The Chronicles of Narnia

From Freepedia

(Redirected from Chronicles of Narnia)

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. They present the adventures of children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the realm of Narnia, a place where some animals talk, magic is common, and good is fighting evil. The stories illustrate aspects of Christianity in a way that is accessible to younger children.

Pauline Baynes illustrated the original books in the series.

Contents

Christian parallels

Image:CSLewisLWW.png

The Chronicles of Narnia contain many allusions to Christian ideas which are easily accessible to younger readers, however they 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."

Although the books contain allusions to Christian ideas, an allegorical reading is quite confusing and reductionist. Lewis himself kept a strict definition of allegory as seen from one of his early academic publications The Allegory of Love (1936). He 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:

"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."

Numbering the books, publication order and internal chronology

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

  1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
  2. Prince Caspian (1951)
  3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
  4. The Silver Chair (1953)
  5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
  6. The Magician's Nephew (1955)
  7. 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.

  1. The Magician's Nephew (1955)
  2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
  3. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
  4. Prince Caspian (1951)
  5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
  6. The Silver Chair (1953)
  7. 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."

Nevertheless, the reordering has angered many fans of the series, who appreciate the original order as it introduces important parts of the Narnia universe in the early part of the series and then provides explanation for them later in the prequels, in particular the creation story in The Magician's Nephew. Other arguments for the publication order include that Prince Caspian is subtitled "The Return to Narnia", and that the following fragments of text from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe support it as being 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.

Narnian chronology

A recurring theme throughout the series is the concept of Narnian time, and how it moves at different speeds, usually faster than time in our world. The one exception is in The Last Battle where it takes a week for the Earth people to arrange the rescue of King Tirian, but it only takes a few hours from his perspective. This time differential is introduced first in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Lucy spends some time in Narnia with Mr Tumnus the faun, only to return to our world hours later, and discover that only a few minutes have passed. Despite the visits made by children from our world being in relatively close succession, massive leaps are made in Narnian time.

For example, when the Pevensie children return to Narnia in Prince Caspian, only one year in our world has passed since the events in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while over a thousand Narnian years had passed.

Narnian time also seems to move at different speeds, as Eustace discovers upon returning to Narnia in The Silver Chair — not as much time as would have been expected from the Pevensies' experiences had actually passed, but enough for King Caspian, a youthful man in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, to become an old man.

Narnia in other media

Television

The Chronicles of Narnia were turned into a successful BBC television series in 1988–1990. Only The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair were filmed. The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle were not filmed.

The TV series was 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 Theater dramatisations of the novels.

Cinema

A film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, entitled The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is in production. Directed by Andrew Adamson and with a screenplay written by Ann Peacock, like The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, it is being made in New Zealand. Principal photography has been completed, and Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures are currently engaged in post-production. The film will be released in 2005 (on December 9 in the United States).

Influence on other works

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.

Author J.K. Rowling has spoken of her appreciation for and inspiration from the Narnia books. Elements of the fantasy world that Lewis created can be found in Rowling's world of Harry Potter, particularly in terms of the magical creatures.

The Sandman graphic novel series written by Neil Gaiman, in its story arc entitled "A Game of You," features a Narnia-like fantasy land that can be visited from the real world.

The comic book series "Fables" makes mention of Aslan as being one of the first Fable lands to fall to the Adversary, who overruns the entire land. He is not mentioned by name and is simply called "The great lion" and "always a little holier than thou for most people."

Source of the name

Narnia is the Latin name of an Italian town now named Narni, located very close to Rome. This town was so named from 299 BC. It has been said that Lewis named Narnia for this town, which he had come across in an atlas as a child.

From the age of twelve to about twenty-two, Lewis read many classic Latin writers. According to Paul Ford's Companion to Narnia, Lewis' 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. "Four references are found in Livy's History (10:10, 27:9,27:50, and 29:15)[...] Tacitus's Annals (3:9)[...]. Pliny the Elder's comment in Natural History about its unusual weather (it became drier in the rainy season)[...] and in Pliny the Younger's."

Geographical influences

Lewis reportedly based his depiction of Narnia on the geography and scenery of the Mourne Mountains in County Down in his native Northern Ireland.

Criticism

The Chronicles of Narnia have been criticised, by Philip Pullman and others, accused of sexism, racism and zealousness partly because of the presence of Christian themes.

Sexism

The Chronicles have been accused of sexism for several reasons:

  • The representation of females in the roles of villians, such as the White Witch (The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and the Green Witch (The Silver Chair), despite the generally good representation of females in protagonist roles and the presence of far more male villians.
  • In The Last Battle, the description of the fall of Susan Pevensie, becoming less interested in Narnia and more interested in "lipstick, nylons and invitations", implying that female sexual maturity is sinful. This can be explained by Lewis's other works, when he explores and comments on sexual maturity, describing it not as a fallen state as such, but something that is often present in such fallen states. The references to "lipsticks, nylons and invitations" are more suggestive of materialism and commercialism than sexual maturity, which both Lewis and his close friend Tolkien saw as fundamental evils, themes which proliferate through The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.

Racism

The Chronicles have also suffered allegations of racism:

  • The books are primarily Anglocentric, in that all the visitors to Narnia are English, all the doorways between Narnia and our world open on England, and that many parallels can be drawn between English medieval society and the Narnian aristocracy. It is doubtful that Lewis intended such parallels to be drawn.
  • The representation of other races, particularly the Calormenes, as enemies of Aslan and Narnia. The Calormenes worship Tash, a Satanic figure who demands blood sacrifices and assumes that evil deeds are a service to him. The Calormenes are described as dark-skinned. It should be noted, however, that there are good Calormene characters throughout the books, and the most villainous characters, such as the White Witch, the Green Witch, Uncle Andrew, and King Miraz, are all white-skinned.

Zeal

The Chronicles have been constantly criticised for the presence of Christian themes running through them, as if Lewis set out to create allegories of Bible stories simply as a method of expressing his faith. Lewis himself has quashed such allegations on numerous occasions.

A recent article by Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, accused the Chronicles of being devoid of love, the most fundamental of Christian virtues, despite the representation of Aslan sacrificing himself to save Edmund, the ultimate act of love, notwithstanding the love the Pevensie children feel for the Lion. Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair also mention how King Caspian falls in love with the Daughter of the Star, resulting in Prince Rilian. The Last Battle also explores a loving relationship between King Tirian and his unicorn, similar to the relationship between Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings.

External links

The Chronicles of Narnia
C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Prince Caspian | The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair | The Horse and His Boy | The Magician's Nephew | The Last Battle
Books Characters Places
Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links