adult editions of the books (2005), the publisher asserts Lewis'
preference for the numbering they adopted in a notice on the copyright page:
Although The Magician's Nephew was written several years after C. S. Lewis first began
The Chronicles of Narnia, he wanted it to be read as the first book in the series.
HarperCollins is happy to present these books in the order which Professor Lewis
preferred.
Some readers who appreciate the original order believe that Lewis was simply being gracious
to his youthful correspondent: he could have changed the books' order in his lifetime had he
so desired. They maintain that much of the magic of Narnia comes from the way the world is
gradually presented in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They believe that the
mysterious wardrobe, as a narrative device, is a much better introduction to Narnia than The
Magician's Nephew — where the word "Narnia" appears in the first paragraph as something
already familiar to the reader. Moreover, they say, it is clear from the texts themselves
that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was intended to be read first, and that The
Magician's Nephew was not. When Aslan is first mentioned in The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, for example, the narrator says that "None of the children knew who Aslan was, any
more than you do". Fans of the original order point out that this is nonsensical if one has
already read The Magician's Nephew. Other similar textual examples are also cited. This
argument hinges partly on the difference between Chronology and Narrative.
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Christian
Parallels
If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a
character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure.
In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What
might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be
incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not
allegory at all.
Those are the words Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs. Hook in December 1958.
Lewis was expert on the subject of allegory and the author of The Allegory of Love. He
maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of
them "suppositional". The above letter indicates Lewis' view of Narnia as a fictional
parallel universe.
C.S. Lewis was an adult convert to Christianity and had previously authored some works on
Christian apologetics and fiction with Christian themes. However, he did not originally
intend to incorporate Christian theological concepts into his Narnia stories. As he wrote in
Of Other Worlds:
Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something
about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then
collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then
drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This
is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun
carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't
anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own
accord.
With the release of the 2005 Disney film there has been renewed interest in the Christian
parallels found in the books. Some find them distasteful, while noting that they are easy to
miss if you are not familiar with Christianity. Alan Jacobs, author of The Narnian: The Life
and Imagination of C. S. Lewis, implies that through these Christian aspects, Lewis becomes
"a pawn in America's culture wars". Some Christians see the Chronicles as excellent tools
for Christian evangelism. The subject of Christianity in the novels has become the focal
point of many books.
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Influences on
Narnia
Lewis's life
Lewis's early life has echoes within the Chronicles of Narnia. Born in Belfast, Northern
Ireland in 1898, Lewis moved with his family to a large house on the edge of the city when
he was seven. The house contained long hallways and empty rooms, and Lewis and his brother
invented make-believe worlds while exploring their home. Like Caspian and Rilian, Lewis lost
his mother at an early age. Lewis also spent much of his youth in English boarding schools
which correlates with the education of the Pevensies. During World War II, many children
were evacuated from London because of air raids. During this time, some of these children,
including one named Lucy, stayed with Lewis at his home in Oxford, just as the Pevensies
stayed with the professor.
Inklings
Lewis was the chief member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group in Oxford
which at various times included the writers J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Lewis's
brother W. H. Lewis, and Roger Lancelyn Green. Readings and discussions of the members'
unfinished works were one of the main activities of the group when they met, usually on
Thursday evenings, in C. S. Lewis's college rooms at Magdalen College. Some of the Narnia
stories are thought to have been read to the Inklings for their appreciation and
comment.
Influences from mythology
The fauna of the series borrows from both Greek mythology and Germanic mythology. For
example, centaurs originated in Greek myth, and dwarves have origins in Germanic myth. Drew
Trotter, president of the Center for Christian Study, noted that the producers of the film
version of The Chronicles of Narnia felt that The Chronicles of Narnia closely follows the
archetypal pattern of the monomyth as detailed in Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand
Faces.
In His 2008 book Planet Narnia Michael Ward has claimed that the seven books take up the
characteristics of the seven planets of medieval and Renaissance cosmology. In The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe Aslan takes on the characteristics of Jupiter, in Prince Caspian
Mars, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the Sun, in Silver Chair the moon, in The Horse and
His Boy Mercury, in The Magician's Nephew Venus, and in The Last Battle Saturn. All the
other characters in the books also come under the influence of the prevailing planet. Lewis
was known to have an interest in the literary symbolism of medieval and Renaissance
astrology which is reflected far more overtly in other works of his. Ward's theory has
gained widespread approval among the C.S. Lewis Scholarly Community.
Name
The origin of the name Narnia is uncertain. According to Paul Ford's Companion to Narnia,
there is no indication that Lewis was alluding to the ancient Italian Umbrian city
Nequinium, which the conquering Romans renamed Narnia in 299 BC after the river Nar.
However, since Lewis studied classics at Oxford, it is possible that he came across at least
some of the seven or so references to Narnia in Latin literature. There is also the
possibility (but no solid evidence) that Lewis, who studied medieval and Renaissance
literature, was aware of a reference to Lucia von Narnia ("Lucy of Narnia") in a 1501 German
text, Wunderliche Geschichten von geistlichen Weybbildern ("Wondrous stories of monastic
women") by Ercole d'Este.[18] There is no evidence of a link with Tolkien's Elvish
(Sindarin) word narn, meaning a lay or poetic narrative, as in his posthumously published
Narn i Chîn Húrin, though Lewis may have read or heard parts of this at meetings of the
Inklings.
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The Narnian
Universe
Most of The Chronicles of Narnia take place in Lewis' constructed world of Narnia. The
Narnian world itself is posited as one world in a multiverse of countless worlds including
our own. Passage between these worlds is possible, though rare, and may be accomplished in
various fashions. How visitors to Narnia observe the passage of time while they are away is
unpredictable. For example, if one year had passed since one left Narnia, a thousand years
or perhaps only a week might have gone by in Narnia. Narnia itself is described as populated
by a wide variety of creatures, most of whom would be recognizable to those familiar with
European mythologies and British fairy tales.
Inhabitants
See also: Narnia creatures and Narnian characters
Lewis largely populates his stories with two distinct classes of inhabitants: people
originating from the reader's own world and creatures created by the character Aslan and the
descendants of these creatures. This is typical of works that involve parallel universes.
The majority of characters from the reader's world serve as the protagonists of the various
books, although some are only mentioned in passing. Those inhabitants that Lewis creates
through the character Aslan are viewed, either positively or negatively, as diverse. Lewis
does not limit himself to a single source; instead he borrows from many sources and adds a
few more of his own to the mix.
Geography
See also: Narnian places
The Chronicles of Narnia describes the world in which Narnia exists as one major landmass
faced by "the Great Eastern Ocean". This ocean contains the Seven Isles, Galma, Terebinthia,
and the Lone Islands which are visited in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. On the main
landmass are the countries of Narnia, Archenland, Calormen, and Telmar, as well as a variety
of other areas that play a part in the narrative but are not described as countries: The
Western Wild, a mountainous place to the west of Narnia, and Wildlands of the North. Lewis
also provides glimpses of more fantastic locations that exist in and around the main world
of Narnia, including an edge and an underworld.
Notably, Narnian geography is subject to the ravages of geological processes. In Prince
Caspian, the children return after an unknown period of time to discover that a river which
they had known during The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had changed course, creating an
island at its mouth and deep gorges in its upper reaches.
There are several maps of the Narnian universe available, including what many consider the
"official" one, a full-colour version published in 1972 by the books' illustrator, Pauline
Baynes. This is currently out of print, although smaller copies can be found in the most
recent HarperCollins 2006 hardcover edition of The Chronicles of Narnia. Two other maps have
recently been produced following the popularity of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. One, called the "Rose Map of Narnia", is based loosely
on Baynes' map and has Narnian trivia printed on the reverse. Another map, made in a
monochromatic, archaic style reminiscent of Tolkien's Middle-earth maps, is available in
print and in an interactive version on the movie DVD. However, this last depicts only Narnia
and does not include the other countries in the Narnian universe.
Cosmology
A recurring plot device in The Chronicles is the interaction between the various worlds that
make up the Narnian multiverse. A variety of devices are used to initiate these cross-overs
which generally serve to introduce characters to the land of Narnia. The Cosmology of Narnia
is not as internally consistent as that of Lewis' contemporary Tolkien's Middle-earth, but
suffices given the more fairy tale atmosphere of the work. During the course of the series
we learn, generally in passing, that the world of Narnia is flat, geocentric, has stars with
a different makeup than our own, and that the passage of time does not correspond directly
to the passage of time in our world.
History
See Also: Narnian
Timeline
Lewis takes us through the entire life of the world of Narnia, showing us the process by
which it was created, snapshots of life in Narnia as the history of the world unfolds, and
how Narnia is ultimately destroyed. Not surprisingly in a children's series, children,
usually from our world, play a prominent role as all of these events unfold. The history of
Narnia is generally broken up into the following periods: creation and the period shortly
afterwards, the rule of the White Witch, the Golden Age, the invasion and rule of the
Telmarines, their subsequent defeat by Caspian X, the rule of King Caspian and his
descendants, and the destruction of Narnia. Like many stories, the narrative is not
necessarily always presented in chronological order.
Source: Wikipedia
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