The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, artwork by Leo & Diane Dillon

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 perhaps the author's best known work. More than 65 million copies of the books have been sold in 30 languages. Written by Lewis between 1950 and 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia contain Christian themes and borrow from Greek and Roman mythology as well as traditional English and Irish fairy tales. The books have been adapted for radio, television and cinema. Pauline Baynes illustrated the original books in the series.

The Chronicles present the adventures of children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the realm of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good is fighting evil.

The Narnia universe

Main article: Narnia (see also: Narnia places and Narnia characters)

Most of The Chronicles of Narnia take place in the world of Narnia. The Narnian world itself is one of many worlds including our own. Passage between these worlds though possible is rare; it may be accomplished directly or by visiting the Wood between Worlds. Visitors to Narnia observe that the passage of time while they are away is unpredictable. Narnia itself is populated by a wide variety of creatures most of whom would be recognizable to those familiar with Roman/Norse mythology and Irish/English fairy tales.

The books: publication and reading order

The books of the series, in the order of their publication, are:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician's Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)

The first American publisher, Macmillan, put numbers on the books and used the publication order. When HarperCollins took over the series, the books were renumbered using the internal chronological order, as suggested by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham.

The Magician's Nephew (1955)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Last Battle (1956)

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 as 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." (Dorsett & Mead 1996)

Fans of the series who appreciate the original order believe that Lewis was only being polite to a child and that he could have changed the order in his lifetime had he so desired. (Brady 2005) Other arguments for the publication order include that Prince Caspian is subtitled "The Return to Narnia", and that the following quotes from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe support it as the first book in the series:

"None of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do."

"That is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right, it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia."

Another argument cited by proponents of the original order is that if the series is first read in the chronological order, the reader can never experience the original order without the knowledge of the prequels. On the other hand, the chronological order can still be enjoyed after first reading the original order.

Christian parallels

Specific Christian parallels may be found in the entries for individual books and characters.

The Chronicles of Narnia contain many allusions to Christian ideas which are easily accessible to younger readers; however, the books are not weighty, and can be read for their adventure, colour, and mythological ideas alone. Because of this, The Chronicles of Narnia have become favourites with both children and adults, Christians and non-Christians.

Although he did not set out to do so, in the process of writing his fantasy works, Lewis (an adult convert to Christianity) found himself incorporating Christian theological concepts into his 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."

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory, himself maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This is similar to what we would now call alternative history. As he wrote in a letter to a Mrs. Hook in December of 1958:

"If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair 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." (Martindale & Root 1990)

New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik recently suggested that, as a strict Christian allegory, the The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is not especially accurate. Specifically, he points out that

"a central point of the Gospel story is that Jesus is not the lion of the faith but the lamb of God, while his other symbolic animal is, specifically, the lowly and bedraggled donkey. The moral force of the Christian story is that the lions are all on the other side. If we had, say, a donkey, a seemingly uninspiring animal from an obscure corner of Narnia, raised as an uncouth and low-caste beast of burden, rallying the mice and rats and weasels and vultures and all the other unclean animals, and then being killed by the lions in as humiliating a manner as possible—a donkey who reëmerges, to the shock even of his disciples and devotees, as the king of all creation—now, that would be a Christian allegory. A powerful lion, starting life at the top of the food chain, adored by all his subjects and filled with temporal power, killed by a despised evil witch for his power and then reborn to rule, is a Mithraic, not a Christian, myth" (Gopnik 2005)

With the release of the 2005 Disney movie 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. (Toynbee 2005) Others see the chronicles as an excellent tools for Christian evangelism. (Kent 2005)

Criticism

CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia series have received various criticisms over the years, much of it by fellow authors. Allegations of sexism center around the decription of Susan Pevensie in The Last Battle. Lewis characterizes Susan as being "no longer a friend of Narnia" and interested "in nothing nowadays except lipstick, nylons and invitations".

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has said:

"There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex, I have a big problem with that." (Grossman 2005)

Philip Pullman author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, interprets it this way:

"Susan, like Cinderella, is undergoing a transition from one phase of her life to another. Lewis didn't approve of that. He didn't like women in general, or sexuality at all, at least at the stage in his life when he wrote the Narnia books. He was frightened and appalled at the notion of wanting to grow up. [...] Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-coloured people are better than dark-coloured people; and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it."(Pullman 1998)

Defenders of Lewis respond to Pullman and Rowling by arguing that the "lipsticks, nylons and invitations" quote is taken out of context. In The Last Battle, Susan is excluded from Narnia specifically because she no longer believes in it. In The Horse and his Boy Susan's sexual maturity is portrayed in a positive light. They also cite the positive roles of women in the series, like Lucy Pevensie and Aravis, who are main characters in the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy, respectively. (Anderson 2005), (Rilstone 2005)

Hensher and Pullman have also implicated The Chronicles of Narnia series in fostering racism. This is based on a perceived negative representation of other races and religions, particularly the Calormenes, as enemies of Aslan and Narnia (Hensher 1998). The Calormenes are described as oily and dark-skinned people who wear turbans and pointy slippers and are armed with scimitars. This depiction has been cited as a blatant allegorical comparison to the traditional attire of Islam and Sikhism. Turbans are worn by Muslim clerics, and most adult Sikh males. Scimitars originated in the Middle East, and are highly symbolic of Islam. The Calormenes worship the "false god" Tash, who is portrayed as a stereotypical Satanic being requiring evil deeds and sacrifices from his followers. (OConnor 2005)

Lewis supporters note that Lewis was a distinctly British author, as were his contemporaries J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and others. Therefore, his writings have a particularly British Victorian era flavour. The fact that all of these authors and their works remained popular over such a a long period of time suggests to some that many of the criticisms which have been voiced are not thought to be significant by the reading public. Lewis supporters also note that there are "good" Calormene characters throughout the series. In The Horse and His Boy, a female Calormene princess named Tarkheena Aravis marries an Archenlander prince of a presumably different ethnicity. In The Last Battle, the Calormene Emeth is accepted by Aslan although he is a worshiper of Tash. (Nelson 2005, pp. B14)

Influences on Narnia

Writing: Lewis' early life has echoes within the Chronicles. Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898, Lewis' family moved to a large house in the country 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. As in the The Last Battle, Lewis lost his mother at an early age and similar to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and he spent a long, miserable time in English boarding schools. During World War II, many children were evacuated from London because of air raids. Some of these children stayed with Lewis at his home in Oxford. (Wilson 2005)

Lewis was part of the Inklings, a literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England. Its members included such notables as J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. Readings and discussions of the members' unfinished works were the principal purposes of meetings. These readings and discussions were usually held on Thursday evenings in C. S. Lewis's college rooms at Magdalen College. The Inklings were also known to gather at a local pub, The Eagle and Child.

Name: According to Paul Ford's Companion to Narnia: There is no indication that Lewis was alluding to the ancient Umbrian city Nequinium, renamed Narnia (after the river Nar, a tributary of the Tiber) by the conquering Romans in 299 BC. However, since Lewis's first successes at Oxford were in the classics and ancient history, it is quite possible that he came across at least seven references to Narnia in Latin literature. (Ford 2005)

Geography: Lewis reportedly based his depiction of Narnia on the geography and scenery of the Mourne Mountains in County Down in his native Northern Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

Narnia's influence on others

A more recent British series of novels, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, has been seen as an "answer" to the Narnia books. Pullman's series favours science and reason over religion, wholly rejecting the themes of Christian theology which permeate the Narnia series, but has many of the same issues, subject matter, and types of characters (including talking animals) as the Chronicles of Narnia.

The short story The Problem of Susan[1] written by Neil Gaiman tells the story of Susan Pevensie long after the conclusion of Lewis' series (available in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy edited by Al Sarrantonio). Additionally, Gaiman's Sandman graphic novel series, in its story arc entitled "A Game of You", features a Narnia-like "dream island".

The comic book series Pakkins' Land has been compared to the Narnia series with its inclusion of talking animals and other parallels, and writer/illustrator Gary Shipman has admitted to being influenced by C.S. Lewis' work.^{[citation needed]}

Narnia in other media

Television

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was first turned into a television series in 1967. The ten episodes, each thirty minutes long, were directed by Helen Standage. The screenplay was written by Trevor Preston. Unlike subsequent adaptations, it is currently unavailable to purchase for home viewing.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was turned into an animated television special in 1979. It was a co-production of Bill Melendez (Charlie Brown) and the Children's Television Workshop (Sesame Street and The Electric Company). The screenplay was by David D. Connell. It won the Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program that year.

The Chronicles of Narnia were turned into a series of successful BBC television miniseries in 1988–1990. They were nominated for a total of 14 awards, including an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Children's Program. Only The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair were filmed. The four miniseries were later edited into three feature-length films (combining "Prince Caspian" and "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader") and released on DVD.

Radio

There have also been BBC Radio and Focus on the Family Radio Theatre dramatisations of the novels.

Cinema

Main article: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

A film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, titled The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, produced by both Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, was released in December 2005. It was directed by Andrew Adamson. The screenplay was written by Ann Peacock. Principal photography for the film took place in the Czech Republic and New Zealand.

Narnia director Andrew Adamson has hinted that he is already planning on making a sequel. The New Zealander said: "I don’t like the ’franchise’ word, but if this film is successful I will make another." His thoughts were echoed by producer Mark Johnson. He said: "I think it would be cocky if we say we are going to make another film — but I would certainly like to. The next one we would make would be Prince Caspian because that is the only [other] one that has all four children in it. And if we don’t make it now we will never be able to make it because they will be too old. That Chronicle is set one year after this one is so it would allow for the kids to get a bit older. I would be perfectly happy to make all seven."

External/cultural references

It should be noted that the word 'aslan' is Turkish for 'lion' and while it is likely that most references to leonine things/beings named 'Aslan' or something similar refer to the one from Narnia, this may not necessarily be the case.

Steve Hackett's song "Narnia" on the album Please Don't Touch (1978) is based on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
In an episode of Friends, Chandler gets defensive about his "nubbin" when Ross asks "if it does anything", and replies: "Why yes Ross, pressing my third nipple opens the delivery entrance to the magical land of Narnia."
In Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, Leslie refers often to the Narnia books and lends them to Jesse to read so he can learn to act like a king. The name "Terabithia" itself is very similar to one of the foreign lands mentioned in Lewis's books, Terabinthia.
In the British comedy series, The Young Ones (episode "Flood") - Vyvyan enters a wardrobe whilst playing hide and seek and enters Narnia. (As he does so a member of the studio audience can clearly be heard saying "it's Narnia!") There he is met by the White Witch and her dwarf sleigh-driver. She offers him Turkish Delight but is repulsed by his bad breath. He lets on that he is looking for one of his housemates who was earlier frightened by a Lion (a lion-tamer was using his bedroom). This worries her and the dwarf says "It's the prophecy." She threatens Vyvyan to stay but he leaves. Later in the same episode landlord Mr. Balowski briefly enters Narnia looking for the boys.
Mike Scott of The Waterboys draws from the world of Narnia and C.S. Lewis in a number of his songs. "Further Up, Further In" from the album "Room to Roam" is a direct quote from "The Last Battle". Appearing in italics in the text of the book, Aslan proclaims it as he enters the new world. The song "A Church not made with Hands" from an early Waterboys album A Pagan Place begins with the words "Bye bye Shadowlands, the term is over".
A Dublin rock band called Aslan have a loyal local Irish following, although they have not made it on the international scene. Their most famous song is "Crazy World".
In the television series Black Books, the character "Gus" (who is played by the actor who played the Witch's dwarf and Trumpkin in the BBC adaptations) asks for some Turkish Delight.
In Roald Dahl's book Matilda, the character Matilda mentions that she loves the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
An episode of South Park, "Here Comes the Neighborhood", includes scenes with a pride of lions. The leader of the lions is named Aslan, copying the voice intonation and general animated look from an earlier animated film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In another South Park episode, "Chickenlover", Cartman pretends to have read the novel, and summarizes the plot, "a bunch of, uh, hippies, walk around and paint stuff. They eat lunch, and then they find a magical... camel... which they have to eat to stay alive."
Peter, from the animated television show Family Guy, briefly visited Narnia when he plunged into the clothes dryer in pursuit of a lost sock. Upon landing, he was greeted by a small creature, who introduces himself as Mr. Tumnus, and says, "Welcome to Narnia!" Peter responds with "Gimme back my sock, you goat-bastard!" before Mr. Tumnus runs quickly away with it.
In an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Willow has a nightmare in which she is dressed as a nerd and giving an oral book report on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to a very uninterested class.
In a Season 6 episode of Gilmore Girls, when pressed about her religious affiliation, Rory replies "I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."
Also in Season 6 of Gilmore Girls, episode 10, Christopher shows up to tell Lorelai that he has inherited a vast sum of money and can buy them anything like a castle: "Doesn't have to be in Ireland. It can be in Germany, Czech Republic, Scotland... Narnia."
The second installment of the Simon the Sorcerer series, called "Simon the Sorcerer 2: The Lion, The Wizard and the Wardrobe" contains several references to the original history. In it, the main character (Simon) is sent to a magical land where Calypso the Wizard, an old friend, lives. Simon falls into a trap which involves an enchanted wardrobe which appears right into his bedroom. Once the trap is set, he has to escape from his enemy, the evil Sordid the Sorcerer.
A song by the band Phish is titled "Prince Caspian" and features what may be "the sound of horse's hooves galloping under water" and the repeating lyric, "Oh to be Prince Caspian, afloat upon the waves... with nothing to return to but the demons in their caves."
The Swedish Christian progressive metal band, Narnia [2], is named after the series.
The Discworld series of humorous fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett contain occasional references to wardrobes that lead to magical lands, although none of the wardrobes encountered thus far in the series are known to do so.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic vol. 2, #1, reference is made in a text fragment to the apple tree from The Magician's Nephew. A text piece in #2 refers to the possibility of making a wardrobe from it.
In Fables comic vol. 1, it's mentioned that one of the worlds that fell to the Adversary was a land ruled by a lion whom the Fables residents considered to be a bit "holier-than-thou".
The expression "so far back in the closet they're in Narnia" is used humorously to describe a gay person who is deeply closeted, often to the extent of not realizing their own sexual orientation, or not admitting it to themselves. Such people are also sometimes referred to as "Narnians".
Aslan ry is a Finnish Christian fundamentalist group which advocates reparative therapy for homosexuals, complete with a lionhead as their logo.
One of the time portals in the Chrono Trigger console role-playing game is a wardrobe.
Narnia is used as the theme of a ballet in Come a Stranger [Dicey's Song perspective of Mina], part of the Tillerman Cycle, by Cynthia Voigt.
The singer Aselin Debison is named after Aslan the Lion. Though spelled differently, the two names are pronounced the same way.
In the graphic novel Associated Student Bodies, Jesus is depicted as an anthropomorphic lion.
The Traveller role-playing game contains a leonine race known as the Aslan.
Marcy Playground produced a song called The Ballad of Aslan for their record Zog Bog Bean.
An episode of X-Men: Evolution was titled The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
An episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch was titled "The Lyin', the Witch and the Wardrobe".
A song by Spanish Christian musician Marcos Vidal is called "Aslan" [Nada Especial - Vida Music, 1993]. It talks about God's love, using the image of a lion and its roar.
On the ABC series Lost, one of the books in the hatch is The Magician's Nephew
In the final issue of Books of Magick: Life During Wartime Hunter travels from Fairie to Earth via Wardrobe.
Singer/Harpist Joanna Newsom mentions Pair Caravel in her song "Bridges and Ballons" on her album "The Milk-Eyed Meander."

References

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